The Formation of the Modern East Asian Economy
How different all these
eighteenth and early nineteenth century developments
were from those in Japan! Its import substitution policy
had been based on securing domestic production of all
its basic material needs. It thereby remained intent
on banning private links with overseas nations, preserving
the nation's precious metals, controlling the movements
of merchants, and establishing a nationwide rice market
on the basis of domestic production. However much this
policy helped to solidify the Japanese sense of their
national identity, it did not prepare them for dealing
regularly with other peoples, especially Asians. However
much it had them concentrate on solving problems at
home and achieving a remarkable ability to organize
themselves, it did not ease the integration of the Japanese
economy, culture, and people with the rest of Asia.
This mixed legacy, its strengths and weaknesses so strikingly
different from those of the southeast Chinese case,
prepared Japan well for leading the modernization and
integration of the Asian economy. But this policy was
far less successful in preparing the Japanese people
for the remarkable increase in regular exchange between
people and cultures that would so mark East and southeast
Asia in this and the next century.
| |
Canton
|
Amoy
|
Ningbo
|
Shanghai
|
Total
|
| 1745 |
303,859 |
41.5% |
291,597
|
39.9% |
88,410 |
12.1% |
47,568
|
6.5% |
731,434
|
| 1770 |
578,066
|
51.4% |
385,043 |
34.2% |
89,660
|
8% |
71,991
|
6.4% |
1,124,760
|
| 1786 |
953,960
|
64.3% |
366,045
|
24.7% |
91,223
|
6.1% |
72,728 |
4.9% |
1,483,956
|
LECTURE
VI
In the past four weeks,
I have tried to explain how movements in currency, ships,
and people over the seas of East Asia helped to bring
about a greater integration of its maritime economy
and thus form the basis of the modern East Asian economy.
From no later than the sixteenth century, the Chinese
economy was stimulated by a greater international division
of labor. Through the inflow of precious metals and
raw materials, it oversaw a great increase in the emigration
of its people and the export of its processed and manufactured
goods and so achieved a greater integration with the
Japanese and southeast Asian economies. It was the engine
of growth in East Asia, thanks to its huge coastal junk
trade and the activities of overseas Chinese traders.
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