Title:  

Tobacco: Using One Industry to Explore the Development of the Meiji State

Presenter: 

Elizabeth D. Lublin, Associate Professor, WSU History

Date/Time:  

Tuesday, March 8, 12:30pm-1:30pm  

Join us for our upcoming Brown Bag Talk on Zoom at:

https://wayne-edu.zoom.us/j/92425815409?pwd=c2IrUndXL2FjYkpKQlRQRzRraGIrZz09

Meeting ID: 924-2581-5409 

Password: 244113

Abstract: 

Over the course of the Meiji period, the government slowly encroached on the private tobacco industry, initially with periodic increases in taxation and then with the imposition of first a monopoly on leaf sales and then on all tobacco-related production and sales. Its evolving relationship with the industry stemmed in part from a growing awareness of the revenue that could be gained and the need for such to fund domestic nation-building projects and overseas expansion. It also resulted from intrusions into the market by the British-American Tobacco Company and a desire to prevent this foreign firm from profiting at the expense of Japan herself. That the government did not hesitate to advance its own interests at the expense not only of domestic companies but also of BAT showcases how confident and assertive it had become by the early 1900s and makes the tobacco industry a useful case study for examining the maturation of the state

Thank you,