Japan's entry into the capitalist system can be the watershed of 1868. However, the factors that form modern capitalism have been produced hundreds of years ago. The initial organization of Mitsui Finance Office in Japan began at the beginning of17th century and the end of Ming Dynasty in China. From the brewing to the Tokugawa era, the bank began to operate, starting from 1680, about 10 years before the Bank of England was established. After that, I made a cashier's remittance in the shogunate. During the political reform, I took part in the closing movement and lent money to the new imperial government. Together with Mitsubishi, Sumitomo and An Tian, I am the pillar of the chaebol. If capitalism makes private capital occupy a special proportion in public utilities, the Japanese chaebol gave full play to this feature before and after the Meiji Restoration. Moreover, it has a long history and has long been established in history, without waiting for external argumentation. If we think that capitalism is an organization, a movement, Mitsui and other Japanese consortia can't say that they didn't play a containment role behind the scenes, while outstanding reformers such as Ito Bowen and Noue Kaoru, all from Changzhou Francisco, are accused of representing Mitsui's interests in the future. From this point of view, if capitalism can "sprout", the greenhouse for cultivating seedlings is ideally not in Western Europe, especially in China, which is blocked by bureaucracy, but only in Japan in the Edo era.
Japan's feudal era experienced three stages: Kamakura era, Muromachi era and Edo era. There is also a transition period between these three sections, and each section is inherited by a family as a "general who conquers foreign countries." Its "shogunate" is the actual central government. The organization of shogunate is similar in different centuries, but Japanese society is very different in these three stages. Each stage lasted about two and a half centuries, and there were dynasties like China. At this time, the Japanese emperor was stationed in Kyoto, not only had no real power, but also lived as hard as his officials. A modern scholar once pointed out: "The emperor is really a poor and weak nickname." The meaning of the name is very detailed. ) When China accepted the tribute from the Muromachi shogunate in the Ming Dynasty, he called his general Ashikaga Yoshimitsu the "King of Japan". Later, Emperor Wanli proposed to make peace with Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and he was also prepared to make him "the king of Japan" (but Xiuji only called him "Guan Bai", meaning Regent, not General), because he was the actual political head.
Edo is today's Tokyo, and its shogunate founder and first general is Tokugawa Ieyasu. After Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he unified Japan by force. 1603 was appointed as a foreign general. During the Meiji Restoration, 15 celebrated the "return of the great government", and the Tokugawa family ruled Japan for 265 years.
The feudal organizations in Tokugawa, together with the shogunate, directly controlled the center of Japan, accounting for about 1/5 of the whole country, and were the "leaders of China", including all important cities such as Edo, Kyoto, Oita and Nagasaki. Other areas were divided into "princes" and rationed to feudal princes. Their wages are calculated on the basis of rice produced in China. Anyone who exceeds 10000 stone is called "Daming", and the largest one is named Maeda, whose territory exceeds 10000 stone. When the edo shogunate was established, there were 295 celebrities (later reduced to 265), and the positions of celebrities were hereditary. Within the scope of its power, the shogunate can reduce the number of governors, add new names, increase or decrease the territory, or order the name to move, but this situation only extends to the governors of the central government. When Tokugawa Ieyasu unified the whole country, some famous names already existed. They are forced by the environment and have to pay tribute, but their intentions are still far away. These wait-and-see princes are regarded as hostile, and most of them are distributed in distant border areas. Later, the curtain-raising campaign was launched, all of which made the greatest contribution in Changzhou, Satsuma, Feiqian and Tosa in the southwest.
The greatest contribution of the edo shogunate to Japanese history is to maintain a long-term peace for it. Since 1636 implemented the "lock-up policy", Japanese are not allowed to sail and overseas Japanese are not allowed to return to China, and offenders are sentenced to death. Foreign ships were limited to China and the Netherlands (at this time, Christianity was banned in Japan and the Dutch promised not to do missionary work), and the trade was limited to Nagasaki. The Japanese built an artificial island in the harbor, which is called "going out of the island", and the Dutch are only allowed to stay on the island. The Portuguese sent personnel to negotiate with the shogunate twice, hoping to get a little leniency, but the members of the 6 1 mission were immediately detained and beheaded, and it is said that only a few people were repatriated.
