? A brief talk on the comparison of several policies between Meiji Restoration and Russian serfdom reform

Author: Yu Longsheng

[Paper Keywords] Meiji Restoration; Abolish the reform of serfdom; Policy; compare

[Abstract]1In the middle of the 9th century, Japan embarked on the road of rapid development of capitalism through the Meiji Restoration. Russia's reform starting from the abolition of serfdom. It provides necessary labor, market and capital for the development of Russian capitalism. However, the slow development and huge differences have something to do with the reform policies implemented by the Japanese and Russian governments, which are mainly reflected in the following three aspects: First, the problem of opening the way for the development of capitalism. Have different attitudes towards reform; Second, how to develop modern industry has different supports; Third, about the development of modern science and technology education. Different degrees of attention.

/kloc-In the mid-9th century, facing the serious crisis of feudal rule, Japan and Russia chose the top-down reform road on how to adapt to the changing situation, maintain domestic political stability and promote social modernization. After the reform, Japan embarked on the track of rapid development, while Russia slowly developed capitalism in the process of modernization and eventually became the weakest link in the capitalist world. This paper attempts to compare some policies of Meiji Restoration and serfdom reform, and seek enlightenment from them.

one

On the issue of paving the way for the development of capitalism, both the Meiji government and the Russian czar government carried out the reform of the superstructure. But the attitude towards reform is different.

After the establishment of Meiji government. Major reforms were made to the original feudal system. First of all, abolish the county, completely abolish the long-standing curtain system and implement centralization. In the early days of Meiji government, powerful governors acted in their own way, and the taxi land controlled by the central government was less than a quarter of the national land. Government decrees cannot be unified, and financial power is also decentralized. In this regard, the Meiji government on the one hand? Return the edition? That is, waiting for the surrender of land and. The ownership of the people makes them only local officials of the central government. On the other hand? Abandon the vassal and set up a county? That is, the system of abandoning the country was abolished, and the national administrative region was re-divided into 3 prefectures and 72 counties, which were managed by the governors of prefectures and counties appointed by the central government; Lao Luo lived in Tokyo and got Dai Lu from the country.

Secondly. Cancel the feudal warrior Dai Lu, transform the samurai class, and stabilize social order. During the shogunate period, the samurai class was above other social classes and enjoyed various privileges, so it was a parasite of Japanese society. By the early days of Ye Ming, there were still nearly 2 million samurai and their families. In order to transform the samurai class, the Meiji government first abolished the system of samurai wearing swords and guns, and abolished the exclusive right of samurai to military status, thus depriving them of their property privileges. 1876 In August, the Meiji government promulgated the Regulations on Issuance of Public Bonds of Currency Dai Lu, and the state bought the right to receive the feudal warrior Dai Lu at one time by issuing public bonds. Result. Samurai became simple bondholders, and the huge feudal samurai class collapsed. Due to the issuance of public bonds, some upper-class warriors became capitalists and bankers because of business, and some middle-and lower-class warriors became small businessmen, thus avoiding the social unrest brought about by the reform and stabilizing the social order.

Third, abolish feudal guild organizations, allow free transactions, and promote the formation of a unified domestic market. 1869 lifted the ban on the transportation of grain and rice in various provinces. Cancel all checkpoints. 187 1 year unified monetary system. 1872, the feudal guild organizations L and Zhongjian, which maintained feudal economic privileges and hindered the development of capitalism, were ordered to be banned. .

In the process of reform, the czar government also carried out some bourgeois reforms on the superstructure. 1864, the Russian government established local autonomous bureaus in various regions, abolished the feudal hierarchical adjudication system, established a jury system, and conducted public trials; 1874, the municipal Duma elected according to property qualifications was established. But these reform measures are based on protecting the vested interests of the landlord class, as Tsar Alexander II said at the final meeting to discuss the draft reform. Gentlemen. I hope that when you review the draft submitted to the State Council, you will find that all measures that can protect the interests of landlords have been done one by one. ? Like the so-called? Dezheng? Symbolic local metallurgical bureau: In order to strengthen the control over farmers after the reform, the Tsar government organized farmers in old farmers' villages to implement environmental protection, and nominally the farmers elected a member of the public arch to implement the village community? However, autonomy stipulates that rural communities are subordinate to local administrative agencies and must implement all government decrees; Does the landlord still have the right to manage the territory and supervise the village community within his manor? Order and security? , have the right to veto any resolution of the village community, have the right to demand the removal of village public officials, and even have the right to expel farmers from the village community. In addition, a mediator produced by local aristocrats was appointed to handle all the relations between landlords and farmers, so that landlords could continue to plunder farmers. This is the case with villagers' self-government, and state and county self-government institutions are also controlled by the landlord class. This reform not only failed to give the Russian bourgeoisie more political power, but also set new obstacles to the development of Russian capitalism.

