"China's territory is vast and rich in resources. Now we want to implement shareholding companies. Japan's territory is small and the population is so large. It is indeed beyond the country's ability to afford all the projects. Why don't we divide the state-owned enterprises and adopt the shareholding model? As long as we block the customs and taxes at the export. These taxes will not be small, but the country's investment will be much lower. This is the most suitable path for Japan. "Ito Hirobumi slowly explained his point of view.
Yamashita Aritomo immediately said loudly: "Let's not talk about other things, the military industry cannot be privately owned. The defense budget is already so small. If the military industry is held as a shareholding, the military still needs to pay to buy weapons. Where can we get so much money? "
The Ministry of Works, which is in charge of water and railways, immediately opposed Ito Hirobumi's view. "That's right! If the taxes are not enough, we can raise the price of water and railway tickets. These can also directly increase the revenue of the national treasury. If these enterprises are held as a shareholding, the country will not be able to collect money. "
"That's right! Although China is now talking about shareholding, China has been talking about the country leading the people into industrialization for the past few years. China's government documents show that the whole of China, from the cities to the villages, is under the control of the country. The daily necessities of their 700 million people had already been incorporated into China's industrialized society. They can also abolish the agricultural tax and implement a unified purchase and sale. Water, electricity, gas, food, salt, tobacco, and cloth are all monopolized by the country. Any product can increase the price by a little and it will increase the income greatly. We don't want to learn from China's effective approach. Instead, we should learn from China's recently proposed shareholding system. This is too outrageous! "Okuma Shigenobu, who is in charge of the Ōzō Province, also opposed Ito Hirobumi's suggestion.
"Japan's market is so small. Most of the exports these years are raw silk. The raw silk production can be increased completely because of the silkworm industry promoted by Ookubo-kun. The silkworm industry relies on the silkworm farmers from all over the country … "Ito Hirobumi tried to refute the views of these opponents. Of course, comprehensive control was the direction that China had been working towards. But China's comprehensive control was achieved by lowering the price of basic daily necessities. The people also received a better life than before while accepting the control. And the Japanese upper echelons wanted to implement comprehensive control in the aspects of forced buying and selling and strengthened taxation. As for the docile and obedient Japanese people … Since they have been docile and obedient for thousands of years, they will continue to be docile and obedient.
"Ito-kun, things aren't that simple!" Ōkura Shigenobu tried to correct Ito Hirobumi. "More than a decade ago, China's trade not only reached China, but also Korea and Southeast Asia. Now, more than ten years later, our biggest export country is America. Our exports are basically raw silk. The US only buys raw silk from our country. They don't even buy silk. China had been conquering Southeast Asia for the past ten years, and China had taken over Southeast Asia. The Russians were driven away by China, and even the British were forced to sell their land. China had a population of 700 million. They did not lack land, raw materials, or internal sales markets. This is completely different from Japan. "
After the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese government had indeed become more civilized in politics. Over the years, they had learned from China's policies and experience and had accumulated Japan's understanding of China. The Meiji government was quite clear about the differences between China and Japan. Japan's biggest problem at the moment was that there was no market. Japan was so poor that their purchasing power was not enough to create a decent market. At this time, with Japan's shipping capabilities, their power was all on China's territory. Even if they used all their strength and took great risks to extend the commercial routes to the entire Pacific Ocean and even the Indian Ocean. Not to mention whether it was profitable or not, the market in those areas was controlled by other industrial countries. Japan could not compete for any market share in the local area.
Listening to Ōkura Shigenobu, Ito Hirobumi temporarily did not say anything. Japan was a country that was willing to learn and be civilized. These people who carried out the Meiji Restoration saw the decadence of the Tokugawa shogunate and the power of the European and American countries, so they rose up to overthrow the shogunate and tried to build a new Japan.
When Japan completed its own Meiji Restoration, China rose at an even faster speed. And Japan only gained the ability to see the world clearly, but did not gain the ability to change Japan's fate. The feeling of clearly seeing Japan's desperation was far more painful, more helpless, and more desperate than the feeling of muddling through life.
There had to be some results from the discussion, and the only country in Japan that could do business with them was probably Korea. And Korea was also very interesting. Although they had officially become a vassal state of China, Korea did not make full use of this vassal status to seek more markets and opportunities from China. Instead, they tried to use China's gentle policy towards Korea to gain a greater independent status.
The famous Japanese thinker, Fukuzawa Yukichi, who came to attend the meeting, had deep contact with Korean students who came to Japan to seek knowledge. He explained, "Koreans have always thought that Manchu Qing was a barbarian, but Manchu Qing occupied China for more than 150 years. For more than 150 years, Koreans gradually thought that Manchu Qing was China. Therefore, many people in China wanted to break away from China and become independent. Although Manchu Qing was overthrown by Vézé, this idea was not so easy to change. Moreover, Korea had always thought that they had inherited the Chinese clothing, and the language they used was also the Chinese orthodoxy. Nowadays, China was broken and written in the vernacular. Koreans still felt that China had not been truly restored. China's attitude towards Korea was unclear. Now that Lady Min and the Emperor of the Supreme Court were fighting fiercely, and China, as a superior country, did not say a word about Korea's domestic affairs. This made Gojong and Lady Min wary of China. We can use this method to contact Korea. "
Just as Japan was thinking about how to get more markets, Li Hongzhang and Yuan Weiting arrived at Incheon Port together. Li Hongzhang was very happy that his excellent subordinate had returned from the cadre school. He smiled and said, "Weiting, you've been in the cadre school for so long, do you have any new articles?"
Yuan Weiting smiled happily with the expression of a young man, but he said, "This time, I can't just study, I really don't have time to write anything."
Yuan Weiting was a subordinate that Li Hongzhang valued very much. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and even Vézé had once felt that China did not actually have a legal ruling position over Korea. In response to this misunderstanding and even mistake, Yuan Weiting made a clear analysis three years ago. In theory and reality, Emperor Vézé was not only the emperor of China. Korea, Vietnam, Siam, and Nepal, these four countries also legally respected Vézé as the emperor. His Majesty Vézé's orders had "unshakable" decisive power in these four countries. It was also because of this that Yuan Weiting, who was born in a model family in Henan Province of Alaska, was also promoted and went to the cadre school for further study.
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