Conclusion

Finally, we will try to summarize our arguments on the international order of Asia in the 1930s. First, during the interwar years, especially in the first half of the 1930s, the arguments of British Commercial Reports on Japan tended to shift their focus from the British home economy to the markets of the British Empire.

Second, Sir George Sansom joined the Indo-Japanese trade negotiations in 1933-34 as a member of the British delegation.⁷¹ After returning to Japan, he commented on bilateral (trade) agreements as follows: 'a new Indo-Japanese Convention and Protocol...may be said to have solved for the time being the question of Japanese competition in India in the cotton trade'. However, 'a policy of balancing trade as between pairs of countries would very greatly reduce international trade'. 'Though palliative measures have been applied, no fundamental solution has yet been found for the problems raised by Japanese competition.'⁷² In this sense, Sansom worried about the emergence of economic blocs and strongly supported the maintenance of a free-trade regime on the global scale and the economic co-operation of the major powers. Based on these arguments, he assessed the rapid development of the Japanese industrial economy quite positively.

From the recent works in Asian and Japanese economic histories, we can reach the same kind of conclusions. The standard understanding has been that Western reactions to the export of Japanese goods to their colonies helped strengthen the case for building the yen bloc. Japan then began to abandon co-operation with industrial Europe after the Indo-Japanese and the Dutch-Japanese negotiations. Until 1937, however, Japan did not give up its intention of maintaining a certain level of interdependence with British India and the Dutch East Indies. Japan's diplomatic policy toward Europe in the 1930s was formulated primarily by considering the financial interests of Europe, not by taking into account the interests of the cotton textile industry.

The Japanese share of imports in the Dutch East Indies and British India increased rather than decreased after 1932. Through this trade, overseas Chinese⁷³ and Indian merchants⁷⁴ were the ones who strongly promoted exports of Japanese goods. They continued to deal with Japanese cotton textiles, although British and Dutch attempts to block Japanese goods gave preference to the goods produced within the Empire. There was clearly a complementary sense between European financial interests and Japanese exports to the Asian markets by stimulating the networks of Chinese and Indian merchants. This also means that the interests of the Western manufacturing sector were sacrificed by stimulating the Asian merchants' activities in the differ­ence of the currency policy between Japan and the Western colonies in Asia.

The earlier drafts of this chapter were presented to the British Imperial Seminar, chaired by Prof. Andrew Porter, at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, on 28 March 2000. We appreciate the valu­able comments and suggestions on our draft from the participants. And we especially thank Dr Antony Best of the London School of Economics for his critical review of our paper. Section II was written by Shigeru Akita and Section III by Naoto Kagotani.

Notes

1 Kaoru Sugihara, Ajiakan Boeki no Keisei to Kozo [The Formation and Structure of Intra-Asian Trade] (Kyoto,1996); Naoto Kagotani, Ajia Kokusai-Tsusho Chitsujo to Kindai Nihon [The Asian International Trading Order and Modern Japan] (Nagoya, 2000); Shigeru Akita, Igirisu Teikoku to Ajia Kokusai-Chitsujo [The British Empire and International Order of Asia] (Nagoya, 2002).

2 PJ. Cain and A.G. Hopkins, British Imperialism, 1688-2000 (2nd edition, London and New York, 2001).

3 As for the debate on Gentlemanly Capitalism and East Asia, see ibid., 'Forward: the Continuing Debate on Empire', pp. 16-17; Shigeru Akita, 'British Informal Empire in East Asia, 1880-1939: a Japanese perspective', in Raymond E. Dumett (ed.), Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Imperialism: the New Debate on Empire (London and New York, 1999), ch. 6.

4 Shigeru Akita and Naoto Kagotani (eds), 1930-nendai Ajia Kokusai Chitujo [International Order of Asia in the 1930s] (Hiroshima, 2000) [Thereafter, 1930- nendai Ajia].

5 Yoichi Kibata, 'Kiki to Senso no Nijyu-nen' [The Twenty Years during the Crises and Wars], in Iwanami Koza Sekai-Rekishi [Iwanami Series of World History] 24: Kaiho no Hikari to Kage [The Light and Shadow of the Liberalization] (Tokyo, 1998).

