qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqw ertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwert yuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyui opasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopa sdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdf ghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghj klzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklz xcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcv The Importance of bnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbn Institutionalised Education for Economic

Development mqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmq A Comparative Study of Europe and Asia wertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwer Sarah Carmichael tyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyu iopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiop asdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasd fghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfgh jklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklz xcvbnmrtyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbn
MA thesis in Comparative History 2007-2008 Supervised by Jan Luiten van Zanden

Abstract
This thesis addresses the question of whether formalised education and literacy are contributing factors to economic growth. Scotland, England, Japan and China in the 18th and 19th century are examined to compare and contrast the outcomes, and facets of education, and examine if these can provide a partial explanation of the economic divergence between Europe and Asia. The aspects studied are the sources of funding for education, the goal of education and literacy levels in each of the four case studies. A bastardised Boolean method is employed for the analysis while throughout the thesis the cases are explored in detail on each variable. The outcome of this analysis is that high rates of literacy and a loosely defined goal are the necessary conditions for economic growth and low levels of literacy and funding predominantly from private sources are determining conditions for lack of growth.1

Contents
Abstract.................................................................................................................................................2 Contents.................................................................................................................................................2 Chapter 1...............................................................................................................................................5 1.1 Introduction.................................................................................................................................5 1.2 Quantitative Analysis of Economic Growth.................................................................................9 1.3 Explanation of the Comparative Method ..................................................................................11 1.2.1 Real Wages as indicator of economic growth.....................................................................13 1.2.2 Urbanisation as indicator of economic growth....................................................................13 Chapter 2 Units of Analysis...............................................................................................................15 2.1 Socio-economic factors in England, Scotland, Japan and China 1700-1900 .............................15 2.1.1England................................................................................................................................15 2.1.2 Scotland..............................................................................................................................15 2.1.3 Japan...................................................................................................................................16 2.1.4 China...................................................................................................................................17 2.1.5 Choice of units from a chronological perspective...............................................................18 2.2 Real wages and Urbanisation used to create a chronology of economic development ..............18

The cover page of this thesis represents an example of path dependency, that of the QWERTY keyboard. It is also symbolic of new forms of computer literacy which have come to be included in the modern definition of fully literate.

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Chapter 3 - The Institutional Structure.................................................................................................25 3.1 The Sources of Funding for Education.......................................................................................26 3.1.1 England ..............................................................................................................................26 3.1.2 Scotland..............................................................................................................................28 3.1.3 Japan...................................................................................................................................29 3.1.4 China...................................................................................................................................32 3.2 The Goal of Education...............................................................................................................35 3.2.1 England...............................................................................................................................35 3.2.2 Scotland..............................................................................................................................36 3.2.3 Japan...................................................................................................................................36 3.2.4 China...................................................................................................................................37 3.3 A Comparison of the Institutional Framework...........................................................................40 Table 7: Sources of Funding for Primary Education in the four case studies...............................41 Chapter 4 Literacy ...........................................................................................................................42 4.1 The debate about literacy........................................................................................................42 4.2 England .....................................................................................................................................46 Graph 4: Estimated illiteracy of men and women in England, 1500-1900...................................47 Table 9: Houstons postulated illiteracy percentages for Northern England (translated into literacy percentages for consistency) ..........................................................................................48 4.3 Scotland.....................................................................................................................................49 Map 1: Literacy and Gender in Scotland .....................................................................................51 Table 10: Literacy of Married couples by type of district. 1861-1870.........................................52 Table11: Literacy of Married couples by denomination, 1896.....................................................53 4.4 Japan..........................................................................................................................................54 Graph 5: Male/female illiteracy compared in three prefectures...................................................56 Map2: Japanese literacy by district..............................................................................................57 4.5 China..........................................................................................................................................60 4.6 A Comparison of Literacy Levels..............................................................................................63 Table 12: Estimates of Literacy in the four case studies..............................................................64

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Table 13 Averages of literacy for the four case studies................................................................66 Chapter 5 - Boolean Analysis and Conclusions...................................................................................67 5.1 Bastardised Boolean Analysis....................................................................................................67 Table 14 - Summarising Table:....................................................................................................67 Table 15 Bastardised Truth Table:............................................................................................68 Table 16: Labelling the variables.................................................................................................69 5.1.2 Boolean Equations..............................................................................................................69 5.2 Conclusions...............................................................................................................................71 Bibliography........................................................................................................................................75

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Chapter 1
The well Educating of their Children is so much the Duty and Concern of Parents and the Welfare and Prosperity of the Nation so much depends on it, that I would have every one lay it seriously to Heart. John Locke, Some thoughts concerning Education, prefatory letter to Edward Clarke of Chipley, 7 March 16902 1.1 Introduction Why, over the course of time, have some countries experienced strong economic growth and prospered, while others have been left behind? Why did Europe pull so far ahead of the rest of the world, and specifically Asia, in the course of the 18th and 19th centuries? And how long a historical precedent does this economic divide have? These are some of the big questions that historians and economists grapple with and underpin the research of many branches of social science, as they are not only interesting from a historical perspective but also for predicting and observing future developments. The traditionally accepted underlying premise of much work on this subject is that the West has experienced historically exceptional economic growth related to its inherently unique path of development, while the rest of the world stagnated. The divergence between the West and the rest is most often symbolised by reference to the Industrial Revolution and the various social and economic impacts which this poque incurred, causing the most visible advance of Western Europe over the rest of the world. Many factors have been advanced as being of explanatory value for this divergence; from religion3, to factor endowment, to a scientific mindset, to the military competition between European states leading to advances in military technology which allowed for relatively easy victories over foreign cultures and the establishment of colonies overseas, and last but not least human capital formation under the umbrella of which education falls. The traditional school of thought argues that Asia had a long history of being less developed than Europe, or was less culturally geared towards economic growth and this perspective went relatively unquestioned for many years. The basic premise of these theories is that Europe was unique and thus headed towards a path of economic divergence from the rest of the world from an early starting point.4 The debate in recent times has become more heated with academics such as Kenneth Pomeranz and R. Bin Wong jumping into the fray. 5 They attempt to illustrate that the economic divergence between Europe and the rest of the world is not based on a long historical precedent as had previously been purported, but instead that up until the 18th century Europe and Asia were equals across a range of indicators. In their respective accounts
2 3

As quoted in Jewell, H. Education in Early Modern England. Weber, M., The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and Berger, P (ed.) The Capitalist Spirit: Towards a Religious Ethic of Wealth Creation. 4 The exact nature of Europes uniqueness differs depending on which scholar is being consulted. It could lie in the development of property rights and institutions (see the work of Robert Brenner and Douglass North for different takes on this institutional perspective) or in the demographic developments Europe experienced (see the work of John Hajnal for the central arguments underlying this position). 5 Pomeranz, K. The Great Divergence and Wong, B. China Transformed.

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it was only thanks to luck and the fact they had colonies that Europe avoided an economic, proto-industrial cul de sac. In other words they see Europe and more specifically England as becoming a fortunate freak only when unexpected and significant discontinuities in the late eighteenth and especially nineteenth century enabled it to break through the fundamental constraints of energy use and resource availability that had previously limited everyones horizon.6 In their view the industrial revolution was an accident, a lucky fluke, which cannot be predicted by looking at long-term European or world history. Although elements of their work can certainly be criticised they have generated momentum for a rethink of the overly simplistic Asian model bad, European model good line of reasoning. Over time the academic community has seen the growth of a revisionist school of historians whose research agenda is to re-evaluate various aspects of European and Asian history in light of this. What follows is an evaluation of the role education played in the divergence between Europe and the rest of the world and whether any significant differences can be found which laid a foundation for Europe to pull economically ahead of Asia. However, the term education is a somewhat vague notion in need of definition. Education can be defined as the bringing up or training of, for example, a child. For the purposes of this study the focus shall be on the training rather than on the bringing up. Training processes are more general in their scope and content than the specifics of household dynamics and records of them more readily available. The historical contributions of training processes to economic growth are also important to look at as they shed light upon the link between human capital formation and economic growth and therefore justify the investments made in this form of capital through public and private expenditure. Education in the context of this thesis shall be taken to mean society supported, institutionalised educational facilities and training processes. Apprenticeships will not be discussed, as although interesting and worth studying they do not fall within the scope of this study. Obviously, education is not the only variable which accounts for the economic divergence, but evaluating its importance is relevant to current affairs, as will be illustrated shortly, and thus interesting to look at not just from a historical perspective. This thesis addresses the issue of the utility of education and its contribution to economic growth by comparing four countries in the 18th and 19th century, Scotland, England, Japan and China. By studying two Asian and two European countries the hope is to illustrate how different education systems contributed to their development and importantly how Japan, which modernised and industrialised shortly after Europe, differed from China, which lagged behind. Why did some countries develop national systems of education earlier than others? And how did this contribute to the education levels of their populations? What did this mean for the relative economic performance of the countries in question? These are issues that are pertinent in society today and ones that this thesis aims to discuss and address. Education and improvements in our knowledge increases the volume that one can obtain from the production function of an economy. Thus far it has often been considered an exogenous factor and taken for granted. The value of public spending on education and the utility of increased human capital is a theme in political debate in many countries of the Western
6

Pomeranz, K. The Great Divergence, p. 207.

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world. Listening to such political dialogue on education is one of the quickest ways to develop an understanding of any modern society.7 In the United Kingdom barely a day goes by during which schooling and education is not represented in the news. In the Netherlands this debate takes the form of heated argument over whether the change to a system with a basisvorming or minimum educational attainment level that all students must reach in a wide range of subjects regardless of their actual skill potentials in specific subjects is actually of value. What this debate boils down to is the question of how best to foster high levels of human capital development and create valuable additions to the labour market. Parents investing in their children and governments investing in their citizens need to know how education relates to performance on a globally comparative scale. In order to investigate this one must delve into the history of education. As Charles Tilly points out in the first essay of his book Big Structures, Large Processes, Huge Comparisons the apparatus of Western European everyday life (and under this heading he cites ideas on education as the foremost example) still bears strong markings of the nineteenth century.8 Looking at the historic foundations of educational systems and what they achieved may be the best way to shed light on how to address the future of education. Peter Lindert in Growing Public, a two-volume work on the rise of the welfare state, discusses the cost of social spending and the rise of public education. He concludes that the welfare state and social spending have no net cost for a society therefore states should continue to sponsor such things as public education, pensions and unemployment benefits. Lindert argues that the reason public education did not make headway until the late 19th century was not for lack of leaders who made the case for public school but rather due to an uneven distribution of access to the ability to voice a political opinion.9 For Lindert this lack of access to political voice is essentially a lack of fully-fledged democracy. He uses the metaphor of the Robin Hood paradox to describe how throughout history redistribution from rich to poor has occurred when and where it is most needed. 10 Robin Hood failing to appear, or in other words a lack of redistribution of income from rich to poor, is, in Linderts view, a result of the concentration of power in the hands of the rich. 11 This entailed that social spending would only occur where the rich perceived it to be in their economic self- interest. He illustrates this with the example of relatively high British poor relief from 1782 to 1834 as being in the self-interest of wealthy English farmers. It ensured that the poor stayed in the
7 8

Marshall, B. Learning to be Modern Japanese Political Discourse Education, p. 1. Tilly, C. Big Structures, Large Processes, Huge Comparison, p. 1. Tilly makes the point that until this day we behave as though the effective way to prepare young intellects for the fight ahead were to divide all youngsters of a certain age into groups of twenty or thirty, place each group in a closed room with a somewhat older person... arrange for the older person to talk to them for hours each day,.. and require them to speak periodically in class about the exercises they have written... (Young people who survive a dozen years or so of that treatment often move on to the even stranger system of the lecture; the older person gets to talk at them without interruption for fifty minutes at a time. Very nineteenth century!) (Tilly, p. 2). A further example of this would be the fact that French higher education has remained almost unchanged in form and structure since the 18th century. 9 Lindert, P. Growing Public, p. 9. 10 Lindert. P. Growing Public, p. 15. 11 Lindert. P. Growing Public, p. 22.

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area providing a guaranteed seasonal labour force. Thus redistribution of income would only occur where it served a purpose for those with money and political power. Despite the concentration of political power in the hands of the rich there were those amongst the upper classes who perceived the value of education to society as a whole thus justifying social spending on education as being in the self-interest of the elite. Famous early political voices in support of publicly funded education include Adam Smith and Thomas Jefferson.12 Smiths view was that tax money should be used to provide primary education because it was a good that would not be adequately supplied by free market forces: The education of the common people requires, perhaps, in a civilised and commercial society, the attention of the public, more than that of people of some rank and fortune... For a very small expense the public can facilitate, can encourage and can even impose upon almost the whole body of the people, the necessity of acquiring those most essential parts of education.13 His view on the English higher education institutions of the time, namely Oxford and Cambridge, was not so positive. In his view the professors of said institutions had long since given up attempting to educate their pupils, more interested in maintaining their status than attempting to teach effectively. Nevertheless he saw primary education as something that could be useful to the economy, as it would counter the intellectual stagnation that would otherwise occur in a society where the level of division of labour was great i.e. where people performed one very basic task in a production process. He therefore argues that education in reading, writing and accounting (the most essential parts of education that he is referring to above) should be subsidised, although not fully paid for, by the state through the establishment of a little school in every parish or district. 14 This sort of good which requires government subsidy is known in economic terms as a pure or quasi-public good i.e. one for which private enterprise will not find it profitable enough to cater to the demand in the market. Such goods have historically included education, transport, postal services and prisons. Yet before the 19th century these public goods were barely funded by public funds 15, so what systems did exist for the education of the poor and indeed for the provision of education in general? One aspect this thesis will look at is where the funding of education in each of the four case studies came from i.e. what groups within society were providing the financial support for education to take place. The extent to which human capital formation provides an impetus or is a necessary precondition for economic growth and development is a topic of some considerable controversy. As a part of human capital formation education, in its formal and informal form, plays an important role. Discussion of the history of human capital formation must necessarily focus on the institutions that are in place in countries which support or thwart human capital
12 13

Lindert, P. Growing Public, p. 10. Smith, A. The Wealth of Nations. Book V, p. 507. 14 Smith, A. The Wealth of Nations. Book V, p. 508. 15 i.e. money generated from tax revenues.

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formation. The following quote sums up the institutional background against which European economic development took place: Economic development may take place in a variety of institutional contexts... Clearly, however, some legal and social environments, just as some natural environments, are more conducive to material advance than others. The institutional setting for economic activity in nineteenth-century Europe, which produced the first industrial civilization, gave wide scope to individual initiative and enterprise, permitted freedom of occupational choice and geographical and social mobility, relied on private property and the rule of law, and emphasized the use of rationality and science in the pursuit of material ends. None of these elements was wholly new in the nineteenth century, but their juxtaposition and the explicit recognition granted to them made them powerful contributors to the process of economic development.16 Here the idea of the institutional setting being conducive to growth is clearly evident. Educational facilities are an expression and part of Europeans institutional framework and counts as one of the powerful contributors to the process of economic development mentioned. 1.2 Quantitative Analysis of Economic Growth Quantitative analysis of economic growth is facilitated by means of growth accounting. In such a process economists seek to disaggregate the causes of growth. Economic growth is often argued to be fuelled by changes in one of two things; either physical capital accumulation, i.e. changes in the quality of labour and the residual which is left over after the effects of physical capital accumulation have been accounted for, or Total Factor Productivity, TFP for short.17 TFP is meant to capture factors exogenous to the model for economic growth, for example the effects of technological progress and the contribution of knowledge. Growth accounting, as a statistical manipulation of the production function, was a concept developed and pioneered by Edward Denison, but it relies on certain assumptions as it is not possible to definitively separate the various contributions to growth of each of the factors of production.18 One has to assign weights to the factors of production in some way to arrive at an approximation of the contributions of the various factors and the manner in which this is determined is based on assumptions of the relative importance of each factor. Human capital is the term used as an over-arching description of some of these hard to measure factors. Insertion of human capital into growth models attempts to make endogenous the main factors driving economic growth in order to explain trends of long-term economic growth. This is a feature of many of the new growth theories, which resulted from dissatisfaction with the neo-classical models of economic growth where expansion was determined exogenously. This meant that with no outside input growth would tend to zero, which proved to be an unrealistic assumption and one that the new growth theories strive to overcome. The inclusion of human capital as a factor of production, as put forward by Lucas,
16 17

Cameron and Neal, A Concise Economic History of the World, pp. 206-207. Penguin Reference, Dictionary of Economics, p. 166. 18 Denison, for example, assumed that factors of production should be weighed according to their shares in the national accounts (Penguin Reference, Dictionary of Economics, p.166).

