Simon J Bytheway | Nihon University (original) (raw)

Papers by Simon J Bytheway

Shashi, Jan 3, 2014

There are many reasons why historians, social scientists, and Japanologists would benefit from ac... more There are many reasons why historians, social scientists, and Japanologists would benefit from acquainting themselves with the Mitsui Collection. As an aspiring financial historian, I, for one, wanted to see what I could learn about Mitsui's role in the establishment of the early Meiji state. Mitsui is rumored to have borrowed heavily from the Tokugawa bakufu, or shogunate, to then on-lend to the rebellious forces of Chōshū and Satsuma,, presumably jostling to take the position as the new regime's premier merchant/bankers. Certainly, in the months and years that followed the "restoration" of the Meiji Emperor, petitions from the Japan's leading financial houses, namely Mitsui, Ono, and Shimada, were instrumental in driving Japan's new Minister of Finance, Inoue Kaoru, to introduce a national banking system based upon the American model. Having very close connections with the Mitsui house Inoue Kaoru gave Mitsui the great privilege of establishing Japan's first modern, Western-style bank, but insisted they work together with the Ono house. Threatened with the loss of government business, Mitsui and Ono jointly subscribed to then form the First National Bank in June 1873. On receipt of its charter, the First National Bank (a "predecessor" to the Mitsui Bank) was by far the most important bank for many years and was, in fact, the first joint-stock company to be formed in Japan. Naturally, the significance of Mitsui in Japanese banking, and their intrigues, hardly stops there. Just a few years later, for example, the Ono and other financial groups were suddenly bankrupted in mysterious circumstances by new legislation, leaving Mitsui pre-eminent in Japanese finance. So that was my personal starting point of interest, but there are surely many more reasons why researchers or scholars one might want to dip, or dig, into the Mitsui collection. And what a collection it is, containing over 64,000 volumes of books and journals-33,000 of which are Japanese imprints, with 11,000 works in Western languages, and 20,000 journals in Japanese and a variety of Western languages. Most of the Japanese language books were published in the years of Japan's long, postwar , economic boom (1952-1990), but a significant proportion of works (almost a fifth) date from before the end of World War II. The Japanese language books fall into wide variety of categories: economic history, economic theory, economic policy, international economics, money and finance, fiscal policy, industry, management, labor and social problems, statistical yearbooks, company and local histories, and biographies. In economic history alone, the collection contains over 2,187 volumes. A particular strength of the collection being the large number (some 2,276) of Japanese corporate histories (shashi) held: a testament to the centrality of Mitsui Bank's position in Japanese business and finance. Not unsurprisingly the English language books cover similar subjects, with a strong interest exhibited in biographies and corporate histories, but classic works on the history of countries other than Japan, especially Great Britain, Germany, Russia, and the United States, also abound. Finally, I might add that specialists, such as numismatists and diplomatic historians, are also likely to find invaluable works that are rare, and almost inaccessible outside Japan, in the present-day Mitsui collection.

Cornell University Press eBooks, Nov 16, 2016

This introductory chapter provides a background of central banks. A century ago, when the Federal... more This introductory chapter provides a background of central banks. A century ago, when the Federal Reserve System was first established in the United States, central banks based their own creation of money and credit on their holdings of gold. These two institutional practices—central banking, and the use of gold as monetary reserves—were the bases of the world's first truly globalized credit system. This global system was originally centered in London, with the Bank of England at the center of the center. Today, the actions of central banks continue to move economies, perhaps even more than they did a century ago. Gold-backed currencies are a thing of the past, but central banks nonetheless remain the biggest owners of gold, while gold markets seem to have an ongoing monetary significance.

In recent decades, Tokyo, London, and New York have been the sites of credit bubbles of historica... more In recent decades, Tokyo, London, and New York have been the sites of credit bubbles of historically unprecedented magnitude. Central bankers have enjoyed almost unparalleled power and autonomy. They have cooperated to construct and preserve towering structures of debt, reshaping relations of power and ownership around the world. This book explores how this financialized form of globalism took shape a century ago, when Tokyo joined London and New York as a major financial center. This book shows that close cooperation between central banks began along an unexpected axis, between London and Tokyo, around the year 1900, with the Bank of England's secret use of large Bank of Japan funds to intervene in the London markets. Central-bank cooperation became multilateral during World War I—the moment when Japan first emerged as a creditor country. In 1919 and 1920, as Japan, Great Britain, and the United States adopted deflation policies, the results of cooperation were realized in the world's first globally coordinated program of monetary policy. It was also in 1920 that Wall Street bankers moved to establish closer ties with Tokyo. The text tells the story of how the first age of central-bank power and pride ended in the disaster of the Great Depression, when a rush for gold brought the system crashing down. In all of this, we see also the quiet but surprisingly central place of Japan. We see it again today, in the way that Japan has unwillingly led the world into a new age of post-bubble economics.