6 Nawa Touitsu, Nihon Bouseki-gyo to Genmen-mondai Kenkyu [A Study of the Japanese Cotton Spinning Industry and the Problem of Raw Cotton] (Osaka, 1937).

7 Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, 1688-2000, chs 17, 23 and 25.

8 Naoto Kagotani, 'Japanese Cotton-textile Diplomacy in the First Half of the 1930s: the case of the Dutch-Japanese trade negotiation in 1934', Bulletin of Asia-Pacific Studies, Vol. VII (1997).

9 Yuzo Yamamoto, Nihon Shokuminchi Keizaishi Kenkyu [A Study of the History of Japanese Colonial Economies] (Nagoya, 1992), ch. 2.

10 B.R. Tomlinson, The Political Economy of the Raj 1914-1947: the Economics of Decolonization in India (London, 1979); do., The New Cambridge History of India, III-3, The Economy of Modern India 1860-1970 (Cambridge, 1993).

11 Basudev Chatterji, Trade, Tariffs and Empire: Lancashire and British Policy in India 1919-1939 (Delhi, 1992).

12 Nobuko Nagasaki, 'Hi-bouryoku to Jiritsu no Indo [India under the Non­violence and Independence],' in Naoki Hazama and Nobuko Nagasaki (eds), Sekai no Rekishi [Series of World History] 27: Jiritsu ni mukau Ajia [Asian Movements towards Independence] (Tokyo, 1999).

13 On the Chinese currency reform in 1935, see Arther N. Young, China's Nation-Building Effort, 1927-1937: the Financial and Political Record (Stanford, 1971), chs. 7 and 8; Yutaka Nozawa (ed.), Chugoku no Heisei-Kaikaku to Kokusai-Kankei [Currency Reform in China (1935) and China's Relations with Japan, Britain and America] (Tokyo, 1981); PJ. Cain, 'British Economic Imperialism in China in the 1930s: the Leith-Ross Mission', Bulletin of Asia- Pacific Studies, Vol. VII (1997).

14 Toru Kubo, Senkan-ki Chugoku Jiritsu eno Mosaku: Kanzei-Tsuka Seisaku to Keizai-hatten [China's Quest for Sovereignty in the Inter-war Period: Tariff Policy and Economic Development] (Tokyo, 1999), ch. 8.

15 Shigeru Akita, Igirisu Teikoku to Ajia Kokusai-Chitsujo [The British Empire and International Order of Asia] (2002), chs 5 and 6.

16 Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, 1688-2000, ch. 20.

17 The Royal Institute of International Affairs, The Problem of International Investment (London, 1937).

18 B.R. Tomlinson, 'Imperial Power and Foreign Trade: Britain and India (1900-1970)', in P. Mathias and J.A. Davis (eds), The Nature of Industrialization, Vol. 5, International Trade and British Economic Growth from the Eighteenth Century to the Present Day (Oxford, 1996).

19 Kaoru Sugihara, 'The Emergence of an Industrialization-promoting Monetary Regime in East Asia: the Sterling Area versus the East Asian Devaluation', in Akita and Kagotani (eds), 1930-nendai Ajia, ch. 2.

20 Patrick K. O'Brien with Leandro Prados de la Escosura, 'The Costs and Benefits of European Imperialism from the Conquest of Ceuta, 1415 to the Treaty of Lusaka 1974', Revista de Historia Economica, Ano XVI, invierno 1998, no.1; Avner Offer, 'The British Empire, 1870-1914: a waste of money?', The Economic History Review, 2nd ser., 46 (1993).

21 Department of Overseas Trade, Report on Economic and Commercial Conditions in Japan, June 1936, ii.

22 Gordon Daniels, 'Sir George Sansom (1883-1965): Historian and Diplomat', in Sir Hugh Cortazzi and Gordon Daniels (eds), Britain and Japan 1859-1991: Themes and Personalities (London, 1991); Ian Nish, 'George Bailey Sansom, Diplomat and Historian' (unpublished lecture paper, London, 1999).