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allowed for increasing returns to human capital accumulation thus endogenising growth. Used in this way human capital comes to mean an increase in skills embodied in a worker.19 Some definitions of human capital include life expectancy as a factor, as high life expectancy increases the number of years a person can be economically active. However this is not the side of human capital that will be explored here. In what follows human capital and human capital formation shall be defined as the enriching of the work force through increased formal educational attainment i.e. improvements in the skills of workers through education. Human capital is an elusive concept impossible to measure directly, therefore proxy variables have to be used in an attempt to quantify it, such as literacy, numeracy, average number of years spent in school etc. When analysing the effect of human capital formation and education on economic growth it is important to realise that this cannot be the sole factor driving economic growth and development. Other variables such as capital accumulation and resources of course play key roles. While acknowledging that this is the case this thesis will look at differences in education in four different countries to see what its contribution was to the economic growth of the time, as the pertinent societal concerns surrounding the subject make it a relevant topic. This is an issue which lends itself to comparative historical research, as it is only through study of historically specific changes that we can arrive at a useful analysis of the social processes which were at work.20 When choosing facets by which to evaluate the contribution that human capital makes to the economic growth of a country the list of possible variables that come to mind is considerable; from school enrolment to numeracy to book ownership, the list is a well populated one. For the purposes of clarity and brevity this thesis explores three such aspects. Firstly it will look at the institutional framework within which education took place and under this heading two main aspects: who was funding education and what was goal of education. The origin of funding of education is important to consider, to get an idea of its inclusive or exclusive nature. This is key in establishing whether education perpetuated the existence of an elitist literati with very high levels of literacy while suppressing the rise of a literate under class, or whether it encouraged the creation of a broader literate population base. By the goal of education I mean whether it strove towards a narrowly defined goal of religious salvation through the reading of the scripture or exams to enter the bureaucratic system or whether it had a broader humanist perspective in mind of the development of mans individuality through learning. In addition to funding and goals the thesis will explore the outcomes of the institutional structure by considering the literacy levels in all four case studies and the information which surrounds explorations of literacy. Literacy is frequently used as a proxy for human capital and therefore important to explore in relation to economic growth. These three aspects should give sufficient insight into the educational situation in the four case studies to be able to draw a tentative conclusion regarding the link between education and economic growth. Economic growth, as a variable, will be evaluated by using real wages and urbanisation rates in the four case studies. For further explanation see Chapter 2. These aspects have been chosen as they are some of the few for which relatively good historical
19 20

Van Leeuwen, B. Human Capital and Economic Growth in India, Indonesia and Japan, p. 31. Tilly, C. Big Structures, p. 50.

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data exists. Therefore, in order to make a meaningful, well-informed comparison they are the best aspects on which to focus the discussion. 1.3 Explanation of the Comparative Method This section summarises the comparative method as it is to be used in the rest of this thesis and gives a brief overview of the characteristics and important historical events of the case studies to be discussed in the early modern period to give background to the later discussion of education. Tillys aforementioned essay collection is a plea for historically grounded analysis of big structures and large processes as alternatives to the timeless, placeless models of social organisation and social change that came to us with the nineteenth century. 21 The comparative method aims to find answers to questions on why a given outcome occurred or failed to occur by comparing and contrasting cases of success and failure. Tilly puts forward four different types of comparison that a researcher may use. These are individualising, universalising, variation finding and encompassing comparisons. Individualising comparisons highlight one specific case and use other cases to show what the peculiar nature of this selected case is. Universalising comparisons attempt to establish general patterns. Variationfinding comparisons try to establish what sets one case apart from another and are interested in variations of a phenomenon. Finally the highest stage of comparison in Tillys classification system is the encompassing comparison. The idea of this type of comparison is to try to identify variation and then to understand the overarching systems in which these variations occur.22 This thesis undertakes a variation-finding comparison with elements of individualising to bring out the differences between the cases at a macrohistorical level. Macrohistorical structures are the largest units of analysis that this thesis can sensibly seek to analyse and are the attainable big structures, large processes, and huge comparisons that Tilly actually has in mind when he makes his case for historically grounded treatment of structures and processes as our surest path to knowledge.23 Tilly, despite presenting useful classifications of the types of comparisons that can be made and the reasons for taking on board a comparative method does little to describe how one should set up a comparative framework and devise a method. The Boolean method using Boolean Algebra put forward by Charles Ragin in his book, The Comparative Method, addresses exactly what Tilly fails to. It allows for complex causation of social phenomena by the combinatorial logic it employs.24 By coding the data using a binary system it simplifies the picture that is created, but still requires that researchers have an in-depth knowledge of their cases to be able to reach meaningful results. It thus incorporates the strong simplifying nature of quantitative research with the depth of knowledge required of qualitative research. The method works best with a large number of cases, from which a useful truth table can be derived. Four cases are not enough to construct a genuine truth table showing all possible
21 22

Tilly, C. Big Structures, p. 1. Tilly, C. Big Structures, pp. 82-83. 23 Tilly, C. Big Structures, p. 64, 24 Ragin, C. The Comparative Method.

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combinations of causes and outcomes. Therefore as the range of cases is limited there may be other combinations which are simply not covered by the data set of this thesis. However other aspects of the Boolean method can still be employed. In this thesis the main aspects that shall be borrowed from the Boolean method, to create a bastardised form of the method, will be the coding of the data into 1s and 0s indicating presence or absence of a variable (either dependent of independent) and a bastardised truth table that shows some simplified conclusions based on the limited number of cases. The resultant table and Boolean equation summarise the data to provide an overview of the similarities and differences between the four cases. The Boolean Method as is a tool, within the wider framework of the field of comparative history, by which the study of history can be made more systematic. It is a strategy which aims to move beyond simple qualitative or quantitative methods to develop a synthesis of the two incorporating the strengths of both. Case-oriented approaches have the potential to produce explanations combining numerous causes. However this approach also has its flaws, namely that research conducted along these lines usually only revolves around one or two examples and therefore does not generalise to larger processes. Furthermore the addition of one extra case increases their complexity exponentially thus making them unwieldy. Variable-oriented approaches are precise and can cope with large sample sizes while reducing complexity. Unfortunately this is at the expense of precise knowledge of the cases and can produce robotic analysis which loses touch with the reality of cases. By using Boolean methods the aim is to be able to have the researcher ground their theory in historical reality as opposed to creating concepts in the abstract, while still retaining some of the complexity of the cases. Comparative methods are subjected to considerable criticism due to their simplifying nature. In order to make any sort of comparison, details must occasionally be ignored. This flies in the face of much historical research, which seeks to add to the complexity of an issue involving specific case studies by examining extra facets which set it apart. In the Boolean method the coding of the data using a binary classification system represents just such a problem. It permits no median values or cases, but forces the researcher to classify the case as either one or the other. This allows for useful comparisons at the cost of some of the complexity of the cases, something which many historians object to. However, despite the objections raised, it remains a useful method for those wishing to conduct meaningful comparisons both on a chronological and a geographical level. The loss of some degree of detail comes with the reward of a systematic approach to the study of history, whereby cases can be compared and contrasted logically to generate clear overviews of what the similarities and differences between the cases are and, hopefully, useful outcomes . This thesis will takes its inspiration from Boolean methodology while still exploring the fine-grain details of each case in the subsections of the subsequent chapters. The 18th and 19th centuries were a period of great upheaval and change. Compared to early periods the most novel feature was the extent of capital formation and accumulation which economically is the most distinctive feature of the modern period. The most remarkable occurrence was that of the industrial revolution in the late 18 th and early 19th century, which resulted in fundamental shifts in the ways people lived. The next chapter will 12 of 79

outline the trends in economic growth throughout the period using projections of GDP back through time and real wage data to try and establish what the situation was in each of the four case studies and in order to illuminate the chronology in order to be able to link these movements to changes in the aspects of education to be discussed.
1.2.1 Real Wages as indicator of economic growth

In order to analyse the chronology of economic development to establish a tentative link to developments in human capital formation this thesis must address one of the most contentious issues in current economic history, that of the comparative standard of living of Europeans and Asians on the eve of the Industrial Revolution.25 The classical view is that European standards of living, and therefore real wages, had diverged from those of Asia prior to the industrial revolution. The revisionist perspective argues that Asian standards of living were equal to those in Europe in the eighteenth century and dispute the demographic and agrarian assumptions that underpin the traditional view.26 The data available is patchy at best, and subject to interpretation. However this thesis will make use of the research of some of the leading scholars in the field, which are derived from a wide variety of sources, to ensure the highest possible standards of data. Studies of comparisons of real wages are used to illustrate changes in economic growth. Yet there is some considerable disagreement as to whether increases in real wages are a cause of economic growth or whether they should be taken as an indicator. Revisionist academics have worked on illustrating that Asian and European real wages were almost the same up until the industrial revolution and therefore a divergence in wages is not the cause of economic growth.27 Others have argued that the reason for Europes success lies in the low real wages of skilled labour, i.e. that the low skills premium in Europe worked to its advantage.28 For the purposes of this thesis, trends in real wages will be considered indicators of economic growth, although there may be a time lag between the start of an economic takeoff and the associated rises in living standards. Nevertheless, in order to determine a rough chronology of events real wages shall be used as an indicator, ignoring to some extent the quibbles as to their relevance and role.
1.2.2 Urbanisation as indicator of economic growth

Another indicator of economic growth is the level of urbanisation. Greater levels of urbanisation indicate that society has overcome the need to have the bulk of their population involved in the direct production of primary products e.g. food and is therefore able to start developing economically. Surpluses from the countryside are needed to feed the populace of the urban agglomerations and therefore markets and transport facilities must be functioning with some degree of fluidity in order to support a threshold population of urban residents who are not self sufficient. In this field too one finds debate between revisionists and
25 26

Allen, R. et al. Wages, Prices and Living Standards in China, Japan and Europe, 1738-1925, p. 3. Allen, R. et al. Wages, Prices and Living Standards in China, Japan and Europe, 1738-1925, p. 3. 27 Parthasarathi, P. Rethinking Wages and Competitiveness in the eighteenth century: Britain and South India Past and Present; Number 158, and Pomeranz, K., The Great Divergence. 28 Van Zanden, J. Common workmen, philosophers and the birth of the European knowledge economy. About the price and the production of useful knowledge in Europe 1350-1800, p. 17.

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traditionalists as to the cause-effect relationship between agricultural development and the rise of urbanisation.29 For the sake of brevity these arguments will largely be ignored as cities wide spread urbanisation is largely accepted as being indicative of a certain level of economic complexity within society. Thus levels of urbanisation are indicative of economic development and shall be looked at to illustrate the chronology of an economic take off where one occurred.

29

See John Rennie Shorts The Urban Order for a discussion of this.

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Chapter 2 Units of Analysis

2.1 Socio-economic factors in England, Scotland, Japan and China 1700-1900 The following sections give a brief overview of the history of the four cases, for the time period considered, and elaborate on the justifications for the units of analysis. The last section provides a chronology of economic growth for each of the units of analysis.
2.1.1England

The most noteworthy feature of English history in the 18th and 19th century is the industrial revolution. Although some argue that this term is a misleading misnomer in light of the fact that the word revolution implies a sudden occurrence, which belies the reality of economic processes,30 it is still widely accepted because the era embodies a fundamental and revolutionary change in the way in which we consume and produce. As such the term shall be used to describe that period of time from approximately 1750 until 1850 when industrial processes were beginning to be employed en masse, urbanisation increased and the relative importance of agriculture was diminished. Standards of living rose as a result of industrialisation although this relationship was not entirely straightforward. Overcrowding in cities and horrendous working conditions could be argued to have, and indeed must have depressed living standards considerably at the dawn of the industrial era. However taking a long-run perspective, living standards have undoubtedly risen as a result of the economic growth which the industrial revolution supported. Graphs of real wage movements for the United Kingdom as a whole and for London are presented in section 1.4
2.1.2 Scotland

Some of the most important events in the formation of modern day Scotland occurred during the 18th and 19th centuries. From the Act of Union in 1707, which saw Scotland voluntarily formally tied to England under one crown, to the Enlightenment period of the mid-18th century, to the Disruption of 1843 (which resulted in a fundamental rift in the church) to the demographic explosion of this period these two centuries were some of the most eventful in Scottish history. The Scotland of the mid-eighteenth century was, in many senses, poor and backward country with the majority of its population still engaged in subsistence agricultural production however within a century Scotland stood alongside England at the very forefront of the worlds industrial nations.31 Although Scotland contained only one seventh of the entire population of Great Britain it was producing one fifth of the cotton textiles of the nation and

30 31

Cameron and Neal, A Concise Economic History of the World, p. 163. Cameron and Neal, A Concise Economic History of the World, p. 183.

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one fourth of the pig iron.32 Scots were to be found in the capacity of leading innovators and entrepreneurs in the chemical and engineering industries. In short, Scotlands transformation from backward household economy to leading industrial economy was even more spectacular than the contemporary industrialisation of England.33 The separation of England and Scotland into two distinct units of analysis could be contested. For the purposes of this thesis the division is due to very different developments in the two countries within the greater British whole. Officially they may have been the same country but England was considered the seedbed of the industrial revolution whereas Scotland is seen as having followed its southern neighbour down this path at a somewhat delayed pace. Also educational systems differed between the two areas thus making it important to distinguish between the two in the context of this paper. The 1707 union can be seen as a bargain in which the original Scottish elites retained control of civil society i.e. those areas of the social and cultural life of the country on which their power and influence depended.34
2.1.3 Japan

Japan is often cited as a case of non-European successful early industrialisation and held to have achieved better rates of growth than its Asian counterparts. An article by Debin Ma, Why Japan, not China, was the first to develop in east Asia: Lessons from sericulture, 1850-1937 outlines the process by which Japan succeeded in overtaking the Chinese in the silk production industry and attributes this to the technological and institutional innovation in Japan.35 Implicit in this is the improved levels of formalised education demanded by Meiji legislation which served Japans economic needs well as the Meiji restoration of 1868 sought to modernise the Japanese nation. However, these heightened levels of formal education built on the foundations laid during the Tokugawa era, when a burgeoning literati culture arose both in Japan's urban commercial hubs and in the rural districts. Because of the political and social change that occurred as a result of the restoration Japan shall sometimes be treated as a Tokugawa unit of analysis and sometimes as a post-Meiji restoration unit of analysis. The early modern history of Japan is often defined the period of time from the rise of power of the Tokugawa family in the beginning of the 17th century until the Meiji restoration of 1868 which toppled them from power. Under the rule of Tokugawa Ieyasu36 the country was turned from a nation of warring samurais to a unified entity with power vested in the Tokugawa shoguns and a figurehead emperor who rubber-stamped the appointments of the Tokugawa shoguns. The Tokugawa shogunate lasted over 250 years ending when Tokugawa Yoshinobu handed power over to Emperor Meiji in 1867. These two periods are distinct in
32

Cullen, L.M. and Smout, T.C. Comparative Aspects of Scottish and Irish Economic and Social History, 16001900, p.22. 33 Cameron and Neal, A Concise Economic History of the World, p. 183. 34 Anderson, R. Education and the Scottish People 1750-1918. 35 Ma, D. Why Japan, not China, was the first to develop in east Asia: Lessons from sericulture, 1850-1937 Economic Development and Cultural Change. 36 Names in Japanese are given in the order family name first followed by given, or pen name as is dictated by Japanese custom.

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their institutional organisation although continuity between the two exists. For this reason, in the conclusion they are split into two separate cases. Tokugawa Japan represents a case of partial success economically while the Meiji era is taken as being a successful case. One key circumstance in terms of the development of Japanese society that predates the Tokugawa era was the sword-hunt instigated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi was a daimyo, or feudal ruler, from the 1570s until his death in 1598. He was responsible for taking the initial steps towards the unification of Japan eventually to be completed by Tokugawa Ieyasu. His most noted cultural legacy however is the legislation that brought about the separation between samurai retainees of the daimyos, and country farmers. Laws were introduced stipulating that only the samurai class had the exclusive right to bear arms and further demanded that samurais move to the fortified cities or castle-towns which were the administrative centres of the various districts. This meant that no longer could samurais dabble in the arts of warfare and agriculture, as had previously been the case, but that they had to choose between the two. The result of this was the creation of a bureaucratic class in the form of an urban samurai elite, in the cities of the daimyo retainers, serving a variety of administrative bureaucratic functions.
2.1.4 China

Early modern China is for a large part synonymous with the rule of the last Imperial dynasty, that of the Qing (alternatively Ch'ing) dynasty. The Qing came to power in 1644 following the collapse of Ming rule and ruled the country for almost 300 years until 1911. The Qing were not warlords or rebel leaders, as the founders of previous dynasties had been, but were the chieftains of a non-Chinese people, the Manchu.37 Under Qing rule China took a turn towards becoming a more conservative society. This phenomenon had philosophical, social, political and probably even economic roots.38 Social order had collapsed in the late Ming era and the conquest by the Manchu served as seemingly undeniable proof that the increasingly open and fluid society that had developed under the Ming dynasty was dangerous. This had a knock on effect for education as the open transfer of information, which had prospered in the Ming period, was made to seem like a dangerous phenomenon and thus restricted. To take China as one unit of analysis is problematic as it is such a large country with a wide range of ethnic groups and substantial economic differences between regions. Often authors will treat one part of China when discussing developments in said country. Pomeranz, for instance, focuses on the lower Yangtze Delta and compares this core region to the core regions of Europe, the Netherlands and Great Britain, and the Kanto plain of Japan. Similarly, Angela Ki Che Leung in her chapter of the book Education and Society in Late Imperial China 1600-1900, examines education in the Lower Yangtze Delta because, although it is not a typical region it comes closest to the Chinese ideal version of elementary education for
37

Nowadays the Manchu are considered to be a part of the larger Chinese population which is made up of multiple different tribes and ethnicities however at the time they were an outsider group who conquered the ancient Chinese nation. 38 Ebrey, P. China, p.228.

