Bankers, investors and risk: British capital and Japan during the years of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance

The Anglo-Japanese Alliance, 1902-1922

Volumn , Issue , 2003, Pages 176-198

  Hunter, Janet ^a  

^a LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 84906634422     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: 10.4324/9780203316672     Document Type: Chapter

References (79)

1. H.G. Moulton, Japan: an Economic and Financial Appraised, Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1931, p. 395
2. Y Takenob, The Japan Yearbook, Tokyo: Japan Yearbook Office, 1918, p. 618.
3. H. Feis, Europe, the World's Banker 1870-1914, New York: Council on Foreign Relations, Yale University Press, 1930, p. 422.
4. M. Edelstein, Overseas Investment in the Age of High Imperialism: the UK, 1850-1914, London: Methuen, 1982, pp. 4-5, 307;
5. P.J. Cain and A.G. Hopkins, British Imperialism: Innovation and Expansion, 1688-1914, London and New York: Longman, 1993.
6. The overview here relies heavily on the following works: Moulton, Japan: an Economic and Financial Appraised;
7. F Warner, Anglo-Japanese Financial Relations, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991;
8. J. Hunter, 'The Limits of Financial Power: Japanese Foreign Borrowing and the Russo-Japanese War', in A.H. Ion and E.J. Errington (eds), Great Powers and Little Wars: the Limits of Power, Westport CT; Praeger, 1993;
9. T. Suzuki, Japanese Government Loan Issues on the London Capital Market, 1870-1913, London: Athlone Press, 1994;
10. S.J. Bytheway, 'Nihon Keizai to Eikoku Shihon, 1897-1922-nen', Tohoku Gakuin Dedgaku Keizai Kenkyu Nenshi 22, February 2001;
11. T. Suzuki, 'Japanese Government Loan Issues on the London Capital Market during the Interwar Period', in J. Hunter and S. Sugiyama (eds), The History of Anglo-Japanese Relations 1600-2000, vol. 4, Economic and Business Relations, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002;
12. S.J. Bytheway, 'Nihon Keizai to Gaikoku Shihon no Chokusetsu Toshi oyobi Goben Jigyo, 1899-1939-nen', Tohoku Gakuin Dedgaku Keizai Kenkyu Nenshi 23, March 2002.
13. Figures from Suzuki, 'Japanese Government Loan Issues', pp. 198-9. £39 million was raised in New York, over £40 million in Paris, and £13 million in Germany.
14. Suzuki, 'Japanese Government Loan Issues', pp. 194-6.
15. N. Mochida, Toshi Zedsei no Kenkyu, Tokyo: Tokyo University Press, 1993, p. 110.
16. See also Bytheway, 'Nihon Keizai to Eikoku Shihon', p. 66.
17. For allocation of local government debt by purpose see Nihon Tokei Kyokai (editorial supervision by Somucho Tokeikyoku), Nihon Choki Tokei Sorein, 5 vols, Tokyo: Nihon Tokei Kyokai, 1987, vol. 3, p. 307.
18. Mochida provides a broader analysis of the significance of foreign municipal loans in Toshi Zedsei no Kenkyu, pp. 72-113.
19. Diplomatic and Consular Reports 4661, 'Report for year 1910 on the Trade of Nagasaki', p. 7.
20. See M. Udagawa, 'Senzen Nihon no Kigyo Keiei to Gaishikei Kigyo', pt. 1, Hosei Dedgaku Keiei Shir in, vol. 24, no. 1, 1987, pp. 21-2;
21. M. Udagawa and S. Nakamura (eds), Materiaru Nihon Keiei Shi-Edo-ki kara Genzed made, Tokyo: Yuhikaku, 1999, p. 67. The investment grew out of the company's earlier sales of Russian lamp oil in Japan, and the need to compete with Standard Oil in the Japanese market. In 1910 Rising Sun concluded a collaborative sales agreement with the three other main companies in the sector.
22. See, for example, Diplomatic and Consular Reports 4768, 'Report for the Year 1910 on the Trade of Japan', p. 23; 4932
23. 'Report for the Year 1911 on the Trade of Japan', pp. 23, 31.
24. For information on this venture see B. Nagura, Heiki Tekko Kcdsha no Nichiei Kankei Shi, Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Hyoronsha, 1998;
25. B. Nagura, A Munition-Steel Company and Anglo-Japanese Relations before and after the First World War', in Hunter and Sugiyama (eds), Economic and Business Relations.
26. According to table in Bytheway, 'Nihon Keizai to Gaikoku Shihon no Chokusetsu Toshi', pp. 56-7.
27. Udagawa, 'Senzen Nihon no Kigyo Keiei to Gaishikei Kigyo', pt. 1, p. 17.
28. H. Dyer, 'Legal Aspects of Foreign Investments in Japan', Financial Review of Reviews, vol. II, no. 10, August 1906, p. 114.
29. Diplomatic and Consular Reports 3009, 'Report for the Year 1902 on the Trade of Japan', p. 35; 3212
30. 'Report for the Year 1903 on the Trade of Japan', p. 33.
31. Diplomatic and Consular Reports 3377, 'Report for the Year 1904 on the Trade of Japan', p. 33; 3675
32. 'Report for the Year 1905 on the Trade of Japan', p. 37;
33. Okurasho Zaisei Kinyu Kenkyujo Zaiseishi-shitsu, Okurasho Shi-Meiji, Taisho, Showa, Tokyo: Okura Zaimu Kyokai, 1998, vol. 1, p. 467.
34. Diplomatic and Consular Reports 4768, 'Report for the Year 1910 on the Trade of Japan', p. 41.
