Growth of the silkworm-egg industry in Japan during the Meiji period

Poster Abstract: This study adopts the method of empirical analysis based on historical documents and analyzes the management of silkworm eggs in Shiojiri Village, Nagano Prefecture, which was the prefecture with the largest amount of Japanese silkworm-egg production, to elucidate the reasons for the development of the Japanese silkworm-egg industry in the 1890s from a micro perspective.
  As is well known, the silk industry of Japan has experienced significant growth in the modern era due to the prosperity of raw silk exports, which also supported the development of the Japanese economy. As an upstream industry of the silk industry, the silkworm-egg industry, which has existed since early modern times, has had a significant impact on the quality of raw silk. However, there was
 very few studies focusing on the sericultural industry. In this study, it was elucidated that in the modern period, individual silkworm breeders(also the sale men) realized an increase in the amount of silkworm seed production through the method of consignment production, so that more profit was obtained through the sale of silkworm eggs.