Swords into Bank Shares: Finance, Conflict and Political Reform in Meiji Japan
Abstract:
How are broad coalitions in favor of beneficial reforms and policies built across groups with different, often conflicting, initial interests? We examine how innovations in finance provide a means to accomplish sustainable reform and help solve this political economy problem. We examine this in the context of Japan’s Meiji Restoration, which ended feudal rule and led to widespread adoption of a reformist agenda of Emperor Meiji, including the “importation” of foreign ideas & sustained growth. We show how samurai violence ended with the implementation of these technocratic solutions and that local communities, which might have otherwise withered, experienced growth as a result of these financial innovations.
Date: 6 February 2018, 17:00 (Tuesday, 4th week, Hilary 2018)
Venue: Nuffield College, New Road OX1 1NF
Venue Details: Large Lecture Room
Speaker: Kris Mitchener (Santa Clara University)
Organising department: Department of Economics
Part of: Economic and Social History Seminar
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editors: Erin Saunders, Anne Pouliquen