"The huge foreign debt, overflowing trade, and budget deficit are a reflection of Japan's difficult financial situation in the late Meiji period. In 1911, Vice Minister Wakatsuki Reijiro complained to Army General Yamagata Aritomo that if this continues, the hard currency retained by the government will soon be exhausted.

The proximate cause of this situation is the imbalance in the international balance of payments caused by sluggish exports, but the remote cause is the long-term financial pressure caused by military expansion and war preparations, and the domestic market is difficult to develop healthily due to the contradiction between the landlord system and the capital system. From this point of view,

The seemingly incurable disease was alleviated by the "God's blessing" brought by World War I, and gradually transformed Japan from a debtor country to a creditor country. The improvement of economic conditions had various impacts on social politics and economy.

...Kunibo Wada's comic book "Into Gold" vividly depicts a young old man holding a hundred-yen bill and planning to go home while happily letting three young women surrounding him clean his leather shoes. It is a sharp satire.

The state of the world reflected in the trend of "turning into gold" in the early years of Taisho.

The Suzuki Shop in Kobe Port was a trading company with a capital of 500,000 yen before the war. After the war broke out, it immediately engaged in reselling war preparation materials and purchased many ships. Within a few months, its capital increased to millions.

The large trading companies of the Yuan Dynasty, Mitsui, Mitsubishi and other large chaebol enterprises not only took advantage of the war to make fortunes and doubled their capital, but also completed the transition to monopoly at the same time.

It is not just the country or enterprises that benefit from the opportunities brought by the war, but also ordinary workers. You can make money in artillery factories, and you can also make money in private factories... I can earn 15 yuan by working hard for 12 hours.

It seems that in order to stimulate his motivation to make money, a guy hired a woman and commuted back and forth from the entertainment store to the factory every day without returning home. From then on, I started to have money, 100 yuan, 150 yuan, 200 yuan, etc.

I made 600 yuan in no time.”

People who became rich in one fell swoop lived a luxurious and dissolute life. They played stocks, visited brothels, went to restaurants, and built private houses, which made many people envious. Uchida Nobu also built a private house in Suma, and the main hall was a beautiful

The large guest room with hundreds of tatami mats is known as the "Suma Palace". Nippon Yusen's president Kondo Renhei is known as the "president" in the financial world. His company's stock dividend once reached 70% per year. He travels to and from the hotel all day long.

Under the skirts amid the feasting and feasting. What's more, Yamamoto Yuisaburo, who "turned ships into gold", amassed 70 million yen in assets due to the skyrocketing increase in ship tickets, and wanted to show off his wealth.

...the nouveau riche who have obtained unexpected wealth not only use money to satisfy their various sensory desires, but also use money to open a shortcut to power for themselves to satisfy their social desires. Money and

Power dependence and combination are another inevitable result of the trend of "Naking gold". During the Meiji Restoration, the combination of the big businessmen of the shogunate, the factions that overthrew the shogunate, and the Meiji government each had their own pursuits, resulting in the formation of a special class of political and businessmen.

It confirms the black relationship between money and power. Before the establishment of Seiyoukai or the Constitutional Party, this seemed to be a different relationship... What is even more eye-catching is the relationship between large and small "golden" people and political parties and politicians.

It connects invisible "golden veins" and seriously erodes the body of party politics that was originally not very sound."

Chinese Embassy in Japan Secret "Observation on the Situation in Japan" No. 102, 5th year of the Republic of China

Boat, boat, boat!

Time has entered the fifth year of Taisho. Almost everyone in Japan is paying attention to a fact that they have to face - the serious lack of shipping capacity. The lack of shipping capacity has even affected Japan's industrial development. It has affected Japan.

The destiny of the country affects Japan's future. In the final analysis, the root cause of all this comes from the "big adventure" two years ago when the war just broke out.

The outbreak of "World War I" gave Japan an excellent opportunity to develop and grow. In the past few decades, the actual benefits obtained by Western countries in China relying on their strong industrial strength greatly stimulated the newly emerging Japan. Japan's Meiji Restoration

It has successfully optimized its political system and created a relatively favorable environment for industrial development...

However, Japan's lack of resources and small market have become bottlenecks for its further development. The Japanese government understands that if it slows down on the road of development, the achievements of the Meiji Restoration will be strangled by the Western European powers. If they want to catch up with Western Europe,

To avoid being eliminated by the industrialization trend, the only way out is to find resources and expand the market.