23 Typescript: Reminiscences of Sir George Sansom (Oral History Research Office, Columbia University, 1957), in Sir George Sansom Papers at St Antony's College, Oxford, box 9.

24 Chihiro Hosoya, Nihon Gaikou no Zahyou [The Frameworks of Japanese Diplomacy] (Tokyo, 1979), pp. 140-66; Sir George B. Sansom, Postwar Relations with Japan: Tenth Conference of the Institute of Pacific Relations, Sep. 1947, (The Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1947).

25 Shigeru Akita, '“Gentlemanly Capitalism”, intra-Asian Trade andJapanese Industrialization at the Turn of the Last Century,' Japan Forum, 8(1) (1996), pp. 51-65.

26 Department of Overseas Trade, Report on Economic and Commercial Conditions in Japan, 1919, p. 39.

27 Ibid., no. 541, 1932, p. 68.

28 Ibid.

29 Ibid., 1929, p. 1.

30 Ibid., 1929 - Foreign Trade.

31 Ibid., 1930, p. 18.

32 Ibid., 1927, p. 64.

33 Ibid., 1929, p. 18.

34 Kaoru Sugihara, 'Japan as an Engine of the Asian International Economy, c. 1880-1936', Japan Forum, 2(1), (1990).

35 Department of Overseas Trade, Report on Economic and Commercial Conditions in Japan, 1928 - Foreign Trade, general.

36 Ibid., no. 541, 1932, p. 39.

37 Ibid., 1928, p. 34.

38 Ibid., no. 541, 1932, p. 39.

39 Ibid., 1930, p. 16.

40 Ibid., 1933-34, p. 103.

41 Ibid., 1930, p. 27. Cf. The Economist (2 March 1935), 'Japan - Workshop of the Orient'.

42 The Economist (3 June 1933), 'Japanese Export Competition'; The Economist (16 Feb. 1935), 'Prosperity - Japanese Style'.

43 Department of Overseas Trade, Report on Economic and Commercial Conditions in Japan, 1933-34, p.

44 Department of Overseas Trade, Report on Economic and Commercial Conditions in Japan, 1933-34, Major Industries and p. 68.

45 Ibid., 1933-34, pp. 14-15. Cf. The Economist (28 Sep. 1935), 'Loan Expen­diture in Japan'.

46 Ibid., 1933-34, p. 16.

47 Ibid., 1932, no. 541, pp. 12, 17.

48 Kaoru Sugihara, 'Japan's Industrial Recovery 1931-1936', in Ian Brown(ed.), The Economies of Africa and Asia during the Inter-war Depression (London, 1989); Alex J. Robertson 'Lancashire and the Rise of Japan', in Mary B. Rose (ed.), International Competition and Strategic Response in the Textile Industries since 1890 (London, 1991).

49 Kaoru Sugihara, 'Intra-Asian Trade and East Asia's Industrialization, 1919-1939', in Gareth Austin(ed.), Industrial Growth in the Third World, c. 1870-c. 1990: Depressions, Intra-regional Trade, and Ethnic Networks, LSE Working Papers in Economic History, 44/98, London School of Economic and Political Science, London, 1998.

50 Osamu Ishii, 'Rivalries over Cotton Goods Markets, 1930-36', in Ian Nish and Yoichi Kibata (eds), The Political-Diplomatic Dimension, 1931-2000, the History of Anglo-Japanese Relations, 1600-2000, Vol. 2 (London, 2000).

51 Oasamu Ishii, Cotton-textile Diplomacy: Japan, Great Britain and the United States, 1930-1936 (Michigan, 1977).

52 Antony Best, 'Keizai teki Yuuwa seisaku ka, Keizai teki Nashonarizumu ka' ['Economic Appeasement or Economic Nationalism?'], Jinbun Gakuho [The Journal of the Institute of Research in Humanities, Kyoto University], no. 85 (Kyoto, 2001).

Ishii, Cotton-textile Diplomacy; Shinya Sugiyama, 'The Expansion of Japan's Cotton Textile Exports into South-East Asia', in Sugiyama and Ian Brown (eds), International Rivalry in South-East Asia in the Interwar Period (Itcha, 1995). The Japan Cotton Spinners' Association (ed.), The Statistics of the Cotton Trade, 1919-1936. These Statistics are kept in the Library of the Japan Cotton Spinners' Association (Osaka).