Amsterdam University Press eBooks, Jul 15, 2023

Monumenta Nipponica, 2016

and global cities. Reiff has also made sure to address how people, namely workers, powered Chicag... more and global cities. Reiff has also made sure to address how people, namely workers, powered Chicago's economy, a topic that animates the final section of the book. Here we see the imprint of Chicago's working class-and labor history-that have been so important to the city's story. Still, while this section is filled with information about retail workers, steelworkers, and unions, it has relatively little to say about whitecollar work-that is, accountants, lawyers, chemists, and so forth. This is a surprising omission, given the book's focus on business and commerce and Chicago's famed entrepreneurial spirit. However, this shortcoming may come from the organization of the book's parent volume. And it does not significantly diminish Chicago Business and Industry's value as a guide to the city's economic development.

Monumenta Nipponica, 2006

Journal of World History, 2016

Great Power gunboat diplomacy brought a host of problems to Japan’s shores. The initial Kanagawa ... more Great Power gunboat diplomacy brought a host of problems to Japan’s shores. The initial Kanagawa Treaty of 1854 was innocuous enough, merely allowing foreign ships to call at specified ports for supplies, but the commercial treaties hammered out by Townsend Harris and employed by other Western nations were another matter. These “unequal” treaties created disputes over property, jurisdictions, trade methods, and more than anything else, money. Indeed, financial conflict was to be a defining feature of Japan’s forced opening (kaikoku). In the historical narrative of early modern Japan, these conflicts have often been condensed into a single event: the Yokohama Gold Rush. The gold rush has been portrayed as the exploitation of a small, peace-loving Asian nation by the rapacious, imperialist West. A more nuanced, global look, however, tells a different story, a story of calculated arbitrage, inter-related exchange, diplomatic failure, and hyperinflation, which culminates in revolution and regime change.

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History, Jan 31, 2023

Springer eBooks, 2018

As the 150th anniversary of the opening of Japan’s treaty ports is celebrated by its citizens, it... more As the 150th anniversary of the opening of Japan’s treaty ports is celebrated by its citizens, it is appropriate that we also acknowledge the important contribution made by the treaty ports to Japan’s economic development and, more broadly, modernisation. My research aims to uncover the agents and mechanisms, individual and institutional, involved in the transmission of ideas and technology between the newly opened Japan and the industrialised West. In the following study, I would particularly like to discuss some of the most significant images and visual constructs of the treaty ports—the woodblock prints of Yokohama (Yokohama-e)—with their remarkable detail of unprecedented interactions and cooperation, and introduce the concept of wakon yōsai, which is central to understanding Japan’s historic modernisation.

Business History Review, 2015

Investing Japan" demonstrates that foreign investment is a vital and misunderstood aspect of... more Investing Japan" demonstrates that foreign investment is a vital and misunderstood aspect of Japan s modern economic development. The drive to become a modern industrial power from the 1860s to the 1930s necessitated the adoption and internalization of foreign knowledge. This goal could only be achieved by working within the overarching financial and technological frameworks of Western capitalism. Foreign borrowing, supported by the gold standard, was the crux of Japan s pre-war capital formation. It simultaneously financed domestic industrial development, the conduct of war, and territorial expansion on the Asian continent. Foreign borrowing also financed the establishment of infrastructure in Japan s largest cities, the nationalization of railways, the interlinked capital-raising programs of special banks and parastatal companies, and the rapid electrification of Japanese industry in the 1920s.Simon James Bytheway investigates the role played by foreign companies in the Japanese experience of modernization while highlighting their identity as key agents in the processes of industrialization and technology transfer. Investing Japan" delivers a complex, multifaceted analysis, intersecting with the histories of formal and informal economic imperialism, diplomacy, war financing, domestic and international financial markets, parastatal and multinational enterprise, and Japan s internationalization vis-a-vis the emerging global market."

Central Banks and Gold, 2017

This chapter focuses on the alignment of Japanese, American, and British central bank policies af... more This chapter focuses on the alignment of Japanese, American, and British central bank policies after the First World War. The gold convertibility of national currencies had been suspended during the war. Prices in each of the three countries doubled, while the purchasing power of gold also declined substantially. The restoration of gold-based monetary systems now seemed to demand deflation and austerity. The “restoration” period that began in 1919 signified the beginning of a historic increase in the purchasing power of gold. Ultimately, during the 1930s, the purchasing power of gold would reach the highest levels since the sixteenth century. Deflation and austerity were thus integral to the program of central bank cooperation, which people understand as the world's first internationally coordinated monetary policy.

