- clearly distinguish the three different interpretations of why Japan adopted the gold standard
- depending on the explanation/interpretation, there appear to be inconsistencies in Matsukata's thinking: explain.
- use today's and last week's session as an epistemological exercise: what defines the validity of an explanation? Does 'anything go' (i.e. are all explanations equally valid?)? How do we discriminate between explanations, and do he have to (and why?)?
- when preparing the discussion, think about Occam's razor, the Akaike information criterion, and possibly related notions.
Note: compulsory readings have been marked in bold
- Schiltz, Michael. 2012. “Money on the Road to Empire: Japan’s Adoption of Gold Monometallism, 1873–971.” The Economic History Review 65 (3): 1147–1168. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0289.2011.00619.x.
- Droppers, Garrett. 1897. Gold Standard in Japan [Microform] : An Address Delivered to the “Keizai Kyokai” (Economic Society), Saturday, February 20th, 1897. [S.l. : s.n.]. http://archive.org/details/goldstandardinja00drop.
- Droppers, Garrett. 1898. “Monetary Changes in Japan.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 12 (2): 153–85. https://doi.org/10.2307/1882117.
- Masayoshi Matsukata. 1899. Report on the Adoption of the Gold Standard in Japan. Printed at the Government press. http://archive.org/details/reportonadoptio00matsgoog
- Schroeder, F. 1904. “The Present Financial and Monetary Condition of Japan.” Journal of Political Economy 13 (1): 48–65. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1817717.
- Soyeda, Jiuchi. 1905. “Letter from Japan.” The Economic Journal 15 (58): 284–88. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0013-0133%28190506%2915%3A58%3C284%3ALFJ%3E2.0.CO%3B2-2.
- Soyeda, J. 1898. “The Adoption of Gold Monometallism by Japan.” Political Science Quarterly 13 (1): 60–90. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0032-3195%28189803%2913%3A1%3C60%3ATAOGMB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-G.
- US Senate. 1897. Document No. 176: US Senate: Japan and the Gold Standard. Government Printing Office. http://archive.org/details/documentno176uss1897usse.