1836: The continuation of politics
The domestic agenda
This country can gain nothing by war, and in the present state of her prosperous commerce, shared by other Powers, we are possessed of more colonies than we want for our own sake, and retain many of them solely for the purpose of preserving the balance of power in Europe, and preventing those frequent contests which for centuries has devastated parts of Asia. Peace is our great object; and I firmly believe, there are no better means for maintaining peace in Europe, than that we should retain that maritime superiority for which so much blood and treasure has been expended.
The first session of the Imperial Diet in any year was marked by the State Opening, at which the Emperor set out the policies that his government would pursue over the following twelve months. In 1836, Kashiwabara appeared as a frail shadow of the man who had ascended the throne 39 years before, but the old Emperor was as determined as ever to remain faithful to the policies that he had inherited from his illustrious father.
The 1836 Budget was notable for its expansion of education spending. As in times past Japan turned to the clergy as instruments of state policy: the government announced its intent to endow a network of religious schools to bring at least basic literacy and mathematics to the wider populace. In this way, it was hoped, Japan could begin to regain the technological lead it had enjoyed at the close of the eighteenth century.
Although the Ministry of Finance had predicted a large budget surplus for the year, the Cabinet had decided that there should be no immediate change to tax rates. The official reason given was that the network of new schools would surely absorb a greater proportion of income as they came into operation.
In addition, the government needed funding to modernise the Empire's naval bases. The 1836 Budget committed almost £20,000 to the repair and upgrade of facilities in nine strategic ports: from Bourbon in the west, the Home Islands in the north, New Japan in the south and finally in the Great Eastlands.
The Finance Bill also contained provisions for an expansion of Japanese colonial ventures on the eastern continent. To the north, settlers would be planted further up the coastline, while to the south they would attempt to secure the interior in the face of possible competition from Mexico - and ultimately also from the European settlements of the eastern coast.
In addition, the government had one last reason for maintaining a surplus through early 1836, but the Cabinet had agreed that this was not for public consumption and at the time an ulterior motive was never alluded to in the Diet.
Foreign affairs
The opening session of the Diet coincided with diplomatic communiqués reaching Japan concerning the outbreak of war in Ireland and between the Ottomans and Yemen.
Spring brought further news: France had declared its intent to recover the break-away province of Lorraine, while Russia sought to take advantage of the Ottoman's preoccupation with events on their southern border by invading with the intent of detaching Azerbaijan.
Ambassadors from Gelre - a long-time ally of Japan which had been instrumental in the Empire's efforts to westernise - attended a packed meeting of the Diet where deputies cheered the announcement that the little Dutch nation had formally expelled the British chargé d’affaires who had sought to rule their country as a viceroy.
More worrying was the news that Austria had declared war against Bohemia. Both states were nominally a part of the Holy Roman Empire, but its grip had been weakened - perhaps fatally - by the Great Austrian War. Austria in particular had become disillusioned and instead looked to carve out a role for itself as the protector of the German nation. Unfortunately for Bohemia - a Czech dominated state with many German subjects - it appeared that the suggestions of imperial impotence were not short of the mark. The emperor - the 22-year-old Duke of Modena - did little but issue a formal protest against the actions of his far-mightier nominal vassal in Vienna.
The government's reaction to the wars was pragmatic. Japan had no alliance with any of the participants, nor reason to directly intervene in any of the wars. Even the more bellicose of the conservatives would have had to admit that the forces Japan had in Europe were more a token of intent than a serious threat to the larger powers.
However, while military might was in short supply, the deep pockets of the Empire could still be brought to bear. Ireland, Gelre, Bohemia and even the Ottomans would be subsidised at a cost to the treasury of over £11,000 per year. It was judged that Ottoman aggression against Yemen, though regrettable, was a secondary matter in comparison to checking Russian expansionism. In the case of France, the government was quick to accept the French ambassador's official account of the lead-up to the war and replied that Japan eagerly anticipated a swift and successful campaign.