two

On the issue of how to develop modern industry, the Meiji government and the Russian czar both discussed the reform and adjustment of agriculture. Depriving farmers of their labor products, as the main way in primitive accumulation of capital, was strongly supported by the Meiji government. Japan's modern industry developed rapidly; However, it was not until11980s that modern industry began to take off in tsarist Russia.

The Meiji government's reform of agriculture began with the reform of Emperor Yue in 1873. Local taxes are an important part of national fiscal revenue. Juzhi government plans to establish a new tax system with unified tax standards on the basis of tax reform and abolition of the old tax system. What is the vision of Meiji government's tax reform? Learn from the practices of western countries and establish a modern capitalist tax system. ? The basic characteristics of this tax system. It is based on the capitalist commodity economy. To promote the development of domestic commodity economy, an important condition is to protect tariffs. However, with the existence of unequal treaties, tariffs will not work. But in order to pay for the development of capitalism, the country's financial resources only rely on farmers' taxes, so? The Meiji government is going to write an article about local taxes? .

The Meiji government held a meeting of local officials in July 1873 to discuss the theory. After the meeting, the Regulations on Local Tax Reform, Detailed Rules for the Implementation of Local Tax Reform and Instructions for Local Officials were promulgated. 1March 875, the local tax reform bureau was established. In July, the Regulations and Rules for Local Tax Reform were formulated. The reform of local tax is mainly to change the past tribute rent into currency payment, and the local tax is paid by the landowner, thus reconfirming the land ownership. After several years of careful work, until. 88 1 year, the whole land tax reform was basically completed. After the reform of local tax system, Japan confirmed the ownership of land and established a new land system to replace the ownership of feudal lords. Meiji government issued land vouchers to land holders. Confirm that the land is private and can be bought and sold freely; In this way, the land becomes private property, and the land commercialization and tenancy contract are established. Japan's local tax reform, regardless of its degree, is essentially the nature of modern capitalist land relations. .

Russia's agricultural reform focuses on land adjustment and farmers' personal problems. With the serious crisis of serfdom and the rapid development of the revolutionary situation, the czar government began to prepare for reform. The basic policy of Russian serfdom reform was decided in April of 1856 and1L. Alexander II said:? There are rumors everywhere. Concealing freedom to farmers; This is unfair; But unfortunately, there is hostility between farmers and their landlords, and many things have happened that are out of the control of landlords. I firmly believe that we will solve this situation sooner or later. I think you agree with me. Therefore, it is much better to solve it from above than from below. This is to safeguard the privileged interests of the feudal ruling class.

186 1 On March 2nd, czar Alexander II signed the draft decree on farmers' reform approved by the State Council, and at the same time signed the reform declaration. The decree includes 17 documents. The most important thing is the General Decree on Peasants' Disengagement from serfdom, which is divided into 207 articles and comprehensively stipulates the basic conditions for abolishing serfdom. There are other laws, such as laws on redemption, local laws and so on.

For the land issue, the Russian government stipulates this. Divide the whole country into three areas: non-black soil areas mainly belong to dry industrial areas, and the land value is not high; Black soil belt, high land price: grassland belt. The land is vast and sparsely populated, mainly fallow; Landlords occupy a lot of land and generally do not make clear provisions on land. The standard area of the above-mentioned land is generally lower than the amount of land used by farmers before the reform. Excess land has been returned by landlords in non-black soil areas and black soil areas. When the land owned by local owners only accounts for one third of the total land, even if the farmers' land share does not exceed the highest standard, the landlords have the right to cut down the land. If the farmer's share of land is below the minimum standard, the landlord should make up or reduce his obligations. In addition, once the landlord discovers mineral deposits on farmers' land or needs to build roads and canals, he can change the location at any time and force farmers to move. It can be seen that the first question of the czar's serfdom reform is? Is it also a land issue? Solving problems in accordance with the interests of landlords has created favorable conditions for landlords to plunder farmers. It also stipulates that land ownership belongs to landlords and farmers only have the right to use a piece of land. Farmers have the right to redeem their homestead and plots for private use. Farmers can buy homestead land without debt, and the amount of redemption should be negotiated with the landlord indefinitely: as for buying a piece of land, the consent of the landlord must be obtained in advance, and the landlord can also force farmers to buy it. In short, the decision is entirely up to the landlord. Moreover, ransom is generally not calculated according to the actual land price, far exceeding the land price. As a result, farmers will inevitably become poorer. As Lenin pointed out:? The infamous liberation? The reform of serfdom is actually a cruel captive to farmers, a series of violence and insults to farmers. ?

