Twentieth Century Chronicle

Page 227

Therefore, the Japanese government's East Asian foreign policy at this time essentially became opportunistic, lacking any long-term objective. Hayashi Nobuyoshi's proposal to rebuild Asianism through a treaty system at this juncture was, ironically, the most feasible solution. However, the foundation of this solution lay in the handling of the Korean issue. Acknowledging the possibility of Korean independence would inevitably provoke dissatisfaction from the army and Japanese imperialists, but without acknowledgment, it was impossible to establish a foundation of mutual trust for the East Asian treaty system.

The conversation between Ito Hirobumi and Hayashi Nobuyoshi quickly became the most controversial topic within the Ito faction in early 1909. After Ito Hirobumi stepped down as leader of the Seiyukai party, he had not actually set any long-term goals, and the Ito faction was in a state of ideological disorientation.

Miyoji Ito and Kentaro Kaneko focused their efforts on expanding the power of the Privy Council, while Kensuke Suematsu focused on promoting Japanese culture abroad. Kinmochi Saionji, on the other hand, controlled the Seiyukai party according to Ito's demands, but in reality, the power of the Seiyukai party was concentrating on Takashi Hara, and Saionji himself was increasingly relying on this capable person within the party.

When Ito Hirobumi presented his and Hayashi Nobuyoshi's discussions for evaluation by these confidants, the core members of the Ito faction immediately shifted from superficial unity to division.

Ito Miyoji firmly opposed the possibility of Korean independence, believing it would not only create a complete antagonism between the Ito and Yamagata factions but also further intensify Korean rebellious sentiments. He argued that once hope is held, no one will accept brute force. Ito cited the Manchu rule over China as an example, arguing that without the Manchus' forceful suppression of the Chinese, the Qing dynasty would not have lasted longer than the Mongol Yuan dynasty. He believed that the forced hair-shaving and clothing reforms completely extinguished any hope of reviving Han Chinese culture, allowing the Manchu rule to last as long as a typical Han Chinese dynasty.

Saionji Kinmochi believed that recognizing the independence of the Korean people was feasible if it could reduce Korean resistance. Although Saionji stepped down as prime minister without making any political achievements, his perspective was clearly different from Ito's. He needed to look at the issue from the perspective of a responsible government. He believed that Japan's biggest problem was internal rather than external. Continuing to oppress the people and wasting resources overseas would ultimately lead to a situation where neither side would benefit.

Using Mindanao and Taiwan as examples, Saionji argues that although Japan does not have full administrative control over Mindanao, its investment in the island is negligible. In fact, Mindanao's finances are already balanced, while Taiwan still requires substantial domestic subsidies.

Saionji concluded, “The population of the Korean Peninsula is roughly half that of Japan. If we subsidize the Korean Peninsula like we subsidize Taiwan, the farmers in Japan, who already bear heavy taxes, will only become more and more dissatisfied. Moreover, even if we conquer it by force, we can only suppress Korean uprisings in the relatively flat south. In the mountains to the north, the army is equally helpless because the Korean guerrillas can retreat into Chinese territory to regroup at any time. Are we going to condone the army going to war with China? I am firmly against going to war with China. Our country's finances do not have the capacity for it, and no country will support us. This is a suicidal plan.”

It's difficult to say whether Saionji Kinmochi's firm stance stemmed more from opposition to war with China or from greater vigilance regarding the possibility of the army acting independently. Suematsu Kenzumi's position closely followed Ito Hirobumi's, while Kaneko Kentaro worried that Asianism would provoke Western wariness towards Japan. He believed that neither Japan nor any Asian alliance based on Japan and China could rival the West, thus fundamentally opposing the idea of ​​an Asian alliance and emphasizing that Japan should abide by the international order rather than become a challenger to it.

However, this internal debate within the Ito faction does indeed indicate that Ito Hirobumi, who had previously fallen into silence, has some new political goals. Ito Miyoji is actually quite worried about this, because in his view, it is best for Ito Hirobumi to merely serve as the face of the Ito faction for now, while the actual affairs should be handled by these younger people.

Although Ito respected Ito Hirobumi in personal terms, he believed that Ito should no longer concern himself with overly specific matters politically. On this point, he shared the same mindset as Katsura Taro, both feeling that they, not the elders, were now truly in charge of factional affairs. If the elders spoke out recklessly, it would be tantamount to undermining their authority within the faction. This is why Ito so vehemently opposed Ito Hirobumi's new ideas on the Korean issue.

So Ito eventually secretly revealed the internal discussions of the Ito faction to Yamagata Aritomo. Of course, he pretended it was the Navy's idea. Actually, he wasn't entirely wrong, since Hayashi Nobuyoshi was indeed a member of the Navy. The direction of this discussion was also in line with the Navy's advocacy of a new Asian order. It was a solution that would benefit the Navy no matter how you looked at it.