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the period under consideration.39 For this thesis, treating China as a whole is not as problematic as might be supposed. The 18th and 19th centuries were the period during which the Qing dynasty moved to unite the country under one national identity. This means that in terms of education similar processes were taking place countrywide. Secondly, all countries of the period display regional differences in their economic performance and educational attainment. Evidence of regional differences should therefore not dismiss using China as a whole as a unit for discussion. Thirdly when talking about literacy and facets of education many previous texts present information on a country level, only occasionally zooming in to describe the specifics of individual regions. Where the literature allows for this and where it is illuminating, this thesis will provide similarly detailed examples. However, the statistical (in as far as it warrants that name) data that is available is often presented for China as a whole so in light of this China shall be taken as being one unit of analysis. When considering China from a comparative perspective, it is important to avoid the China = failure, Europe = success dichotomy. This is stressed by Bin Wong in his book China Transformed. He seeks to make his comparison on a bilateral basis, i.e. look at Europe from a Chinese perspective and China from a European one. This thesis is not based on the premise that China was a failure but attempts to explain how differences in education may have affected the different growth rates.
2.1.5 Choice of units from a chronological perspective

The 18th and 19th centuries represent the period during which the greatest economic upheaval the world has ever seen took place. As such any theories as to why Europe diverged from Asia must be tested in relation to this period. Taking a long historical perspective complicates matters further and is not within the scope of this thesis. A comparison of education from 1500 until the present day would be a very interesting and potentially fruitful undertaking. However, in order to give this thesis some chronological focus the 18th and 19th centuries were chosen due to the key economic developments that were playing out during this era. 2.2 Real wages and Urbanisation used to create a chronology of economic development In order to evaluate the effect of education on economic growth a chronology must be created of the economic growth of the four case studies over the 18th and 19th centuries. In order to do this, the real wage trends described in the previous sections and accounts of urbanisation levels will be used to build a picture of what happened when. China is, in many senses, a special case. This is true of urbanisation and urban areas, which were rather different from those of the other three countries under discussion. This is partially explained by a quote from Rozmans study of urban networks in China and Japan: Chinas urban activities were more dispersed. The Japanese lived in larger cities than Chinese urban residents. In this respect Tokugawa Japan was a more centralized society and
39

Angela Ki Che Leung, "Elementary Education in the Lower Yangtze Region in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries," Benjamin A. Elman and Alexander Woodside (eds.), Education and Society in Late Imperial China, 1600-1900, p. 381.

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it was also a more urbanized society. By 1700 the proportion of Japanese cities climbed to at least twice the figure for the Chinese Development of Japans urban network was rushing forward ahead of its neighbours.40 In addition to being more dispersed and smaller, urban areas in China were also often artificially constructed to serve the purpose of resettlement in areas not under cultivation and as garrison towns for the banner troops in the outlying provinces of the country. They were not as commercial as their European and Japanese equivalents and did not represent a new burst of economic activity or a transforming force in Chinese society.41 In China the city was the centre to which the imperial bureaucracy naturally gravitated. Early modern European cities had developed within a feudalized rural society before the state as an entity had really come into existence. 42 Cities in Europe were frequently independent powers which rulers had to be careful not to offend whereas cities in China represented the imperial or military bureaucracy.
Table 1: Percentage of population residing in urbanised settlements mid 19 th century

Country China Japan Scotland United Kingdom

Urban (percent) 5.9 16.6 52 50

Source: China + Japan - Rozman, G. Urban Networks in Ching China and Tokugawa Japan, p.274, Scotland + England Cipolla, C. Literacy and Development in the West, p.74

Table 1 displays the different percentages of the population living in urban agglomerations for each country. As can clearly be observed Scotland and England lead the way. Japan has a 10 percent lead over China which is noteworthy in view of the fact that Chinas urban history predates that of Japan by many centuries.43 It would therefore seem that China is the least urbanised of the cases being scrutinised while Japan lags behind England and Scotland but has a distinct lead on China by the mid 19th century. In their critique of Pomeranzs view Robert Brenner and Christopher Isett use urbanisation to illustrate that China was not on a level with Europe at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.44 In order to do this they follow Pomeranz in comparing the Yangzi delta, which was one of Chinas most developed areas at the time, to England. They demonstrate that Chinese (or rather Yangzi delta) cities were serving a more limited number of functions than their English counterparts and were therefore less significant in pushing
40 41

Rozman, G. Urban Networks in Ching China and Tokugawa Japan, p. 6. Rozman, G. Urban Networks in Ching China and Tokugawa Japan, p. 14. 42 Feuerwerker, A. The State and the Economy in Late Imperial China Modern China. 43 Rozman, G. Urban Networks in Ching China and Tokugawa Japan, p. 13. 44 Brenner, R and Isett, C. Englands Divergence from Chinas Yangzi Delta: Property Relations, Microeconomics, and Patterns of Development.

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forward economic development. Whereas small English market towns served the purpose of central hubs in the exchange of goods and services between those of the urban domain and rural residents, Yangzi delta small market towns had to act as conduits for long-distance trade to make up for the growing agricultural deficits of the region. It can therefore be argued that the delta towns were emblematic of the failures of the region and preserved the status quo rather than being symbols of vitality and economic prosperity. They also make the important point that although the absolute number of towns and urban population doubles between the 1520s and the 1820s the Yangzi delta population experienced similar growth rates thus entailing that there was no proportional rise in the numbers of urban dwellers.45 Although they do not provide statistical data for the preceding centuries the low urbanisation figures for China in 1840 as compared to Britain can be observed in table 2:
Table 2: Percentage of Urban and Urban-plus-Rural Non-agricultural Population

Source: Brenner, R and Isett, C. Englands Divergence from Chinas Yangzi Delta: Property Relations, Microeconomics, and Patterns of Development, p.29.

Table 2 demonstrates that China as a whole had urbanisation percentages in 1840 which were lower than those exhibited by England in 1600. The estimate of 4% of the population living in urban areas in 1840 is fairly close to Skinners estimate of 5.1 percent for 1843. 46 The Yangzi delta compares more favourably, having almost reached the level that English urbanisation stood at in 1700 but a far smaller proportion of the population is involved in non agricultural pursuits than in England. Table 2 suggests that unless China experienced deurbanisation, England pulled ahead of China in terms of being able to support a large proportion of society in non-agricultural endeavours from 1700 onwards with urbanisation pulling significantly ahead by 1800. This is further reinforced by the fact that only five percent of the Chinese population were involved in non-agricultural pursuits which suggests a rather backward society, in the sense that the move to industrial activity has not been made and the economy was still predominantly based on agrarian activity. In their analysis of the standards of living in Europe and Asia Allen and company reduce wages to calorie and protein content to overcome the problem of staple subsistence
45

Brenner, R and Isett, C. Englands Divergence from Chinas Yangzi Delta: Property Relations, Microeconomics, and Patterns of Development, p.29. 46 Skinner, G. W. (ed.), The City in Late Imperial China.

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foods being very different at opposite ends of the Eurasian landmass. They use welfare ratios47 to compare London to relevant parts of Asia. This produces graph 1:
Graph 1: Welfare ratios in London and Asia

Source: Allen, R. et al. Wages, Prices and Living Standards in China, Japan and Europe, 1738-1925, p. 60.

London clearly had higher welfare ratios for the entire period depicted. Japan and China, or at least urban Beijing are level pegging up until the late 19 th century when Japan starts to pull ahead, gradually at first and then sharply in the 1920s. This shows the divergence between Europe and Asia having been an established trend since before 1720 but that the gap widens significantly from the start of the 19th century onwards. It also shows that Japan pulls ahead of its Asian counter-part from the start of the 20th century onwards Graph 2 uses data extrapolated by Maddison to illustrate movements in GDP per capita from 1750 until 1925 in Geary-Khamis dollars:
Graph 2: GDP per capita from 1750-1925 in Geary-Khamis dollars

47

Welfare ratios are standards of living (i.e. real wages) expressed as relative to an indifference curve. The use of welfare ratios is an attempt to show whether a labourer earning a given real wage could provide for his family at the stipulated level of consumption. Reaching a welfare ratio of one indicates this ability.

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Source: Maddison, A. World Population, GDP and per capita GDP, 1-2003 AD. Available at http://www.ggdc.net/maddison/.

Here Japans divergence from China is seen to occur slightly earlier than in graph 1, in 1870, thus coinciding almost exactly with the Meiji restoration. This reinforces the reasons for treating Tokugawa Japan and post-Meiji restoration Japan as somewhat separate units for analysiss sake, because the outcome of economic growth differs between the two periods. Maddisons data is open to much criticism and therefore should be taken with a pinch of salt. However his figures do show the general trend of Japan diverging from China during the 19 th century. There is evidence that even before the Meiji restoration Japan was the only country outside the European sphere of influence to experience economic growth in the 18th century. Osamu Saitos work shows Japanese real wages increasing over the course of the 18th century, well before the Meiji restoration.48 This possibility will be entertained in the concluding analysis and the alternate outcomes will be displayed under the assumption that Tokugawa Japan is an example of successful economic growth. It must be noted that even if it is conceded that Tokugawa economic growth was taking place it was not of the same level as that occurring in the United Kingdom. The data on real wages presented thus far represents the UK as a whole. Graphic representation of Scotlands real wage data will be presented here to illustrate that Scotland was experiencing the same trends as the wider United Kingdom. Real or rather grain wages can be derived by dividing the wage by the price of the staple grain consumed in a given country. In Scotlands case the staple grain consumed was oatmeal, which will therefore be the standard used to generate grain wages. From this a picture of the value of wages in terms of their purchasing power can be obtained i.e. real wages. Information on silver wages for Edinburgh building labourers and oatmeal prices is available from the Global Price and Income History Group and from this data how much building labourers were earning in terms
48

Saito, O. Wages, Inequality and pre-modern growth in Japan, 1727-1894 in Allen, R.C., Bengtsson, T. and Dribe, M. (eds.) Living Standards in the Past New Perspectives on Well-Being in Europe and Asia.

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of grain that could be purchased can be calculated. This information is presented in graph 3 covering the period 1625 until 1800:
Graph 3: grain wages for Edinburgh building labourers

Source: Global Price and Income History Group Prices and wages in Edinburgh, 1495-1800 available at http://www.iisg.nl/hpw/data.php#scotland.

Graph 3 shows three separate trends in the purchasing power of wages; a rise over the course of the 17th century, a drop from the end of the 17th century until the middle of the 18th century and then a marked increase for the next fifty years. The general trend observable is an upward movement in the purchasing power of wages. This indicates somewhat erratic improvements in the standard of living over the course of the century, which suggests that Scotland was developing economically during this period. This is supported by findings of Cullen and Smout who demonstrate that the size of Scotlands industry more than quadrupled between 1600 and 1900.49 Further evidence for Scotlands increasing standards of living in the second half of the 18th century is provided by Gibson and Smout in their study of prices, food and wages in early modern Scotland. They state that in the 18th century Scotland was among a small number of areas in Europe where the living standards of the common people were improving.50 This they attribute to an expansion of the wage rate and increased employment opportunities for women and children.51 Overall it can be concluded that Scotland was experiencing an economic takeoff at around the same time as its southern neighbour from the end of the 18th century onwards. Looking at the above data on real wages, urbanisation and welfare ratios a pattern emerges of England (and Scotland) experiencing an economic takeoff starting at the very end of the 18th century and continuing throughout the 19th century, Japan experiencing a slower takeoff towards the end of the 19th century, finally China experiencing little to no growth.
49 50

Cullen, L.M. and Smout, T.C. Comparative Aspects, p. 22. Gibson, A.J.S. and Smout, T.C. Prices, Food and Wages in Scotland, 1550-1780, p. 341. 51 Gibson, A.J.S. and Smout, T.C. Prices, Food and Wages, p. 353.

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Therefore if we want to assess the supporting effect educational systems had on the run-up to economic growth we have to examine the state of affairs in the time span preceding the takeoff. Thus literacy rates and institutional structures present in the 18th and 19th centuries will be analysed to determine which features supported economic growth in England, Scotland, and slightly later Japan and what features held China back.

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Chapter 3 - The Institutional Structure

The institutional framework within which development occurs can be of fundamental importance to the economic and social outcomes. The setting-up of an institutional framework can involve some degree of free will (or agency if you prefer). However once certain institutions have been established it is very hard to shift to another course. This phenomenon is known as path dependency52 which, narrowly defined, entails that institutions are self-reinforcing.53 It is a term developed by economists to explain why technology adoption processes and industry evolved differently in different societies and why these two processes continued along divergent paths. The basic precept is that decisions today are affected by decisions made in the past even if the past is no longer directly relevant to the present. Our behaviour and ideas are, to a greater or lesser extent, moulded by the societal boundaries we exist within. Therefore, in terms of education, the institutional framework is very important in determining the outcome. Pierson argues for a more nuanced version of path dependency including the idea that increasing returns filter back into the system to create a dynamic system by which institutions are maintained.54 Thelen, critical of the split between institutional innovation and institutional reproduction as two separate issues, calls for both to be brought into a more sustained dialogue adding institutional layering 55 and institutional conversion56 to the analytical toolbox.57 These additions to the notion of path dependence indicate that institutional change can occur and that the lock in effect is not so strong as to rule out a change of path at a later point in time. This does not undermine the concept of the importance of institutions to a societys development. However it is important to keep in mind while analysing institutional structures of a society be they current or historical and look for points at which institutions may have changed and why this was. This is not to say that all education occurs within a strictly formal institutional framework. Indeed one of the problems with historical studies of education is trying to evaluate how much informal education took place at a household (another type of institution as distinct from schools) or on a one to one level beyond the typical setting of a classroom.
52

The cover page of this thesis represents one of the most frequently cited cases of path dependency, that of the QWERTY keyboard versus more logical arrangements of the keys. Although this set up might have made sense when type writers were the order of the day in the modern world of computing it no longer makes sense and studies have shown it to be a less efficient and more difficult to learn than if keys were arranged alphabetically however the investment already made in producing keyboards in the QWERTY arrangement means that society, for the mean time, will find it hard to diverge from this path. 53 Pierson, P. Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics American Political Science Review 94: 251-268 54 Pierson, P. Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics American Political Science Review 94: 251-268 55 A process whereby some elements of a certain set of institutions are renegotiated while others remain in places 56 When institutions designed with a specific set of goals in mind shift their purpose towards other ends 57 Thelen, K., How Institutions Evolve in Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences p.226-231

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Anecdotal accounts tell of boys in England forced by the death of their fathers to leave education early but picking up reading skills again in later life while engaged in manual labour and sharing these skills with others through the reading of the catechisms.58 Thus, there was a trickling down effect of semi-literate people into the agricultural labour force who fell outside the institutional framework.59 However the value and multitude of such instances are beyond our ken, so that for the purposes of useful comparative historical analysis it is to the field of institutional developments that we must limit ourselves for the time being. 3.1 The Sources of Funding for Education In terms of education there were two broad transformations occurring on a worldwide basis that have been ongoing for the last four hundred years and play a significant role during the 18th and 19th century. The first of these two trends is best explained by reference to the sea change in the attitude of the clergy and the elites in Western Europe to the education of the masses. Those in positions of authority became convinced that a limited education would be a good thing for the moral climate and level of religious devotion in their communities. At the same time the expansion of the use of printed documents in peoples social and economic lives gave people a motivation and insight as to the potential value of education. The second trend in education came during the 19th century and was to do with organisation and structure of the institutions providing instruction. State intervention had never played a consistently large role in education until this point when governments in the west started to systematically interfere with the education of children.60 The funding of education is important to analyse in order to determine who had access to what level of education, what financial barriers there were to parents investing in their children and what the motivation of providing education was. There are three main actors from whom funding for education may emanate. This is illustrated in the following quote from Cipolla: The three types of payments fees paid by pupils, salaries paid by public authorities, salaries paid out of charity funds generally coexisted in various times and societies.61 With this, Cipolla sums up nicely the different sources of funds for education as found throughout history in differing balances. The next section of this thesis shall attempt to evaluate the balance as it stood in each of the four case studies during the 18th and 19th century.
3.1.1 England

With the Reformation state intervention in education began and the church hold over education diminished, most obviously in institutional terms.62 This did not mean, however, that the church lost all its hold on education. Classes were still often conducted by men of the cloth on church grounds. The change lay in the fact that alongside these traditional educational facilities new institutions independent of the church sprung up which still taught
58

Spufford, M. First steps in Literacy in Literacy and Social Development in the West a reader by H. Graff, p. 138. 59 Jewell, H. Education in Early Modern England, p. 9. 60 Platt, B. Burning and Building Schooling and State Formation in Japan, 1750-1890, p. 1. 61 Cipolla, C. Literacy and Development in the West, p. 27. 62 Jewell, H. Education in Early Modern England, p. 22.

