Japan's Pre-Perry Preparation for Economic Growth.

The article focuses on the preparations for economic growth in Japan. The author remarks that while the main outlines of Japanese economic development during the period since the Restoration are now rather firmly blocked out, current interest in comparative development during the pre-take-off period of the growth process makes it worthwhile to re-examine the previous era, the Japanese Tokugawa period. According to him the recognition of the preparatory role of Tokugawa is seldom perceived and certainly not stressed in previous studies. Some notion of the importance of Tokugawa glimmered in the literature for years. In this article the author seeks to move away from the ambivalent treatment of Tokugawa and to assemble some of the more important factors indicating the high economic levels attained by Japan in the Tokugawa period which prepared her for the take-off of 1868. He focuses on the covering materials on population, agriculture, production, institutional changes effecting savings and growth potentials, manufacturing and trade, both internal and external.