Due to the focus on North Korea, the contradiction between Japan and Russia has quickly become Japan's biggest external contradiction, but this does not mean that Japan has no contradiction with China, and the Japanese government still regards China as their biggest competitor, but Russia is now the first noose around their necks, and they will not do anything with China until they break free from this noose. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The British, who were also wary of Russian expansion, became a foreign aid that Japan could rely on, so they were willing to put on a leash from Britain in order to break free from the noose that Russia had put around their necks.

With the rapid escalation of the contradictions between Japan and Russia, the relationship between Britain and Japan is rapidly approaching, and the alliance is not enough. However, Britain began to provide more and more financial support to Japan, mainly to help Japan issue large amounts of low-interest foreign capital in London, and arsenals to help Japan build military equipment.

At this time, Japan's economic situation has long been unable to support their military expansion, and without the help of Britain, let alone the money-burning thing of the naval competition, it would not be possible to maintain the current level of the navy.

History will only record how glorious it was for Japan to defeat the Manchus and Russia, but it has never seen how much pressure and sacrifice the Japanese people endured for this.

Throughout the Meiji Restoration, Japan faced extremely unfavorable economic conditions, with a small domestic market, poor resources, and heavy dependence on foreign markets and resources.

After the very full Western-style commercial reform, the ability of the traditional rural society to protect itself was seriously undermined. As a result, the phenomenon of annexation in the rural areas is serious, and a large amount of land in Japan is concentrated, with landlords and rich peasants owning more than 50 percent of the land, most of the scattered small peasants, and less than 50 percent of the land, and all the peasant households in Japan account for more than 40 percent of the land, and pure tenant farmers account for more than 30 percent.

The rapid development of banks such as Mitsui and the rapid extension of their networks to rural societies has exacerbated the collapse of the traditional economy on the one hand, and the collapse of the traditional economy on the other hand, and the shocking fact is that Japanese farmers have generally learned to borrow from banks, because whenever they pay taxes, they are generally unable to pay their taxes without borrowing. At the same time, even the peasants, who were equally poor in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, did not even know what a bank was.

While the land was concentrated in large quantities to the big landlords and capitalists, 50 to 60 percent of the harvest of the tenant farmers had to be paid to the landlords, who were also merchants, usurers, and capitalists, and who used speculation to earn the peasants' products. Under the dual exploitation of land rent and commerce, tenant farmers, who account for more than 27% of the peasant households, struggle all year round on the line of life and death, and many semi-yeoman farmers can only barely make ends meet.

According to the comparison of data, before the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing government's land revenue was about 31 million taels, and the collection of grain in kind was about 2.5 million stones, with a total field income of about 35 million taels, and the land tax rate was 1.6%. The actual land tax collected by officials at all levels is about twice the statistical amount, so that the actual land tax collected accounts for about 3.2% of the agricultural output value. The Japanese people had to pay 21.25% of the land output, compared to six times the taxes paid by the Japanese peasants as the Manchu peasants, which is why Japan was able to raise its fiscal revenues to about the same level as the Manchus before the First Sino-Japanese War.

During the Meiji Restoration, due to Japan's ruthless exploitation of its own peasants, later generations commented that rural Japan was Japan's domestic colony.

In addition to the heavy taxes, it is better to be a landlord, but if it is a tenant farmer, like the Manchu Qing Dynasty, they have to accept the exploitation of the landlords, and the Manchu peasants are very poor, and the lowest tenant farmers in Japan basically cannot survive.

Poor peasants generally had to let their daughters, second sons, and third sons go out to work to earn some money to support their families. Even so, at most, they can make a living, once the slightest accident occurs, the ability of poor peasants to resist risks is completely lost, Chinese farmers can also rely on the traditional rural community to bear the risk through the help of relatives, friends and clans, Japanese traditions have been destroyed, farmers can only sell their sons and daughters, they encountered the situation during the chaos of the Republic of China.

Some Japanese families cannot afford to pay rent, so they use their young daughters as collateral. These girls are often sent to hospital prostitutes, which are called Ukaku in Japan, which belonged to public court prostitutes during the shogunate period, but in the Meiji period, the Meiji government showed considerable support and protection for Yukoku for the sake of financial revenue. Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito publicly stated that he did not want to abolish Yukoku, and the Meiji government continued to operate the Yukoku industry, for which Ito Hirobumi was regarded as the "only hero" by Japanese men.