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lessons from the bible but which meant that the church as an institution had lost its monopoly on education. In his analysis of social spending over the past three centuries Peter Lindert provides percentages of funding as provided by national government, local government and private initiatives respectively.63 His results are presented in table 3:
Table 3: Central versus Local Sources of Primary school funds, England and Scotland

Percentage Contributed by Year c. 1870 1874 1874 Area England-Wales England-Wales Scotland National Government 17.3 35.5 30.0 Local Government 5.2 15.4 33.2 Private & Other 77.5 49.0 36.8

Source: Lindert, P. Growing Public, p.117.

Table 3 demonstrates that in England national government spending on education represented only a small proportion of the whole. This can be seen particularly in the percentages for 1870, when over 77 percent of funding came from sources other than government. Over the course of the 19th century parliament debated many education bills, but it was not until 1870 that one of them, the Forsters Elementary Education Act, was passed. This bill was a step towards making education compulsory while at the same time neglecting to address the issue of funding. It took until 1891 and the introduction of the Fees Act for the necessary momentum to be produced to provide free primary education.64 However, looking at Linderts data it would seem that the bill had an effect, as government spending seemingly doubled over an approximately four year period. This type of extreme change in the balance of funding is unusual and calls the data into question. Linderts circa 1870 data is derived from a U.S. Commissioners Report dated 1857. Thus he presumes a fairly unchanged balance of the level of funding prior to the 1870s. Using this table in later analysis the circa 1870 (or rather 1857) data shall be taken to represent English funding in the mid 19th century and before, and used to compare England to other cases. The years that follow represent a great shift in English education as the country attempted to make up for lost time and minimise the lag in primary and secondary education, which had come hand in hand with Englands era of world economic leadership. Therefore, the data presented for 1874 is not representative for the purposes of this thesis.65 Although government funding was lacking, English education did have other financial backers. Thanks to encouragement from the church educational charities became an object of
63 64

Lindert, P. Growing Public, p.117. Lindert, P. Growing Public, p.114. 65 Lindert, P. Growing Public, p.113.

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piety right across the board of education, from primary to university level. 66 Private actors also bequeathed large sums of money for the establishment of educational institutions, which would subsequently bear the benefactors name and often stipulated in their wills that future generations of their family should be educated in said institution unconditionally. This sort of economic investment represents an investment in the future of ones family name and as such a realisation the education was a worthwhile legacy to leave in ones wake.67 Local demand and charity were the main means of creating educational provision. No government funding structure existed therefore what education there was, was funded by private institutions. This lack of central government funding can be related to the historical development of power and class relations in England. These resulted in a decentralised state lacking a need to turn education into an instrument of policy for suppressing or indoctrinating its populace.68 This meant that education in England was carried out on a somewhat ad hoc basis where charity funding would permit. Nevertheless the economic benefits of education were so readily apparent that education flourished on a regional basis thanks to forwardthinking parents, and clergymen wishing to supplement their income. The most literate areas of 18th and 19th century England were the urbanised metropolis of London and the South West and Midlands, linked to the commercially active environments that predominated here.69
3.1.2 Scotland

The start of funding for education in Scotland is traditionally associated with John Knox and the reformers. Although they were attempting to instigate a change in the Church and society of the time construction, rather than destruction was their main objective.70 In 1560 Knox published a book, the First Book of Discipline, which "envisaged a national system in which schools at all levels were linked with each other and with the universities". 71 The actual enactment of his vision took 136 years to become written into law but in 1696 the Scottish parliament passed its Act for Setting Schools to remind parishes of their obligations to see Knoxs ideas working in practise. The legislation called upon each parish to supply a building in which to house the school and a salary for a teacher.72 The system took years to become properly established and historians are still arguing about what of value children actually learnt in such institutions but in principle from 1696 onwards education was available to the masses free of cost. Even before this, educational provision had been widespread throughout the lowlands. At least 700 schools existed in early 17th century Scotland spread unevenly over the 1,000-odd parishes of the country. It can therefore be argued that rather than a turning point in the provision of educational facilities, the 1696 act was a reminder to parishes of their duties in this respect during a time of economic hardship.73

66 67

Jewell, H. Education in Early Modern England, p. 47. Jewell, H. Education in Early Modern England, p. 47. 68 Green, A. Education and State Formation: The Rise of Education Systems in England, France and the USA. 69 Stephens, W.B. Education, Literacy and Society 1840-70. 70 Watt, H. John Knox in Controversy, p.4. 71 Anderson, R. Education and the Scottish People 1750-1918, p. 3. 72 Herman, A., The Scottish Enlightenment, p. 22. 73 Lynch, M. Scotland A New History, p.259.

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The system of funding for these parish schools was as follows; Heritors (landowners) were required to appoint a schoolmaster per parish and pay them an annual salary. Parents would then pay additional fees to supplement the schoolmasters income and children from very poor families would have their fees paid by Kirk funds. In some areas this system proved to be impractical. In the Highlands, one school per parish could mean that children were miles away from the nearest school and in the larger towns and cities of the period one school was often not enough. Therefore, there is evidence that these schools were supplemented by competitors funded by parentally paid fees. As table 3 shows, the cost of education in 1874 was split almost equally between three parties, national government, local government and private sources. This means that over 60 percent of education was financed by the state, compared to 50 percent in England in the same year and 22 percent four years earlier. In rural Lowland Scotland, where parishes were more compact and densely populated than their Highland equivalent, the system seems to have worked well. It was in the urban conglomerations of the Lowlands that the system worked best, where parish schools encouraged a tradition of education which in turn led to the supplementary establishment of fee paying school. Education in the Highlands became such a sore point that, as in England, educational charities got involved to try and reach those who lived on the outskirts of Scottish society. The most prominent of these was the SSPCK, the Scottish Society for the Preservation of Christian Knowledge, which was formed by royal charter in 1709 with the explicit purpose of founding schools to teach religious values to the population. The organisation was mostly active in the Highlands, established 189 schools in outlying areas by 1808. This charity funding will account for some of the percentage of private investment in education indicated by table 3.
3.1.3 Japan

The two classic English-language texts on education in early modern Japan are Robert Dore's Education in Tokugawa Japan and Herbert Passins Society and Education in Tokugawa Japan, both published in 1965. Both authors make a concerted effort to show that the Tokugawa period was not stagnant and backward as popular knowledge of that time contended. They present evidence that by the time of the Meiji restoration Japan already had a thriving network of schools, possibly up to 15,000, divided into three different categories, parish schools, based in Buddhist monasteries, for the children of commoners (terakoya), domain schools for the songs of the samurai (hanko) and private academies for both commoner and samurai children (shijuku). This, together with home tutoring contributed to high rates of literacy among the population, which lead Dore to his famous conclusion, that the Japanese populace was not just a sack of potatoes. 74 These three types of schools each had their own sources of funding to be discussed below. The 18th century was a turning point for Japanese education. It was during this century that official interest in education for commoners first started to emerge.75 Before the
74 75

Dore, R. Education in Tokugawa Japan, p. 294. Rubinger, R. Popular Literacy in early modern Japan, p.107.

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Tokugawa period, any education which did take place in Japan took place in the Buddhist monasteries. However, with the creation of a new village elite as a result of the enforced removal of the samurais from the countryside new forms of educational support sprung up. The sword hunt and the unification of Japan represented a shock to the system which led to the creation of a new infrastructural framework. The most common of these was a hiring of a village teacher unconnected to the monasteries to instruct the children of the village in basic literacy. Rubinger provides anecdotal accounts of the existence of such teachers and sketches a picture where for the literati supplementing ones income with teaching was not uncommon. Village schools would appear on a seasonal basis when slack in the agricultural work meant that children were freed from work in the fields. The move of the samurai to the towns also paved the way for a newly powerful class of village headmen. This new rural elite required education to be able to fulfil their function therefore insuring that some form of educational facilities were made available to at least the members of the upper strata of village life.76 These educational facilities took the form of travelling teachers hired by villages to conduct classes during certain periods of the year, or village elders supplementing their income by leading lessons in their own homes. All these developments came together in the 18th century and culminated in official support of schools known as domain or fief schools (terakoya), which flourished through a combination of official direction, public funding and the expectation that they conform to the best interests of the state, or local feudal lord.77 These schools built on the tradition of education established by the Buddhist monasteries. The proliferation of fief schools is visible in data provided by Dore, which shows a marked increase in the number of such schools being founded in the 18th century as opposed to the 17th. By 1814, fifty one percent of all fiefs had established such schools and by 1865 this had risen to 73 percent.78 These are the schools which Dore talks about as being open to the children of commoners, which therefore are important institutional facets of the Japanese educational system for the population as a whole. The second classification of school type that Dore mentions is the hanko. These were exclusively for the children of the samurai class and were elitist private institutions which educated only a tiny fraction of the population along very traditional lines with emphasis on moral codes and the trappings of the life of the samurai. In terms of their impact on the education of the general populace they are relatively unimportant. In terms of their funding they were supported purely by the privately paid fees of the samurai whose children were attending.79 During the Genroku era (1688-1704), literacy and education seem to have spread to new sections of society.80 In part this was because of official interest from above but another reason lies in the establishment of the private academies (shijuku) in the large urban
76 77

Rubinger, R. Popular Literacy in early modern Japan, p.46. Roden, D. Private Education and Personal Experience in Tokugawa Japan, in History of Education Quarterly, Vol. 25. 78 Dore, R. Education in Tokugawa Japan, p.71. 79 Dore, R. Education in Tokugawa Japan, p.77. 80 Rubinger, R. Popular Literacy in early modern Japan, p.82.

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environs.81 Some of these were religious institutions and some were secular but they all taught not only basic reading and writing but also gave students a ground in various ethical systems and instructed them in practical knowledge of an advanced type, e.g. book keeping, medicine etc.82 These institutions were free of official guidance so could develop their own curricula and were popular with samurai and commoners alike as a source of alternative private education for their offspring. Schools arose where there was economic demand for them, thus the urban academies developed as a result of the needs of the population who lived and worked in cities. In rural communities, schools were also needed as bureaucracy became more complicated, so both the feudal rulers and parents saw the sense in founding and supporting such institutions. Statistics on the relative amounts of funding from public or private sources is scarce but very little in Tokugawa era Japan came directly from government coffers.83 Japanese education after the Meiji restoration is a different story. The new government made education mandatory and sent officials out to the countryside to establish and monitor schools.84 Thus, the balance of funding shifted to one where public money was a major source of capital for educational institutions. To make this comparable to the balance of funding sources in the other case studies, a hypothetical balance of educational funding in Tokugawa Japan and Post-Meiji Restoration Japan is presented in Table 4. For the present purposes fief schools are considered to be funded by local government because it was local officials and men in position of power who ensured their existence. These figures are not based on real statistics and are based on the reading of various texts that do not address the issue of funding explicitly. They are, therefore meant solely as a way to compare Japan to the other three cases:

Table 4: Central versus Local sources of Primary School funds, Japan (hypothetical)

Percentage contributed by National Government Tokugawa Japan

81

Local Government 40

Private sources & Other 60

Roden, D. Private Education and Personal Experience in Tokugawa Japan, in History of Education Quarterly, Vol. 25. 82 Rubinger, R. Popular Literacy in early modern Japan, p.82. 83 Rubinger, R. Popular Literacy in early modern Japan, p.82. 84 Rubinger, R. Popular Literacy in early modern Japan, p.164.

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Post-Meiji Restoration Japan

3.1.4 China

60

20

20

Qing China was a multi-lingual nation with two main languages, Chinese and Manchu. Chinese was the language of the state bureaucracy and Manchu that of the military institutional framework. Chinese was the language of the han-Chinese who constituted the vast majority of the population and Manchu that of the ethnic grouping from which the Qing dynasty came. Chinese elementary education occurred in three different types of establishments; the charity school, the clan school and the banner school. In China, education was a way of gaining prestige for ones family or tribe, therefore there was a wide network of clan schools geared towards ensuring that representatives of the clan made it into the state bureaucracy. The most important revisionist text on Chinese education is that by Evelyn Rawski, Education and Popular Literacy in Ching China. Published in 1979 her objective is to show, as Passin and Dore did for Japan, that China was not in the education doldrums in the 19th century. How successful she is in this is controversial but she does provide coherent information on the funding of 19th century Chinese schools which is presented in table 5. Rawski divides the sources of funding into four separate categories: investment in school lands, investments in urban real estate, investment of capital at fixed rates of interest, and regular government payments. 85 Table 5 presents the averages of the proportions that these four sources and an additional unknown source provided to schools in 21 cities in China for the 19th century.86
Table 5: Breakdown of 19th century financing of Elementary Schools

% schools with primary income from

Land

Urban Rent

Cash Investments

Govt. Funds

Unknown

85 86

Rawski, E. Education and Popular Literacy in Ching China, p. 66. Rawski, E. Education and Popular Literacy in Ching China, p.69 - figures represent the averages of the four columns that Rawski presents.

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50

12

20

14

For the purposes of comparison with the other case studies, land, urban rent and cash investment will be taken as private sources of funding. This slightly overstates the case as some of the land donated to schools came from the government, but the largest provider of school land was the clan system and private individual investment, so one hopes that this classification does not warp the view of the funding situation too much. This means that 63 percent of school funding came from private sources compared to the 20 emanating from government sources. Table 6 presents the same data but translated into the same terms as Table 3
Table 6: Central versus Local sources of Primary School funds, China

Percentage of schools with primary source of funding from National and Local Government 19th century China 20 Private and Other 77

It becomes immediately apparent from Table 6 that land was the most substantial source of funding. The act of gifting schools with permanent endowments of land was a longstanding tradition in Chinese history. They were seen as sensible secure investments by merchants although they might still disappear through the gradual encroachment of tenants and flooding.87 The land was pledged to schools by private individuals or by official confiscation of land due to tax evasion or criminal activity. The schools then rented out the lands to tenants and the rents received, after tax, were used to finance the salaries of teachers or other expenses associated with schooling. Clan schools were much better endowed with land than their charitable counterparts. The average size of holdings of clan schools in the town of Liu-yang, Hunon, was 22 times that of charitable schools.88 Clan schools were supported by grants from the clans they served and as mentioned before supporting such schools ensured the prestige of the clan. Clan schools may have been better funded, but it was the charity school that was more common. These schools had a long historical tradition in Chinese culture. They were funded by fees collected by bureaucrats. However, as will be mentioned in the discussion of literacy levels in the next chapter, these schools were often short lived and did not survive without enforced collection of fees by state officials. This implies that education was not seen as a particularly useful economic investment by parents and that the opportunity cost of sending a
87 88

Rawski, E. Education and Popular Literacy in Ching China, p. 70. Rawski, E. Education and Popular Literacy in Ching China, p. 70 charitable schools held on average 45.3 mou versus 1,000 mou for clan schools (1 mou = 0.1647 hectares Perdue China Marches West, p.xix).

