But changes in agriculture, as we have seen, did help to make possible
the growth of a modern Japanese industry. Peasants who lost their
lands, or artisans thrown out of work, became available as factory
workers. Here was industry’s labor force.
Many other changes helped industry along. Foreign trade, long
prohibited, had begun to grow rapidly in the ’sixties. Clan barriers
to internal trade were leveled. Hundreds of different kinds of money,
issued by the various clans, had circulated. These were now abolished,
and a single national currency instituted. Railways were built, and
telephone and telegraph systems laid down. These improvements made a
freer sale and exchange of goods throughout the country possible. Thus
a home market--even if a very limited one--was established.
For the introduction of modern, large-scale industry, however, two
further things were needed--technique and capital. Foreign experts,
acting both as direct advisers in industry and as instructors in the
new technical schools, provided the first of these requirements.
The second was harder to fill. The banking-trader houses and the
pensioned-off lords had some capital. But it was not enough to finance
the big factory projects, especially where quick profits seemed
unlikely. So the Imperial government had to step in and supply the
capital in most of the larger enterprises. It paid special attention to
the armament industries--mining, metallurgy, shipbuilding.