Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2021 -

Modernization in late-19th-century Japan was accomplished by successfully navigating an abrupt entry into the world market, albeit not without some missteps. In this important book, Ericson (history, Dartmouth) illuminates essential pieces of this process through a detailed study of finance minister (and later prime minister) Matsukata Masayoshi (1835-1924) and his policies during the 1880s, including the context of their formation. As much a world history of late-19th-century capitalism and economic thought as a financial history, the book documents the concomitant issues of inflation, deflation, and trade imbalance coupled with efforts to create a stable financial structure to fund the new government. Ericson challenges conventional views of Matsukata's economic policy as conservative, suggesting he was not an orthodox follower of liberal and neoliberal finance and economics; rather, he pragmatically applied a broad range of philosophies to what might be characterized as a nationalist, developmentalist approach. Rather than slash taxes and spending as usually assumed, Matsukata often ditched theory for practice. Ericson demonstrates how he effectively shepherded Japan through currency crises and limited foreign debt and established the Bank of Japan to support economic growth and stability in modernizing Japan.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.