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child to school was too high to warrant continuing once the enforced collection of fees had ended. Of the twenty percent of schools for whom government funds was the primary source of income, some will have been the banner schools. These represented one part of a key institution of Qing rule. Established in 1615, the Eight Banners were administrative divisions into which all Manchu families were sorted to provide the basic framework for the military organisation of the Chinese state.89 The banner system operated in parallel to the civil service system of the majority han-Chinese, creating an educated elite for recruitment into its ranks via the Imperial Clan academies.90 The han-Chinese and the Mongols were incorporated into the system in their own companies, thus mingling ethnicities while still maintaining their group distinctiveness.91 The banners remained predominantly Manchu, and grew to represent the core elite of the Qing Empire as the officials held their positions by inheritance and maintained overwhelming loyalty to the imperial family.92 Banner schools were meant to ensure the preservation of the Manchu language while attempting to ease communication between the different ethnic groups of the nation. They preserved the identity of the Manchu as distinct from the rest of the Chinese population while reinforcing military values which the Manchu required to rule as a minority ethnic group.93 Banner schools were government -founded and -funded. As such they were a major factor in the Manchuisation of the outlying provinces. Non han-Chinese populations (i.e., Tungus and Altaic speaking peoples) were taught Manchu and it was in this language that they experienced Chinese literacy.94 Chinese education was being used as a form of acculturation, a vehicle by which to create coherence in the varied populations of the Chinese state. Yet it was also multi-lingual, since banner schools educated the han-Chinese, Manchurians and Mongols each in their separate tongues as well as in Manchu. The Manchu language was, however, a dying language and classical Manchu had become an artefact of the bureaucratic communications that were its primary raison dtre. 95 Written Manchu, much like written Latin in Europe, did not alter as colloquial use did, which rather limited its scope and confined it to official functions. Banner education initially focused on training bannermen to govern Chinese-speaking populations, providing instruction in basic languages of the different ethnic groups. In the later Qing period a shift occurred to emphasising the traditional martial arts and gaining a proficient level in spoken and written Manchu. 96 Banner school education thus became more conservative and less in touch with the economic reality of the bulk of the populace who were abandoning Manchu for Chinese.
89

The 8 banners were 8 different banners, pieces of insignia, which each grouping was assigned. The groupings cut across kinship connections within Manchu society, tying them together in a new military and civil organisation Perdue, P. China Marches West, p. 111. 90 Rawski, E. The Last Emperors, p. 39. 91 Perdue, P. China Marches West, p. 111. 92 Guy, R. Who were the Manchus? A review Essay The Journal of Asian Studies (Feb. 2002). 93 Elliot, M. The Manchu Way, p. 7. 94 Rawski, E. The Last Emperors, p. 242. 95 Rawski, E. The Last Emperors, p. 38. 96 Rawski, E. The Last Emperors, p. 39.

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3.2 The Goal of Education In Education in Early Modern England Helen Jewell describes the history of education in any period as being composed of three facets. The first of these is what education was trying to do i.e. who was being taught, what was being taught and to what end.97 This determines how the subjects of education are moulded, although the skills taught in an educational process can be used for an end different from the one intended. In the early modern period, and even before, there were those in society who opposed education for the corruptive effects it might have on the masses. However, as time progressed, those clamouring for education for the masses, to instil greater morality, drowned out the conservatives. These progressive thinkers were repeating the wisdom hit upon centuries before by Socrates when he said, knowledge promotes virtue.
3.2.1 England

The aims of early modern English education were quite fundamentally affected by the impact of humanism. This emphasised the development of character and replaced the medieval view that education was purely a process through which the approved rules of the authorities could be ingrained in an individual.98 The term humanist is used to describe the move away from the medieval God-centred view of the universe and instead placing man at its centre, ascribing to him motivation, purpose and personality. Traditionally, education had been associated purely with religious betterment and learning, but with humanism came a realisation of the functionality of education for individual improvement. This was the culmination of processes that had been set in motion in the centuries prior to the Reformation. Indeed, as early as the 15th century, higher education institutions had been employing teachers of writing and accounts to prepare boys for mechanical arts and worldly business.99 Humanism did not permeate every level of education and it was not infrequent that the underlying motivations of the establishment of schools was associated with an attempt to create a pliable, disciplined workforce through a process of positive indoctrination.100 Higher education in England could lead to a number of different careers, namely those in the Church, the Law, the practise of medicine, or school teaching. However education could also be used in business and many students did not complete these full tracks of education but sampled a few years at stages along the way. Children under the age of 7 were sent to school because this was seen as a worthwhile investment as it was before they were economically employable, therefore making the opportunity cost for parents of sending them to school lower, or negligible.101 These very basic years of education aimed to teach reading, with writing being introduced as the boys hit the age of 7 (often at this stage teaching girls to sew took precedence over writing). Therefore the very basic goal of English education was to cram the ability to read into children before they were withdrawn from school by parents to
97

Jewell, H. Education in Early Modern England, p. 7. The second facet is the provision of facilities to achieve the identified aims and the third is what has been achieved in terms of individual attainment and basic literacy. 98 Jewell, H. Education in Early Modern England, p. 7. 99 Jewell, H. Education in Early Modern England, p. 48. 100 Anderson, R Education and the Scottish People, 1750-1918, p. 2. 101 Spufford, M.First Steps in Literacy in Graff, H. (ed.) Literacy and social development in the West, H. Graff (ed.), p.131.

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contribute to the household coffers. In conclusion education in England could be used to many different ends. Institutions for education sprang up to create more malleable employees. Boys were taught skills that would be practical in the commercial sphere. The goal of English education was thus fairly broadly defined and varied from one institution to the next.
3.2.2 Scotland

The ultimate goal of Scottish education was a religious one, that each individual should be able to read the scriptures for themselves for their own religious betterment. However as in England there was also a humanist element to the education being provided at least for the upper strata of the populace with debate, logic and philosophy being major components of the education curriculum at university. At a more basic level a good Scottish Calvinist was one who could read the catechism and understand it on an individual level. So Scottish education was based, in large part, on an understanding that it was useful to be able to read, to stimulate the development of ones own thoughts. Although initially from a religious perspective, this created an educated group who were expected to think for themselves about the bible and therefore presumably capable of thinking for themselves beyond the confines of that most influential of texts. Accounts also exist of private, or grammar schools (also known as academies) established in the course of the 18th century, where practical skills were taught to prepare pupils, mainly boys, for the realities of the working world. Classes in basic proficiency with numbers, navigation, land mensuration and book keeping were offered at some of the private schools in the 18th and 19th century.102 Much as in England, the aims of Scottish education were varied in scope and nature with schools offering different specialisations springing up to satisfy parental demand throughout the late 18th and early 19th century.103
3.2.3 Japan

As in many countries Japan experienced a period during the 16th and 17th century when education for the masses was considered dangerous. However, over time the Tokugawa government and the literate elite came to see education as a means of controlling the population and keeping them from falling prey to the destructive influences of Christianity. Education was thus a tool used to stop Western influences gaining a foothold amongst the general populace. However, besides this purpose, education was also becoming a more integral part of life for those involved in any sort of administrative position. Before the sword-hunt illiterate samurai were rife, but by the 18th century anecdotal evidence shows people speaking with great derision of those samurai who were suspected of illiteracy.104 Some degree of education and grounding in book learning had become necessary for one to maintain a position amongst the samurai elite. In the rural setting, education for the village elite aimed at enabling the next generation to fulfil the tasks of village administrators. This meant relaying information on taxation quotas to the surrounding population and conveying to the government the relevant
102 103

Lynch, M. Oxford Companion to Scottish History, p.564. Lynch, M. Oxford Companion to Scottish History, p.564. 104 Rubinger, R. Popular Literacy in Early Modern Japan, p. 16.

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data on the villages crop quantities. In the last two decades of the 18th century the intelligent men of the numerous fiefdoms turned their minds to how society could best be restructured. The reason for this focus of attention was that deep problems in society had been laid bare by peasant revolts and evidence of waning samurai morale and motivation. 105 This intellectual awakening led to an increase in education in rural environs as it was decided that societal stability was best achieved by reaching out to peoples minds through instruction. 106 The establishment of fief schools, described earlier, was an attempt to do exactly this. Further aims of education can be gleaned through looking at publications of the time, which featured many agricultural manuals for the dissemination of information to farmers on improving crop yields.107 This suggests an economic element to the pursuit of education to ultimately be able to use it practically. Similarly, the private academies in the cities taught skills of practical value as described in section 3.1.3.
3.2.4 China

Chinas educational system has a long history. The practise of training men to pass a civil service examination has appeared at various intervals in Chinese history from 589 AD onwards but it did not flourish until the Sung dynasty (960-1279) when the old aristocracy had been obliterated so that rule by civilian bureaucrats could be perfected.108 The Ming and Qing dynasties relied heavily on the civil service exam to support their administrative system yet to some extent neglected public education.109 This contributed to the system becoming corrupt as individuals learnt to circumvent the requirements and some even bought their places in the bureaucracy.110 Eventually, the whole system crumpled under its own weight, with the last exams being sat in 1905.111 Another important point is that the Qing dynasty was ruling as a minority ethnicity, greatly outnumbered by the han-Chinese. This meant that the Manchu ruling class placed great emphasis on the superiority of military (wu) over literary (wen) values and the arrogation to themselves of the right to rule on that basis.112 In China, students entering the educational system did so in order to be able to sit the state examinations. China was the first country in the world to use such a method based on ability rather than privilege and wealth to recruit government officials.113 These examinations were the necessary prerequisite to be able to enter into the bureaucracy of the empire, a position that came with considerable prestige and an assured income. The goals of Chinese education differed between the schools established by bureaucrats of the state and the clan schools. Clan heads had the perpetuation of their family name in mind and the honour and
105

Dore, R. Education in Tokugawa Japan, p. 25 These peasant revolts and poor samurai morale were the result of the tendency for daimyos to spend beyond their means, a succession of natural calamities. 106 Dore, R. Education in Tokugawa Japan, p. 25. 107 Rubinger, R. Popular Literacy in Early Modern Japan, p. 16. 108 Miyazaki, I. Chinas Examination Hell, p. 9. 109 Miyazaki, I. Chinas Examination Hell, p. 10. 110 Miyazaki, I. Chinas Examination Hell, p. 10. 111 Lee, T. Education in Traditional China, a history, p. 29. 112 Elliot, M.C. The Manchu Way, p. 5. 113 Lee, H.C. Education in Traditional China A History, p. 658.

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privileges associated with having a family member working for the state system when they established their schools.114 Chinese formal education started at the age of seven. At this age, boys were sent to schools where they received a general classical education based on the Four Books of Confucianism. This generally lasted until they were 14 at which point they were considered prepared for the district examinations prior to the prefectural exams granting them access to the state qualifying exams. These three rounds of examinations served to select those who would be allowed to continue on to the district schools, which were government funded. They trained children and young men for the subsequent stages of examination (preliminary, provincial and palace for recruitment into the banner administration, the palace administration or the civil service).115 All in all, Chinese education was a gruelling series of hurdles which lasted many years and required a high level of investment in terms of time and financial gains foregone for both the children and their parents. The goals of those schools established by Qing governmental officials were governed by a number of over-riding ambitions. One of these is elaborated upon by Laura Hostetler, in a study of cartography and ethnography in Qing China. She equates the goal of education to an assimilative purpose on the part of the government. In the outlying territories, populated by non-Han peoples, there was a need to incorporate the peripheral populations and make them more pliable for the imperial administrations. This goal was considered best reached by providing them with an education based on Confucian values as expressed in Confucian classics.116 This ambition on the part of policy makers in the last half of the 18 th and early 19th century was backed by a drive to create a much more profound cultural and moral collectivism than any China had previously known.117 The second goal was to use education to strengthen economic and social stability. In Woodsides interpretation, this entails that schools were meant to lead Chinese society back to an archaic world where crop specialisation, migration and law suits were unthinkable. Economic stasis was the stated aim of some educational theorists who supported the establishment of charity schools in order to counter the loss of local self-sufficiency and lead Chinese society back to how it has existed in an idealised vision of a stable past.118 Woodsides picture lacks nuance as it seems unlikely that Chinese officials could actually have reversed the clock but it was one of their stated aims in establishing schools. Economic and social stability could also simply mean strengthening the status quo as opposed to actively pursuing utopian visions of the past.

114

Woodside, A. Some Mid-Qing Theorists of Popular Schools: Their Innovations, Inhibitions, and Attitudes toward the Poor. Modern China. 115 Miyazaki, I. Chinas Examination Hell, Chapters 4,5 and 7. 116 Hostetler, L. Qing Colonial Enterprise ethnography and cartography in Early Modern China, p. 114. 117 Woodside, A. Some Mid-Qing Theorists of Popular Schools: Their Innovations, Inhibitions, and Attitudes toward the Poor. Modern China, p. 4. 118 Woodside, A. Some Mid-Qing Theorists of Popular Schools: Their Innovations, Inhibitions, and Attitudes toward the Poor. Modern China, p. 8.

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The third aim of the Chinese bureaucrats of the Qing era was to create a pattern of conformity with Confucian ideals. Schools, in this view, were instruments for achieving a ritualized perfection of behaviour... ritualized obeisance119 to ancient texts and ancient institutions and procedures, which so acutely characterised Chinese education.120 Beyond the scope of the aims of the bureaucrats, the wider pattern of focus on mastery of the Confucian classics as the ultimate goal of education and the use of Confucian writings throughout the education process had a profound impact on the purposes for which people sought education. The concern of the Analects (Confucian classic) is primarily moral advancement... Confucian education is centred on personal enrichment rather than on its usefulness for securing recognition or benefit to ones self.121 The aim and continued belief in the value of the constrained exam system is well summed up by Thomas Lee in his tome on Chinese Education: The reliance on written examinations for a fair evaluation was a result of the persistent Chinese belief, optimistically, in the self-evident nature of moral truth, and indeed truth in general. 122 The education of Chinese aristocrats showed a distinctive lack of interest for employing debates of disputation to educate. The emphasis, instead, was on perfecting the literary quality of expression, and in reconciliation of different opinions of ideas.123 This search for consensus and common ground was characteristic of the Chinese style of documentary scholarshipQualities such as countenance in manner or sonorousness in expression occupied a more important position than the content itself... There is undoubtedly a Chinese method of scholarship that was not markedly different from that in the West. But the Chinese simply decided to choose consensus over distinctiveness.124 As opposed to Europe, where scientists tested and retested theories and proofs, China avoided any information that might change society as society was content with its method of government and saw itself as complete in its own right.125 One could interpret these three aims as being linked by a common thread of conservatism, a desire to prevent progress in society and counter those modern trends which were seen as being destructive. This was a theme of the rule of the Qing dynasty as they sought to establish a coherent society in the wake of the collapse of Ming rule. The very power of the Qing state bureaucratic apparatus impeded educational progress. As Woodside puts it: education, as perhaps the most heavily ritualized and hierarchy-legitimating part of the Chinese system of public discourse bristled with obstacles to practical experimentation by Chinese school builders.126 Ichisada Miyazaki in Chinas Examination Hell describes this
119

Meaning respectful or submissive gesture, homage, submission, deference (from The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, 9th edition). 120 Woodside, A. Some Mid-Qing Theorists of Popular Schools: Their Innovations, Inhibitions, and Attitudes toward the Poor. Modern China, p. 10. 121 Lee. T. Education in Traditional China, a History, p.2. 122 Lee, T. Education in Traditional China, a history, p. 666. 123 Lee, T. Education in Traditional China, a history, p. 662. 124 Lee, T. Education in Traditional China, a history, p. 662. 125 Lee, T. Education in Traditional China, a history, p. 664. 126 Woodside, A. Some Mid-Qing Theorists of Popular Schools: Their Innovations, Inhibitions, and Attitudes toward the Poor. Modern China, p. 10.

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tendency to stifle originality and innovation at an individual level, stating that exam officials were happy as long as there were no serious errors in candidates papers and as long as their fairness was not challenged. Candidates, on the other hand, were fearful of failing if they produced anything other than a very standard answer. Both groups therefore stifled any tendencies towards originality.127 The emphasis was very much on the regurgitation of a stylised form, rather than content, the eight-legged essay being the prime example of this.128 Chinese education partially served the goal it was entailed for. It created an educated bureaucratic group who could administer the state effectively on the basis of educational attainment rather than inherited positions. Yet by suppressing moves towards original thought it may have lost out on one element of its goal i.e. to select men who would be of great service to the country in the future.129 One could also argue that by selecting those who were intelligent enough to pass the exam and had been educated to conform it did select those most fitted to the tasks they would be asked to fulfil. Therefore, in terms of setting out what it meant to achieve, the Chinese examination system was a success. The flipside of the pervasive power of the examinations was that they created an elite class who shared a uniform tradition and a cultural uniformity which became a conservative force to the detriment of any inclination Chinese academics might have felt to act upon change taking place in the wide world. Be this as it may, a sense of cultural uniformity is not necessarily a handicap but in combination with the belief that evolved after the Sung dynasty, that society had solved its problems and needed no alteration, a somewhat straitjacketed academic environment seems to have evolved.130 Add to this the unfortunate fact that by the 18th century the exam system had become corrupt and successful examination candidates represented only a small proportion of those enjoying elite status and one can see the start of a schism in Chinese society which led to the eventual collapse of the system.131 3.3 A Comparison of the Institutional Framework This section will draw together the preceding discussion of the aims and financing of education to compare and contrast the situation in each of the four case studies. The four cases display similarities in both the aims and sources of funding of the education available. Education has intermittently been used as a tool to attempt to repress progress in all four of the countries under discussion. Similarly, no country, with the possible exception of Scotland, had developed a coherent, nation-wide system of state funded schooling open to all by the 18th century. Tokugawa Japan and England seem most similar in this respect with funding largely on an ad hoc basis, from predominantly private sources. China had similarly large proportions of private funding yet was much more organised than in Tokugawa Japan or England with clan institutions and government example leading the
127 128

Miyazaki, I. Chinas Examination Hell, p. 22. Lee. T. Education in Traditional China, a History, p.144. The eight-legged essay was an extravagantly formalised way of writing consisting of eight pairs of paragraphs where each pair of paragraphs echoed one another. It has been an object of condemnation for many generations of Chinese thinkers since. 129 Miyazaki, I. Chinas Examination Hell, p. 22. 130 Lee, T. Education in Traditional China, a history, p. 27. 131 Lee, T. Education in Traditional China, a history, p. 27.

