Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T02:34:35.253Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Government Policy and Economic Development in Germany and Japan: A Skeptical Reevaluation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Frank B. Tipton Jr
Frank B. Tipton Jr
Affiliation:
Lecturer in the Department of Economic History, University of Sydney, Sydney, N.S.W. 2006, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent studies, when taken together, suggest that the bureaucratic elites of nineteenth-century Germany and Japan were much less successful in stimulating economic development than has been traditionally asserted. Direct government investment was neither extensive nor successful. Government-sponsored institutional change, notably in financial structures, had little if any beneficial impact. Development in both nations resulted from the gradual emergence of a commercial culture, and on world factors exogenous to government policy. The bureaucratic elites failed to adjust to changed circumstances, instead leading both nations into disastrous wars. These results call into question development strategies based on central government control.

Type
Papers Presented at the Fortieth Annual Meeting of the Economic History Association
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , March 1981 , pp. 139 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Tipton, Frank B. Jr, “The National Consensus in German Economic History,” Central European History, 7 (1974), 195–224;Google ScholarBendix, Reinhard, “Preconditions of Development: A Comparison of Japan and Germany”, in Dore, Ronald P., ed., Aspects of Social Change in Japan (Princeton, 1967), pp. 27–70;Google ScholarBlack, Cyril E., et al. , The Modernization of Japan and Russia: A Comparative Study (New York, 1975), pp. 54–55, 158, 346–47 (on Germany), 128–41, 161–97 (on Japan);Google ScholarMasaru, Saitō, “Introduction of Foreign Technology in the Industrialization Process,” Developing Economies, 13 (1975), 168–86;Google ScholarTaikakai, , Naimushō shi [History of the Home Ministry], 4 vols. (Tokyo, 1970), vol. 1, p. 69. Interestingly, East German and Japanese Marxists share the traditional view of political change stimulating economic development.Google Scholar See Gorō, Hani, Meiji ishin [The Mciji Restoration] (Tokyo, 1956), p. 58.Google Scholar

2 Nakamura, James I., Agricultural Production and the Economic Development of Japan, 1873–1922, (Princeton, 1966);Google ScholarKazushi, Ohkawa, ed., Agriculture and Economic Growth: Japan's Experience (Princeton, 1970);Google ScholarSaburo, Yamada and Yujiro, Hayami, “Agriculture”, in Kazushi, Ohkawa and Yujiro, Hayami, Economic Growth: The Japanese Experience since the Meiji Era (Tokyo, 1973), pp. 7–25.Google Scholar

3 Hoffman, Walther G., Das Wachstum der deutschen Wirtschaft seit der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts (West Berlin, 1965);Google ScholarSpree, Reinhard, Wachstumstrends und Konjunkturzyklen in der deutschen Wirtschaft von 1920 bis 1913 (Göttingen, 1978).Google Scholar

4 Barkhausen, Max, “Der Aufstieg der rheinischen Industrie im 18. Jahrhundert und die Entstehung eines industriellen Grossbürgertums,” Rheinische Vierteljahresblätter, 19 (1954), pp. 135ff.;Google ScholarForberger, Rudolf, Die Manufaktur in Sachsen vom Ende des 16. bis zum Anfang des 19. Jahrhundert (East Berlin, 1958).Google Scholar

5 Kisch, Herbert, Prussian Mercantilism and the Rise of the Krefeld Silk Industry (Philadelphia, 1968);Google ScholarTilly, Richard H., Financial Institutions and Industrialization in the Rhineland (Madison, 1966).Google Scholar

6 Siichi, Andō, Kinsei zaikata shōgyō no kenkyū [,Study of rural commerce in the early modern period] (Tokyo, 1958);Google ScholarAkira, Hayami, Nihon ni okeru keizai shakai no tenkai [Economic and social evolution in Japan], 2nd ed. (Tokyo, 1975), pp. 88–91;Google ScholarHauser, William B., Economic and Institutional Change in Tokugawa Japan: Osaka and the Kinai Cotton Trade (New York, 1974), pp. 33–58.Google Scholar

7 Paul, H., “Die preussische Eisenbahnpolitik von 1835–1838” (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Rostock, 1938);Google ScholarLöser, Wolfgang, “Die Rolle des preussischen Staates bei der Ausrüstung der Eisenbahnen mit elektrischen Telegraphen in der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts,” Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 1963, part 4, pp. 194–208.Google Scholar

8 Hömberg, Albert K., Wirtschaftsgechichte Westfalens (Munster, 1968), p. 146;Google ScholarSpethmann, Hans, Franz Haniel, (Duisburg, 1956), pp. 159ff.;Google ScholarZunkel, Friedrich, “Die Rolle der Bergbaubürokratie beim Ausbau des Ruhrgebiets, 1815–1848,” in Wehler, Hans-Ulrich, ed., Sozialgeschichte Heute (Göttingen, 1974), pp. 130–47;Google ScholarThieme, Horst, “Statistische Materialien zur Konzessionierung von Aktiengesellschaften in Preussen bis 1867,” Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 1960, part 2, pp. 285–300.Google Scholar

