silver yen is the standard unit of value, so that it may be
used as legal tender in transactions to any amount; the smaller
coins, various fractions of one yen, are to be the subsidiary
medium of exchange, each kind being permitted as legal tender
in transactions amounting to one hundred times its value.
There is besides the gold yen, but it is subsidiary, and may
be used in the payment of sums not more than ten times its
value or one hundred yen. The silver yen is equal in quality
to the American dollar, but slightly exceeds the latter in
weight. The gold coins are in England and America legal tender
to any amount. I presume the Japanese Government is in hopes
that gold coin will always remain abundant while silver yen
will gradually wear out through constant handling, so that in
course of time gold will of itself become the standard unit of
value. Just now there is under discussion in the U.S. House of
Representatives a bill for establishing an international system
of coinage. The ten-dollar gold piece according to that system
is to weigh 257·2 grains, or sixteen and two-third grammes.
The Japanese ten-yen gold piece weighs 248 grains, but if
it were slightly increased in weight to equal the suggested
international standard coin, the coinage system of Japan would
be established on a sound basis and be for ever free from
all fluctuations of exchange value. As to which metal should
be the standard of value, the opinion of the economists all
tend to coincide in regarding gold as the fittest metal for
standard. That Austria, Holland, and some other countries
still maintain a silver standard is probably due to the great
difficulty of changing the old system. If a system of coinage
were to be newly established by any of these countries, there
is no question but that the gold standard would invariably be
adopted. It will be a wise policy for Japan, therefore, to
consider the trend of opinion in Western lands and establish
her new system in accordance with the best teachings of
modern times. It may be that for the time being, on account
of the possible great loss to the country from the too sudden
adoption of the gold standard, a silver standard may have to
be maintained. Otherwise there is no question that gold is the
best metal for the standard of value. If the gold standard is
introduced, silver may be fitly coined for a subsidiary medium
of exchange, putting a limit to its legal tender amount. It may
be as well to establish our system on this basis, making silver
provisionally the standard, strictly keeping in view, however,
the time when gold will be made to supersede silver as the
standard of our system of coinage.
The foregoing memorandum was chiefly instrumental in effecting a change
in the coinage policy of the country,—it bore a postscript to the effect
that the contents thereof had been penned in haste, but that the main
points which Ito wished to emphasise were:—
I. The necessity of slightly reducing the weight of the unit of
value of the silver coinage; and
II. To determine the weight of the gold coin according to the
metric system.
And it concluded:—
“Written in America on the 29th day of December 1870.”
(Signed) HIROBUMI.
The Government decided to adopt at once the gold standard, and issued the
new coinage regulation on the 10th of May 1871. The various measures
then taken, and supported at subsequent dates by the administration,
proved unavailing, however, to maintain gold monometallism in healthy
growth at that period. The issuing of a large amount of inconvertible
paper money drove specie, especially the gold coins, out of the country.
This and the smallness of the natural output of gold in Japan compelled
the Government to have recourse to gold and silver bimetallism in 1878,
as being more conducive to the national prosperity at that time.
From this time onward Ito’s rise to power was singularly rapid, he was
in truth the man of the hour, the chosen counsellor of the youthful
sovereign, the hope of a nation which had at the moment but a faint
impression, if any at all, of the part that it would be called on to
play in the not distant future, and was as yet merely groping towards
the light. The finances of the revivified country needed exceptional
ability for their reorganisation, for there were still in operation in
the provinces the primitive arrangements for the introduction of which
the at times urgent necessities of the feudal lords was often directly
responsible, and which it was absolutely essential should be replaced by
methods more substantial if local credit were to be maintained,—there
were the inevitable heavy expenditures incidental to the adoption of
a new system of administration,— a less cumbrous coinage was greatly
wanted,—and a workable plan of taxation whereby to support the reformed
Government of the country was above everything essential. These were
among the matters that pressed for the attention of the department which
Ito was called on virtually to control.
Only a few months had elapsed when his services were demanded in a
different capacity, but one that afforded still greater opportunities
for the display of his talents, for he was chosen by the Emperor to take
a most active part in the mission which it was resolved should visit
America and Europe, there to gather information on matters of vital
importance to the nation, and in December of the year 1871 the party,
headed by Prince Iwakura, started from Yokohama in a Pacific mail steamer
for San Francisco. Although it was not absolutely the first time that
Japan had sent her messengers abroad, for two of the feudal barons with
their secretaries had been to Europe on a short visit in the early
sixties, the mission of Prince Iwakura, following immediately as it did
the assumption by the real monarch of all the duties appertaining to his
imperial station, bore a special and striking significance. The departure
of the vessel from the bay of Tokio was watched by many thousands of
people, and the event was acknowledged on all sides to be full of happy
augury for Japan.
