Lever of Empire: The International Gold Standard and the Crisis of Liberalism in Prewar Japan (Twentieth Century Japan: The Emergence of a World Power)

Twentieth Century Japan: The Emergence of a World Power #17

by Mark Metzler

This book, the first full account of Japan’s financial history and the Japanese gold standard in the pivotal years before World War II, provides a new perspective on the global political dynamics of the era by placing Japan, rather than Europe, at the center of the story. Focusing on the fall of liberalism in Japan in late 1931 and the global politics of money that were at the center of the crisis, Mark Metzler asks why successive Japanese governments from 1920 to 1931 carried out policies that deliberately induced deflation and depression. His search for answers stretches from Edo to London to the ragged borderlands of the Japanese empire and from the eighteenth century to the 1950s, integrating political and monetary analysis to shed light on the complex dynamics of money, empire, and global hegemony. His detailed and broad ranging account illuminates a range of issues including Japan’s involvement in the economic dynamics that shook interwar Europe, the character of U.S. isolationism, and the rise of fascism as an international phenomenon.

Genres: Japan, History, Economics

396 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Benemint · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was reading this book on and off and FINALLY finished it. In a way it is a monotonous history writing about Japan's prewar financial world, which is inevitably international. It gives good details of the actors and each step of decision-making. It is really tiring to read but it also gives many cathartic "ah hah" moments as well as a great sense of achievement when you finish it -- like a marathon or mountain climbing.

[Commie Simpson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not confident in my knowledge of economics so I was quite intimidated by the book at first, but surprisingly I found the book fairly accessible, with phenomenons like inflation, deflation, outflow of gold seserves, depreciation of currency etc. explained clearly and specifically for every individual case. The book was also a nice reminder for me of the diversity of opinions among the ruling elites in Imperial Japan, the struggle of this imperial state in establishing its own position in the international community in financial terms (not just in terms of colonizing and raping other countries, which I so often too preoccupied with), and how the military and the government really (like really!) were at odds with each other. An accessible and very interesting read.

[burak · Rating 4 out of 5]

extremely informative but reading it felt very laborious, a very unique piece of scholarship by focussing on the entrance of japan in international finance (much has already been written on trade), this book offers an interesting take on the varieties of the gold standard, the process in which the us overtook the uk as global creditor whilst simultaneously blending personal vignettes of politicians with their domestic and foreign policies. one line which will always stick is that the bretton woods gold standard, in comparison to previous was one in which gold was fixed to the dollar, not the dollar to gold, as orthodox history would claim.

[Chi Pham · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book started off great, but then it got repetitive and dry the further it got into its subject of prewar Japan. I guess I want themes, I want lessons, I want a more human portrayal of the crisis, not just plain old monetary history. Even so, it is great to understand how the international hegemony of gold exchange standard affected Japanese thinking of imperialism, and that Japan was not the only one aiming to use the standard to dream up an empire.