However, Ito's behavior angered Katsura Taro. In Katsura's view, he was the one in charge of specific affairs for the Yamagata faction, and Ito's frequent bypassing of him to consult with Yamagata was a complete disregard for him. From Katsura's perspective, Ito was using Yamagata to direct his actions, and was not treating him as a core member of the Choshu faction's second generation.

Regardless of Ito's assertion that the Ito faction remains part of the Choshu faction, in the eyes of Choshu faction core members such as Katsura Taro, the Ito faction's shift to party politics is tantamount to voluntarily breaking away from the Choshu faction. Therefore, the current Choshu faction is actually the Yamagata faction, and Ito Mishiro is an outsider to the Choshu faction. It is indeed too annoying for an outsider to issue orders to them through Yamagata elders.

Chapter 726

Author: Fuchun Mountain Residence Number: 4907 Comments: 0 Update Date: 2023-09-04 11:59:38

Regardless of Katsura Taro's personal opinion of Ito Miyoji, the Yamagata faction was still uneasy about the topics discussed by the Ito faction. After all, they had previously believed that after Ito Hirobumi resigned as Governor-General of Korea, the position would almost certainly fall into the hands of the army, because no one but the army could handle the mess in Korea.

Despite the outward appearance of everyone advocating that expansion into Korea is Japan's lifeblood and interest, the Army's actual concern about controlling Korea is actually secondary. The primary concern is how the Army can gain a dominant position in controlling Korea.

The reason why the Army had such thoughts was due to its experiment in occupying Taiwan. Although the Army initially took on the task of ruling Taiwan out of patriotism, since Taiwan was more strategically valuable to the Navy, the Navy weighed the pros and cons and decided that the investment was too large and not worthwhile. Instead, the Army became a supporter of selling out Taiwan.

The army's decision to colonize an isolated island surrounded by the sea seemed completely unrelated to its continental policy and was simply a waste of its resources. However, while the colonization of Taiwan was financially detrimental, the army discovered that its operations there were entirely independent of the government. Furthermore, through the transfer of benefits, subsidies allocated by Japan to Taiwan ultimately ended up in companies related to the army, resulting in considerable wealth for the army's high command.

Therefore, the army naturally concluded that although overseas colonization currently offered little benefit to Japan, it expanded its authority and brought hidden benefits. Simply put, this was peacetime warfare, meaning the government had virtually no way to interfere with the army's overseas colonial rule. In wartime, the military was not required to report its actions to the government, which complied with the principle of military secrecy.

Compared to Taiwan's population of less than three million (previously over 254 million before the First Sino-Japanese War), Japan began emigrating to Taiwan after the Treaty of Shimonoseki, with over 80,000 people migrating there in ten years. Meanwhile, the Korean Peninsula had a population approaching 20 million. In other words, if the army controlled the Korean Peninsula, it would have control over nearly half of Japan's population, making it even less likely to constrain the government. After all, the army was largely self-sufficient and wouldn't need to concern itself with Tokyo's affairs.

However, the navy actually proposed to the Ito faction the right to recognize Korean independence, viewing Japan's rule over Korea as a transitional phase in exchange for armed resistance from the Korean people against Japanese colonialism. This meant that the government was trying to reach a compromise with the Koreans in exchange for control, and the army's need in the process of ruling Korea was greatly reduced.

If the Navy and the Itō faction reach an agreement, it means that the Army will lose its freedom of action abroad. In the future, the Army will be strictly regulated by the government through the logistics supply system. The Army will not only lose its continental policy, but even its right to suggest war will be taken away by the government, because the Army will not be able to mobilize troops to create border conflicts and thus trigger a war crisis under the supervision of the government.

Whether it was the Sino-Japanese War or the Russo-Japanese War, both wars were essentially initiated by the army, which escalated tensions between the two nations, causing the people to feel threatened by war and thus turning them into supporters of foreign wars. The reason the army was able to create armed conflicts without government control was that its actions on the Korean Peninsula could not be monitored by the government, and some diplomats, who endorsed an expansionist strategy, actively covered up the army's actions.

However, if the Korean Peninsula were to become a formal civilian regime, the army's actions on the Korean Peninsula would no longer be able to hide from Tokyo's eyes and ears. The government would then treat the troops stationed on the Korean Peninsula in the same way it treats domestic troops. Under such control, the unauthorized mobilization of organized troops would be no different from an act of rebellion.

Army leaders such as Yamagata Aritomo and Katsura Taro had to focus their energy on sabotaging the Navy's compromise plan with Korea, and had no time to attend to the political and economic reforms being promoted by the Yamamoto cabinet domestically.