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way. In Scotland, schooling was most obviously supported by religious institutions. England too had a tradition of schools based in long-standing churches and monasteries. Similarly, Japanese education was traditionally associated with Buddhist monasteries. Chinese schools were not based around established religious institutions such as churches and monasteries and therefore experienced stiff competition for the resources that might be used to support schools.132 Tokugawa Japanese and English schooling arose in those areas where it was seen as economically beneficial and was often linked to religious institutions or the houses of wealthy families. In Japan after the Meiji Restoration state interest in education had increased massively and schools were being established throughout the country by government officials. This meant a shift towards public money being used for education much like in Scotland. The information presented on the different sources of funding is brought together in Table 7 below to make for easy comparison:
Table 7: Sources of Funding for Primary Education in the four case studies

Percentage Contributed by
Year

Area England-Wales Scotland China Japan Japan

National Government 17.3 30.0 10 0 40

Local Government 5.2 33.2 10 40 20

Private & Other 77.5 36.8 77 60 30

1857 1874 19th century Tokugawa Post-Meiji Restoration

Table 7 shows that the funding structure in terms of the percentage contributions from the three different sources was most similar in England and China, while post-Meiji Japan most closely resembles the Scottish pattern of funding with high levels of government contribution. Tokugawa Japan falls in between the two extremes with substantial contributions from local government but also a large proportion of private financing. Watching the opening ceremony of Chinas 2008 Olympic Games one outstanding feature was the pride the Chinese take in their history. Two features relevant to the discussion here are the emphasis on Confucianism as a vehicle to ensure harmony in society and the demonstration of Chinas invention of movable type. 133 This very harmony, promoted by Confucian principles, resulted in a society that saw itself as immutable and perfect as it was. This in turn had a restrictive effect on Chinese education which one could describe as being
132

Woodside, A. Some Mid-Qing Theorists on Popular Schools: Their Innovations, Inhibitions, and Attitudes toward the Poor, Modern China. 133 The evolution of the symbol for harmony was one of the short sketches played out by thousands of performers during the opening ceremony and the symbol itself was the theme-symbol of these games.

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involved in its own high-equilibrium trap i.e. the standard of Chinese education was of a sufficiently high standard and therefore there was no push to change it. 134 Due to the long tradition of Chinese education a degree of path-dependency had developed which required the exogenous shocks of the late 19th century, when China realised its system was failing in comparison to the rest of the world, to bring about change. Japanese and English educational traditions were far less ingrained and not as rooted in tradition or as structured. The very highly structured examination system seems to have worked to Chinas detriment with candidates regurgitating set forms without any room for originality of practical application to society. In terms of the goals of education, all four case studies used education to create more productive, useful members of society be this in a moral, religious or economic sense. In China, however, the final goal of education seems to have been far more strictly defined than in Europe. In China, one studied with the eventual intention of sitting the civil service exams which was an elaborate process built on years of tradition and based around reproduction of archaic forms of writing and Confucist philosophy. In the other three case studies education was not aimed at such a strictly defined goal. Scotlands, and to some extent Englands, education aimed at creating good Protestants who could fulfil the obligation of scriptural study. This was a form of betterment of the individual which is different from Chinese education, where the goal was to bring prestige to your family through entering the civil service. English and Scottish education also seems to have been more geared towards practical education with accounts of classes in those skills that would be useful in business. Tokugawa Japan also used education in a more practical sense to train village headmen in accounts keeping and enable them to fulfil their duties vis-a-vis the population and the ruling elite.

Chapter 4 Literacy
4.1 The debate about literacy Literacy is one of those concepts which is often listed amongst characteristics which distinguish richer countries from their poorer counterparts, despite not being clearly determined by national income.135 As such literacy has become integral to our very idea of modernity and citizenship. Yet why is this? The invention of writing was not one that occurred abruptly but it is one that changes the structures of societies it touches, shifting the emphasis from oral traditions to written recording and allowing for the preservation and spread of information through time and space.136 The Sumerians were the first to shift from a system of pictograms and hieroglyphs to ultimately the phonetic sign. This was partly as a result of the peculiarity of their own language. However by 3000 A.D., when their syllabary
134

A high-equilibrium trap is a term developed by Mark Elvin to explain why China never underwent its own industrial revolution. The idea, he proposes, is that Chinese non-mechanical industrial and agricultural techniques were so highly developed that they maintained their efficiency advantage over early mechanized processes thus out-competing them, thus resulting in a high level of production but with no incentive to push this to the next level. 135 Tilly, C. Big Structures Large Processes Huge Comparison, p. 45. 136 Goody, J. Literacy in Traditional Societies, p.67.

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had been reduced to between five hundred to six hundred signs, other civilisations swiftly picked up the idea and with few exceptions incorporated into their languages the idea that a written sign could be used to represent a sound.137 Historically, the art of being able to write has been closely tied to urbanisation and commercialisation138 and although the motives which drive a society to provide adequate training for their citizens are abstruse it is easy to prove that failure to do so is always a sinister omen of impending disaster for a country.139 Cipolla demonstrates this by reference to Italian city-states which experienced severe decline linked to dwindling rates of literacy in the 16th century.140 Literacy allows for what Joel Mokyr would call the decoding of the codebook, greatly reducing the access costs of information.141 Knowledge of both the propositional and prescriptive kind ( and knowledge respectively, to use Mokyrs notation) can be stored in external storage devices, such as books however the reading of such storage devices and therefore the dissemination of the knowledge contained in them relies on literacy being present amongst the populace. Simply put, the spread of literacy allows for the spread of knowledge. It bridges the gap between those involved in the study of and those involved in the application of knowledge142, allowing for thinkers to learn from doers and vice versa. However, the concept of literacy has become irretrievably entangled with the necessary preconditions for a modern, democratic state, which is nicely illustrated by the following quote: Subsequently the twentieth century inherited a mystique of literacy born out of two tendencies. One, essentially utilitarian, was committed to the functional uses of literacy as a medium for the spread of practical information that could lead to individual and social progress; the other, essentially aesthetic and spiritual, was committed to the uses of literacy for salvaging the drooping spirit of Western man from the death of religion and the ravages of progress.143 This highlights how literacy has a social connotation which extends far beyond the ability to read and write. As such the term literacy itself has been used ambiguously; is it the tool of literacy itself, or the consequences that we expect to arise from the possession of this tool?144 This thesis addresses the quantitative possession of the tool of literacy in order to draw some broad conclusions concerning its consequences in terms of economic growth and development. There is a notion which has become accepted in the academic debate on the links between literacy and economic development that, in order for a society to experience
137 138

C. Cipolla, Literacy and Development in the West, p. 7. C. Cipolla, Literacy and Development in the West, p. 8. 139 C. Cipolla, Literacy and Development in the West, p. 22. 140 C. Cipolla, Literacy and Development in the West, p. 22. 141 Mokyr, J. The Gifts of Athena Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy. 142 Van Zanden, J. Common workmen, philosophers and the birth of the European knowledge economy. About the price and the production of useful knowledge in Europe 1350-1800, p. 17. 143 Disch, R. The Future of Literacy, pp. 4-5. 144 Graff, H. Literacy and Social Development in the West, p. 1.

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economic growth, a literacy rate of a minimum of forty percent of its population is required. This has become a widely used benchmark in development policies. The figure is a result of investigations in the early 1960s into the economic situation of African and Asian societies by Bowman and Anderson.145 It was based on a cross-sectional analysis of the worlds nations which showed that no country with literacy below 40% succeeded in achieving per capita income levels above $300 in 1955. The conclusion was that a male literacy rate of about 40 percent is required (but alone will not suffice) to support sustained economic growth.146 In the 1980s this idea was heavily criticised by Graff who felt its acceptance into mainstream thought was too much of a simplification of the relationship between literacy and development.147 Bowmans findings served to justify the efforts being made by international development organisations to raise literacy levels in under-developed countries. Since its inception in 1946 the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, more commonly known as UNESCO, has had universal literacy as one of its fundamental goals. In the most recent version of its website it states that: However, with some 774 million adults lacking minimum literacy skills, literacy for all remains an elusive target. UNESCOs literacy programmes aim to create a literate world and promote literacy for all.148 Literacy has thus become one of the key goals of education replacing learning-by-doing or practical skills. However, even in modern terms there is a debate as to what constitutes literacy, i.e. whether the ability to write ones name and read a simple text is enough or whether literacy entails a higher level of skills. This debate is extended back through time with arguments such as whether the ability to sign really reflects literary ability and whether one should consider the quantitative aspects of literacy or the qualitative aspects. The debate on what constitutes literacy takes on great importance when, as in some countries, literacy becomes a requirement for suffrage i.e. to count in the democratic process one must be literate.149 In modern society it is generally accepted that universal literacy is necessary to maximise productivity of a countrys population, but it is a goal that has remained elusive. Much like the debate over education described in the introduction the utility of literacy is contested, as are the best ways to fund and achieve literacy. The ambiguity as to what constitutes literacy, with a large grey area between full literacy and the completely illiterate is fundamental to this argument. With time, the criteria that make someone functionally literate have shifted, while advancing technology requires increased levels of skills, knowledge, ability with computing tools and understanding in order for people to achieve a level of literacy at which they are considered to be productive members of society. 150 As society
145

Bowman, M.J. and Anderson, C.A. Concerning the role of education in development. In Geertz, C. Old Societies and New States The quest for modernity in Asia and Africa, pp. 247-279. 146 Bowman, M.J. and Anderson, C.A. Education and Economic Modernization in Historical Perspective in Stone, L. Schooling and Society, p. 5. 147 Graff, H. Literacy and Social Development in the West, p. 10. 148 Source: http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=53553&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_S ECTION=201.html. 149 Sokoloff, K. and Engerman, S. History Lessons: Institutions, Factors Endowments, and Paths of Development in the New World, p. 222. 150 The following definition of functional literacy is provided by Taylor in his study of literacy in China, Japan and Korean; People can read such everyday reading materials and manuals, and also can fill in forms and write memos or simple letters. In addition, they have basic numeracy skills. In a highly industrialised society where

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becomes more industrialised and complex, the educational level required in order for an individual to attain functional literacy increases.151 This makes literacy rather hard to measure. The most common measure for historical levels of Western literacy, signatures on official documents and registers requires the ability to write which may not be present in someone who is nevertheless able to read and would not, by modern standards, indicate functional literacy. It is therefore important to realise that early modern sources, which are by nature imperfect, do not represent one discrete literacy but a spectrum or hierarchy of skills.152 In this thesis, reading literacy is also considered literacy, albeit of a less highranking level than writing literacy. The ability to read enables the swift spread of information which supports the economic development of a society. Therefore, where data on reading literacy can be found it will be included. Unfortunately reading is a practice that leaves little to no trace of its historical occurrence.153 This entails that measures depend on features that are somewhat removed from the readers themselves, for example the proliferation of printed material or the growth of libraries. In the quantification of writing literacy, another problem with signature data is that it can be argued for China and to a lesser extent Europe that signatures really only represent an ability to draw and reproduce a character with no actual literate ability. For Europe this can be held to be less relevant as familiarity with holding a writing instrument and producing a mark other than the cross of the illiterate is something that only comes with practise and in all probability this practise would have occurred during learning to write. In China where the language is pictographic this is a more pressing concern as the very nature of the written script meant that pupils could learn to write just their name and no other symbol. For the purposes of this thesis writing literacy will be referred to except where there is evidence that reading literacy surpassed the ability to write by a considerable extent. Another way of measuring literacy is by gathering data on how many teachers there were per thousand of the population. The relationship between the numbers of teachers who were available at any given point in time and the rate of adult illiteracy is complicated by various local institutional and cultural factors.154 However according to Cipolla when the level of 3 formal teachers per 1,000 population is reached, rates of adult illiteracy are low, in general less than 15 per cent.155 In the discussion of literacy levels in the four case studies that follows, both estimates of literacy from signatures versus marks and numbers of teachers or schools are used to depict the situation across the board during the period under discussion. One of the aims of the following section is to evaluate whether increasing levels of literacy was a contributing factor towards economic growth or whether literacy expanded as a
computers are ubiquitous, one hears the phrase computer literacy. In todays world where English is the preeminent international language, non-English speakers skill in that language can be useful.This quote illustrates the multiple skills that nowadays people must possess to be functional literate. 151 Velis, J. Through a glass darkly: Functional illiteracy in industrialised countries, p. 132. 152 Houston, R.A. Literacy in Early Modern Europe, p. 4. 153 Chartier, R. The Order of Books, p.1, see also Hackel, B. Reading Materials in Early Modern England, p. 2 where the term ghosts of those old readers is used to evoke the image of the fleeting glimpses we can gain into the history of readers. 154 C. Cipolla, Literacy and Development in the West, p. 26. 155 C. Cipolla, Literacy and Development in the West, p. 26.

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result of economic growth. In other words, whether expanding levels of literacy are a necessary precursor to economic growth or whether it should be used as an indicator of economic growth. 4.2 England England is probably the country of which the educational history has been most accurately documented. The studies that exist show that education and attainment in terms of literacy varied widely from region to region.156 This feature can also be observed in Scotland and Japan whenever regional evidence is available. English data also most clearly shows literacy levels differing according to profession. This phenomenon is probably also applies to other countries. Some occupations, such as being a merchant or a member of the clergy, simply demanded literate individuals. In addition to occupational and regional differences in literacy, English data has also shown a clear urban versus rural split with those living in cities exhibiting higher levels of literacy. This is related to the occupational divide, because literate employment positions were often linked to urban trade whereas rural shepherds had little need of literacy for their sheep tending. Literacy levels in England are often measured by signature data, however it is a widely held view that more children learned to read than to write because reading was taught before the age of seven when a child could be removed from school to earn a wage as mentioned in section 3.2.1.157 This means that in terms of reading literacy signature data probably under-represents the proportion of the population that was literate. For Scotland and England the 18th century represented a turning point in literacy, shifting away from the tradition of aural literacy towards silent reading. Before this, reading had often been a communal activity in domestic and educational contexts as well as in public spaces. Texts were read out loud for all to appreciate and consider.158 Reading literacy became more important for textual appreciation thus reinforcing a desire for literacy amongst the general populace. One of the foremost academics who concerns himself with research into English literacy levels is David Cressy. From his estimates of English literacy, based on statistics gathered from local records of multiple English parishes and analysis of occupational literacy over time, he derived graph 4 of declining illiteracy for men and women from 1500 to 1900159:

156

Stephens, W.B. Education, Literacy and Society, 1830-70 The geography of diversity in provincial England, p. 9. 157 Spufford, Small Books, pp. 30-32. 158 Hackel, B. Reading Material in Early Modern England, p. 46. 159 Graph 4 is the culmination of Cressys research into occupational and regional illiteracy and resembles, to some extent, the graphs he produces for various occupations. It is not, as such, based on hard statistical evidence but is a synthesis of what he has found presented graphically.

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Graph 4: Estimated illiteracy of men and women in England, 1500-1900

Source: Cressy, D. Literacy and the Social Order, p.177

The graph shows a steady decline in illiteracy from 1500 to 1750, and a steep decline between 1850 and 1900. One noteworthy feature of the graph is the increase in illiteracy that occurs for both men and women in between 1750 and 1850. Progress in reducing illiteracy seems to stagnate during these years, traditionally associated with the industrial revolution, and both male and female illiteracy experience slight increases over the period immediately before. This may be explained by the fact that industrial labour in factories meant that children could be economically viable as wage earners from an earlier age thus eliminating the chance for them to spend even a short period in school. Table 8 is a summary of Cressys data, as extracted from graph 4, to illustrate percentage changes and to allow comparison with the other case studies. The data is translated into literacy percentages for consistency with the other case studies.
Table 8: Estimated literacy of men and women in England 1500-1900 (extracted from Cressy, graph 4)

Year 1500 1550

Male literacy 10 19

Female literacy 0 3

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1600 1650 1700 1750 1800 1850 1900

30 31 43 60 68 75 95

10 11 27 38 48 60 95

Additional sources on English literacy can be found in Rab Houstons work. He provides data on Northern English counties.160 Houstons data is presented in the table below:
Table 9: Houstons postulated illiteracy percentages for Northern England (translated into literacy percentages for consistency)161

Year 1640 1690 1730 1740

Male literacy 35 59 73 70

Female literacy 7 14 26 32

Source: R.A. Houston, The Development of Literacy: Northern England 1568-1800, Economic History Review

Houston attempts to demonstrate that Northern English literacy rates were comparable or higher than those in Scotland. From 1690 onwards they diverge from Cressys averages. Houstons estimates for male literacy in 1690 are more than ten percent higher than the values by Cressy for 1700 (59 percent literacy versus 43) but Houstons data for female literacy shows equal or lower rates of literacy for women (Houston cites 14 percent literate versus Cressys 27 percent in 1700). Presuming the male and female proportions of the population to be roughly equal this means that Houstons data indicates a total literacy level of 36.5for 1690. In a study of English literacy W.B. Stephens finds marked regional discrepancies but postulates that by 1856 the national average of marriage marks, indicating illiteracy, stood at 35 percent.162 Thus literacy levels were approximately 65 percent of the total population. This figure lies fairly close to those provided by Cressy for 1850, if one combines both male and female literacy from his estimates. Stephens data is well presented
160 161

R.A. Houston, The Development of Literacy: Northern England 1568-1800, Economic History Review. Based on Northern Assize Circuit depositions. 162 Stephens, W.B. Education, Literacy and Society, p. 96.

