The widely circulated saying that "all the compensation for the Sino-Japanese War was used for education" is far from the true proportion in the rumors.
1899, the Japanese government enacted the special accounting law for education funds and the examination funds law, and used100000 yen and its interest in the Sino-Japanese War reparations as subsidies for the development of general education. Compared with the compensation of nearly 400 million yen in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, this fund only accounts for about one fortieth, almost nine Niu Yi cents.
However, even if it is only 1 00000 yen, it is equivalent to the tax paid by 700000 Japanese voters1year, which still plays an important role in promoting Japanese education. For example, in the annual budget of 1 0,900, the Japanese government allocated 500,000 yen from the education fund for the equipment expenses and educational incentive expenses of small villages in towns and villages, and in the same year, the 14 Congress passed the Law on State Treasury Subsidies for Primary Education Expenses in Cities, Towns and Villages, with a total budget of 1 0,000 million yen. In this way, the problem of education funds that has not been solved for many years has finally begun to be implemented.
In fact, it was during the period after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 that modern education in Japan began to advance by leaps and bounds. From 1896 to 1900, Japan established Kyoto Imperial University, expanded the Tokyo Library, and established the second higher normal school, the second higher school, the higher industrial school and the higher agricultural school.
Judging from the enrollment rate of school-age children, this figure ranges from 58. 7% before the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and 64.2% after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, when 1900 was revised, it increased sharply to 8 1.5%, reaching 19 12. Secondary and higher education, especially vocational education, has also developed rapidly. By the Taisho era, Japan was completely called an "educational power" commensurate with an economic power.
With the vigorous promotion of the government, the Japanese people's awareness of teaching has been greatly improved. "At that time, the whole country in Japan believed that the victory of the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War was the result of education." Even a hundred years after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, there are still Japanese people who believe that "Emperor Meiji ordered all reparations to be used for education." Although it is a rumor, it can be seen from one side that the Japanese attach importance to education.
Japan's Statistics on the Use of Indemnities between China and Japan
1On March 4th, 896, the Japanese government promulgated the Special Accounting Law for Indemnities in order to manage the war reparations of the Qing Dynasty and the indemnities of the Liao Dynasty. By the end of 1902, the total income of this fund was 3645 10000 yen; Including war reparations of 3110.07 million yuan (85.3%), a ransom of 449 1 10,000 yen (12.3%) was obtained from the redemption of Liaodong Peninsula by the Qing government, and a profit of 8.53 million yen (2.4%) was made from the reparations. At the same time, the total expenditure of this sum is 360,865,438+0,000 yen. The balance is 3.7 million yen.
Expenditures include: the war expenses of the Japanese-Qing War (recorded in the special temporary military expenses) were 78.96 million yen, 26.5438+0.9%, which was expanded from the military expenses of 226.06 million yen, 62.6% (the army expenses were 56.8 million yen, the navy expenses were-0.3926 million yen, and the supplementary funds for warships and torpedo boats were 38.6%. Other 65,438+05.5% (0.2% for steel plant construction, 0.9% for transportation and communication expenses of 3,265,438+00,000 yen, 3.3% for operating expenses of Taiwan Province Province, 20,000,000 yen for Royal Fund, 5.5% for disaster prevention fund.
To sum up, 84.5% of the Qing Dynasty war reparations and other funds totaled 305.02 million yen for war expenses and military expansion expenses.
Judging from this statistic, Japan did spend most of its reparations on armament expansion. So does this mean that Sino-Japanese ore blending has not played any role in Japan's development and take-off? In fact, Japan has detailed plans and clear steps for the use of this compensation.
Japan's plan for the use of reparations in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895: Focusing on the parallel development of military economy.
1August, 895 15, Tibetan Prime Minister Matsuzawa submitted a proposal on the financial future plan to the Cabinet. This document is a programmatic document of "post-war management" and was sent to the National Assembly for discussion after being decided by the Cabinet. Finally, the "landmark annual budget of about 200 million yuan" proposed in this document was passed in the Imperial Parliament. According to this budget, "the government has formulated the so-called" post-war operations "plan, focusing on expanding the army, seeking" the development of persuasion, education and financial institutions, and the progress of transportation ",and at the same time focusing on public investment, greatly increasing financial expenditure."