The Empire’s diplomats were to find the beginning of 1836 a particularly busy period. Not content with funding foreign wars, the government had also decided to explore new avenues for extending Japan’s international reach. Although the theory of spheres of influence had been understood for decades, if not centuries, they had been overlooked by traditionally-minded Japanese statesmen. Now prime minister Ito believed that the time was right to put the idea through its paces. Thus overtures were made to the vast north Indian state of Sindh with a view to persuade it to put its resources at the Empire’s disposal.
The savage wars of peace
As other great powers were stirring themselves into action, the Court was anxious to ensure that Japan was not greatly disadvantaged by shifts in the balance of power. The rising influence of the isolationists led the Cabinet to fear that Japanese troops might have to be withdrawn from Europe, and - worse still - existing alliances repudiated.
For this reason, the Court drew up plans to seize Western Sahara from Morocco. Officially the reason behind the invasion was Morocco's inability to control piracy along its North Atlantic coasts, but the interventionists believed that a permanent Japanese possession so close to the straits of Gibraltar would allow Japan greater freedom of action even if the isolationists compelled the withdrawal of troops from Milan. In addition, the war would secure Atlantic bases for the Japanese navy, which had hitherto relied on the forbearance of allies.
In March, the Court party announced it had declared war on Morocco. The news was greeted with uproar in the Diet, with deputies protesting that they had been inadequately consulted. The government was forced to rely on support from the restorationists to pass the motion endorsing the war, at the price of closer enforcement of restrictions on the freedom of minorities within the Empire.
Three brigades of infantry and two of artillery were detached from the Army of Italy and titled the Moroccan Expeditionary Army. Japan's formidable naval presence in Europe guaranteed that the first phase of the campaign - the occupation of the Moroccan capital - was a formality.
However, the government had been much too sanguine about the likely costs of waging war at the end of thousands of miles of supply lines. The healthy surplus the budget had been running at the beginning of the year became a deficit of almost £900 a day, rapidly depleting the Empire's reserves.
Even as the treasury was struggling to deal with the costs of the war, the Japanese economy was giving out mixed signals. The experimental lumber mill the government had financed in the Great Eastlands had closed due to lack of business, but a private consortium in Osaka announced that they would use Gelren experts to build and operate a fabric factory. Whatever promise these new factories could hold for Japan's economy it would almost certainly come too late for a government that had lost more than £20,000 in the course of a month.
By July Japanese forces had secured the Moroccan capital, but the war was little nearer won. Morocco's offer of the status quo ante bellum was given serious consideration in Cabinet, but the finance minister was able to offer assurances that Japan's credit would allow the conflict to be prolonged, despite the fact that every additional day at war only increased the Empire's debt.
Some in government suggested that taxes should be raised as these could easily cover the shortfall with room to spare. However, this suggestion was rejected by prime minister Ito, who countered that to present an emergency budget to the Diet was tantamount to admitting that the war had been mishandled. Japan would borrow the funds needed until next year, when a fresh budget could be presented without provoking embarrassing questions.
So sensitive was the situation that when the First Farmers' Bank of Xuzhou was accused of anti-Japanese practices the Cabinet vetoed suggestions that it should be nationalised.
The idea that money was in such short supply as to cause the government to ignore due process had to be avoided at all costs. Besides this, prime minister Ito ruefully remarked that the money gained would only pay for 12 hours of fighting.
With the situation looking bleak the government could only hope that sufficient credit could be found to cover the Empire’s outgoings and the rapidly-increasing interest payments. However, even as the debt passed £75,000 and interest payments topped £50 a day it was announced that gold had been discovered in Caozhou.
As workers flooded to exploit the find, tax receipts responded immediately. By mid-September the treasury was showing a surplus of over £200 per day. The prime minister’s stance had been vindicated and for now the war could continue without fear of economic ruin.