Cornell University Press eBooks, Nov 16, 2016

This chapter discusses the international surge of Japanese credit creation during the war, when J... more This chapter discusses the international surge of Japanese credit creation during the war, when Japan emerged, briefly and “prematurely,” as one of the world's top three creditor countries. Tokyo financial groups lent to Britain and France, as well as to Russia and China. Simultaneously, Japanese central bankers began to build the institutional infrastructure of an international credit center. This initiative was relatively unsuccessful. It did, however, herald the beginning of a structural shift. The chapter also looks at two parastatal banks—the Yokohama Specie Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan—which functioned as a designated foreign exchange bank and a long-term industrial-investment bank, and their key roles in the administration of Japan's capital imports and exports. They were established to realize national policy goals, to mobilize domestic funds, and to build Japan's standing in international finance.

Cornell University Press eBooks, Nov 16, 2016

This concluding chapter examines the hierarchical nature of the markets in capital, which constit... more This concluding chapter examines the hierarchical nature of the markets in capital, which constitute the peak markets of the world capitalist system. It also reconsiders the central-bank connections between Tokyo, London, and New York as vital inner links within a larger set of world-city geographies. In a century of violent changes, these “capital city” geographies have been remarkably persistent. The great Tokyo bubble of 1989–90 was the greatest yet of its kind, but it now seems relatively modest next to the New York and London bubbles of 2007–8. Each of these “capital city” bubbles showed a mix of classic and novel features. Each also revealed, again, the centrality of the central banks themselves.

Shashi, Jan 3, 2014

Cornell University Press eBooks, Nov 16, 2016

Amsterdam University Press eBooks, Jul 15, 2023

Monumenta Nipponica, 2016

Monumenta Nipponica, 2006

Journal of World History, 2016

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History, Jan 31, 2023

Springer eBooks, 2018

Business History Review, 2015

Central Banks and Gold, 2017

Cornell University Press eBooks, Nov 16, 2016

Bytheway and Metzler, Central Banks and Gold (Cornell University Press)

This book presents a series of close-up historical views of national money- creation systems and ... more This book presents a series of close-up historical views of national money- creation systems and their interconnections. We concentrate on the trilateral between Tokyo, London, and New York. Early in the twentieth century, the connection between London and New York emerged as the main axis of global financial governance. We add to this a view of the little-known Tokyo–London and Tokyo–New York sides of the trilateral, illuminating hitherto invisible aspects of the entire international structure. [Ebook version available at Project Muse.]

本書では、日本における金融と政治がかかわる歴史の枠組みのなかで、安政5（1858）年における世界各国との外交関係の樹立以降、昭和14（1939）年における外国資本との関係の終結にいたるまで、何... more 本書では、日本における金融と政治がかかわる歴史の枠組みのなかで、安政5（1858）年における世界各国との外交関係の樹立以降、昭和14（1939）年における外国資本との関係の終結にいたるまで、何回にもわたって行なわれた金融および貨幣制度の改革の意味するところを考え、その過程においてみられた日本における外国資本の導入と、それが日本資本主義の発展に果たした役割の考察を進めて行くこととした。

Investing Japan demonstrates that foreign investment is a vital and misunderstood aspect of Japan... more Investing Japan demonstrates that foreign investment is a vital and misunderstood aspect of Japan’s modern economic development. The drive to become a modern industrial power from the 1860s to the 1930s necessitated the adoption and internalization of foreign knowledge, and could only be achieved by working within the over-arching financial and technological frameworks of Western capitalism. Foreign borrowing, underlain by the gold standard, was nothing less than the crux of Japan’s pre-war capital formation: it simultaneously financed domestic industrial development, conduct of war, and territorial expansion on the Asian continent. Foreign borrowing also financed the establishment of infrastructure in Japan’s largest cities, the nationalization of railways, the inter-linked capital-raising programs of “special banks” and parastatal companies, and the rapid electrification of the Japanese economy in the 1920s.
Investigating the role played by foreign companies in the Japanese experience of modernization, while highlighting their identity as key agents in the processes of industrialization and technology transfer, Investing Japan delivers a complex, multifaceted analysis, intersecting with the histories of formal and informal economic imperialism, diplomacy and war-financing, domestic and international financial markets, parastatal and multinational enterprise, and Japan’s “internationalization” vis-a-vis the emerging global market (globalization).

_Central Banks and Gold: How Tokyo, London, and New York Shaped the Modern World_ (Cornell Univer... more _Central Banks and Gold: How Tokyo, London, and New York Shaped the Modern World_ (Cornell University Press, 2016).