The actual drafter and drafter of the Proposal on Financial Future, Sakaguchi Yoshiro, the chief recorder of the Ministry of Finance, holds the theory of "parallel development of military economy" in this plan.
The first is to vigorously expand armaments. "Specifically, the focus is on the big expansion of armaments." He proposed to allocate 65.438+0.8 billion yuan from the compensation of 355.98 million yen in the Qing Dynasty for the navy to acquire 200,000 tons of warships. Used by the army for battery construction and weapon improvement; And double the number of standing troops.
In addition, as a "temporary grand plan", he also "proposed" to allocate 5 million yuan from the compensation for the establishment of the iron works in the Qing Dynasty. In addition, for railways and telecommunications that can make profits, he proposed to raise funds by issuing bonds, with an annual ceiling of 6,543,800 yuan to expand and improve them.
In practice, 20% of the total income of 500 million yuan per year is the army expansion fee, which increases the army from 6 divisions to 12 divisions; 42% is the naval expansion fee, increasing the tonnage of naval vessels from 50 thousand tons to 250 thousand tons.
When expanding armaments, we should try our best to achieve self-sufficiency in weapons and warships, self-sufficiency in steel, which is closely related to it, and strengthen railway construction. Sakaguchi Yoshiro's "Proposal" clearly shows this understanding. According to the Proposal, the Meiji government formulated the Plan for the Establishment of Government-run Iron Works. The most typical representative enterprise founded in that year was Bapan Iron Works, 1897, which started construction and obtained raw materials from domestic Daye mines.
At the same time, the army has made plans for the expansion of state-owned railways for military purposes. 1906, Japan nationalized its railways. From the standpoint of the expansion plan, the navy actively promoted the navigation award law and shipbuilding award law promulgated by 1896. At the same time, telecommunications have also been improved. The expansion of armaments makes the construction cost of related industries increase rapidly.
On the other hand, another focus of the "theory of parallel development of military economy" put forward by Yoshiro Sakaguchi is "the method of strengthening national strength that is suitable for the increase of national expenditure".
Sakaguchi Yoshiro pointed out that "although there are many ways to increase taxes and increase national strength, the most urgent task is to vigorously develop transportation facilities to promote the prosperity of workers, peasants and businesses, and to set up industrial banks and agricultural banks to fully moisten the financing of capital."
At the same time, he put forward specific goals: extending the official railway line; Realize the double track of the completed government-run railway; Rebuilding Tokyo Central Parking Lot; Extend the colonial railway in Hokkaido; Laying a railway line running through the north and south in Taiwan Province Province; Develop the telephone industry. In addition, Yoshiro Sakaguchi also proposed to increase administrative funds to build, build and expand the following projects: industrial school, agricultural experiment, sericulture workshop, silk inspection office, commodity display office and merchant ship school; We will reward the development of air routes and the training of seafarers, and expand telecommunications lines, ordinary postal services, consulates and so on.
He also proposed the reform and expansion of the Bank of Japan and Yokohama Zhengjinyin Bank. Improve ordinary banking business; Establish real estate banks (Bank of Ye Quan, Agricultural and Industrial Bank of Japan) and movable property banks (Industrial Bank of Japan) to restructure the financial system.
In practice, on the premise of obtaining huge war "compensation",1June, 895, the Bank of Japan announced the "policy of fully accommodating the capital necessary for production". Taking this opportunity, Japan ushered in the "second enterprise boom period" after the 1980s of 19. The following data show that the number of clubs and the amount of capital increase year by year, especially in the first year.
Moreover, despite the expansion of the financial scale and the increase of military expenditure, due to the huge compensation, although Saktani Yoshiro put forward the idea of increasing taxes, statistics show that after the Japanese-Qing War, the tax ratio of national tax and local tax decreased, that is, the tax burden of the people was relatively reduced, which stimulated foreign trade, especially import trade.
Since the implementation of the Proposal of Financial Future Plan, Japan has officially started "post-war management", and various economic indicators and industrial structure have changed significantly.
The first important role is to enable Japan to complete the implementation of the gold standard.