After the establishment of the shogunate, vassals were not allowed to build cities without authorization. Starting from 1635, the so-called "attendance confession" is implemented. All the governors will go to Edo, attend various ceremonies near the general, and nominally undertake defense work. Basically, the famous mouth is divided into two groups, which take turns to enter Edo every year and bring their own residence. All attendants, roads, utensils and equipment have very detailed regulations. After the expiration of the vassal period, their families still stay in Edo, so some historians call it the hostage system. In addition, a number of celebrities were assigned to rotate for half a year, while the distant lords were slightly exceptional and the rotation was sparse. Economically speaking, the attendance system will create a large-scale consumer market in Tokyo in the future, concentrate wealth and stimulate financial and economic development. The shogunate stipulated that the remaining Gu Mi of each vassal could only be sold in Edo and Otsuka, which contributed to the prosperity of the city.
Because the Edo regime was feudal, the governors were financially self-sufficient. In addition to irregular and irregular "contributions", the famous generals did not pay taxes to the shogunate, and their internal expenses were also borne by the governors themselves. During the shogunate's military operations or large-scale construction, the governors provided personnel to serve as logistics. Usually, vassals are responsible for domestic security and litigation. The Tokugawa shogunate only promulgated the general principles of the rule of law such as "the law of the martial family", and the governors promulgated their own "family law", probably imitating the order of Edo. This law smacks of Confucian ethics, such as rewarding learning and prohibiting arrogance and fornication.
The "curtain-vassal relationship" is still inconclusive. In theory, there is a high degree of centralization, but in fact there is a considerable degree of decentralization. There are no similar examples in world history that can confirm each other. Another example is the internal management of governors, and the whole country is not unified. "Feudalism" has a "separation and unification". Under the great name, the real princes have to be restrained at different levels, each with its own fi6f (known as "knowing and doing" in Japanese), and land cannot be bought or sold. Feudalism and manor system are mutual. When the Japanese feudal system was first established, it was generally maintained in this form. Samurai is called "scholar" (scholar is pronounced samurai in Chinese, and the Japanese also try to equate it with "scholar, agriculture, industry and commerce"). Traditionally, his hair is different. He is carrying two knives, the long one is fighting, and the short one is ready to be defeated and killed. He is called the subordinate of the general and the "elder" (deputy prime minister). They are not allowed to marry ordinary people, have unlimited authority over ordinary people, can be "killed" (a civilian who opposes life can be slaughtered, although he is not guilty of homicide), and they are also equipped with land.
However, with the changes of the times, this unchangeable system is difficult to maintain. That is, before Tokugawa unified the whole country, the feudal system had deteriorated and gradually became bureaucratic. The edo shogunate transplanted another name. The accompanying ministers under the jurisdiction of famous ministers took office, and the princes often had attendants left over from the previous generation. As a result, the samurai class personnel overlap, resulting in different proportions of attendants in the total population. Like Takamo and Tosa, the number of waiters is extremely high. Therefore, managers can't adopt the same method, but can only conform to the customary laws of various places.
/kloc-the trend in the 0/7th century was that famous officials abolished the fiefs of vassal ministers, transferred them to the guarding city of vassal lords, paid them salaries and sent them to perform mobile tasks. Since 1800, 90% of the vassals have abolished all their subordinate fiefs. However, this is not a comprehensive modernization, but a mobile society. Since the Middle Ages, many samurai classes have appeared as "squires". They are not only big landlords, but also special local authoritarians. They may master the political and economic power of the countryside for centuries through inheritance.
