Monetary Debates and the Gold Standard in a Modernizing Japan: Economic Thought of Japanese Finance Minister Matsukata Masayoshi’s Adoption of the Gold Standard in 1897
Jack He
Published online: 15 Sep 2026
History of Economics Review, 93(1), 41–56.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10370196.2026.2721002
摘要
1897年，明治时期日本财政大臣（Finance Minister）松方正义推动日本放弃银本位制，采用金汇兑本位制，成为继1893年印度之后第一个这样做的亚洲国家。
尽管一段持续的黄金升值——这有利于日本的出口和工业——但为什么松方拥抱黄金单本位制（gold monometallism）？
本文聚焦于松方1899年的《日本采用金本位制报告》（Report on the Adoption of the Gold Standard in Japan），并将他的论点置于德川时代与古典经济学思想的背景中。
然后，本文将松方与美国经济学家弗朗西斯·阿马萨·沃克（Francis Amasa Walker）对黄金引发的通货紧缩（gold-induced deflation）的复本位制批判（bimetallist critique）进行比较，并与战间期（interwar）日本财政大臣高桥是清（Takahashi Korekiyo）在1931年放弃金汇兑本位制（gold-exchange standard）之举进行对比。
In 1897, the Meiji-period Japanese finance minister Matsukata Masayoshi pushed Japan to abandon the silver standard and adopt a gold-exchange standard, becoming the first Asian nation to do so after India in 1893. Despite a sustained period of gold appreciation, which benefitted Japanese exports and industry, why did Matsukata embrace gold monometallism? This paper focuses on Matsukata’s 1899 Report on the Adoption of the Gold Standard in Japan and situates his arguments within Tokugawa and classical economic thought. It then compares Matsukata with American economist Francis Amasa Walker’s bimetallist critique of gold-induced deflation and interwar Japanese finance minister Takahashi Korekiyo’s abandonment of the gold-exchange standard in 1931.