From the above statistics, we can know that most of the compensation for the Sino-Japanese War was used for military procurement and development. But the problem is that the money was not sent directly from the China government to the military officers of the Japanese government. During the period when China paid reparations to Japan and covered up that reparations were used to pay military orders, this huge sum of money also played another very important role-that is, it served as a reserve for implementing the gold standard.
The gold standard system has played a great role in stabilizing prices, facilitating currency circulation and promoting domestic and foreign trade. After 1970s, capitalist countries in Europe and America rushed to implement this system. This can be said to be an important symbol of capitalist economic modernization.
Japan set up a currency investigation meeting in June 1893 to study and discuss the reform of the monetary system. Results there were serious differences among the members of the investigation Committee on whether to adopt the gold standard. According to calculations, to implement the gold standard, there must be a gold reserve of 200 million yen. Even lawmakers who advocate the gold standard are afraid of this astronomical figure. They believe that the gold standard should be implemented, but it may not be implemented immediately, and the amount of "gold preparation" should be made up.
Once the huge indemnity of 364.86 million yen arrives, the gold reserve problem will be solved in one fell swoop. The debate about the gold standard ended immediately. 1897 In March, the Japanese government promulgated the new monetary law and established the gold standard system, which came into effect on June 10 of the same year. This is a far-reaching event in Japan's modern economic history and even political history.
The implementation of the gold standard has created favorable conditions for Japan to expand its armaments and obtain foreign exchange. Munitions and military industrial production equipment are mostly purchased from the gold standard countries. When the silver standard system was implemented, Japan suffered huge losses because of the sharp drop in the exchange rate between silver and gold, but the situation changed immediately after the gold standard system was implemented. This has created favorable conditions for developing trade and introducing foreign capital. It also creates favorable conditions for the textile industry and other industrial production departments to import raw materials. For example, the import of cotton changed from China to India and the United States, and India and the United States implemented the gold standard (India had carried out currency reform before).
Most importantly, in the mid-1980s of 19, when Japan's industrial revolution was in full swing, the contradiction of capital shortage was exposed again, which became a "narrow road" restricting the further development of capitalist economy. However, after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Japanese government got rid of the above predicament again to a great extent, and launching a war of aggression abroad became a new way for the Japanese government to promote capital accumulation for the first time.
The Japanese government cut interest rates through the Bank of Japan to expand the money supply. After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, although the amount of compensation was determined, the Qing government could not pay it in one lump sum because of its limited financial resources, but paid it by stages. The Japanese government will deposit the installment payment in the bank in London as the positive currency reserve of the Japanese bank. Due to this huge positive currency reserve, the Bank of Japan has expanded the issuance of Japanese bank bonds. 1895 At the beginning of July, the director of the Bank of Japan declared at a gathering of bankers: "Even if there is a restriction of 20-30 million yen in the future, you can sit back and relax. In today's peaceful recovery, banks will issue loans to promote the prosperity of their businesses. " On July 1895, 1 1 day, the Bank of Japan lowered the wartime interest rate 2 yuan 1% to 1 yuan 9%. Then there was a downward adjustment. After the interest rate is lowered, the cost of private enterprises' loans from banks is reduced and the loan amount is increased. Lower interest rates also lead to higher stock prices, and enterprises and individuals are willing to buy stocks at higher prices. Therefore, the direct and indirect effects of interest rate cuts have stimulated private investment.
The establishment of the gold standard brought Japan's economy closer to the international market. 1898, in the name of "railway bonds and Hokkaido railway bonds", Japan issued "4-cent interest bonds" and introduced foreign capital 10 billion pounds, which was the first time that foreign capital entered the Japanese market and played a certain role in alleviating the shortage of domestic funds.
In a word, with the compensation, the gold standard system was established, which greatly improved Japan's financial environment in a short time and solved the problem of capital shortage that had been plaguing Japan's economy before.
Subsequently, there was an upsurge of investing in factories and enterprises in Japan. By 1900, about 50% of the total factories were established after the Sino-Japanese War. After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Japan's cotton textile industry has made new progress in both the number of factories and enterprises and the output of production. The number of factories has increased nearly three times compared with that before the war, and the output of products has increased nearly five times.
Japan took the opportunity to complete industrial upgrading.