PJ. Cain and A.G. Hopkins, British Imperialism, 1688-2000, chs. 20, 23 and 25.

Naoto Kagotani, Ajia Kokusai Tsusho Chitujyo to Kindai Nihon [The Asian International Trading Order and Modern Japan], ch. 5.

Ragnar Nurkse, International Currency Experience: Lessons of the Inter-War Period (Geneva, 1944), ch. 3.

Jyuro Hashimoto, Dai kyoko ka no Nihon Shihonn-shugi [Japanese Capitalism under the Great Depression] (Tokyo, 1984), ch. 3.

B.R. Tomlinson, The Political Economy of the Raj 1914-1947, ch. 3; Ann Booth, 'The Evolution of Fiscal Policy and the Role of Government in the Colonial Economy', in Ann Booth, WJ. O'Malley and Ann Weidemann (eds), Indonesian Economic History in the Dutch Colonial Era (Itcha, 1990); Ian Brown, Economic Change in South-East Asia, c. 1830-1980 (Oxford, 1997), ch. 13. Kaoru Sugihara, Ajiakan Boeki no Keisei to Kozo [The Formation and Structure of Intra-Asian Trade], ch. 4.

Basudev Chatterji, Trade, Tariff and Empire, chs. 7 and 8.

Hiroshi Shimizu, 'A Study of Japan's Commercial Expansion into the Netherlands Indies from 1914 to 1941', Nagoya Shoka Daigaku Ronshu [The Journal of Nagoya Commercial University], vol. 34, no. 2, 1990.

Keizo Kurata, Nichi-In Kaisho ni Kansuru Denpo Ofuku Hikae [The File of all Telegrams for Indo-Japanese Cotton Trade Negotiations] (The Japan Cotton Spinners Association, April 1934); Yasuo Tawa, Nichi-Ran Kaisho no Keika [The Process of Dutch-Japanese Cotton Trade Negotiations, 1934] (The Japan Cotton Spinners Association, March 1935). These documents are kept in the Library of the Japan Cotton Spinners' Association (Osaka).

Keizo Kurata, 30 December 1933, from Kurata to Osaka, Nichi-In Kaisho ni Kansuru Denpo Ofuku Hikae; Kagotani, Ajia Kokusai Tsusho Chitujyo to Kindai Nihon, ch. 4.

Kagotani, Ajia Kokusai Tsusho Chitujyo to Kindai Nihon, chs. 6 and 7.

Ishii, Cotton-textile Diplomacy; Shimizu, 'A Study of Japan's Commercial Expansion into the Netherlands Indies from 1914 to 1941'; Sugiyama, 'The Expansion of Japan's Cotton Textile Exports into South-East Asia'.

Kagotani, Ajia Kokusai Tsusho Chitujyo to Kindai Nihon, ch. 8; G.C. Allen and Audrey G. Donnithorne, Western Enterprise in Indonesia and Malaya (London, 1957), ch. 14.

Tawa, Nichi-Ran Kaisho no Keika, p. 126.

Kagotani, Ajia Kokusai Tsusho Chitujyo to Kindai Nihon, ch. 8.

Ibid.

Typescript: Reminiscences of Sir George Sansom, pp. 30-4.

Department of Overseas Trade, Report on Economic and Commercial Conditions in Japan, 1933-34, pp. 97, 100.

Peter Post, 'Chinese Business Networks and Japanese Capital in South-East Asia, 1880-1940', in Rajeswary Ampalavanar Brown (ed.), Chinese Business Enterprise in Asia (London, 1995); Horoshi Shimizu and Hitoshi Hirakawa, Japan and Singapore in the World Economy: Japan's Economic Advance into Singapore 1870-1965 (London, 1999), p. 87.

74 Rajeswary Ampalavanar Brown, Capital and Entrepreneurship in South-East Asia (London, 1994), ch. 10; Claude Markovits, The Global World of Indian Merchants, 1750-1947: Trader of Sind from Bukhara to Panama (Cambridge, 2000), ch. 4.