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Difficulty: HardGlobal Spread of Industrialization

Source: Iwasaki Yataro, founder of the Mitsubishi Company, letter to his employees, 1876.

"The government has entrusted our company with the task of maritime shipping, which is vital for the empire's national security and economic independence. Foreign shipping companies, possessing vast capital and steamships, have dominated our coastal trade and drained our wealth. If we do not compete with them and drive them out, our nation will never achieve true equality with the Western powers. Therefore, we must operate with efficiency and dedication, not merely for private profit, but to serve the state by establishing our maritime autonomy."

Which of the following developments in the global spread of industrialization during the late nineteenth century is best illustrated by the passage?

  1. The collaboration between state authorities and private enterprises to accelerate industrial modernization.Answer
  2. B
    The establishment of direct political administration over Japan by Western powers through maritime colonization.
  3. C
    The persistence of early modern European mercantilist chartered monopolies as the primary drivers of global trade.
  4. D
    The exclusion of advanced machinery like steamships from industrialization efforts outside Western Europe.

Answer

The collaboration between state authorities and private enterprises to accelerate industrial modernization.
The option highlighting the collaboration between state authorities and private enterprises is correct because during the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese government lacked the resources to manage all industries directly. Instead, it subsidized, protected, and contracted private entrepreneurs (forming massive conglomerates known as zaibatsu, such as Mitsubishi) to build critical infrastructure like shipping lines, thereby resisting Western economic dominance and modernizing the nation's economy.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the source's author and context.
The author is Iwasaki Yataro, the founder of Mitsubishi, writing in 1876, which is during the early Meiji Restoration period in Japan.
Understanding the context of Meiji Japan helps identify the state-assisted nature of its industrialization.
2
Identify the relationship between the company and the government as described in the text.
Yataro states that 'The government has entrusted our company with the task of maritime shipping' to counter foreign dominance.
This shows a close partnership where the state guides and supports a private enterprise for national economic goals.
3
Connect this relationship to broader global patterns of industrialization.
Unlike Great Britain's primarily private-led industrialization, Japan utilized state-sponsored capitalism and close coordination with private zaibatsu to rapidly catch up with Western industrial powers.
This matches the historical development of state-supported private enterprise in late nineteenth-century industrialization.

Key Concept

State-supported private industrialization in Japan (zaibatsu)
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Topics

Global Spread of Industrialization

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