On the other hand, the most important component of war reparations, "military expenditure", has been heavily invested in military production in industry. Among them, the military industry and machinery manufacturing industry have the largest investment. More than 200 million yen spent in wartime and a large amount of reparations from China after the war were used by the Japanese government to develop the military industrial sector, which led to the rapid expansion of Japan's military industry and employment population. The military industry is the main department that uses advanced power machinery. With a large amount of capital investment, these military enterprises have a large amount of funds to realize the upgrading of machinery and technological innovation, which is very important for the realization of industrialization, because the large-scale use of advanced power machinery is an important symbol of industrialization. "After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the number of factories using engines in Japan increased by five or six times compared with that before the war, and the proportion in all factories rose from 18% to 45%.
The government's investment in the military sector has also played a leading role in other industrial sectors, which has made obvious development. If the shipbuilding industry has further developed, it is closely related to the needs of war. After the war began, ships became an important means of transportation for military materials, which promoted the prosperity of shipbuilding industry. 1896, the government promulgated the Law on Subsidies to Shipbuilding Industry, and the gross tonnage of ships increased from 1 1000 tons to 656,000 tons. At the same time, shipbuilding technology has also advanced by leaps and bounds. 1898, Nagasaki Shipyard built a large steel ship with a tonnage of 6 127, which became a new record in Japanese shipbuilding history.
The growth of Japan's tertiary industry after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 mainly benefited from the development of transportation and finance. War reparations provided construction funds for laying and improving railways. According to statistics, in 1894, the total mileage of Japanese public and private railways was 3,402 kilometers, and it surged to 7,539 kilometers in 1904, an increase of 122%. A large number of railways not only facilitate personnel exchanges, but also give wings to Japan's economy, and Japan's industry has developed rapidly.
By 1903, eight years after treaty of shimonoseki was signed, the main indicators of industrial development had been greatly improved: the total number of companies increased from 2,844 1893 before the Sino-Japanese War to 8,895, an increase of 2.3 1 times; The investment increased from 245 million yen to 9.365438 billion yen, an increase of 2.8 times; The total number of factories employing more than 10 has increased from 3740 to 8274, an increase of 1. 19 times; The number of factories using prime movers increased from 675 to 374/kloc-0, an increase of 4.54 times; The daily average number of spindles started increased from 382,000 to 6,543,800+0,290, an increase of 2.38 times. The railway mileage increased from 2039 miles to 4495 miles, an increase of 1.2 times; The gross tonnage of ships increased from 1 10250 tons to 656745 tons, an increase of 4.96 times; The export trade volume increased from 89.7/kloc-0.0/billion yen to 289.5 million yen, an increase of 2.23 times. The average industrial growth rate is as high as14.3% (1891~1900).
Especially with the implementation of "post-war management", Japan's industrial structure has undergone significant changes. Before the war, Japan's industry developed around fibers and railways (non-chaebol private capital) and mines (chaebol capital). However, after the war, in addition to the above-mentioned "established industries", "machinery, shipbuilding, metals, chemistry, shipping, mining and other industrial sectors (state capital, chaebol capital) began to occupy a central position, and these industrial sectors were closely integrated with the national policy called" post-war management in Japan and Qing Dynasty "and achieved remarkable development."
According to Japanese economic data from 1889 to 1902, the proportion of labor engaged in agriculture decreased from 73% to 66%, the proportion of labor engaged in manufacturing increased from 13% to 17%, and the proportion of labor engaged in service increased from 14% to. The proportion of primary industry decreased, while the proportion of secondary and tertiary industries increased, but the added value of tertiary industry still did not exceed that of secondary industry. In short, the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 had a far-reaching impact on Japan's economy, which not only promoted Japan's industrialization, but also enhanced Japan's status as a world capitalist power. All this is the result of Japan's efforts to develop the radiation effect of military-related industries by using the compensation of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. As can be seen from the above, Japan really only spent a small part of the Sino-Japanese War reparations on education. However, the reparations in the Sino-Japanese War played an important role in the rapid development of Japanese education. Although most of the reparations in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 were used to expand armaments, in fact, this huge sum of money played an irreplaceable and decisive role in Japan's financial, industrial and economic development. With this huge sum of money, Japan was able to break the bottleneck of insufficient funds and quickly realize the second industrial revolution, thus quickly catching up with the development pace of world powers.