It is particularly noteworthy that the land tax system in Japan is quite different from that in China. Neither the shogunate nor Daming directly levied taxes on the whole people, but their taxes were collectively given to villages, so the power of local authorities could not be ignored. Japan's high land tax is often mentioned by historians. Regular land tax ("annual tax") is usually 40% to 50% of the harvest ("four taxes for six people" or "five taxes for five people"), and there are other additional and miscellaneous taxes ("rice for the mouth", "rice for scarcity", "small things for success" and "helping rural affairs"). Moreover, in the middle of Tokugawa, land sovereignty was concentrated, and most small farmers had already. How can a farmer bear such a heavy burden directly and indirectly?
The actual situation may be slightly different from the above surface description. In the17th century, the cultivated land in Japan increased by about 80%, and the rice yield increased from180,000 stone (each stone is usually consumed by one person a year, which is greater than that in China) to 25 million stone, which is also about 40%. However, the general tax increase is not in accordance with this ratio. After 1700 years, there was no regular land survey. Agricultural technology is progressing day by day. It's just that the hardships and pains of ordinary farmers seem incalculable. Famine caused by natural disasters often occurred in the Tokugawa era, and there were 1600 peasant riots ("people slapped") around this period. For example, the national population of Japan, 172 1 year, is nearly 30 million. Nearly a century and a half later, on the eve of the Meiji Restoration, it was still around 32 million. Some scholars believe that taxes and land rent are multiple surpluses, and the hardships of the lower class are related to the rise and fall of the total population. It is the process of Japan's entry into the capitalist system, and ordinary people have paid a huge price.
With the above background, we can imagine that before the Meiji Restoration, the accumulation of commercial capital and the development of commercial organizations were inevitable. Tokugawa shogunate created a huge consumer market and arranged a huge production force. Its political and social system also leaves room for extremely close organizations, which makes the material payment between them not only rational, but also mandatory. The remaining problem is nothing more than distribution, that is, collection, exchange and transportation. Among them, it has to pass through the area directly under the shogunate, which is related to more than 200 local units that apparently cooperate but actually compete. Only businessmen can handle it. After the establishment of the organization it handles, in order to improve efficiency, internal adjustments will inevitably be made. So capital flows, surplus profits are put into production, and service-oriented undertakings are also used flexibly. The reason why Japan is getting bigger and bigger is that there is no interference from foreign forces and the maritime traffic is convenient.
Edo's feudal system arranged the whole people in the order of agriculture, industry and commerce. Inequality in the legal system has played a negative role in the breeding and development of capitalism. Servants may not pay their debts, but businessmen may be punished for no reason. There are also several examples of businessmen being sentenced to death for failing to pay their debts when they are due. On the other hand, however, these harsh treatments also force businessmen to work hard and become an indispensable service in society. The success of the Mitsui family includes such factors, which can be mentioned by the way:
Mitsui originally came from Fujiwara family, and Fujiwara was the leading aristocrat in Japan. By the end of16th century, Mitsui still appeared as a small feudal Lord near Kyoto, but after the defeat, he stayed in Yi Shi to make wine. Japan's initial capital accumulation can only begin with agricultural products. At first, the two main commodities were Japanese wine and soy sauce. The family business developed to Mitsui Balang Weibing, a business expert and business genius. He widely uses the Mitsui trademark and advertisements, and advocates bargaining without bargaining, being realistic and untrustworthy. He also warned his children not to lend money to waiters, thus avoiding political disputes caused by usury. The connection between the Mitsui brothers also opens a window for the future Japanese capitalist system, in which the strong blood relationship and the teaching of ancestors are regarded as the laws and purposes of the world by the heirs. A servant's manager is as loyal as a servant.
The "Five Blessingg Store" opened by Balang Bingwei mainly caters to the trend of Japanese agricultural products specialization. Its second store in Edo, Kyoto is the first of modern department stores. Most importantly, he set up a "Fannie and Freddie" to operate the exchange banking business. The cash collected by the Mitsui store in Edo is often transported to Kyoto and Osaka to purchase goods, while the edo shogunate collects taxes in the west and transports them to the East in vain. So Mitsui Shiro suggested to the shogunate that he could accept Dajiu's money and guarantee to pay off Edo's gold and silver within 60 days. In fact, the goods in his shop only need to be shipped from west to east from 15 to 20. Because of his reputation, the shogunate allowed Mitsui to remit money for 60 days to 150 days. At this time, he can selectively lend money to circulating funds, and the information delivery organization he organized will deliver documents for the official. This success is largely due to the accuracy and prudence of Balang Bingwei, who lived to be 73 years old and had the opportunity to systematize his career.
