'Deficient in Commercial Morality'?: Japan in Global Debates on Business Ethics in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

123 Pages·2016·1.628 MB·English

by  Janet Hunter (auth.)

PALGRAVE STUDIES
IN ECONOMIC HISTORY
Series Editor: Kent Deng
‘DEFICIENT IN
COMMERCIAL
MORALITY’?
Japan in Global Debates
on Business Ethics in the
Late Nineteenth and Early
Twentieth Centuries
Janet Hunter
Palgrave Studies in Economic History
Series Editor
Kent   Deng
London School of Economics
London ,  United Kingdom
Palgrave Studies in Economic History is designed to illuminate and enrich
our understanding of economies and economic phenomena of the past.
The series covers a vast range of topics including fi nancial history, labour
history, development economics, commercialisation, urbanisation, indus-
trialisation, modernisation, globalisation, and changes in world economic
orders.
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/14632
Janet   Hunter
‘Defi cient in
Commercial
Morality’?
Japan in Global Debates on Business Ethics in the
Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
Janet   Hunter
Department of Economic History
London School of Economics
London , United Kingdom
Palgrave Studies in Economic History
ISBN 978-1-137-58681-0 ISBN 978-1-137-58682-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-58682-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016946358
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A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research for this book started as part of the G apponshugi Capitalism
Project organised and funded by the Shibusawa Eiichi Memorial
Foundation. Over a number of years, the Foundation has generously sup-
ported my participation in the project, and I wish to express my sincere
thanks to Mr. Masahide Shibusawa, Dr. Masato Kimura, Mr. Jun Komatsu,
and all other staff at the Foundation for the encouragement they have
given to my research. I would also like to thank other colleagues on the
project for fruitful academic exchange. This volume builds on an earlier
publication in Japanese, my chapter entitled ‘Kōsei na Shudan de Tomi
o Eru: Kigyō Dōtoku to Shibusawa Eiichi’ in a book edited by Professor
Patrick Fridenson and Professor Kikkawa Takeo and published in 2014,
and makes use of some of the same material referenced and analysed
much more briefl y in that chapter. An English version of the chapter will
appear in late 2016 in the translated edition to be published by Toronto
University Press. The Foundation has kindly encouraged me to develop
my work for this volume.
Some of this research was presented in a lecture at Leiden University,
and was also the subject of the W.G. Beasley Memorial Lecture given
at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London in
late 2014. I am grateful for these opportunities, and to participants for
insightful comments and questions. I would also like to thank Mr. Ōta
Sen’ichi, who helped me collect the material from Japanese journals and
newspapers, and the referees for the proposal and the manuscript. I have
sought to respond to suggestions, but the content remains, of course, my
responsibility.
v

C
ONTENTS
1 Introduction 1
2 Credit, Speculation, Legislation, and Reputation:
The Evolution of the Discourse on Commercial Morality
in England and Beyond 9
3 Deceit, Piracy, and Unfair Competition: Western
Perceptions of the Level of Morality in Japan 33
4 National Interest, Reputation, and Economic
Development in an ‘Infant’ Country: The Japanese
Response to Western Criticisms 6 3
5 Conclusion 97
Bibliography 107
Index 113
vii

L T
IST OF ABLES
Table 3.1 Shares of different countries in World Trade, 1899–1937 (%) 55
Table 3.2 Value of British-Japanese Trade, 1885–1935 56
Table 3.3 British and Japanese involvement in China 56
ix