The clan bureaucrats in the government nursed the construction of this
new industrial plant with extreme care and pride. Many of them fell in
love with machinery and engineering technique. They worked closely with
the great business houses, grafting industry on to firms that had been
mainly concerned with trade or banking. The budding capitalists were
not financially strong enough to develop industry by themselves. So the
clan statesmen took them into partnership. It was the clan statesmen,
however, who headed the combination--an important factor in Japan’s
political growth, then and later.
But the clansmen did not wish to keep all industry under government
control. They only wanted to see that it developed quickly. Then
the businessmen could handle it, or at least all but the strategic
industries. The government kept control of railways, telephones,
telegraphs, arsenals and naval shipyards. But in the case of many other
industries, it supplied the capital and started their development,
then turned them back to the great business houses, often at very low
prices. In this way the capitalists were spoon-fed by the government.
Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo and other houses obtained ready-made
facilities in many fields--cotton-spinning mills, glass and cement
factories, mining enterprises, shipyards. The giant Mitsubishi monopoly
in commercial shipping, for example, got its start through the gift and
cheap purchase of government vessels.
By 1890 some 200 steam factories were in operation in Japan. The
development of a machine industry was making good headway.