The integrated cooperation between enterprises and the government also makes it invincible. Before the development of modern legal system, European royal families often owed money to businessmen. The Japanese feudal regime once wrote off the loans that servants lent to businessmen in the name of "good governance". Only in the Edo era, all kinds of enterprises were indissoluble in the government and indispensable in the system, so the shogunate did not want to be hit by business for its own interests. Therefore, in the Tokugawa era, "rule by virtue" was only promulgated twice, and its scope was extremely narrow. Otherwise, the accumulation of initial capital will be frustrated.
The Mitsui enterprise mentioned above is just a special and obvious example. Of course, the development of its business needs the mutual support of merchants, friends, shops, agents and various wholesale and retail institutions to form a movement. In fact, this kind of organization is also organized in the process of Mitsui business development. 172 1 When the first census was conducted, there were more than 500,000 people in Edo, and the total number was over 800,000, including the families of the famous shogunate and other attendants. By the end of 18, it may have crossed the 1 10,000 mark. How can we survive in this modern city without the support of industrial base, seaport and international trade? Therefore, there must be a huge operating organization behind it, which is involved in the national political and economic factors as a logistics business.
The edo period lasted for a long time, and Daming actually became the head of agricultural production in various regions. They usually appoint a business manager in Osaka, called "Tibetan Academy", and its stack is called "Tibetan House Store". At the peak, there were more than 500 collectors' shops, and they sold 4 million stones of rice every year, as well as other local products such as wood, paper, sugar and flax. Besides supplying Edo and Kyoto, some products are sent to Nagasaki for foreign trade. Generally speaking, Japan has become a national comprehensive market.
Shops run by wholesalers are called "rooms", which are generally operated by one household. At first, I asked the house to help the seller sell the goods, and there was a commission. After operating for a long time, they also underwrite a large number of goods and take the initiative to operate. The organization of trade associations is called "intermediate room" or "intermediate room", because each member unit is a "plant", and this right belongs to one family, which can be inherited and cannot be transferred privately. Different from the traditional "Block", the "Block" is a semi-official organization, and its important businesses are all involved, such as the Golden Block and Ginza. When the shogunate banned patents, intermediaries were formed in the form of secret society, that is, bathing halls, street vendors and some intermediaries. Later, officials gradually recognized its existence, and they also paid the shogunate an annual decree ("Myouga Gold") as a price. In addition to performing the functions of general trade associations, all of them have the obligation to help each other. Commercial intermediaries can authorize members to buy and sell in advance and mediate disputes between members. The shogunate even formed a "group" between the parliamentary hall and the intermediate room. Edo ten groups of rooms, big edition twenty-four groups of rooms.
Banking didn't start with Mitsui. Hirochi Shinliu, a big converted businessman, also started from brewing, and later became the agent of the shogunate in the big vendor, and also managed the finance of 32 famous brands. When Hongchi appointed the shogunate's "Ten-member Second Generation" in 1663, there were already 22 banking groups engaged in gold and silver exchange and lending business, and bills of exchange had already circulated among them. About 20 years later, when Mitsui began to accept public funds from the shogunate from a distance, the shogunate formed another "trio". Famous products have been stored in Tibetan houses, and tax rice has been flowing in and out. Zangyuan himself is a businessman and has contacts with bankers, so he buys short and sells short. Speculation was banned by the shogunate and still operated as usual. It is common for ordinary businessmen to lend money to Daming and Shishi. Therefore, in addition to the immediate consumption of loans, it is also an inevitable trend for its funds to enter San Francisco to expand production. Hongchi Liu Xin invested in the colony. In addition, the investment of commercial capital in fishery, industry and mining, handicrafts and household industries has promoted the gradual diversification of Japan's economy.