9 Schrader, P., “Geschichte der Königlichen Seehandlung (Preussische Staatsbank)” (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Münster/Westfalen, 1911);Google ScholarHenderson, W. O., The State and the Industrial Revolution in Prussia, 1740–1870 (Liverpool, 1958), pp. 137–40;Google ScholarRitter, Ulrich P., Die Rolle des Staates in den Frühstadien der Industrialisierung: Die Preussische Industrieförderung in der erstein Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts (West Berlin, 1961);Google ScholarMieck, Ilja, Preussische Gewerbepolitik in Berlin, 1806–1844 (West Berlin, 1965);Google ScholarPruns, Herbert, Staat und Agrarwirtschaft, 1800–1875 (Hamburg, 1979), pp. 90–121.Google Scholar

10 Yoshio, Andō, “Development of Heavy Industry,” in Keizō, Shibusawa, ed., Japanese Society in the Meiji Era (Tokyo, 1958), pp. 305–33;Google Scholar Kajinishi Mitsuhaya, “Development of Light Industry,” Ibid., pp. 265–66; Smith, Thomas C., Political Change and Industrial Development in Japan: Government Enterprise, 1868–1880 (Stanford, 1955);Google ScholarHarootunian, Harry D., “The Economic Rehabilitation of the Samurai in the Early Meiji Period”, Journal of Asian Studies, 19 (1960), 433–44;Google ScholarNaimuschōshi, vol. III, pp. 543–46;Google ScholarMikio, Harada, Nihon kindaika to keizai seisaku [Japanese modernization and economic policy] (Tokyo, 1972);Google ScholarHirobumi, Yamamoto, “Shoki shokusan seisaku to sono shūei” [Early measures to increase production and their revision], in Yoshio, Andō, ed., Nihon keizai seisaku shi ron [Essays in the history of Japanese economic policy], 2 vols. (Tokyo, 1973–1976), vol. I, pp. 3–54.Google Scholar

11 Smith, Political Change, p. 63.Google Scholar

12 Kajinishi “Light Industry,” pp. 241–46; Tsuchiya Takao, “Transition and Development of Economic Policy,” in Shibusawa, Japanese Society, p. 114;Google ScholarSaxonhouse, Gary R., “A Tale of Japanese Technological Diffusion in the Meiji Period,” this JOURNAL, 34 (1974), 149–65.Google Scholar

13 Yoshio, Kanwa, “The Regulation of Corporate Enterprise,” in von Mehren, Arthur T., ed., Law in Japan (Cambridge, 1962), p. 481n.Google Scholar

14 Rosovsky, Henry, “Japan's Transition to Modem Economic Growth, 1868–1885,” in Rosovsky, Henry, ed., Industrialization in Two Systems (New York, 1966), pp. 130–31.Google Scholar

15 Masao, Baba and Masahiro, Tatemono, “Foreign Trade and Economic Growth in Japan, 1858–1937,” in Klein, Lawrence and Kazushi, Ohkawa, eds., Economic Growth: The Japanese Experience (Homewood, IL, 1968), pp. 164–73;Google ScholarToshihiko, Katō, “Development of Foreign Trade,” in Shibusawa, Japanese Society, pp. 486–89.Google Scholar

16 Tilly, Richard H., “Germany, 1815–1870,” in Cameron, Rondo, ed., Banking in the Early Stages of Industrialization (New York, 1967), pp. 151–82;Google ScholarNewbold, J.T.W., “The Beginnings of the World Crisis, 1873–1896,” Economic History, 2 (1932), 425–42;Google ScholarMottek, Hans, “Die Gründerkrise,” Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 1966, part 1, pp. 51–128;Google ScholarRosenberg, Hans, Grosse Depression und Bismarckzeit (West Brelin, 1967), pp. 41–42, 62–78.Google Scholar

17 Smith, Political Change, pp. 96–97; Masao, Fukushima, “Meiji shonen no keizai seisaku to shihon chikuseki no mondai: Ōkubo-Ōkuma kōsō to Matsukata kōsō” [Economic policy and the problem of capital accumulation in the early Meiji years: the conception of Ōkubo-Ōkuma and the conception of Matsukata], Tōyō Bunka, 9 (1952), 1–20;Google ScholarBrown, Sidney D., “Ōkubo Toshimichi: His Political and Economic Policies in Early Meiji Japan,” Journal of Asian Studies, 21 (1962), 194.Google Scholar

18 Ike, Nobutaka, The Beginnings of Political Democracy in Japan (Baltimore, 1950), pp. 160–68;Google ScholarKōji, Aoki, Meiji nōmin sōjō no nenjiteki kenkyū [Yearly studies of Meiji peasant uprisings] (Tokyo, 1967);Google ScholarKazuo, Yamaguchi and Matakichi, Habara, “Development of Agricultural and Marine Industries,” in Shibusawa, Japanese Society, pp. 421–27.Google Scholar

