ABSTRACT
The Meiji Restoration became a turning point of Japanese history; it sparked a concerted modernisation effort by thoroughly reshaping social and political structures and giving the people at large a new sense of national self-identity. The events which led to the Restoration, as well as the actual details of the historical process, need not be narrated here since they are well described in most standard books. 1 We confine ourselves rather to some observations, and interpretations, from the vantage point of economic modernisation.