Correspondingly, China, as a neighbor of Japan, has a vast territory, abundant resources, and a vast market, which is very suitable for Japan. The Qing government that dominated China at that time had already perished. Although the Republic of China had long been established, its political system was divided between the central and local governments.

The fragmentation with local governments has directly resulted in the country's "New Deal" in the past few years being unable to provide the power to protect the country.

As early as Japan had just made some achievements in industrialization, it set its sights on China. Of course, it had to enter the Chinese market, and it also needed to see whether its "foreign teachers", the European and American powers, were willing. The initial Japanese invasion of China hindered

It is not obvious that the Western European powers all have spheres of influence in China. When World War I came, Western European countries were busy fighting on the European battlefield and had no time to take care of Asia. In order to contain Germany, Britain decided to pull Japan to join the Allied Powers.

Japan also saw the opportunity, and it became inevitable to declare war on Germany. On August 15, the Japanese government officially issued a written document "Ultimatum to Germany", requiring Germany to withdraw its fleet in the Far East and hand over Jiaozhou Bay unconditionally. Germany

Ignoring Japan's announcement, they suddenly handed over the Jiao'ao Concession to the Chinese local government. Faced with this reality, Japan did not retreat. Instead, it arbitrarily demanded that China return Jiao'ao to Japan. After being refused,

The war broke out in the Jiao'ao area.

What is surprising is that a few months later, when the war ended, Japan, the strongest power in the East, unexpectedly failed. Although on the surface, with the mediation of various countries, Japan "saved face" and

With the intervention of the British, a small group of British and Japanese troops entered Jiao'ao. Then, like a cutscene, in front of the Governor's Palace, the British and Japanese flags were first raised, then lowered, and then the Chinese flag was raised.

Japan gained nothing and lost nothing.

But in fact, in this "Jiao'ao Incident", as we all know, the real loser was Japan. Japan lost the fleet that it had built with decades of hard work and starvation and was regarded as the "treasure of the empire"——

Almost all the capital ships were lost, and the elite army also suffered heavy losses - multiple divisions suffered devastating blows.

For the country, the losses of the army and navy were heavy, and for the Japanese business community, in order to transport army troops, the army requisitioned a large number of merchant ships. In this incident, as many as 80,000 tons of merchant ships were

Being sunk, severely damaged, or captured is the most fatal loss to society compared to the loss of warships.

It is different from normal times. In normal times, if merchant ships are lost, old ships can be purchased from foreign countries or new ships can be ordered. However, after the outbreak of the European War, all the productivity of shipyards in various countries was saturated overnight. Japanese shipyards could no longer sail to the West.

People ordered merchant ships, and at the same time, faced with the shocking losses of the Navy, despite financial difficulties, Congress passed a budget to rebuild the Navy, which in turn led to the Navy occupying a large number of slipways.

From the fourth year of Taisho to the fifth year of Taisho, the most important thing for Japanese shippers was how to get a ship, and for Japanese business owners, the most important thing was how to find a ship and transport their goods to

Go abroad.

Boat!

Shipbuilding is tight, ship prices are rising, shipping dealer stocks are rising, shipping capacity is tight, and shipping prices are rising!

In short, among the annual Chinese characters in the fourth year of Taisho, this is the most important Chinese character, and it is also the most scarce thing. Now, in the fifth year of Taisho, ships are not only more expensive, but also more scarce, because Americans have once again

, as many as 600,000 tons of merchant ships were taken away from the Pacific Ocean. As for the Chinese, although they agreed to provide a slight difference when passing through Japan, it was still limited. The final solution to the problem still had to be on their own...

It can be said that in the past two years, as long as anyone has money, he will never worry about money. As long as one person says, I can get a boat, in an instant, he will become a famous figure in the entire business world and even politics.

Recently, in Tokyo, there was a person who, overnight, became the most famous businessman in Japan - Noda Heitama, a Japanese who immigrated to Brazil many years ago. For no other reason than that, he brought back as many as six

Thousands of tons of merchant ships!

Sixty thousand tons of merchant ships!

You must know that at this time, the tonnage of merchant ships in the world was only less than 300,000 tons. Almost overnight, he became a more important guy than the "President" of Nippon Yusen Line's President Kondo Renhei.

Especially when people know how he obtained the merchant ship, they will raise their thumbs proudly.

"What a lucky guy!"

