This book is the first volume of a monograph series published by the Socio-Economic History Society, Japan. The purpose of the series is to make works by Japanese scholars accessible to a wider readership and to increase the knowledge of scholars in this field, particularly in relation to Asia. This volume includes four chapters on energy and the environment of Japan, China and Britain and four short book reviews on recent academic works published in Japanese and English. The four chapters cover the following topics: the relationship between deforestation and the development of the silk reeling industry in a district of Nagano Prefecture (central Japan) from the 1870s to the 1900s and the subsequent shift from firewood to coal; the importance of timber supplies for the development of industry as illustrated by a case study on the supply of timber for use as rail sleepers in the Japanese national railway network during the prewar period; a methodological survey of the history of ecology and the environment in China; and an analysis of the British Smoke Nuisance Abatement Act of 1821 as a measure that incorporated the interests of politicians, landlords and industrialists.

Makes recent academic works by Japanese scholars accessible to a wider audience

Introduction:Sugiyama.- Chapter 1 From firewood to coal: deforestation and the development of the silk reeling industry in modern Japan (Sugiyama and Yamada).- Chapter 2 National railways and the procurement of railway sleepers in prewar Japan (Yamaguchi).- Chapter 3 A history of the ecology and environmental conditions in China (Ueda).- Chapter 4 The problem of air pollution in the British Industrial Revolution: the enactment of the Smoke Nuisance Abatement Act of 1821.