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and derives from multiple sources. He presents statistics on a town by town basis for many English counties. His evidence places Northern England at the upper end of the regional spectrum of literacy, with an average of just under 47 percent literacy for marrying couples in 1754.163 He also shows that for towns in the North were acting as rising industrial centres for the textile industry one sees a marked decrease in literacy levels.164 Houstons thesis the suggests that comparing Northern England to Scotland is actually to compare one of the least literate regions of England to a country which is often thought of as one of the most literate historically. The fact that Houston finds that the rate of literacy in Northern England is higher or equal to that in Scotland is fundamentally challenging to the national myth of high rates of literacy in Scotland. However his results are based on one set of Northern English depositions, thus making them less convincing than the wide ranging data presented by Stephens and the varied estimates produced by Cressy. This will be discussed further in the next section. However Northern England is often associated with industrial activity which may well have depressed literacy levels in the period after that focused on by Houston, which is exactly when Stephens analysis starts. In terms of English literacy Cressys estimates seem to provide the best evidence for England as a whole. The difference between Cressys and Houstons estimates show northern England having higher rates of male literacy than the national average but this does not make them incompatible and indeed the value of Houstons data is questionable. Cressys estimates are also in line with the suggested national average given by Stephens. Therefore the data from Cressy will be used in the concluding comparison with the other three case studies. 4.3 Scotland As mentioned earlier, the Scottish educational tradition can be traced back to the thoughts of John Knox and the reformers which Parliament codified in law in the late 17th century. Scotland of the time was a predominantly Protestant country. In this respect Max Webers theory of the Protestant work ethic could be used to explain Scotlands economic progress. The Protestant ethic regarded hard work as a crucial contribution to ones salvation, indicative of the fact that one had been handpicked for Gods greater purposes. Therefore hard work was seen as beneficial to both the individual and society which stimulating economic growth.165 Although Weber has recently sustained heavy criticism because caution is required to avoid excess attribution of societal developments to religious affiliation, he does raise an important point. One which David Landes seeks to defend by reference to the fact that the Protestant stress on instruction and literacy for both boys and girls led to a heightened level of literacy with an increased number of candidates available for higher education and the assurance of continuity of literacy down the generations. In other words Literate mothers matter.166
163 164

Stephens, W.B. Education, Literacy and Society, p. 6. Stephens, W.B. Education, Literacy and Society, p. 6. 165 The Protestant work ethic is a term coined by German sociologist Max Weber. It is a theoretical sociological concept which is based upon the idea that the Protestant faith created the conception of hard worldly work as a good Protestants duty which benefits both the individual and society. This was in contrast to the Catholic view of good works. 166 Landes, D. The Wealth and Poverty of Nation, p. 52.

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The idea of a Scotland with historically impressively high levels of literacy has become central to the very essence of Scottish identity. 167 In fact the concept of Scottish education as egalitarian and accessible to all has become incorporated into the very notion of being Scottish with, as a corner stone, the idea that those who are Scottish have and share in what has become known as the democratic intellect. 168 Scotland has a long history of a literate, and often highly educated lay elite. Such a class first became significant in the early 16th century under the guidance of the humanist movement, whose aim it was to create exactly such an elite so as to be able to improve the spirit of mankind and nurture humanist and individualist ideas. This is evident in the spread of literacy from the nobility to a wider population of lesser landowners and burgesses and the explosion of vernacular poetry.169The reasons for the remarkable economic transformation seen in Scotland from 1750 onwards are hotly debated but one idea which has been advanced is that the countrys educational system, from its parish schools to its four ancient universities (compared to the two that England had at the time) created an unusually literate population for the era. This is well-illustrated by the Report of the Education Commission (Scotland) of 1868 which claims that the Scottish educational system is thoroughly appreciated by the middle class and sedulously employed... both for itself and for the class whose labour it uses; and here is their superiority to the English; and the reason of the success of Scotch skilled labourers and Scotsmen of business everywhere.170 In more recent studies of Scottish literacy its impressive nature has been called into question. Rab Houstons Scottish Literacy and the Scottish Identity is the most pertinent example of this. In this study he attempts to show that literacy levels in northern England from 1600 to 1800 were almost equal to those in Scotland. He also argues that although some professions showed high literacy levels, these were not so outstanding when viewed in terms of comparison to the rest of Europe, as has previously been believed. His study has caused a rethink of Scottish literacy. However his sample sizes are very small and by comparing Scotland to northern England he ignores the possibility that northern English provinces attained higher literacy than the rest of England due to the example being set them by their Scottish neighbours and the flows of people between Scotland and northern England.171 Stephens data, described in the previous section, suggests that literacy rates in northern England were actually some of the lowest of the country. As mentioned previously this suggests that overall literacy rates in England might have been higher than in Scotland. Tempering this is the idea the Northern English literacy may have declined with the rise of the industrial revolution. Therefore Stephens data for the 19 th century is not incompatible with Scottish literacy being higher than in Northern England. Houstons data is based on one specific set of responses to a survey, whereas Stephens' data is more comprehensive covering a variety of different towns and counties in detail over a longer period. Therefore, as Houston
167 168

Houston, R. Scottish Literacy and the Scottish Identity. Gray, J., McPherson, A.F., and Raffe, D. Reconstructions of secondary education p. 40. The democratic intellect is so called because intrinsic to it is the idea that being a member of Scottish society entails a right to a certain level of education and those who had access were inducted into a shared intellectual discourse. 169 Lynch, M. Oxford Companion to Scottish History, p. 121. 170 Quoted in Gray, J., McPherson, A.F., and Raffe, D. Reconstructions of secondary education, p. 41. 171 Anderson, R. D. Education and the Scottish People 1750-1918, p. 17.

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and Stephens data could be held to be compatible with the English average, the problem of northern English literacy as proof that Scottish literacy was not so high will be disregarded. It does not affect the fact that both Houston and Anderson suggest Scottish male signature rates were up to 65 percent by the 18th century. For the time this was a very high rate, although not unique within Europe. Therefore the Scottish achievement of having successfully attained high rates of literacy should not be diminished. It is the myth of the exceptional nature of Scotland that must not be accepted without question Houston does, however, concede that by 1800 Scotland may have had almost universal reading literacy, while lacking universal writing literacy.172 This is for the same reason as discussed above in section 3.2, that children were taught to read before the age of seven at which point the opportunity cost of having them enrolled in school became higher for parents, as they had then reached an age at which they could contribute to the households coffers, be this through wage labour or work within the household (e.g. farm work, spinning etc.). Houstons critique of the Scottish literacy myth is based on low signature literacy and this, in view of the chronology of education, is compatible with high reading literacy. Houstons main aim is to demonstrate that although Scotland did have high rates of literacy for the time, some of the highest in Europe, the country was not so impressively unique, in terms of literacy, as the myths created by a need to foster a sense of national identity would have us believe. As mentioned previously Cipolla postulates that in order to attain a literacy level of 85 percent, a country requires at least three teachers per thousand head of population. The data he presents for Scotland in 1890 suggests that the Scottish nation had 33 teachers per thousand of its population.173 This is well above the projected level and corroborates the idea that Scotland had a high degree of education. Indeed the data Cipolla uses shows that by 1859 only 10 percent of Scottish bridegrooms were signing with marks, indicating illiteracy. Anderson, in his survey of Scottish education, paints a similarly optimistic picture of the state of Scottish education while suggesting that Houstons evidence of high literacy in northern England might lend itself to a regional rather than national framework of analysis.174 Map 1 shows male and female literacy levels in Scotland according to the 1871 census. Clearly remote areas in the highlands and islands, where poverty was rife and parishes too large for one parish school to be effective, display the lowest levels of literacy. This can also be seen in Table 10, specifying literacy percentages for insular, mainland, rural and town districts.
Map 1: Literacy and Gender in Scotland Left - Male Literacy: Bridegrooms able to sign, Right - female literacy, Brides able to sign. 1861-70

172 173

Houston, R. Literacy in Early Modern Europe, p. 132. C. Cipolla, Literacy and Development in the West, P.22. 174 Anderson, R.D. Education and the Scottish People, p. 17.

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Source: Anderson, R. Education and the Scottish People 1750-1918, p. 116-117. Table 10: Literacy of Married couples by type of district. 1861-1870

Type of area Insular districts

Men (%) 75

Women (%) 61 85 75 91 67

Mainland Rural districts 92 Town districts Edinburgh Glasgow 88 96 84

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Total175

89

77

Source: Anderson, R. Education and the Scottish People 1750-1918, p. 118.

The figures in Table 10 reflect the fact that literacy is loosely associated with urbanisation and commercialisation. However the high values for mainland rural districts demonstrate that rural areas, which are not isolated from markets they serve, can also develop high levels of literacy presumably as a functional response to the conditions they are confronted with i.e. commercial trading. Another striking disparity is that between the literacy levels of religious denominations, namely between Roman Catholic couples getting married and the rest. This is shown in Table 2.
Table11: Literacy of Married couples by denomination, 1896176

Church Church of Scotland Free Church United Presbyterian Episcopalian Roman Catholic Other

no. marriages en (%) M 9,761 5,095 3,277 450 2,043 1,393 93 93 96 90 54 94

Women(%) 83 84 88 79 38 82

Source: Anderson, R. Education and the Scottish People 1750-1918, p. 118.

These results corroborate the idea of religious affiliation being a contributing factor in educational attainment. The Roman Catholic couples, whose literacy rates are so much lower than those of the other religious denominations may well have included Irish immigrants who were often completely uneducated. Nevertheless the results are striking. They also demonstrate the high rates of literacy that Scotland had attained by the last decades of the 19th century. Table 11 presents a problem for the comparative analysis. If Scottish rates of literacy were higher because of the Protestant influences on the country then this should not set it apart from England, which was also a Protestant country at the time. It can be argued that the Church of England was qualitatively different from the Church of Scotland. Indeed, English Protestantism laid less emphasis on the individuals ability to read the Bible which would surely have had some significant influence on literacy rates. The relationship between the Church of Scotland and Scottish government was a very involved one which allowed for leading Church figures, such as John Knox, to instigate and decree as law the obligations to
175 176

Total percentages derived from Anderson Fig 5.1. Literacy of Brides and Bridegrooms, 1855-1900. Couples generally got married in their late twenties therefore signature data on marriage registers reflects the state of education approximately fifteen years previously.

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educate parishioners. This did not occur in such a systematic, or mandated from above fashion in England. Therefore, although Protestantism was the predominant religion on both sides of the border, in Scotland this seems to have had more of an impact on literacy levels than in England. This is not to say that English literacy levels were highly depressed but simply that the Scottish system of education, supported by its Church of Scotland background, achieved higher rates of literacy. 4.4 Japan Academic research into the history of Japanese education often ascribes great importance to the Meiji restoration in instigating nation-wide mandatory education programmes in an attempt to bring Japan into line with the rest of the world militarily, industrially and ultimately economically. However the foundations for national education and high levels of literacy were laid during the Tokugawa era and pre-existing levels of literacy were greatly advantageous to the Meiji government. They allowed for the wide-spread and speedy dissemination of information on government directives directly, in print, to the provincial authorities.177 Dore, in his study of Tokugawa education, outlines the system as it had evolved under the Tokugawa family's rule and how this had created a fairly literate society out of the literary doldrums which Japan had inhabited prior to the seventeenth century.178 By doing this he illustrates what the educational situation was into which the Meiji restoration introduced its various reforms and laws179 and establishes that despite regional differences the Japanese were already a fairly literate and educated population by the time the Meiji restoration took place. The literacy estimates based on both Dore and Passins texts stand at around 50 percent for men and 15 percent for women when the Meiji restoration took place The study of Japanese literacy is complicated by several factors. Firstly there is the fact that Japanese takes several different written forms. There is the traditional Kanji script which features the Chinese characters which are a symbolic script and then there are the Hiragana and Katakana alphabets, which are phonetic systems of 46 symbols each. The use of Chinese script is comparable to that of Latin in Europe, as it was used for clerical and religious purposes but not widely amongst the population excepting those who were highly educated. In literacy studies of Japan it is a matter of some controversy whether the ability to write the phonetic symbols counts as literacy or whether knowledge of the Chinese symbols must also be present for full literacy to be reached. Furthermore, many scholars consider the data on Japanese literacy to be scarce in part because, as of 1650, Japanese society started to use seals instead of calligraphic ciphers to indicate their agreement with various legal documents, a tradition which continues up until the present day. However Richard Rubinger, using the ciphers inscribed on religious affiliation inquiry registers180 from 1630 until the
177

Jansen, M.B. Tokugawa and Modern Japan in Studies in Studies in the Institutional History of Early Modern Japan, p. 325. 178 Dore, R. Education in Tokugawa Japan, p.254. 179 Most importantly the 214 article Fundamental Code of Education (Gakusei) issued in 1872. 180 These were documents signed by the general populace declaring themselves to be Buddhist and rejecting Christianity, which was feared to be gaining a corrupting foothold in the country.

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trend for seals caught on in 1650, demonstrates one way to glean information about literacy at the start of the Tokugawa era. Rubinger presents information on cipher versus seal use in Kyoto wards from 1594 until 1819. This data shows cipher use increasing over the course of the 17th century and then declining as seals became more popular. The data suggests rates of literacy of over 50 percent among household heads in the 17th century, a statistic which is subsequently obscured by the popularity of seals.181 The sword-hunt of the late 16th century and the subsequent creation of a class of samurai tied to the castle-towns was key in the creation of a base for the spread of literacy. Prior to this the samurai had been rural, illiterate warriors but this legislation turned them into educated bureaucrats whose income depended on their literate abilities and whose pastimes became increasingly less martial and increasingly more academic.182 The samurais enforced move to the city had a dual effect on literacy, simultaneously making way, and creating the need for, the rise of a new class in the rural hierarchy, that of the village headmen. These village headmen and the circles they moved in of elite families within the village leadership structure required literacy to carry out their administrative duties vis--vis the taxation requirements passed down from the shogun to the regional daimyos and from there to the individual villages.183 Over time, they developed into provincial literati engaging in the reading of material far removed from the requirements of their administrative duties. This is shown by what records are left in the form of letters and book collections from which a picture emerges of a vibrant literate culture in which the exchange of books and meetings to discuss ideas presented in these texts was fairly common.184 Establishing how far beyond the elite group or rural leaders literacy had gone is difficult to ascertain but Rubinger provides evidence of ordinary farmers, filing circular petitions (circular so that the ring leaders could not be identified as those at the top of the list) to report their disgruntlement with perceived taxation inaccuracies. This suggests, according to Rubinger, that even at the end of the 17th century a significant degree of literacy had been attained by ordinary farmers.185 The most coherent source for literacy data comes from the tests given to recruits to the Japanese army after mandatory conscription was brought in by the Meiji government. The first of these represent the status of levels of literacy as it was in the last years of the Tokugawa shoguns. Graph 5 uses data submitted to the central Office of Education, established by the Meiji movement in 1871. Regional offices were asked to survey their populations for levels of literacy. Unfortunately, not all adhered to this requirement meaning that overall the data is haphazard and patchy. However, three prefectures, Shiga, Okayama and Kagoshima, did manage to submit records, over a long enough period, for the results to be interesting to look at. The reader should take note that this is data on illiteracy, not literacy so comparison to previous case studies must take this into consideration.
181 182

Rubinger, R. Popular Literacy in early modern Japan, p. 46. Mason, R., Caiger, J. A History of Japan, p. 212. 183 Rubinger, R. Popular Literacy in early modern Japan, p. 59. 184 Rubinger, R. Popular Literacy in early modern Japan, p. 95. 185 Rubinger, R. Popular Literacy in early modern Japan, p.41. Rubinger is unclear in his definition of a significant degree of literacy and what the percentage boundaries are that he is talking about.