19 Koichi, Emi, Government Fiscal Activity and Economic Growth in Japan, 1868–1960 (Tokyo, 1963), p. 140;Google ScholarToshihiko, Katō, “Development of the Monetary System,” in Shibusawa, Japanese Society, pp. 207–08.Google Scholar

20 Katō, “Foreign Trade,” pp. 488, 495;Google ScholarPatrick, Hugh T., “External Equilibrium and Internal Convertibility: Financial Policy in Meiji Japan,” this JOURNAL, 25 (1965), 187–213.Google Scholar

21 Masayoshi, Matsukata, Report on the Adoption of the Gold Standard (Tokyo, 1899), p. 158;Google ScholarKatō, “Monetary System,” pp. 215–18;Google ScholarOshima, Harry T., “Meiji Fiscal Policy and Economic Progress,” in Lockwood, William W., ed., The State and Economic Enterprise in Japan (Princeton, 1965), pp. 372–76.Google Scholar

22 Oshima, “Fiscal Policy,” p. 379; Yamamura, Kozo, “Japan, 1868–1930: A Revised View,” in Cameron, Rondo, ed., Banking and Economic Development (New York, 1972);Google ScholarYamamura, Kozo, A Study of Samurai Income and Entrepreneurship (Cambridge, 1974);Google ScholarKōkichi, Asakura, Meiji zenki nihon kinyū kōzō [Japanese financial structure in the Meiji period] (Tokyo, 1961).Google Scholar

23 Hoffmann, Walther G., “Struckturwandlungen im Aussenhandel der deutschen Volkswirtschaft seit der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts,” Kyklos, 10 (1967), 287–306;Google ScholarMitchell, B.R. and Deane, Phyllis, Abstract of British Historical Statistics (Cambridge, 1971), pp. 100–02.Google Scholar

24 Yamaguchi and Habara, “Agriculture,” pp. 421–77;Google ScholarGleason, Alan H., “Economic Growth and Consumption in Japan,” in Lockwood, State, pp. 391–444; Simon S. Kuznets, “Trends in Level and Structure of Consumption,” in Klein and Ohkawa, Economic Growth, pp. 197–244;Google ScholarYasuzō, Horie, “The Development of the Domestic Market in the Early Years of Meiji,” Kyoto University Economic Review, 15, no. 1 (1940), 42–59.Google Scholar

25 Anderson, Eugene M., The Social and Political Conflict in Prussia, 1858–1864 (Lincoln, 1954);Google ScholarWinkler, Heinrich A., Preussischer Liberalismus und deutscher Nationalistaat (Tübingen, 1964);Google ScholarGuel, M., Industrieller Aufstieg und bürgerliche Herrschaft: Sozioökonomische Interessen und politische Ziele des liberalen Bürgertums in Pruessen zur Zeit des Verfassungskonflikts, 1857–1867 (Cologne, 1975).Google Scholar

26 Albrecht-Carrié, René, A Diplomatic History of Europe since the Congress of Vienna (New York, 1958), pp. 128, 136;Google ScholarScion-Watson, R.W., Britain in Europe, 1789–1914 (Cambridge, 1955), pp. 438–77, 493–99.Google Scholar

27 Rosenberg, Grosse Depression;Google ScholarStegmann, Dirk, Die Erben Bismarcks: Parteien und Verbände in der Spätphase des Wilhelminischen Deutschlands (Cologne, 1970).Google Scholar

28 Naimuschō shi, pt. III, p. 114;Google ScholarPatrick, Hugh T., “The Economic Muddle of the 1920s,” in Morley, James W., ed., Dilemmas of Growth in Prewar Japan (Princeton, 1971), pp. 211–66.Google Scholar

29 Shūichi, Kato, “Taischō Democracy as the Pre-Stage for Japanese Militarism,” in Silberman, Bernard S. and Harootunian, Harry D., eds., Japan in Crisis (Princeton, 1974), pp. 217–36;Google ScholarMitchell, Richard H., Thought Control in Prewar Japan (Ithaca, 1976).Google Scholar

30 Apter, David E., “Nationalism, Government, and Economic Growth,” in Some Conceptual Approaches to the Study of Modernization (Englewood Cliffs, 1968), p. 56.Google Scholar

31 For instance, Black, Cyril E., The Dynamics of Modernization (New York, 1966);Google ScholarMaddison, Angus, Economic Growth in Japan and the USSR (New York, 1969).Google Scholar

32 Apter, David E., The Politics of Modernization (Chicago, 1965), pp. 40, 133–35, 402–21;Google ScholarIbid, Choice and the Politics of Allocation (New Haven, 1971), pp. 42–43.Google Scholar