Although Yamamoto Gonnohyōe had independent governing philosophies, he soon realized that he only had independent ideas and could not offer any political ideas that could attract those outside the Yamamoto faction. First of all, Yamamoto Gonnohyōe could only rely on the Satsuma clique in politics, which undoubtedly made the Democratic Party, which opposed the clan politics, dissatisfied.

Although Ito Sukeyuki also formed a cabinet with a naval background, he only selected officials from the Satsuma clique who supported his reform ideas, rather than relying on the Satsuma clique to complete the political formation of the cabinet. Therefore, the Ito cabinet was not attacked by the Democratic Party politically, because the Democratic Party did not consider the Ito cabinet to be a clique cabinet.

In contrast, although the Yamamoto Gonnohyōe cabinet introduced political figures, his reliance on the Satsuma faction and his inability to propose political ideas that transcended the clan politics in order to unite people's hearts led the Democratic Party to form a basic view of the Yamamoto cabinet shortly after it came to power: the Yamamoto cabinet was a political step backward compared to the Ito cabinet, and was essentially closer to the clan politics than to the clan politics.

Yamamoto Gonbei then discovered that while his economic policies received parliamentary support, his proposed political reforms were criticized by the parliament. The criticism was not that he was too radical, but rather that he was too conservative, which contrasted sharply with his bold economic policies.

Such external criticism is actually embarrassing for Yamamoto, because he knows that the economic ideas actually come from the will of the navy. This is a plan made by the navy to make Japan more suitable for naval modernization, while the political changes mainly come from his personal propositions. The fact that the outside world has such contradictory evaluations of his political and economic policies shows that his political ability is not as good as that of a lieutenant commander in the navy.

Whether this criticism in public opinion was merely an opinion or a general feeling among the people became quite clear by the spring of 1909. Land reform in Chiba Prefecture, which had been promoted after the formation of the Yamamoto cabinet, encountered problems by the end of the year.

In Hayashi Nobuyoshi's vision, land reform in Chiba Prefecture was not merely an auxiliary program to the Chiba Prefecture Heavy Industry Center Plan, but rather a separate political and economic reform program. In other words, although land reform in Chiba Prefecture and the Chiba Prefecture Heavy Industry Center Plan were related, they should be an independent program.

What does this mean? It means that land reform in Chiba Prefecture must keep pace with the reform of the prefecture's political system in order to ensure that land reform throughout the prefecture can truly succeed, rather than simply allowing land reform in other areas to proceed unchecked after the heavy industry plan has been completed.

However, both the Yamamoto faction and the Satsuma clique felt that Hayashi Shinichi's ideas for land reform in Chiba Prefecture were too radical. They were very similar to the land reform goals in Wuhan. If policies were formulated according to Hayashi Shinichi's ideas, not only would the landowners in Chiba Prefecture be full of resentment, but landowners in other places would probably feel threatened and launch attacks against the government.

Therefore, Yamamoto Gonnohyōe ultimately chose a conservative approach, adopting a stricter land reform policy for areas within the heavy industry center plan, while allowing other areas in Chiba Prefecture to discuss and reform the land system on their own.

What problems did this conservative stance bring? First, the land reform in the heavy industrial center planning area was almost successful. Although the land was redistributed, it was actually acquired by conglomerates in the end. In other words, landlords and farmers almost all lost their land and what they got in the end was cash. The planning of the heavy industrial center created a large number of jobs in the area. Therefore, although the local people lost their land, they could still find new jobs to make a living. In any case, life was better than before.

However, for rural areas outside the planned heavy industrial centers, land reform was difficult to implement. Tenant farmers in the villages wanted to distribute the land to landlords who were not in the villages, while landlords in the villages wanted to retain the best land. Landlords who were not in the villages felt that it was unreasonable to distribute their land and therefore completely opposed land reform. Due to the lack of external funding, even farmers who received land objected to the land price and interest, because they felt that it would be difficult to repay these loans and interest by just farming.

As for those farmers who were already heavily indebted, creditors began demanding land as payment before they even received it. Some farmers felt the land redistribution was just a formality, that they hadn't gained anything, and that even the landlords who had taken care of them were gone. Therefore, in January 09, the voices of farmers in Chiba Prefecture opposing land reform grew louder, and there were even incidents of them besieging government-appointed land reform supervisors.

For the zaibatsu and certain politicians, the spoils of the heavy industry center are already in their grasp. Whether the land reform in Chiba Prefecture succeeds or not is no longer important. After all, the landowners are opposing the Yamamoto cabinet, not them. If Yamamoto can't hold on and has to step down, it won't be a loss for them. Therefore, they are naturally unwilling to stand with the Yamamoto cabinet against the landowners' counterattack.