Japan's road traffic network is called "Five Streets", including mountain roads between Kyoto and Edo, and coastal roads, reaching Sendai and Aomori in the north, and branches reaching Jiafu and Nikko, which are the channels for major governors to go to court and worship gods. It's just that the shogunate focused on the military, and didn't want to put the strategic points on the spacious road network extending in all directions, but deliberately extended the route to the place where the cliff ferry was easy to defend but difficult to attack. The cost of land transportation is high, so it is difficult to transport cars in Japan. Generally, a small amount of goods are transported by package, while bulk goods are transported by sea. As early as 1624, the light returned to the ship and held regular commercial transportation between edo and osaka. But due to the loss of floating at sea, the efficiency is not high. After 1694, Osaka and Edo each formed a "group" for the rooms that needed to be transported by sea, and chartered the ship, with the floating losses shared by the crew, which was equivalent to a kind of marine insurance. /kloc-in the 0/7th century, the ship's deadweight also increased from 200 to 400 stones to 1000 stones. 1772, Guang returned to the ship and merged with its competitor (specialized in handling wine bottles). * * * There are 266 ships, and their standard foot fees are announced every year. Up to now, regular maritime transportation has a history of nearly 150 years. As for the "eastbound route" covering wasteland and Xie Ping, the "westbound route" covering most of the north coast of Shimonoseki was planned by Ruixianchuan village under the guidance of the shogunate at the end of17th century. This man was born as a coolie and eventually became one of the few transportation experts in Japanese history.
The "Lu Yuan era" in Japanese history (1688- 1703) roughly overlaps with the period when William III was king of England (1689- 1702). During this period, the above-mentioned commercial organizations were mature, and the shogunate also minted gold and silver coins and mined minerals. People's living standards have improved significantly. However, Japan is facing an embarrassing situation in the process of entering capitalism. From the modern western point of view, the above performance is undoubtedly a great success, but Japan has no European individualism and liberal ideology to set off the progress of material life and spiritual life. There is no concept of inviolability of private property rights and personal freedom in the legal system. Lack of opportunities to contact with western countries, it is impossible to understand that a compact economic structure can immediately increase national strength. From the Confucian point of view, if you live a luxurious life, you will be eroded. Business is higher than agriculture, and monks are more important than officials. Under such a bizarre background, it can't see the coming of a new system, but only thinks that it is the corruption and out-of-control policy of the existing organization, and it can't completely replace the lack of legal system in the financial economy with the moral concept of feudal society. At this time, the biggest weakness of Edo was the lack of comprehensive foreign trade. Only relying on the consumption market of the shogunate and its accompanying ministers, the production technology cannot be improved in the breakthrough, which makes the development unable to continue.
From 65438 to 050, Japan under the tokugawa era of Edo was a tug-of-war period of political system and economic development. Fame and servants owed money to merchants, which shook the foundation of feudal system. The rise and fall of prices also affect the lives of ordinary people. People who are interested in retro can't completely overthrow commercial activities and return to an ideal and stable society. On the other hand, although commercial capital has gained momentum, it has no ambition to "replace it". So I can only repeat it at two extremes. Traditional historians write according to Confucianism, which is usually called "rule by the people", followed by "bad politics". Probably, the so-called civil administration is always inseparable from praising traditional morality, advocating economy, encouraging fiscal and deflation, and lowering prices, while bad administration is usually the opposite. Historians in the new era hold the opposite view. They pointed out: the so-called civil affairs cannot solve the current problems; The so-called bad politics may be beneficial to the development of Japan's national economy for a long time. There are different historical views and two different political philosophies.