In order to accumulate funds for industrialization, they also sent female prostitutes overseas, and there were tens of thousands of Japanese female prostitutes overseas, accounting for more than 70% of Japan's overseas population. The Japanese government not only did not restrict it, but openly supported it. At this time, ordinary rural girls sold to brothels could only be exchanged for thirteen taels, and the girls who were sold could not have the slightest complaint. Because the education they received was for the benefit of the family, and it was right to sacrifice their own happiness for the sake of honoring their parents, Japanese girls were sold for the sake of the family, and not only were no one despised, but they were even praised by people. There was a woman who sold her mother and younger brother to support her, and she was officially commended by the Japanese government for her "peculiar filial piety".

In contrast to the rural areas, which were plundered of funds for industrialization, and were called domestic colonies, Japanese women who went abroad to sell meat were called "women slaves" who supported "modern Japan."

Extreme deprivation of the countryside and peasants, will the situation be better in the cities? Neither is it.

Urban wage earners also bear high taxes, proportionally three times as much as Americans and more than twice as much as British. In the case of self-sufficiency in raw materials, industry also needs to bear the cost of imported raw materials, and in this disadvantage, it is naturally unable to provide better wages for workers by competing with European and American goods. The surplus labor that poured into the cities made the wages of the textile workers, who made up the majority of the Japanese workers, lower than those of the Indian workers in the British colonies. Skilled workers in heavy industry, who are the highest-paid workers, will not be able to sustain their families if they do not work 13 to 16 hours of overtime a day.

With urban citizens barely able to make ends meet, it is certainly impossible to support a large middle-class consumer group, which makes Japan's domestic market extremely small. Either rely on the markets of developed countries in Europe and the United States to provide raw silk, cotton yarn and other raw materials for others, or rely on colonial markets such as North Korea to plunder the profits of industrialization through industrial and agricultural scissors.

Later generations will only see the glory of Japan's Meiji Restoration, Japan's rapid rise in industry, and the achievements of rapid modernization, but they will not see the price paid by the Japanese behind it.

The economic development process of any country must be accompanied by certain economic laws, there is no external market, it can only plunder internally, which cannot be changed, just like in the 21st century, when China's economy ended the external dividends, everyone found that China has quietly become the world's highest tax country, so the people are dissatisfied, they feel that the government is looting the people's money, in fact, this is also the price that needs to be born.

However, as if the Japanese in this era could bear it, later generations of Chinese scolded fiercely, but the scolding was not the high tax itself, but everyone felt that high taxes did not bring high welfare and high public services, scolding the corruption of the bureaucracy, the people are actually reasonable, they can accept to bear the cost of national development, but they do not want to see unfairness, so on the one hand, the people are dissatisfied with heavy taxes, scolding bureaucrats for corruption, and on the other hand, they are cheering the country to build aircraft carriers and other military facilities, Because everyone knows that those military facilities that do not produce are tangible benefits that the public can provide to them, and they are a strong backing to ensure everyone's dignity.

So whether it's high pressure or hardship, as long as the people are given a sufficient reason, they can bear these costs.

The reason why Japan chose to give to the people is that it will continue to expand its national power and use the glory of the country to give an account to the people.

Therefore, on the road of expansion, Japan can no longer turn back.

But Japan will not be able to scavenge enough money for expansion at home in any case, because in any case, people have to eat. The bottom line of your looting is to keep people alive, even if you sell your children and daughters, you have to keep them alive.

Therefore, Japan chose to be a thug for the British, also because of the situation.

The confrontation with Russia in Korea ended with a temporary withdrawal from Japan, and Japan signed a treaty with Great Britain, which was not a military treaty, because it greatly avoided the obligations of Britain and greatly increased the obligations that Japan had to assume.

The treaty stipulates that when Japan is in Korea and Britain is to take joint measures to advance and retreat in the event that China's interests are infringed upon. The two sides agreed that the Japanese and British navies should strengthen cooperation in peacetime and provide mutual convenience in docking and repairing ships and replenishing coal. And in the waters of the Far East, Japan and Britain are to strive to maintain naval superiority over third countries; In the event that Britain's naval forces are unable to provide protection for its merchant ships in order to safeguard China's interests, the Japanese Navy should provide assistance; When Japan led to a war with a third country in order to protect Korean interests, the British Empire should provide financial support.

In this treaty, the two countries do not seem to have military obligations, and it is not a military alliance treaty, but it has a certain military color.

When the content of the treaty was exposed, the officials of the Foreign Affairs Department of the Ming Empire initially thought that it was mainly against Russia, but when they studied the treaty in detail, they suddenly felt that this treaty was actually used by Britain against China.

Zhu Jinglun saw the intentions of the British at a glance, and he knew more deeply, he knew that this treaty had the color of China's rise, but what was hidden behind the treaty was the policy of the British Empire to reshape the new order in East Asia.