This situation put Yamamoto Gonnohyōe in a very awkward position. He tried to distance himself from Hayashi Shin'yō, not wanting the naval lieutenant commander to interfere with his administration. However, when he actually encountered trouble, Yamamoto realized that everyone around him was reliable.

The Seiyukai only wanted to get elected officials through him. Most of the Democratic Party members did not pass the higher civil service examination, so they could only enter the government by being nominated by the prime minister. This is why Yamamoto was able to gain parliamentary support after he came to power by expanding the scope of the prime minister's candidates.

The Satsuma clique only considered the interests of its own faction. After sharing the benefits brought by the heavy industry center plan, they lost interest in whether the land reform in Chiba Prefecture would succeed. Without any benefit to be gained, the Satsuma clique was unwilling to take such a big political risk.

So Yamamoto eventually realized that the only thing he could rely on was the navy as his base, but the only person who could persuade the navy to unite under one will was Hayashi Shin-yi. The ideas of others were completely different. He was not in the position of Minister of the Navy, so he had no way to make these high-ranking naval officers obey him.

Left with no other choice, Yamamoto invited Hayashi Shin-yi to a meeting in the first month of the lunar calendar to consult on the problems arising from the land reform in Chiba Prefecture. Hayashi Shin-yi didn't put on any airs and quietly came to Yamamoto's residence after accepting the invitation.

In response to Yamamoto Gonbei's question, Hayashi Shinichi thought for a moment and said, "Some things, once the opportunity is missed, are difficult to push forward. Now that everyone has already eaten the meat, why would they be willing to gnaw on the bones? Previously, I advocated to push forward land reform with all our might, which was to tie everyone to the same boat. As long as we haven't reached our destination, no one can jump ship. Now, if we want to persuade everyone to get on the same boat with us, the old approach is no longer suitable."

Yamamoto Gonbei remained silent for a long time, realizing that what Lin Xinyi said was actually true. This matter was indeed caused by his conservative mindset. According to everyone's original idea, they only wanted to reap the benefits of the land premium brought about by the construction of the heavy industrial center. Almost no one was interested in land reform in Chiba Prefecture, because it was really pointless to touch the interests of those landlords. Without an industrial center, the land would just be used for farming. For the zaibatsu, relying on farming to get returns was too slow and would not be worth the huge resources they had invested.

After all, Chiba Prefecture is part of mainland China, not the Korean Peninsula. You can't forcibly seize land from landlords. In fact, only some small businessmen with limited assets were involved in dividing up Korean land with the army. The zaibatsu were more concerned with controlling Korea's currency, minerals, and markets than with developing land for food production. Therefore, while the zaibatsu were willing to support the Yamamoto cabinet for the heavy industry center plan, they had little interest in land reform alone.

Yamamoto Gonbei didn't want to bear all the anger of the landowners, which is why he tended to take a conservative stance when implementing land reform policies. He felt that since things had come to this point, everyone was already in a bind, so any responsibility should be shared by everyone. Why should he be too proactive? After all, land reform was meant to cover up the flow of land premium revenue brought about by the heavy industry center plan, rather than the political ideals he genuinely wanted to promote.

However, he failed to consider the practical problem that he was now the Prime Minister, not the Minister of the Navy. If others were forced to disembark, the responsibility would fall on him, because he was already bound to the ship. Therefore, if land reform failed, the resentment of landlords and peasants would ultimately be directed at him, forcing him to consider continuing to push the policy forward.

After much deliberation, Yamamoto finally spoke to Lin Xinyi, saying, "Things have come to this point, and the land reform in Chiba Prefecture cannot be abandoned halfway. Although the failure of the land reform will not affect the construction of Chiba Prefecture's heavy industry center, it will be a significant blow to the Navy's reputation. We cannot sit idly by."

Lin Xinyi felt a chill run down his spine. Yamamoto Gonbei now knew who was "us" with him. Before, he was terrified of being "us." However, despite his thoughts, he still respectfully said, "Your Excellency is right. Therefore, no matter what, the land reform in Chiba Prefecture cannot fail. Even if there are some controversies, it is best to let them all go."

However, the top-down approach to land reform is facing considerable resistance. Farmers in Chiba Prefecture have lost faith in the future of land reform and cannot imagine that it will benefit them. This is why they oppose the land reform plan along with the landowners. They believe that if they cannot be sure that the changes will benefit them, it is better not to change at all.

"Our most urgent task in pushing forward land reform in Chiba Prefecture is to restore farmers' confidence in the prospects of land reform, making them realize that they will gain tangible benefits after the reform. If they benefit, it means that landowners will have to concede significant profits. Therefore, the government must promote land reform from the perspective of supporting farmers. Trying to implement land reform without offending anyone will only result in everyone opposing your reform plan."