1769- 1786, who presided over the "evil government", was studied by many scholars. His life and policies reflected the state of the Edo shogunate in the late18th century (equivalent to the Qianlong period in China). Tanuma did not give up the traditional policy of attaching importance to agriculture, and he also presided over the reclamation of new land. However, his plan focuses on expanding the income of shogunate industry and commerce. Under his leadership, the mining industry controlled by the government has been greatly developed. He paid special attention to the increase of copper production in order to strengthen international trade with China while producing seafood. He issued new silver coins and minted a large number of copper coins and iron coins, which made the currency depreciate. Under his supervision, Zhu Zhong was recognized by the government as long as he paid the regulations to the shogunate every year. Tanuma also granted patents to businessmen on a large scale. He hoped to use the merchant's capital to lend money through the shogunate in the name of lack of cash.
Tan Numa's experience shows that the social class of "scholars" still has great mobility. He will be famous as a junior servant (600 stone) and he will be promoted to the position of prime minister. As a result, he failed in political situations and almost lost everything. It can be seen that feudalism itself in the Edo era has been unable to maintain a static posture. Tanuma's policies show that he is full of energy in dealing with the urban economy, which is unmatched by China's traditional economy. The Qing government in China could not control the financial instruments of the shogunate. However, as long as the feudal system is not eliminated, all kinds of things in lower institutions cannot be exchanged fairly and freely. Private property rights cannot be guaranteed exactly. Moreover, private capital occupies a special proportion in public utilities, but it is looming and lacks the support of the legal system. This long-term ignorance is also unique in the history of the world.
By the19th century, the contradiction could not be eliminated and the urban economy continued to develop. Only by making the position of shogunate and Daming more difficult, the organizations based on rural areas and rice can not financially cope with the society controlled by finance and economy. 1830 to 1843 China learned the lessons from the opium war and treaty of nanking, and was called "the era of natural forest protection" by Japanese. Natural disasters are piling up and famine is rampant. Not only villagers are rioting, but the poor in the city are also destroying the warehouses of giant flag merchants. In addition to repression, the government is also seeking economic countermeasures, first of all, consolidating its financial position. This series of policies is called "natural forest protection reform".
An obvious phenomenon is that in the process of natural forest protection reform, "curtain" and "vassal" adopted completely different attitudes. Mizuno was appointed as the "first among the old" in Edo, and the reforms he presided over were generally inseparable from the traditional "civil administration" style, such as rewarding diligence, repatriating farmers who entered the city, prohibiting luxury goods and entertainment, forcibly lowering prices, limiting wages, setting the exchange rate of deposits and copper coins, and implementing monetary reform. Daming's policy in San Francisco, also known as the reform of natural forest protection, took more active steps. Some policies follow the natural trend of economic development, but do not go against the trend, such as implementing equal land system, reducing taxes, clearing debts, expanding public sales and so on. Changzhou will make fair adjustments to taxes and make long-term loan arrangements for governors' debts. Meitu people changed some franchises to princes' clubs, and Samoan people planted a large number of sugar cane and issued bills to buy and sell loans with sugar shares as guarantee. The vassal debt was changed to 250-year interest-free debt, and another reserve fund was raised to pay interest. As a result, the "curtain" reform is ineffective because its policies are outdated and the organization lacks flexibility. The reform of governors was basically successful. After this reform, Japan's central government became weaker and "male vassals rose". The need to reorganize the political system is even more urgent.
The above development can easily arouse readers' imagination. What would Japan's future be like without external pressure? Will it be another long-term civil war, just like before Oda and Toyotomi Hideyoshi appeared in16th century, and finally there will be a military government that is external to the urban economy? Or, like China, a Ming Taizu-style leader appeared among the peasants and promoted the organization of the national economy to adapt to his political system? Although this conjecture is interesting, it is not the correct way to study history. The development of the facts at that time was a great lesson for Japanese people of insight from the failure of the Opium War in China. The so-called Fan Xiong has been preaching "rich Qiang Bing". In addition, before Brigadier General matthew perry asked for the establishment of People's Republic of China (PRC), the British and French fleets had sailed for Ryukyu and Dutch ships had entered Nagasaki. In the north, as early as the Tanuma era, it has proposed to trade with Russia. The development of world history requires the integration of Japanese history and western culture.