A prerequisite for developing capitalism is the primitive accumulation of capital. From the above analysis, we can easily see that the local tax reform in Meiji Restoration in Japan and the land reform in Russia both completed the original accumulation of capital in the form of depriving farmers of their labor products. Japan is a backward capitalist country, and the primitive accumulation of capital is extremely insufficient, which is manifested in the incomplete separation of farmers and small producers from the means of production. Therefore, the characteristic of Japanese primitive accumulation of capital is not the complete deprivation of farmers' means of production, but the deprivation of farmers' surplus products (labor). Local tax reform is to achieve this function. But this feature is not unique to Japan. Marx once said that in Russia, to deprive farmers, it is not necessary to drive them away from their own land as in Britain and other countries; Similarly, there is no need to destroy public ownership by order. Please try and take away their agricultural products from farmers beyond a certain limit. Then, even if you use gendarmes and troops, you can't bind them to their land! ? This is the characteristic of primitive accumulation of capital in Russia, that is, the state deprives farmers of their labor products and sacrifices farmers' interests to promote the emergence and development of capital owners in Russia.

At the same time, complete the original accumulation of capital. Attach great importance to the development of modern industry. Trying to turn Japan from an agricultural country into an industrial country. The Meiji government developed modern industry in two stages: in the first stage, it vigorously established state-owned enterprises headed by military enterprises. After Meiji government took over the military enterprises run by shogunate and vassal, it introduced advanced western technology and equipment. Constantly transform and expand it. The second stage, cheap? Handle. ? State-owned enterprises vigorously foster private capitalism. Because the purpose of establishing state-owned enterprises has been achieved to a certain extent, and the huge state-owned enterprises have caused the loss of national finance, the Meiji government has made most state-owned enterprises cheap since 18S0. In addition to dealing with a group of big capitalists, measures such as giving huge subsidies, giving priority to exports, reducing or exempting enterprise taxes, and paying customs duties have been taken to protect the business activities of capitalists. From 1873 to 1880, the government issued loans of more than 30 million yuan to help private enterprises.

The abolition of serfdom enabled the Russian bourgeoisie to obtain the necessary labor, market and capital, and capitalist industries also developed to a certain extent, but the development was slow. It was not until11980s that the industrial revolution began. In the main departments, machine production has gradually crowded out manual labor and dominated. The number of factories in Europe and Russia (excluding mining) increased from 2,500 to 3,000 in 1866 to about 9,000 in 1903. The output of pig iron and petroleum increased by nearly 10 times from 186 1 to 1890. During this period, new industrial centers such as Donbass and Baku were formed one after another, and capitalist industries in non-Russian regions began to develop. Although Russian industry is developed, it is basically an agricultural country, exporting grain in exchange for foreign industrial products. At the beginning of the 20th century, the total industrial output value only accounted for 465,438+0% of the national economy. It is precisely because of this that Japan became a world capitalist power at the end of the nineteenth century, while Russia was jumping and crawling in the quagmire of relatively backward economy.

three

In the development of modern culture, science and technology education, both Japan and Russia have taken great reform measures, but there are obvious differences in the degree of attention, and their influence and role on the level of national culture and education are also different.

At the beginning of the Meiji Restoration, the Meiji government proposed? Qiang Bing, a rich country, is booming? And then what? . Civilization? Slogan. Among them? Civilization? It refers to the development of modern science and technology, culture and education, and the change of traditional ideology, fashion and lifestyle. 1868 in March, Japan issued the government policy agenda in the form of the oath of the emperor? Five vows. One of them? Get rid of bad habits? And then what? Seek knowledge from the world? These two articles show that Japan is giving up its determination to close its doors and learn from the West. This content of the imperial oath and the above-mentioned reform slogan became an important basis for the cultural and educational reform in modern Japan.