Yamamoto Gonbei was also capable of making choices, so he did not reject Hayashi Shinji's position that advocated sacrificing the interests of landlords to meet the needs of peasants; he simply asked him for specific solutions.

After thinking for a moment, Lin Xinyi said, "The cooperation between Japan, China and India in the coal and iron industry is a good start. Our ultimate goal is to form a relatively closed Asian internal market, similar to the German Customs Union economy."

Given Japan's geography and population density, it is destined to become a food importer. While China and India have large populations, they will remain food exporters for a long time due to their geographical advantages as continental countries. Therefore, Japan should pursue an industrial-based development strategy and establish trade ties with China and India based on industrial and agricultural exchanges.

However, Japan cannot rely entirely on imports for its food. At the very least, we should ensure self-sufficiency in staple foods. Therefore, we should protect Japan's staple rice with tariffs, but adjust tariffs on wheat, feed grains, and other grains. This would both protect our staple food production and develop our grain processing industry.

Chiba Prefecture is inherently suited for agriculture, giving us an excellent foundation for developing the food processing industry. To ensure the healthy development of the food processing industry, land reform has become inevitable, as current small-scale farming cannot provide the necessary large quantities of grain for the food processing industry…”

Chapter 727

Author: Fuchun Mountain Residence Number: 5060 Comments: 0 Update Date: 2023-09-05 15:48:35

Hayashi Shin-yi's suggestion to Yamamoto was to find a different way to entice the zaibatsu (financial conglomerates) to support land reform in Chiba Prefecture. Previously, he had tied land reform to the heavy industry development plan, forcing the zaibatsu to support it. Now, he was using the profits from the food processing industry to entice them to continue supporting land reform in Chiba Prefecture.

Hayashi Shin-yi's proposed food processing industry is certainly not limited to Chiba Prefecture's local agriculture. Rather, it aims to establish a supply chain based on Chiba's agriculture, capable of accommodating the processing of agricultural products from China and India, and then selling them overseas. This is essentially a further integration of the trade and economic ties between Japan, China, and India, albeit a shift from heavy industry to light industry.

Lin Xinyi also offered Yamamoto a grand vision: once Japan's heavy and chemical industries developed, it would inevitably need to establish exchange relationships with major agricultural countries like China and India. Japan could not expect China and India to have enough gold to pay for its goods, so Japan would have to use labor value as the basis for commodity exchange, importing surplus agricultural products from China and India and then exporting them to Europe and America in exchange for gold or other industrial equipment.

Lin Xinyi cited the example of soybean trade. Although China is the origin of soybeans, its processing capacity for soybeans is very weak. While Japan's processing capacity is not as good as that of Europe and the United States, it is closer to China and soybean meal can be used as feed and fertilizer. Therefore, Japan has a low-cost advantage in the deep processing of soybeans compared with Europe and the United States.

Soybean oil, as an edible oil, can be combined with Taiwanese sugar and Chinese wheat flour to create higher value-added convenience foods or snacks. These convenience foods are more competitive than similar snacks in Europe and America. Therefore, the food processing industry has great potential for expansion for agricultural countries like China and India. Since food is people's primary need, this means that as long as the shelf life is long enough and the taste remains at a reasonable level, there will be no shortage of market demand.

With the funds of conglomerates attracted, the government can establish agricultural cooperatives, mortgage the land in the name of the agricultural cooperatives, and then the agricultural cooperatives will pay the interest and principal for the redemption of the land on schedule. In this way, farmers can ensure their income without worrying that land reform will cause them to take on more debt.

Furthermore, Lin Xinyi believes that the redemption of land from landlords should not be paid in cash all at once, as this would inevitably cause a shock to the market. One-third cash, one-third government bonds, and one-third state-owned enterprise stocks would be a better way to alleviate the government's financial pressure.

Regarding the establishment of the land reform committee, Lin Xinyi advocated that the land committee in the village should exclude landlord representatives and instead be mainly composed of representatives of landless peasants and self-cultivating farmers. As long as these two groups reach an agreement on the land reform plan, then they can rely on these two groups to force landlords to accept the village's land reform plan.

Although Yamamoto said he needed to think about Lin Xinyi's suggestions, he actually accepted almost everything. However, regarding the appointment of representatives to the village land committee, Yamamoto believed that the opinions of local landowners should also be considered, while those who were not local could be isolated from the land committee.

While Yamamoto was revising the Chiba Prefecture land reform plan at the government level, he also gave instructions to Saito, requiring him to screen officers and soldiers from Chiba Prefecture within the Navy and organize them to learn about the significance of Chiba Prefecture's heavy industry center for the Navy and the significance of land reform for the construction of the heavy industry center.