In California the mission was very cordially welcomed, and in an eloquent
speech delivered at the Lick House, San Francisco, in January 1872,
shortly after landing, Ito set forth the objects of the mission. Without
reproducing the whole oration, it may suffice to give here some of its
salient features, but the occasion was a memorable one, since it could
but be regarded as the first time that the empire, newly emancipated
from the thraldom of an intensely rigid feudalism, had declared itself
through the mouth of an accredited representative. The speaker began by
remarking that: “This is perhaps a fitting opportunity to give a brief
and reliable outline of many improvements introduced into Japan. Few but
native Japanese have any correct knowledge of our country’s internal
condition.... Our mission, under special instructions from His Majesty
the Emperor, while seeking to protect the rights and interests of our
respective nations, will seek to unite them more closely in the future,
convinced that we shall appreciate each other more when we know each
other better.... To-day it is the earnest wish of both our Government
and people to strive for the highest points of civilisation enjoyed
by more enlightened countries. Looking to this end we have adopted
their Military, Naval, Scientific, and Educational Institutions, and
knowledge has flowed to us freely in the wake of foreign commerce.
Although our improvement has been rapid in material civilisation, the
mental improvement of our people has been far greater.... While held in
absolute obedience by despotic Sovereigns through many thousand years,
our people knew no freedom nor liberty of thought. With our material
improvement they learned to understand their rightful privileges, which
for ages had been denied them. Civil war was but a temporary result....
Our _daimios_ magnanimously surrendered their principalities, and their
voluntary action was accepted by a general Government. Within a year a
feudal system firmly established many centuries ago has been completely
abolished. What country in the middle ages broke down its feudal system
without war?
“By educating our women we hope to ensure greater intelligence in future
generations ... our maidens have already commenced their education. Japan
cannot claim originality as yet, but will aim to exercise practical
wisdom by adopting the advantages, and avoiding the errors, taught her
by the history of those enlightened nations whose experience is their
teacher. A year ago, I examined minutely the financial system of the
United States, and every detail was reported to my Government. The
suggestions then made have been adopted and some of them are already in
practical operation.
“In the department of Public Works, now under my administration, the
progress has been satisfactory. Railroads are being built, both in
the eastern and western portions of the Empire. Telegraph wires are
stretching over many hundred miles of our territory, and nearly one
thousand miles will be completed within a few months. Lighthouses now
line our coasts, and our shipyards are active. All these assist our
civilisation, and we fully acknowledge our indebtedness to foreign
nations.
“As ambassadors, and as men, our hope is to return from this mission
laden with results valuable to our country and calculated to advance
permanently her material and intellectual condition. While bound to
protect the rights and privileges of our people, we aim to increase our
commerce, and by a corresponding increase of our productions, hope to
create a healthy basis for their greater activity.
“Time, so burdened with precious opportunities, we can ill afford to
waste. Japan is anxious to press forward. The red disc in the centre of
our national flag shall no longer appear like a wafer over a sealed
empire, but henceforth be in fact, what it is designed to be, the noble
emblem of the rising sun, symbolical of the awakening of Japan, and her
wish to be found ever moving onward and upward amid the enlightened
nations of the world.”
The Iwakura Mission proved in every sense save one an immense success.
One of the Secretaries was Mr Tadasu Hayashi, who subsequently in the
diplomatic service of his country was accredited to the various capitals
and won distinction in all, ultimately to represent Japan, as Viscount
Hayashi, at the Court of St James. In the United States Prince Iwakura
and his party everywhere were received with genuine enthusiasm, as giving
by their visit substantial proof of the desire of Japan to enter at no
distant date the comity of nations, and of the close neighbourship that
exists between the two countries, their shores washed by the waves of the
broad Pacific Ocean. As Prince Iwakura was the head of the Mission, the
actual details of the journey will be found recorded in the pages of this
volume devoted to a brief review of his share in the making of Modern
Japan, and it may suffice here to mention that all returned to Yokohama
in January 1873 and that the construction of a Cabinet on Occidental
lines was there and then proceeded with.