Everyone talks about this guy like this, and the reason is very simple. After the outbreak of the European War, in order to solve the problem of insufficient merchant ships, Britain, France and other countries began to purchase merchant ships around the world. And through new shipbuilding technology, Chinese shipbuilders quickly became Asia's

The largest shipbuilder, its rapid shipbuilding capabilities are enough to amaze the world. Japanese companies, including Nippon Yusen Kaisha, also tried to purchase commercial ships from it, but were rejected by Chinese shipbuilders. Their reason was that they were saturated with orders.

The real reason is probably well known - they do not want to see the development of Japan's shipping industry.

However, Noda, a Brazilian Japanese, sold his plantation and relied on a bank loan to establish a shipping company in Brazil with an old ship last year. Then he opened a route to Japan, and later

After contacting Zhengjin Bank and many other banks, he promised with all his heart that "I can get more merchant ships." No one believed it at first, but in the end, he convinced everyone.

With the support of banks, he started his speculation and set up a number of "shell companies" in South America. Later, he began to contact Chinese ship dealers. Of course, everything was done by Westerners, and he did not even go to see the new ships.

Instead, he targeted old ships. The reason was to save money. In just a few months, those shell companies purchased as many as ten merchant ships from China Ocean Shipping Company, and before the Chinese discovered it, he had already completed it quickly.

Shell companies, and even the "bankruptcy" of his Brazilian company, under the "creditor's rights relationship", all eleven merchant ships became merchant ships of the newly established "Japan Ocean Shipping Co., Ltd."

"Ten million Noda!"

In Japan, people call Noda this because those "shell companies" still owe Chinese shipping companies as much as 10 million in ship payments. Of course, they found that they could not find the debtor at all. Everything,

It's just a "hoax". Of course, all of this is just "rumors" from the outside world. For this reason, the Chinese government even lodged a protest through diplomatic channels, but Japan simply ignored the Chinese protests.

Overnight, Noda became a hero. You must know that after the "Jiao'ao Incident", no one except him had taken advantage of Japan. Noda was the only one who could give Japan a bad breath.

Noda has always denied this, but this does not affect his reputation in Japan.

"This guy Noda!"

In the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Masaki Terauchi holds an invitation in his hand.

"Do you know? This guy recruited hunters in the newspaper a while ago, and then organized a tiger hunting team of 200 people to hunt tigers in North Korea. They killed more than 30 beasts in total."

When I was carrying Noda, there was a smile on my face.

"No, his "Tiger Hunting Team" is back. Six tigers were killed. He specially held a "Tiger Meat Tasting Party" at the Imperial Hotel, inviting you, me, and other celebrities from all walks of life to come and taste it.

!”….

"Oh, it's tiger meat. I wonder how effective tiger whip is!"

Compared with the Prime Minister's helplessness, Goto Shinpei was full of interest in tiger whip.

"I know, you all said that guy has done a big thing. Yes, ten million yuan is enough to build half a battleship. It can be regarded as getting some interest back from China. I'm not just talking about Noda.

There are others..."

When talking about other people, Temple Masaki's face showed some strange color.

"Since the rise of gold in the fourth year of Taisho, there have been so many rich people in the country. It seems that the national treasury has been enriched. But more money has flowed into personal pockets, so they will do everything possible to spend it.

Money, to squander those money that is like water. I recently heard that the president of the mail company is planning to organize a tiger hunting team to hunt animals in Lucia. It is not because he wants to compete with Noda for wealth. They are all like this, not to mention others.

People, if you look at the newspapers, there are news about the nouveau riche everywhere. The squandering of those nouveau riche is really annoying. Someone has calculated that last year, they squandered enough wealth to build two capital ships!"

When mentioning the squandering of the nouveau riche, Temple's face was full of dissatisfaction, and of course there was a hint of jealousy in his eyebrows.

"Really, that's a lot of money, but that's not how you spend it, Chinese people..."

At this time, he suddenly mentioned "Japan's enemies" again.

"On this point, Li Zicheng has more foresight than any of us. Last year, as soon as he took office as prime minister, he levied a luxury goods tax. Later, after the tariff became independent, he also imposed taxes on French perfumes, cosmetics, jewelry, and high-end luxury goods.

Dresses and fabrics are subject to 600% to 1000% tariffs, plus luxury goods tax. When a woman buys a bottle of French perfume, she has to pay a tax of 40 yuan, plus personal income tax. He does everything possible to force those rich

If the newly wealthy people invest their money in factory expansion, they can at least get it tax-free. Even if they invest it in charity activities, they can still get tax deductions, but we..."

Shaking the invitation to the "Tiger Meat Tasting Party" in his hand, Temple still had a look of dissatisfaction on his face.
To be continued...