The purpose of this education was actually to purge supporters of land reform from within the navy. Chiba Prefecture is an administrative district, so there are many fellow townsmen within the army, navy, and government. Nine out of ten officers and bureaucrats come from landowning families because the poor simply cannot afford to send their children to school. Even if someone can get into a military academy, they must at least reach the level of a middle school graduate. Even though primary school is compulsory education, the cost of raising a full-time student is still considerable, and it is almost impossible for tenant farmers to support.

Therefore, there was actually a lot of opposition to land reform within the navy, but Yamamoto had previously ignored it because he didn't want to offend these people for the sake of land reform. However, under Hayashi Shin-yi's persuasion, Yamamoto also realized that if land reform had to be pushed forward, at least there couldn't be any dissenting voices within the navy. He even planned to eliminate the opposing voices within the navy and then, through the coordination mechanism between the army and navy, demand that the army take the same action.

Although Lin Xinyi supported land reform, Kawahara, Tojo, and others had little motivation in this matter because they were unwilling to suppress naval personnel who were not related to them for the sake of the political image of the Yamamoto cabinet. Therefore, only Yamamoto's direct subordinates in the navy could take the lead in this matter.

In return for helping Yamamoto Gonbei solve the problem, Yamamoto tacitly agreed that Hayashi Shinji had certain supervisory and advisory rights over the land reform plan in Chiba Prefecture, and expressed his support for the establishment of the Japan-China-India Economic and Trade Alliance.

The formation of this economic and trade alliance is based on two main factors: the negotiation and arbitration rules for tariffs among the three countries, and the settlement currency. The former mainly involves coordination between governments; in fact, none of Japan, China, and India have tariff autonomy. Here, "India" refers to the Indian nation, not the British Indian government.

The most likely candidates to form a customs union are actually Japan and China, while India can only make the request to the British Indian government as a regional representative. For Japan and China to form a customs union, they must first relinquish control over tariffs. On this issue, Japan has a greater advantage than China because, after defeating the Russian navy, Japan has essentially demonstrated its military capability to protect its market. China, on the other hand, not only faces pressure from Europe and the United States but also the threat from Japan, a rising power.

Prior to this, when the government discussed the tariff issue between Japan and China, the Chinese government had high expectations, but Japanese diplomats did not agree. While they hoped that Japan could gain tariff independence, they did not want to lose their influence over China's tariff setting. Although Japan's interests in China's tariff issue were far less than those of Britain and the United States, Japan always took the lead in accusing China of not abiding by the treaty.

Although Yamamoto Gonnohyōe supported the general direction of Japan-China reconciliation after coming to power, he could not directly demand that those in charge obey his orders in specific matters. This was actually a form of resistance by the Japanese bureaucratic elite against the feudal system, as they tried to prevent laymen from leading them through their professional abilities.

Yamamoto Gonnohyōe did indeed harbor some dissatisfaction with these diplomats, but he hadn't yet reached the point of being provoked; after all, the previous Japan-China cooperation negotiations hadn't escalated to a level that threatened the government's survival. Now, Yamamoto seemed to realize this.

Whether this cabinet can be maintained is actually closely related to Japan-China cooperation. If he wants to achieve something during his term, he cannot do without Japan-China cooperation.

As for the issue of the other settlement currency, Lin Xinyi did not expect the Yamamoto Cabinet to push for it. Taking advantage of the opportunity to prepare for the art foundation's discussion on Asian economic and trade cooperation, he joined forces with Shibusawa Eiichi to organize a small-scale discussion on the Japanese and Asian economies.

Those who participated in this small symposium included Eiichi Shibusawa, Yoshiro Sakatani, Korekiyo Takahashi, Hisaichi Soeda, Junnosuke Inoue, Iwao Matsukata, and Shinpei Goto. Although Iwao Matsukata was quite dissatisfied with the Navy's support for his younger brother's actions, he dared not refuse the invitation to the meeting, because he knew that Shibusawa was not inviting him, but the Matsukata family that he represented. If he refused, it would mean that the Matsukata family was unwilling to participate in this matter.

Although the number of participants in this small symposium was small, it included the new generation of leaders from Japan's major banks and financial circles. It can be said that if any resolutions are reached at this symposium, they will likely form a new economic policy for Japan.

After the symposium, Lin Xinyi immediately stated his position, saying that Japan should not succumb to the gold standard. Japan needs to establish a monetary system that is in line with its economic development and spread this new monetary system to intra-Asian trade, ultimately forming a new economy and thus isolating itself from the gold hegemony.

Junnosuke Inoue and Genichi Matsukata vehemently opposed Shinji Hayashi's proposals. Both were staunch supporters of the gold standard, but the former's opposition stemmed from a blind faith in European economic principles, while the latter's was driven by a desire to defend Masayoshi Matsukata's reputation.

