The East Asian Journal of British History
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ISSN 2185-8527 THE EAST ASIAN JOURNAL OF BRITISH HISTORY Vol. 5 March 2016 Special Issue Anglo-Japanese Conference of Historians 2015 Changing Networks and Power in British History: Politics, Society, Trade © Contributors 2016 Standing Committee AKITA Shigeru, Osaka University CHO Seung-Rae, Cheongju University KIM Joong-Lak, Kyungpook National University LEE Young-Suk, Gwangju University NAKAMURA Takeshi, Hirosaki University TSURUSHIMA Hirokazu, Kumamoto University Editorial Board AKITA Shigeru, Osaka University GOLDMAN Lawrence, IHR, University of London HAMAI Yumiko, Hokkaido University INAI Taro, Hiroshima University KIM Hyun-Soo, Dankook University KIM Joong-Lak, Kyungpook National University LEE Young-Suk, Gwangju University TSURUSHIMA Hirokazu, Kumamoto University YOON Young Hwi, Seoul National University Chief Editor for Vol. 5 AKITA Shigeru, Osaka University Managing Editor for Vol. 5 NAKAMURA Takeshi, Hirosaki University Place of Issue Kanade Library 326-5-103 Kiyama, Mashiki Kumamoto-ken, Japan Post Code 861-2242 +81 096) 202-2529 Department of History Education Kyungpook National University 80 Daehakro, Bukgu, Daegu, 702-701, Korea +82 053) 950-5850 This Issue is supported by The Institute of Historical Research (University of London) & The Korean Society of British History The East Asian Journal of British History, Volume 5 (2016) Special Issue: Anglo-Japanese Conference of Historians 2015 Changing Networks and Power in British History: Politics, Society, Trade CONTENTS 1 Introduction to the Special Issue Shigeru Akita Articles 3 A Representation of the First Industrial Revolution as a Conjuncture for the Global Economic History of Transitions to Industrial Economies Patrick Karl O’Brien 29 Questioning Leviathan: Restructuring the State in Britain since 1970 Martin Daunton 51 ‘Networks’ in British History Joanna Innes 73 History and Continuity in English Education Since 1800 Lawrence Goldman 93 Management of and Local Networks for Educating Vagrant Children: A Case Study on the Manchester Certified Industrial Schools in the Late Nineteenth Century Makiko Santoki 113 The Human Resource Development, Occupational/Status-linked Personnel Management Practices and Engineers in Japanese Corporations before the Second World War Hiroshi Ichihara 135 Cotton: The Making of a Modern Commodity Giorgio Riello 151 Why Did They Admire the Machinery? Rethinking Intellectuals’ View from the Perspective of the Competition between English Cotton Goods and Indian Handicraft Ones in the Early Industrial Revolution Young-Suk Lee 161 Fashion, Textiles and the Origins of Industrial Revolution John Styles 191 Meiji Japan’s Encounter with the ‘English System’ for the Prevention of Infectious Disease: The Hesperia Incident of 1879 Takeshi Nagashima 207 Law, Agency and Emergency in British Imperial Politics: Conflict between the Government and the King’s Court in Bombay in the 1820s Haruki Inagaki 225 Public interest in the Debates on Britain’s Electric Telegraphs Bill of 1868 Kyoko Matsunami Appendix 241 Programme of the AJC 2015 Introduction to the Special Issue Shigeru Akita* This is a special issue that is based on the selected papers submitted to the 8th Anglo-Japanese Conference of British History (AJC), held at Nakanoshima Center, Osaka University, Japan, on 10th-11th August 2015. Networks and power in society are changing today. Social networks cover the globe, transforming the power structure of society, both in its personal and organizational dimensions. On the other hand, in the area of market and economy, the newly-created ‘cash nexus’ is destroying existing social networks. What roles should the state and society play in regulating the disturbing effects of the market economy? We have re-examined these roles, providing wider historical and international perspectives. The first three articles are keynote plenary lectures delivered by prominent British historians, and are concerned with the conference’s major topics. The next three articles (by Goldman, Santoki, and Ichihara) were submitted to Session 2: ‘Education and industry in changing Networks and Power’. This session aimed to discuss mainly two subjects, politics and civil society, focusing especially on education and industry. In economic history, the influence of human capital on economic development has been vigorously researched. Human capital is formed through training and education, which are provided by society. The formation of human capital, with literacy and numeracy comprising its most fundamental form, has always played a leading role in social change. On the one hand, it has been widely accepted that the level of human capital plays a pivotal role in the growth of an economy. In particular, the level of