In describing the mission as having been successful in every sense
but one, it becomes necessary to explain that undoubtedly among its
members the hope had been cherished that the treaties made twenty years
before with the West might, now that Japan had given earnest of her
intentions to justify to the uttermost extent her inclusion in the ranks
of civilised powers, be revised on a basis of equality, or might at all
events be modified in a way to remove from the minds of the Japanese
people the impression that the bargains made as exemplified in the
earliest agreements with foreign powers were somewhat one-sided. But as
yet the powers of the western world were insufficiently cognisant of the
scope and sincerity of Japan’s legitimate ambitions to comprehend that
her claim to complete equality of treatment could with perfect propriety
and security be admitted. The ambassadors accepted the situation with
the utmost composure, and proceeded to store their minds with all the
information that might serve to fit them for the administration of their
country’s affairs on Occidental lines modified to meet its own peculiar
needs. Among the first results of the mission were the adoption of the
Gregorian calendar, which came into operation with the year 1873, and
the removal of all the anti-Christian edicts from the Statute Book. A
notable event, moreover, was the reception, some time later in the year,
of a number of foreign ladies by the young Empress of Japan, then in her
twenty-second year. The members of the Iwakura mission were particularly
impressed with the advisability of introducing the system of prefectural
assemblies, the working of which they had had opportunities of studying
in Europe, and these initial steps in local self-government, it was
ultimately ordained by the Emperor, should be inaugurated in 1879.
It had always been the custom in Japan for a man to have two personal
names, one being for everyday use, so to speak, and the other one that
by which he desired to be known to posterity, and to be employed by his
historian, should he ever attain distinction. The Government, in order
to abolish this cumbrous system, ordered people to choose a single name,
for permanent use, and to make their selection forthwith, and it was in
obedience to this decree that Ito chose for himself the name of Hirobumi,
instead of Shunsuke, as that by which, in preference, he would for the
future be known. In Japan the surname usually precedes the personal
name, though of late years the compliment has been often paid to Europe
of adopting its method in this respect, and the Marquis writes his name
in Roman letters as “Hirobumi Ito,” rather than “Ito Hirobumi,” the
form that he would adopt if using a Japanese pen. Ito Hirobumi became
Minister of Public Works in the Cabinet of 1873, his friend Inouye Bunda,
as he was then, holding the portfolio of Minister of Finance. It was as
Minister of Public Works that the remarkable administrative skill of the
future Premier was first manifested. Those who, like the writer, were
privileged to serve Japan in those days in the department over which he
presided will retain vivid impressions of the quick, keen perception that
he manifested in everything appertaining to engineering and the rapidity
with which he mastered all the details connected with the building of
railways, with mining and telegraphs, and with every branch of the huge
undertaking then comprised under the head of public works to be carried
on by the newly formed Government.
Lighthouses on the Western system had been begun as early as 1870, and a
short experimental line of telegraph had been constructed from Yedo to
Yokohama in the same year, followed by one joining Osaka with Kobé. And
in the ensuing year, prior to the departure of the Iwakura Mission, the
postal system had been inaugurated on an American model, and from Hong
Kong the entire machinery of a mint had been procured, it having been
available for purchase in consequence of the British Government having
determined to cease coining in the Colony. Docks were being established
in Japan, and newspapers were beginning to make their appearance.
Into the whole of these varied fields of enterprise, as Minister of
Public Works, Ito Hirobumi now threw his entire energies, with the best
possible results, and Japan soon had her own printing establishment
(the In-satsu-kiyoku) for the execution of Government work, her own
Official Gazette for the promulgation of orders and regulations, her own
specially designed coinage, her own State-maintained line of railroad,
her own telegraphs to every part with submarine cables connecting the
larger islands one to another. In his capacity of Minister the practical
knowledge that he had acquired in Europe served the rising statesman
in excellent stead, and he was able personally to concern himself with
every branch of the important department over which he presided. At
that time the number of his countrymen who might lay claim to share
his intimate acquaintance with these matters was small indeed. During
his stay in Great Britain in the year 1872 arrangements were made for
the inauguration of a College of Engineering at Tokio, and a brilliant
staff of Professors, headed by Mr Henry Dyer, was shortly afterwards
engaged to fill the chairs of Mining and Metallurgy, Geology, Mechanical,
Railway, and Electrical Engineering, Architecture, Chemistry, etc., and
some hundreds of cadets commenced a six years’ course to fit them for the
duties of carrying on the multifarious undertakings on which it had been
decided to embark.
The next few years of Marquis Ito’s strenuous life were spent in active
preparation for the still more onerous duties that were to fall to his
lot when Japan should be in a position to take her place as one of the
leading nations of the earth, by right of her advancement in all the arts
and sciences that tend to make a people great and powerful. He continued
to avail himself of every opportunity of enlarging the field of his own
knowledge and experience, making an especial study of the Constitutions
of the several European States. For a time he was Minister of the
Interior, having been succeeded at the department of Public Works by his
friend and fellow-clansman, Inouye Kaoru.