Eiichi Shibusawa, Yoshiro Sakatani, and Hisaichi Soeda supported Shin-Yi Hayashi. Although they believed that the gold standard system was good, they thought that the gold standard system controlled by Europeans and Americans was not good. Therefore, they had been persuaded by Shin-Yi Hayashi before the meeting.

Takahashi and Goto Shinpei should have been neutral or inclined towards the gold standard, but their behavior during the meeting was different.

Korekiyoshi Takahashi did not believe that Shinichi Hayashi's criticism of the international gold standard was wrong, but at the same time, he did not believe that Japan was capable of confronting the West on the gold standard. He believed that Japan was currently a country dependent on the economies of the West, and that challenging the West on the gold standard too early would not be a good thing for Japan. Even if China and India really supported Japan, the result would not be any different.

However, Shinpei Goto, who initially seemed hesitant, changed his stance drastically after hearing about the idea of ​​an intra-Asian trade settlement currency. He said that this Asian settlement currency was definitely worth trying.

Shinpei Goto represented the position of the elite bureaucratic group, and his statement effectively caused Junnosuke Inoue and Iwao Matsukata to lose control of the meeting.

The Japanese business community is profoundly influenced by the government. The same government economic policies cannot succeed without the cooperation of the business community, so the stance of bureaucrats has a significant impact on the direction of the business community. Goto Shinpei's alignment with Shibusawa and Hayashi Nobuyoshi meant that Inoue and Matsukata lost their ability to resist at the government level.

They couldn't possibly push Matsukata Masayoshi to the forefront at this time. After all, Hayashi Shinji and Shibusawa hadn't revealed their true intentions yet, and they were still collaborators. If things really broke down, many aspects of their cooperation would collapse, and then the two sides would truly become adversaries. This was something Inoue and Matsukata didn't want to see.

Thus, this small symposium eventually reached a preliminary agreement: after communicating with China and India and confirming that the three countries had reached a consensus on monetary policy, Japan would agree to establish a settlement currency for intra-Asian trade.

With the initial success of this small symposium, the large-scale discussion held by the art foundation afterwards also found the direction that Shin-Yi Hayashi wanted to see. With expectations for the broad opportunities brought about by cooperation among Japan, China and India, voices supporting Japan-China cooperation began to grow stronger. Kojiro Matsukata also got what he wanted. His proposed direction for Japan-China cooperation was recognized by many people in the business community, and finally some people began to publicly call in newspapers for the separation of the two major industries of agriculture and forestry and industry and commerce, forming a central ministry specifically responsible for industry and commerce issues.

However, the announcement of the trilateral cooperation plan between Japan, China, and India on the coal and iron industry still attracted great attention from Britain, France, and the United States. Although France believed that the cooperation between the three countries without notifying the other countries hindered the principle of fair competition, given the increasingly tense propaganda war between Germany and France, the German and French governments did their best to avoid war, but the propaganda from both sides continued to stimulate the people's desire for war.

The problem between the two countries is that neither France nor Germany wants to be the second-largest land power in Europe. Although the Russian Empire is known as the gendarme of Europe, neither France nor Germany has ever considered it a true European country, so there is no question of European hegemony. However, if Germany and France were to determine a victor, it would be tantamount to controlling the vast European peninsula encompassing the North Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea, thus gaining European hegemony.

Because neither Germany nor France wanted to relinquish their chance at European dominance, neither country was willing to concede in the struggle for control of North Africa and Alsace-Lorraine. France held absolute dominance in North Africa, while Germany wielded significant influence along its land border with France. Therefore, when Germany suffered humiliation over North Africa, it couldn't resist using the Alsace-Lorraine issue to provoke the French.

With both sides using nationalism as a unifying force for their national consciousness, the French government dared not recognize Germany's legitimate occupation of Alsace-Lorraine, while the German government was powerless to demand that German nationalists refrain from using the ownership of Alsace-Lorraine to humiliate the French. Especially...

After the Dreyfus Affair, political groups on the left and right wings in France were locked in a fierce battle, and it was impossible to mend the rift between them without hatred for the Germans.

Although the retrial of the Dreyfus case exonerated him, the persecution of Dreyfus himself never stopped. Even two years after his exoneration, Dreyfus was still threatened by a group of right-wing elements who demanded that he be careful with his words and not publicly slander true "patriots".

Since the French promote nationalism and anti-German sentiment to unite their patriotic feelings, they shouldn't expect Germans not to develop anti-French sentiments. After all, the distance between Germany and France is much closer than the distance between China and Europe. However, thanks to newspaper propaganda, Europeans don't have a correct understanding of China. And since there is more contact between the people of Germany and France, it is naturally easier to incite hatred between the two countries' citizens.

However, Germany's industrial development was much faster than France's, especially after Germany gained access to the Chinese market, its exports continued to rise, while France was in a period of economic stagnation due to Russia's defeat in the Far East and the stock market crash in the United States. This led some French generals to believe that if Germany and France were to go to war, the sooner it broke out, the better for France.