35. L. Lawson, Empires of the Far East, London: Grant Richards Ltd., 1912, vol. 2, p. 972.
36. Y Takenob, Japan Yearbook 1916, Tokyo: Japan Yearbook Office, 1916, pp. 37-8.
37. Sussman and Yafeh tend to overlook the importance of what was essentially a political decision in their recent article. See N. Sussman and Y. Yafeh, 'Institutions, Reforms, and Country Risk: Lessons from Japanese Government Debt in the Meiji Era', Journal of Economic History, vol. 60, no. 2, June 2000.
38. Diplomatic and Consular Reports 3009, 'Report for the Year 1902 on the Trade of Japan', p. 35.
39. Quoted in Diplomatic and Consular Reports 3009, 'Report for the Year 1902 on the Trade of Japan', p. 36.
40. H. Dyer, 'Japanese Industries and Foreign Investments', Financial Review of Reviews, no. 4, February 1906, p. 94.
41. H. Dyer, 'The Commercial Morality of Japan', Financial Review of Reviews, no. 7, May 1906, pp. 399-408.
42. Sir John George Tollemache Sinclair, Labour MP for Caithness 1879-85, had died in 1899, so Dyer is likely to have been referring to an exchange of opinion dating back a number of years (Who Was Who vol. 1, 1897-1915, 6th edn, London: A. & C. Black, 1988).
43. H. Dyer, 'Legal Aspects of Foreign Investments in Japan', Financial Review of Reviews, vol. II, no. 10, August 1906, p. 116.
44. The Anglo-Japanese Bank is mentioned briefly by Bytheway ('Nihon Keizai to Eikoku Shihon', p. 20)
45. and in Warner, Anglo-Japanese Financial Relations, p. 70. Except where stated otherwise, information on the bank comes from these sources.
46. Statist, 19 May 1906, p. 954.
47. The names of the directors of the bank are given in successive issues of The Stock Exchange Official Intelligence.
48. Who Was Who vol. 2, 1916-28, 5th edn, London: A. & C. Black, 1992, p. 642;
49. T. Skinner (ed.), The Directory of Directors for 1914, London: Thomas Skinner & Co., p. 830;
50. The Directory of Directors for 1921, London: Thomas Skinner & Co., p. 1054.
51. Skinner, Directory of Directors for 1921, p. 1152.
52. Roger's foreign investment interests also embraced Latin America, see D.J. Jeremy (ed.), Dictionary of Business Biography, 5 vols, London: Butterworths, 1984, vol. 4, pp. 915-921.
53. Stock Exchange Official Intelligence, 1910, p. 1697.
54. Investors' Review, vol. xV, no. 380, 15 April 1905, p. 461.
55. Stock Exchange Official Intelligence, 1906, p. 1207. While the name is close to that of the Japan Corporation, Shorrock does not figure among the directors, and there is no indication that the two companies may in any way have been connected.
56. Investors' Review, vol. XVI, no. 405, 7 October 1905. Whatever the identity of the unfortunate legal firm thus castigated, this piece was hardly inclined to encourage investors to support the firm.
57. Stock Exchange Official Intelligence, 1910, pp. 1026, 1081.
58. Who Was Who vol. 3, 1929-40, 2nd edn, London: A. & C. Black, 1967, p. 1078.
59. Who Was Who vol. 2, 1916-28, p. 813;
60. Skinner, Directory of Directors for 1914, p. 1070.
61. Stock Exchange Annual Register, successive years. Some sources list the Syndicate as existing only from 1916.
62. Who Was Who vol. 2, 1916-28, p. 504.
63. Skinner, Directory of Directors for 1914, pp. 2, 564;
64. Directory of Directors for 1921, p. 2;
65. Who Was Who vol. 2, 1916-28, p. 424. It is unclear how long Jamieson was a director of the SMS.
66. The Stock Exchange Intelligence lists his involvement as director in 1919-1923, but Who Was Who gives his date of death as 1920, which would mean only a very brief involvement.
67. Who Was Who vol. 4, 1941-50, London: A. & C. Black, 1952, p. 965;
68. Skinner, Directory of Directors for 1921, pp. 1124.
69. Bankers' Magazine, 'The Progress of Japan', vol. 73, no. 697, April 1902, pp. 570-6.
70. Financial Review of Reviews, 'Japan as a Field for Investment', no. 3, January 1906, pp. 14-18.
71. H. Dyer, 'Japanese Industries and Foreign Investments', Financial Review of Reviews, no. 4, February 1906, pp. 92-3.
72. R.L. Lowry, 'Japan's Part in the War', Financial Review of Reviews, vol. X, no. 113, December 1915, p. 506. The partiality of British investors for Japanese bonds suggested here is open to question, but the article's desire to encourage it is not in doubt.
73. Suzuki, Japanese Government Loan Issues.
74. H. Dyer, 'The Japanese Loan Conversion. Interview with Mr. K. Takahashi, the Government Commissioner', Financial Review of Reviews, vol. II, no. 13, November 1906.
75. Jiji Shinpo, 11 May 1904.
76. Jiji Shinpo, 9 July 1905.
77. See also, for example, Jiji Shinpo, 11 November 1904, 13 July 1905 and 23
78. February 1912; Osaka Mainichi, 29 April 1909.
79. All these articles are contained in Meiji Nyuusu Jiten Hensan Iinkai and Mainichi Komyunikeeshyon Shuppanbu, Meiji Nyuusu Jiten, 8 vols, Tokyo: Mainichi Communications, 1986, vol. 7, 8.