At the head of this partnership were the clan leaders, and a few
representatives of the old court nobility. The clan bureaucrats, as
they came to be called, held the influential posts in the new Imperial
government. To a large extent, their dictatorial powers carried on
the old feudal tradition. Many of them were civilians, but they also
controlled the army (Choshu) and the navy (Satsuma). The business
people, on the other hand, especially in the beginning, were definitely
in a subordinate position. It was the government which controlled most
of the early industrial enterprises, as we have seen. Not until much
later, after the World War of 1914-18, did trade and industry reach a
size which enabled the capitalists to make themselves felt politically.
It was the existence of the “upper crust” and the inferior status of
business that largely determined the character of the new political
institutions established during the Meiji era. They were designed,
it is true, to serve the purposes of the whole combination of ruling
groups. But at the same time the clan bureaucrats took good care to set
up the machinery they needed to perpetuate their own supremacy.