It has always been a controversial topic in Japanese historians to describe Meiji Restoration as a Marxist class struggle. This book has no intention to speculate on ideology. From a technical point of view, the principles that formed the Japanese capitalist system in the later period of Tokugawa shogunate, such as capital circulation, hiring managers, supporting enterprises to bring services, etc., have generally existed. Moreover, the continuous development of urban economy is conducive to making the above principles more specific and enabling the whole country to manage the number. The biggest flaw at this time is the lack of a legal system to support such organizations and movements reasonably. The shogunate, unwilling to give up its own value and unable to make a change of 180 degrees, put the emperor out to preside over such an organization and movement, which is an ideal solution. In the past, the royal family had no power and influence, but it got rid of the fetters and met the needs of the new system. Besides, the emperor also has latent prestige. ("Emperor" was originally the title of the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and Li Zhi and Wu Zetian were also called emperors. Therefore, it is called "Wang Zheng Retro", "Meiji Restoration" or "respecting the king and rejecting foreign countries", all of which have the function of promoting such a change.
Meiji Restoration can be regarded as a turning point for Japan to enter capitalism, because the liquid private property rights are increasingly consolidated.
Today, we recall the success of the reform in Meiji era more than 0/00 years ago, which really simplified the complex and turned the difficult into the easy. During the periods of 1860 and 1870, the reformers had to cancel the privileges of the privileged class, including themselves, abolish more than 200 local governments, abandon traditional habits and create a modern centralization of authority. But before the work started, the new country was bound by the unequal treaties of foreign powers. Apart from coal and copper, Japan lacks industrial raw materials, resulting in a huge foreign trade surplus after the founding of the People's Republic of China. The chaebol mentioned repeatedly above did not have strong financial resources from the beginning and could immediately meet the needs of the new government. Mitsui was on the verge of bankruptcy at the end of Tokugawa, and he took risks to participate in the closing movement, which was in a very critical situation. Iwasaki Yataro, the founder of Mitsubishi, began to appear in Tosa on the eve of the reform. Therefore, Japan entered the capitalist system not because the chaebol hijacked the government, but because the government tried its best to foster private capital. The new government is unwilling to accept foreign investment, so it has to increase the demand for rural areas. At that time, the heavy burden of farmers made some historians emphasize that the land tax they paid supplied the government's national capital; The rent they pay provides private capital for entrepreneurs.
The reason why Japan is easy to enter the capitalist system is that compared with other countries, there are many factors in its historical background that are conducive to the development of this system. Even though its functions may not meet the needs of the new era, its general organizational principles can still be accommodated and applied. In other words, the countryside can bear the burden of "primitive accumulation of capital", which is also a feudal system that the reform has long followed. Ordinary farmers are also bullied, and they don't think that the top-level makeover should have earth-shaking changes in their lives. Even external pressure has played a positive role. Unequal treaties are nothing more than the fetters of tariff autonomy and extraterritorial jurisdiction. When trying to get rid of these constraints, Japan only tried its best to modernize its civil law and criminal law, thus accelerating the acceptance of western legal concepts and court procedures. With the organization of these new systems and the addition of traditional habits and disciplines, the Meiji Restoration caused a miracle in history.
Japan entered the capitalist period, which was also the day when foreign militarism and social Darwinism prevailed. The new system was born because of external pressure, and the influence of utilitarianism and nationalism has been unavoidable since then. Many parties can't see the causal relationship in history, and always think that the achievements of the Meiji Restoration are due to the superior conduct and moral dignity of the leaders. In addition, the efficiency of capitalism is easily confused with Japan's traditional advantages. Therefore, many people always think that imposing Japan's leadership on neighboring countries is not difficult to create a situation of * * * survival and * * glory. This is also the driving force of various ideas in the Greater East Asia and Greater East Asia Glory Circle. Therefore, in the long run, the Edo account opening, the Meiji Restoration, the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and the Pacific War are all closely related.