ABSTRACT
IT is necessary to follow the evolution of the Japanese economy from the Tokugawa period to the twentieth century in order to understand the significance of the upheavals of the 1860s. In a rapid summary, we will now ask ourselves the following four questions: 1. What were the silent features of the economic changes? 2. What rôle did the masses play? 3. Who were the leaders at the time of the successive coup d’état? and 4. How did political thought develop?