Therefore, although the French expressed dissatisfaction with the changing power structure in the Far East, they did not take any substantial action to avoid antagonizing Japan and China in the Far East, which would force the two East Asian countries to side with Germany and threaten France's colonial interests in Asia.

As for Britain and the United States, they were more proactive than France. They both believed that Japan was trying to expand its influence in East Asia and crowd out the interests of other powers in the region. Therefore, both countries believed that cooperation between Japan and China should be hindered.

Although Japan announced a coal and iron ore cooperation agreement involving Japan, China, and India, Britain automatically excluded India. This was because the British feared that bringing up the trilateral cooperation would incite a surge of Indian nationalism. They preferred to create procedural obstacles rather than publicly tell the Indians that they had no right to comment on India's political and economic issues.

The United States is more concerned with Japan and China than with Japan, China, and India, mainly to avoid provoking the British. As everyone knows, India is the testicle of the British Empire, and any mention of India by other countries would likely draw warnings from the British. The Americans clearly did not want to have a conflict with the British at this time.

The signing of the Anglo-French and Anglo-Russian agreements ushered in a phase of confrontation between two major camps in Europe. Both Britain and Germany wanted to pressure the United States to take a stand. To prevent Britain and Germany from making miscalculations, the Americans even declined to offer their opinions on the North African issue, so naturally they would not offer any opinions on British India.

Thus, both Britain and France ultimately focused their attention on establishing cooperative relations between Japan and China. However, the United States and Britain did not share a completely consistent stance on this matter. Britain was willing to suffer some losses itself in order to break up the Japan-China cooperative relationship, while the United States advocated for joining this Asian trade circle in accordance with the Open Door principle.

The significant difference in their positions stems from the British belief that Sino-Japanese cooperation would be too disruptive to the power structure in Asia, potentially causing the East Asian order to slip out of British control. The Americans, however, were not concerned about the imbalance of power in East Asia; their worry was that Sino-Japanese cooperation would create a powerful East Asian alliance that would ultimately keep the United States out of the Pacific.

Chapter 728

Author: Fuchun Mountain Residence Number: 5009 Comments: 0 Update Date: 2023-09-06 12:06:42

However, before the European problem is resolved, although both Britain and the United States have the idea of ​​undermining Japan-China cooperation, they do not have enough resources to do so. This is because the crisis in Europe has not calmed down with the signing of the Anglo-French and Anglo-Russian agreements, but has instead formed a confrontation between the Anglo-French-Russian bloc and the German-Austrian-Italian bloc.

Frankly speaking, the Franco-German conflict was forced to make concessions by the German government due to British intervention. However, these concessions did not align with the national sentiments that had been stirred up among the German people. Germans believed that the British had lost their neutrality and were now siding with France against Germany, and anti-British sentiment was rapidly rising among the German public.

The anger of the German people toward Britain also aroused hostility in the British. Unlike the Germans, the British did not develop an anti-German sentiment because they felt threatened, but rather because of the sense of loss accumulated from the Boer War to the Tibetan War. The British believed that the British Empire needed to repeat the Crimean War in order to make Europe respect the power of the British Empire again.

In other words, the British were indeed psychologically prepared for a major war with the European powers, rather than continuing to acquire wealth through colonial wars. This hegemonic mentality led Britain to focus its attention on Europe, rather than on distant Japan and China. Dissatisfaction with the cooperation between Japan and China existed only among some British diplomats and government officials and did not arouse the attention of British society.

Moreover, while the Franco-German conflict continued to escalate, tensions between Austria-Hungary and Russia also erupted. The conflict between Austria-Hungary and Russia also had a long history. During the periods of Polish and Ottoman Empire's dominance, the two countries were allies. However, with the fall of Poland and the Ottoman Empire's retreat from Eastern Europe, Austria-Hungary and Russia's spheres of influence finally came into contact. Their struggle for control of the Balkans led to the breakdown of the alliance between Austria-Hungary and Russia.

The breakdown of the Three Emperors' League cannot be entirely blamed on Wilhelm II's shortsightedness. In fact, the alliance was already on the verge of collapse after Russia's continuous expansion of power into the Balkans. The foundation of the Three Emperors' League was essentially determined by geopolitics following the Crimean War of 1853-1856.

The Russian Empire realized that without a powerful force in Central Europe to counterbalance the Western European nations, the Western European powers, represented by Britain and France, would restrict Russia's expansion into Central Europe, as Britain and France refused to recognize Russia as a European state. Under these circumstances, the Russians relinquished their role as the gendarme of Europe, allowing the unification of the Germanic peoples to take place, thus forming a powerful Central European empire.