training and education provided to ordinary workers is thought to have a significant impact on the labour market and then on society. On the other hand, research has shown that the formation of human capital depends on the characteristics of the society it belongs to. Organisations and institutions in society, such as the state, schools, and many types of voluntary associations, are involved in the process. Therefore, its development has undergone various trajectories among industrialised countries. Against these backgrounds, Britain has a unique history of education and training in its civil society. While it once enjoyed the world’s highest level of scientific and technological development, achieved through its industrialisation, Britain has, in more recent years, been suffering from the drawbacks of its education system. From the age of liberalism in the nineteenth century to the recent reforms in technical education, education in Britain has struggled with its complicated networks and power structure in society. This session sought to put this debate onto a wider platform to discuss it fully as an important case study for * Professor of World History, Graduate School of Letters, Osaka University, Japan. 2 │East Asian Journal of British History, Vol. 5 (2016) networks and power in transition. For comparative purposes, we also discussed cases of other countries in many phases of development, including Japan and its industrialisation. The next three articles (by Riello, Lee, and Styles) were papers delivered in Session 3: ‘Asian trade and the Remaking of Commercial Networks & Consumer Culture in Modern Britain’. This session addressed the way in which commercial networks and consumer culture have been created and reorganised in Britain, along with the development of overseas trade, especially Asian trade, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in a global context. Since the publication of The Great Divergence: China, Europe and the Making of Modern World Economy, by Kenneth Pomeranz (Princeton University Press, 2000), many economic historians in the UK and the US, as well as Asian countries like Japan, China, and India, have discussed the validity of the ‘Great Divergence’ thesis between Western Europe (Britain) and East Asia since the late eighteenth century, which has led to a most stimulating current debate in global economic history. Pomeranz reduced the causes of the ‘Great Divergence’ to two elements: coal and the new (American) continent. However, as Riello revealed in his edited books, Asian trade, through the East Indian companies (the EIC and the VOC) and country traders, played a very crucial role in the transformation of the British economy, society, and consumer culture at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as well. The beginning of the ‘Industrial Revolution’ might be interpreted as the first ‘import-substitution industrialisation’ of Indian cotton textiles, and the formation of ‘free trade nation’ itself was strongly influenced by the development of overseas trade with Asia (East Indies). We reconsider a unique feature of the British experience of ‘Great Divergence’, paying attention to the transformation of commercial networks, the growing demands for free trade with the competition of Indian cotton goods, and the emergence of consumer culture in modern Britain in the context of British imperial and global history. Among the last three articles (by Nagashima, Inagaki, and Matsunami), Nagashima’s was delivered to Session 1: ‘Civil Society and Liberalism in Victorian Britain’. This session originally aimed to explore the historical dynamism of ‘civil society’ in Victorian Britain. Nagashima sought to convey a comparative perspective by referring to cases in Meiji Japan. The articles by Inagaki and Matsunami were submitted as individual papers to the Junior Scholars’ Session. The 8th Anglo-Japanese Conference (AJC) was hosted and financially supported by the Institute of Academic Initiatives (IAI), Division 9: Global History Studies, Osaka University. The local Osaka Organizing Committee collaborated with the previous national committee of the AJC, led by Professor Kazuhiko Kondo. After the Osaka Conference, the AJC merged with the East Asian Association of British History to host the next conference in 2018 with the Korean Society of British History (KSBH). The 2018 Conference will be held at Daegue, Korea, as the First Anglo-East Asian Conference of British History (AEAC) through the international collaboration of the KSBH, the previous AJC committee, and the Institute for Historical Research (IHR), University of London. A Representation of the First Industrial Revolution as a Conjuncture for the Global Economic History of Transitions to Industrial Economies Patrick Karl O’Brien* Abstract. Modern economic history has