While the Cabinet were celebrating their good fortune the Moroccan expedition was fighting for its life. Having disembarked in Western Sahara to begin their occupation of the province, a column of 3,000 soldiers had been dispatched to Agadir. Having seen no sign of Moroccan opposition so far, the expedition’s leaders were taken aback when an army of 18,000 ambushed the much smaller Japanese detachment.
Fortunately, the 3,000 men of the Agadir column were able to get messengers through to summon the help of their comrades on the coast. Imperial troops gave battle at a numerical disadvantage, but their superior fighting spirit allowed them to repulse the attack.
Following the victory at Agadir the remaining Moroccan troops were pursued, again defeated and finally forced to surrender completely. Although sources reported that Morocco had still more men somewhere it appeared that nothing could stop the occupation of the Western Sahara and ultimate victory.
Even as news of the victory at Agadir was reaching Japan the Cabinet were faced with a fresh crisis. In May, Castile had gone to war with Kongo, a fact which in itself meant little. However, the war precipitated the bankruptcy of the African state, much to the outrage of Japanese bondholders.
The government felt itself honour-bound to respond and authorised a punitive expedition. A further 15,000 men were detached from the Army of Italy as the Kongo Expeditionary Army. However, the force had not yet cleared the Straits of Gibraltar when the news reached them that Kongo had ceased to exist.
Castile naturally held that Kongo’s debts could not be passed to the country’s new masters, and the Cabinet did not want to make too much of the fact that they had been effectively financing a war against a friendly power. Flush with success from Morocco and with gold from Caozhou, the treasury undertook to reimburse the bondholders from its own coffers. The men of the Kongo expedition were diverted to the Moroccan war.
The home front
While the government seemed triumphant in its endeavours abroad, at home the picture was not quite so rosy. In July, as the government was driving itself into a panic over the debt, an outbreak of cholera in Jiading threatened to kill thousands.
Although the Cabinet did what it could to quarantine the province it was clear that the outbreak was not their highest priority. The war and the financial crisis it had precipitated were still foremost in its collective thoughts, and whatever impact the outbreak would have on the Empire’s population would be minor to say the least.
The new education policies also came in for criticism, especially amongst the Chinese of Runing, who claimed that they were discriminated against by a curriculum that focused on Japanese glories and prowess.
Anxious to avoid shutting out a group which constituted more than five times as many subjects as did Japanese citizens, the government ordered that accommodation be made for local sensibilities. Although this proved immediately beneficial in terms of access to learning, its longer term consequences worried some in the Diet.
The place of non-Japanese subjects within the Empire was an issue that had caused some concern to liberal-minded politicians, including Emperor Higashiyama, whose concern for freeing the oppressed abroad had sat uncomfortably with his position as head of an Empire in which the Japanese constituted a tiny, privileged minority.
Not content with the concessions to the education system, a Chinese poet in Runing published a “Hymn to the Middle Kingdom” a tragic epic telling of the chaos and shame occasioned by the fall of the Ming dynasty in the fifteenth century. The poem itself was dismissed as being of little literary merit, with a questionable grasp of historical facts, but nevertheless proved popular amongst the newly literate classes of the province.
In an attempt to encourage the adoption of Japanese customs, the government ordered that members of the Zhuang peoples in Guilin be prevented from buying or selling property unless they passed a conformity test to be administered by local officials. The government would study the outcome of this experiment intently, although some of the more liberal members of the Diet questioned – if not its legality – its morality.
The new year
Come 1837 and the new appointments to the Diet saw gains for both the Court and the isolationists as pragmatic liberals and Restorationists threw in their lot with the parties that could get things done – and also further ambitious deputies’ careers.
The war in Morocco continued, but since the major battles of the Agadir campaign had ended it looked like it would soon produce a victory for the government.
In Europe, the British had failed to make headway against either Gelre or Ireland, while the latter had succeeded in occupying British-held Dublin. If the progress of the wars against Britain were cause for satisfaction, the success enjoyed by Austria in its onslaught against Bohemia was more of a worry.