ABSTRACT
Following several of the points made in Chapters 1 and 2, we may now suggest that a principal reason for the industrial success of Meiji Japan lay in the precise nature of the country's interaction with the Western economies after 1868. This interaction was conditioned by at least three elements: the timing of the Western interventions, the attitude of the West towards Japan, and the character of the political economy of Japan. Having sketched out a process of limited change during the Tokugawa era, we will now indicate the major forces which dictated the first two elements.