For the purpose of education, the Meiji government took learning from the West? The establishment of cultural education is regarded as the foundation of the country. 1879, the Japanese emperor promulgated the "syllabus", which strongly advocated instilling Confucian moral education while learning and absorbing western capitalist culture, science and technology; It is emphasized that the purpose of Japanese cultural education is to form the ideology and morality of loyalty, filial piety, benevolence and righteousness according to the precepts of ancestors, and it is also required to hang the past and the present in schools. Loyal ministers, righteous men and filial daughters? Portrait of. Does "saving the country through education" need subjects? Once you are in crisis, you will bravely and loyally face the public to help you. Infinite emperor is far away? . Its purpose is to lead the openness of Japanese culture and education to the track of militarism.

In the specific reform of education, there are many measures, frequent rectification and high attention, which are incomparable to any reform. To sum up, there are two aspects; First, based on primary schools, vigorously popularize national education. 1872, Japan formulated and promulgated the first educational reform law, the Academic System Order. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has made great efforts to develop primary education, taking popularizing national compulsory education as its primary task and investing a lot of education funds. Therefore, the speed of popularizing education in modern Japan is very fast. According to the statistics of relevant departments, the learning rate of compulsory education in primary schools was only 28% in 1873 and reached 50.3% in 189 1 year. Second, vigorously revitalize industrial education and cultivate scientific and technological talents. 1872 issued a school system order? It is also stipulated that 10 kinds of industrial schools should be established for industrial (machinery, mining), agricultural, aquatic products, commercial and other vocational and technical education, with special emphasis on the importance of cultivating primary and intermediate technical personnel for developing modern capitalist production. In addition, according to the needs of economic development, various industrial workshops have been established. These two educational activities have trained producers and production technology managers who quickly master western production technology and achieved good results.

The reform of modern Japanese culture and education was carried out under the great attention and promotion of Meiji government. In the process of reform, it is good at absorbing advanced western science and culture, choosing practical education experience that is beneficial to itself, and often summarizing and adjusting it. The reform has generally improved the cultural level of all citizens and trained a number of professionals. This also enables Japan to? . Soon, from a feudal country that lags behind the west, it has become an emerging capitalist country with very rapid progress. ? However, while developing modern culture and education, Japan also forcibly instills it in teenagers and the public? Loyalty and patriotism? ,? Serve the country faithfully? And other ideas, advocate and advocate? Bushido? Japan embarked on the militaristic road of foreign expansion and launching a war of aggression, which brought serious consequences to Japan and world history.

The reform of modern Russian culture and education, like the reform of abolishing serfdom, was carried out from top to bottom. The czar government also promulgated some laws and regulations on cultural and educational reform. For example, the university charter of 1863, the national primary school charter of 1864, and the charter of liberal arts secondary schools and preparatory schools in middle schools, etc. These reform measures mainly include two aspects: First, to meet the needs of the development of capitalism, various practical schools were set up, mainly to meet the growing needs of industrial and commercial personnel engaged in industrial and commercial affairs and attract bourgeois children. Because such schools have close ties with the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie is also very concerned about its development, willing to invest in business, and can train some practical and useful talents suitable for the bourgeoisie to run industry and commerce. The second is to protect the privileged interests of feudal nobles and set up classical liberal arts middle schools, army juvenile schools and missionary schools. The czar's government stipulated that only students who graduated from classical liberal arts middle schools could enter universities. The education of classical arts and sciences schools is to let students spend most of their time on classical subjects, and the study period is eight years. In fact, the students are all aristocratic children. The Army Junior School was specially set up for Russian imperial officers and aristocratic children. This school pays attention to military discipline, martial spirit and? Tadashi? 、? Patriotic? Cultivation of ideas. At the same time, the tsar also kept the church school. In addition, in the constitution of elementary school of 1864, it is clearly stipulated that theology ranks first among all kinds of school teaching subjects, and monks have the priority to be teachers.

These modern cultural and educational reforms in Russia are undoubtedly a milestone in the history of Russian cultural and educational development, making Russian cultural and educational progress in the direction of the bourgeoisie. But ... its military, feudal and theological nature made it more reactionary. In this way, the people are deprived of the right to education, light and knowledge, and there are no other barbaric countries in Europe except Russia.

?

Whether Meiji government and czar government attach importance to modern culture and education. It directly leads to the significant difference in the level of national culture and education, thus more or less affecting the pace of modernization in Japan and Russia.