Although he has four times been Prime Minister in the years which have
elapsed, the fame of the Marquis Ito will for ever rest on the invaluable
work he accomplished for Japan in the framing of a constitution, based to
a certain extent on his researches into European history and contemporary
politics, but modified to suit the requirements of an Oriental country,
deeply immersed in the traditions of autocratic rule, and wedded to
a feudal system of which lingering traces yet remained to enter at
times into conflict with the principles of representative government
and limited monarchy. The years devoted to the task of evolving a
constitution that should suffice for the nation’s needs and be acceptable
to the ruler who had pledged himself to bestow this inestimable boon on
his subjects, an act of spontaneous generosity in the sovereign for which
his people have never ceased to record their gratitude, were years to
which the Marquis looks back with infinite pride and pleasure. It was
not until 1881 that the Emperor announced his intention of fulfilling
the promise conveyed in his coronation oath, the details of which have
already been given in referring to his Majesty’s personal share in the
making of modern Japan, and the eight following years were more or less
consumed in deliberations, but at last, on the 11th of February (the
anniversary of the ascension of the throne of Japan by Jimmu Tenno, the
first Emperor and direct ancestor of the present occupant), in the year
1889, was solemnly proclaimed the Constitution of which the subjoined is
a digest, as translated into English.
The Emperor is the repository of the supreme power inherited from the
glorious spirits of the Imperial Founder of his House, and of a line of
Imperial ancestors, and it is by virtue of that inherited power that he
promulgates (11th February 1889), the immutable fundamental law of the
Constitution. The person of the Emperor is sacred and inviolable. It is
with the consent of the Imperial Parliament or Diet that he exercises
the legislative power, sanctioning and promulgating laws, and when the
Diet is not sitting he issues ordinances with the force of laws, to be
confirmed at the next session. He convokes and prorogues the Diet and
dissolves the Lower House. He appoints and dismisses all officials, civil
and military,—he has absolute command of the army and navy,—he declares
war, makes peace, and concludes treaties,—he may declare a state of
siege,—and he confers titles of nobility and other marks of honour. The
rights of the monarch being thus defined, we come to the rights of the
subject. “No Japanese subject shall be arrested, detained, tried, or
punished, unless according to law. The rights of property, conditionally
on the payment of taxes, are to be inviolable. Liberty of speech and of
publication, of public meeting and association, and of petition, so long
as the limits of the law are not transgressed, are fully secured.” In the
same way religion, “within limits not prejudicial to peace and order,” is
free.
The Imperial Diet comprises a House of Peers and a House of
Representatives. In the first are five classes,—(_a_) Members of the
Imperial Family, (_b_) Princes and Marquises, (_c_) Counts, Viscounts,
and Barons, elected as representatives of the several orders, the
representatives of each order not exceeding one-fifth of that order,
(_d_) persons nominated, for life, by the Emperor on account of
meritorious service to the State, or of erudition, (_e_) persons elected
for seven years by and from the fifteen highest tax-payers in each city
and prefecture, and subsequently nominated by the Emperor. The number
of members from the last two classes is not to exceed the number of
representatives of the hereditary nobility.
The foregoing are some of the salient features of a Constitution that is
the pride and glory of the Japanese nation, but there are others of not
less importance, perhaps, in their influence on the future of the nation
and which appeal to its sense of order with the more force, it may be
believed, in that the enactments so promulgated have not merely all the
weight of actual law but form integral parts of the Constitution. They
provide for certain fixed expenditures based on the powers appertaining
to the Emperor, and are opposed to the rejection or reduction by the Diet
without the consent of the Government of such expenditures as may have
arisen by the effect of law or that appertain to the legal obligations of
the Government. The expenses of the Imperial Household, though defrayed
out of the Treasury funds, require no consent of the Diet unless an
increase is contemplated. Another significant provision is that when the
Diet cannot be convoked, owing to the external or internal condition of
the country, in case of urgent need for the maintenance of public safety,
the Government may take all necessary financial measures by means of an
Imperial ordinance. A still more important clause is to the effect that
when the Diet has not voted on the budget, or when the budget has not
been brought into actual existence, the government shall carry out the
budget of the previous year. It has been found needful on more than one
occasion since the year 1890 to take advantage, owing to the tactics
of a factious parliamentary majority adverse to the Cabinet, of these
provisions. The Cabinet being directly responsible to the Emperor, the
opposition in the Diet has been powerless to prevent the policy of the
Government being carried out,—on the other hand, the statesmen on whose
shoulders has rested from time to time the weight of public affairs have
been called upon to sustain a heavier burden than would have fallen
to their lot had they been armed with fewer powers. That the nation’s
business has been conducted on the whole with undeniable prudence and
success is due to the personal characteristics, in great measure, of the
surviving Makers of Modern Japan.
[Illustration: JAPANESE SCHOOL AT SEOUL]
To return to the transition period, prior to the promulgation of the
Constitution in the preparation of which the subject of this sketch had
so conspicuous a share.