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Graph 5: Male/female illiteracy compared in three prefectures

Source: Monbusho Nenpo as printed in Robert Rubinger's Popular Literacy in Early Modern Japan

Kagoshima prefecture was situated far from any routes of commerce and communication at the southern tip of Kyushu, whereas Shiga prefecture was a commercially active area on the Tokaido road which connected the economic hub of Osaka with the Tokyo, the political centre. Okayama prefecture was located on a less used road, but was on the coast of the Inland Sea, on the main trade route from Osaka to western Japan. These differences in commercial activity are reflected in the graph. Of the three Shiga shows by far the lowest levels of male illiteracy, below 20 percent, for the period from 1877 to 1893. Such low rates of illiteracy are not likely to have spontaneously occurred at the same time as the Meiji restoration, so it can only be concluded that they were similarly low for the late Tokugawa period. The Okayama data covers a shorter period of time, 1887 until 1893. Nevertheless, again an impressively low rate of illiteracy can be observed of less than 40 percent. The data also shows that for the most remote prefecture, Kagoshima, some degree of literacy had been attained, considering that Kagoshima men had similar illiteracy levels as those of Okayama women. Kagoshima represents the high end of the spectrum of illiteracy, obviously, but Shiga was not the prefecture with the lowest illiteracy as more patchy data from larger towns exists which indicates even lower rates of illiteracy rates. Averaged to nationwide totals, Robert Dore concludes that the most informed guess indicates that just over 40 percent of Japanese boys and 10 percent of Japanese girls received some kind of formal education outside of their home in the years just before the Meiji 56 of 79

restoration.186 This is purely an estimate of those attending the terakoya, also known as writing schools, which were basically schools for commoners, and therefore does not include those taught by their parents. Writing school attendance is therefore not an accurate depiction of the state of play of Japanese literacy as Rubinger argues. He seeks alternative measures of literacy in the writing of candidates names on election ballots for village headmen. In Japanese tradition ballots were handwritten by the person casting the vote. Not many of these ballots survive but one that does for the village of Mishuku shows remarkably high levels of literacy. Mishuku was a medium-sized village in 1856, when the election in question took place, numbering a total of 63 households. Of these 63 households 51 ballots were cast (the electoral system worked on the principle that each head of household could vote). This indicates a literacy rate of 81 percent amongst the heads of households if one presumes that the other 12 households did not vote due to illiteracy.187 The writing on the ballots ranges from formal Chinese script to badly spelt kana (Japanese phonetic lettering). The availability of kana syllabary thus made it possible for a wider range of people with different abilities to participate in politics and decision-making than would have been possible had only Chinese symbolic writing been available. Further sources of information on literacy levels at the start of the Meiji period are the military subscription examinations. A geographical representation of the different percentages of literacy obtained by prefecture is presented in Map 2 below:
Map2: Japanese literacy by district.

186 187

Dore, R. Education in Tokugawa Japan, p.254. Rubinger, R. Popular Literacy in early modern Japan, p151.

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Source: Rikugunsho tokei nenpo, as printed in Rubinger, p. 183 (adjusted to show literacy instead of illiteracy rates).

As in Scotland and England, literacy in Japan varied by region. The map dates from the very end of the 19th century and shows that by this point most areas had attained a literacy level of over 70 percent. The areas which had not, excluding Okinawa, had literacy rates of no lower than 42.4 percent, with most showing percentages above 50 percent. Okinawa is the chain of islands off the southern tip of Japan where literacy was 23.7 percent, which is hardly surprising in view of its relative isolation from the rest of the country. These results represent literacy three decades after the Meiji restoration. As such, they reflect Tokugawa literary attainment which laid the foundation for Meiji educational reforms. Dore and Rubinger both provide accounts of female literacy and indications that urban literacy was of a very high level during the 18th and 19th centuries. Rural literacy is also shown to expand with the proliferation of terakoya (temple schools) and the establishment of networks of rural literati. Rubinger provides interesting anecdotal evidence of the existence of elaborate sharing networks for books between provincial literati gathered from what survives of their correspondence and the establishment of book club meetings between the 58 of 79

village elites, where experts on a subject were invited to come and lecture and discuss the meaning of a text that the participants had read in advance. Nineteenth-century rural villages of Japan were societies of two cultures with only slight hints of those outside the leadership group attempting to make inroads into the realms of advanced literacy.188 Lower level literacy and the growth of a large group involved in village leadership who did require literacy contributed significantly to the creation of a Japanese society whose citizens had a wide range of literary ability. 189 Overall, during the Tokugawa period literacy appears to have been expanding as commercial activity proliferated in the urban environs of Japan. During the century preceding the Meiji Restoration commoners in towns and villages had established 50,000 schools with little or no guidance from central authority.190Many of these schools were short-lived but Platt estimates that at any given time 15,000 to 20,000 schools would have been in operation in the two decades before the Restoration.191 Approximations of population totals for the earlier decades of the 19th century strand around 24,000,000 therefore the number of schools averages out to one for every 1,200 of the population (using the inflated estimate it would be one per every 480 citizens).192 One cannot be sure how many teachers were involved in each school but seeing as some schools were academies offering a range of subjects and others were simple one teacher affairs an average of around two would seem fair. This means two teachers per 1,200 Japanese. This falls short of the 3 teacher per thousand boundary that Cipolla sets, for development of literacy. Nevertheless it was a start, and if the 50,000 estimate is used significantly more than just a start. The trends evident in Western Europe which sparked rises in literacy came slightly later, in Japan. However, through a rapid increase in the number of schools Japan had achieved rates of school attendance and literacy, comparable to those found in Europe on the eve of the Meiji Restoration. A final note on female literacy in Japan is warranted at this point. Rubinger provides a host of anecdotal accounts of women who were literate enough to take over the households book keeping and able to write petitions to court to void unfair contractual agreements.193 Some of these accounts are of women who were definitely not of an elite status. Further evidence from Anne Walthall suggests that the level of literacy among women from merchant families in the 19th century was high.194 For rural entrepreneurs and merchants alike literate women were seen as useful to fulfil the role of deputy husband when the men were away.195

188 189

Rubinger, R. Popular Literacy in early modern Japan, p. 161. Platt, B. Burning and Building Schooling and State Formation in Japan, 1750-1890, p. 2. 190 Platt, B. Burning and Building Schooling and State Formation in Japan, 1750-1890, p. 1. 191 Platt, B. Burning and Building Schooling and State Formation in Japan, 1750-1890, p. 25. 192 Mason, R. and Caiger, J. A History of Japan, p. 211. For the approximation of population levels. 193 Rubinger, R. Popular Literacy in early modern Japan, p. 120. 194 Walthall, A. The Weak Body of a Useless Woman: Matsuo Taseko and the Meiji Restoration. 195 Rubinger, R. Popular Literacy in early modern Japan, p. 121.

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4.5 China Chinese script does not lend itself to widespread literacy and indeed traditional China can be said to have had no concept of mass literacy.196 To the ancient Chinese, writing was a talisman which represented man's mastery over the universe.197 Prayers were not spoken to the gods but written and there was a belief that Chinese characters had a certain magic quality.198 This meant that for many the acts of reading and writing were shrouded in mystique and awe of the power it brought those who had fully mastered the art. Generalisations about the levels of literacy in 18th and 19th century China often paint a very bleak picture, ascribing literacy to only a tiny percentage of the population. Yet often these estimates refer to full literacy, which in the Chinese context meant having read Confucian classics and then various commentaries, histories and literature that had been passed down from generation to generation. What many scholars on the topic of Chinese literacy have ignored is the possibility of niche vocabularies, in writing and reading, which people of specific professions developed. This entails that those employed in specific trades would know the characters related to their trade and so be able to communicate albeit it on a very limited scale.199 This revisionist perspective on Chinese literacy was first put forward by Evelyn Rawski, and has become a standard source to support the arguments of those seeking to establish the idea that China of the nineteenth century was one of the most advanced agrarian societies in the world.200 In her attempt to re-evaluate Chinese literacy to demonstrate that the situation was not as dire as some scholars would have us believe, Rawski estimates basic literacy (i.e. the possession of some ability to read and write) at 30 to 45 percent for men and between 2 and 10 percent for women with 6 teachers to every thousand head of the male population as early as the beginning of the eighteenth century. Her estimates of 30 to 45 percent are derived from information for the mid to late nineteenth century.201 By failing to provide data in a regional or chronological framework, she implies that literacy remained the same for the entire period of the 18th and 19th century. Based on the aims of the Mass Education movement initiated by Y.C. James Yen in the 1920s, Rawski presents numbers of characters that a person had to learn to attain a very basic level of literacy.202 The total number of characters is in excess of 40,000 but a large share of these are outdated and not used in everyday language. The Mass Education movement estimated that if a person knew 1169 characters they would be able to read 91 percent of simple material.203 By these standards, a Peoples Congress directive on adult education in 1950 set literacy at a knowledge of 1,000 characters, and semi-literacy requiring
196 197

Rawski, E. Education and Popular Literacy in Ch'ing China, p. 1. Rubinger, R. Popular Literacy in early modern Japan, p.163. 198 Rawski, E. Education and Popular Literacy in Ch'ing China, p. 141 citing Reischauer, E. And Fairbank, J. East Asia: The Great Tradition. 199 E. Rawski, Education and Popular Literacy in Ch'ing China, p.28. 200 Davis-Friedmann, D. Review: A Century of Educational Reforms in China History of Education Quarterly. 201 Rawski, E. Education and Popular Literacy in Ching China, p. 140. 202 Rawski, E. Education and Popular Literacy in Ching China, p. 3. 203 Gamble, S. Ting Hsien: A North China Rural Community, pp. 185-186.

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the knowledge of five to six hundred characters. The bar was later raised to 1,500 for literacy and 700 for semi-literates. Before this full literacy was only ascribed to those who had spent years immersed in the study of Confucian classics.204 Rawskis text is the first, and only comprehensive discussion of the problem of literacy in late imperial China, however her estimates have come in for substantial criticism and she provides very little explanation of the actual qualitative abilities of those she counts as being literate by means of their niche vocabularies. Her percentages refer to a very basic level of education and are generally thought to be an over-statement of functional literacy. Despite her introduction mentioning numbers of characters needed for basic literacy, she never clearly states what number of characters her literate population have at their disposal, saying of her estimates that this group included the fully literate members of the elite and, on the opposite pole, those knowing only a few hundred characters.205 There is also the impression that she plucks her percentages out of the air, providing no actual evidence of the literacy of the population. Regardless of this her concept of nice vocabularies is a useful one, and one that Deng in his book Development versus stagnation: technological continuity and agricultural progress in pre-modern China builds on Rawski to introduce the concept of stratum literacy, a useful idea which sees a certain strata of society achieving high rates of literacy and thus being able to disseminate information on agricultural concepts to those with no literacy skills.206 Rawskis figures suggest that one should not dismiss China as having been significantly disadvantaged by low levels of literacy in comparison to Europe. However, her data is based largely on approximations of numbers of schools with no information generated from any signature data as this is largely unavailable. Use of such data is flawed as schools in China, particularly the charitable schools (yixue), were frequently short-lived and required bureaucrats collecting the fees in order to sustain themselves. This is illustrated by the findings of high official and educational philosopher Chen Hongmou (1696-1771) investigating why six schools founded in the city of Tianjin in 1708 had disappeared. His archival detective work showed that in 1726, when the important bureaucrats stopped collecting the schools financial support for them, the schools had faded from view due to a lack of community interest in maintaining them.207 Woodside critiques Rawskis literacy estimates while still praising her for seeking to update the study of Chinese early modern education. He calls into question the dedication of the Chinese peasants to the schools that were established by the upper classes, citing sources which state that Chinese peasants viewed charity schools as taboo while being perfectly prepared to let their children be vagrants.208 If the number of community schools and charitable schools recorded is anything
204 205

Rawski, E. Education and Popular Literacy in Ching China, p. 4. Rawski, E. Education and Popular Literacy in Ching China, p. 140. 206 Deng, G. Development versus stagnation: technological continuity and agricultural progress in pre- modern China. 207 Woodside, A. Some Mid-Qing Theorists of Popular Schools: Their Innovations, Inhibitions, and Attitudes toward the Poor. Modern China. 208 Woodside, A. Some Mid-Qing Theorists of Popular Schools: Their Innovations, Inhibitions, and Attitudes toward the Poor. Modern China.

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to go by, then the availability of education increased over the 18th and 19th centuries. Of 39 provinces for which Rawski provides data on the numbers of schools, 25 increased their availability of schools over the course of these two centuries, while 6 had no change and the remaining 7 experienced a decline. It therefore seems unlikely that literacy was constant across the 200-year span. If Rawskis estimates are correct, for the end of the period she discusses, then the percentages would surely have been lower during the 18th century. As the 19th century is the only period for which Rawski presents any real evidence, in this thesis her estimates are considered relevant only for the last half of the 19th century. If Rawskis percentages for literacy are inaccurately high, then how are more accurate estimates to be established? When Mao started to institute nationwide educational reform in the 1950s, estimates put the total of illiterates at 80 percent of the total population. This figure is probably inflated to make the achievements of the Communist Party look more significant than they were. However, high estimates of illiteracy can also be gleaned by a reading of the anecdotal reports of Western visitors to China who often declared the Chinese as desperately poor and illiterate.209 The anecdotal reports of Victorian visitors are of limited use as language barriers and cultural misunderstandings could well have caused them to jump to invalid conclusions but it is interesting, nevertheless, to note their impressions. Further information about Chinese literacy can be gathered from a variety of sources. In a comparison of the library and book lending systems of Europe versus China Joseph McDermott concludes that "the Western European pattern of the development of higher educational institutions' exclusivity, the gradual appearance of more "public" libraries, and individuals' exchange of materials contrasts sharply with a Chinese pattern for forming book collections that seems to have encouraged less institutional variety. 210 This more conservative attitude on the part of the Chinese, concerning the lending of books, meant that books were harder to come by because only book-ownership permitted book-access. This reflects wider patterns within Chinese education, whereby lack of institutional variety and pooling of resources prevented the facilitation of the spread of education. Another factor to be considered concerning the spread of information in China is the proliferation of printing, which was initially a Chinese invention. In the following quote, Landes explains the Chinese reaction to printing: In general, for all that printing did for the preservation and diffusion of knowledge in China, it never exploded as in Europe. Much publication depended on government initiative ... Even evidence of the falsity of conventional knowledge could be dismissed as appearance. As a result, intellectual activity segmented along personal and regional lines, and scientific achievement shows surprising discontinuities.211 A final topic that deserves note is that of female literacy. Although female emancipation was not complete in any of the four countries, Chinese women were exceptionally disadvantaged. Confucianism, which was the predominant national philosophy
209

Woodside, A. Some Mid-Qing Theorists of Popular Schools: Their Innovations, Inhibitions, and Attitudes toward the Poor. Modern China. 210 McDermott, A Social History of the Chinese book, p. 126. 211 Landes, D. The Wealth and Poverty of Nation, p. 51.

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and mandated behaviour on every level, stressed the patriarchal relationship, implying that the fathers position within the household was similar to the emperors in terms of the power he could exert.212 Under the Qing dynasty, the principles of Confucianism became even more strongly ingrained into Chinese daily life than they had been under previous dynasties. This strongly disadvantaged women in the educational arena, since they were not seen as belonging to the nuclear family, due to the emphasis on male power, coupled with inheritance laws. Daughters were viewed as temporary residents within their birth homes as, according to Chinese custom, they would leave their family residences to live within the parental home of their future husbands when they were of age. This attitude meant that few male family heads chose to invest in their daughters future, because they were not going to remain within the family structure and contribute to the economic prosperity of the family unit. For women, literacy and education were seen as largely an adornment which might bring satisfaction at an individual level but were not important for ones role in society.213 For men, on the other hand, literacy and education were stepping-stones to power and prestige, therefore carried a far greater value. For these reasons omen were largely illiterate and played very little part politically in Chinese society. 4.6 A Comparison of Literacy Levels Research into literacy in Scotland, England and Japan has shown quite clearly that levels of literacy are dependent on a whole range of factors. These range from occupational demands to gender, to regional differences linked to urbanisation and commercial activity, to commercialisation versus industrialisation. The Chinese were, however, disadvantaged in attaining high levels of literacy by the very nature of their script. By failing to move away from a symbolic, logographic system towards a phonetic one, they missed a key linguistic element, thus making it harder for a member of the general public to learn to read and write unless they devoted many years of their life to study. Although Rawski argues for limited vocabularies of functional literacy, the very limited nature of these vocabularies meant that people could not assimilate novel ideas that were written with characters outside those used in their immediate profession. This major difference between Chinese versus Japanese and English seems to have set the Chinese back comparatively in upping their literacy rates until Maos drive for literacy came into action. For Asian societies, literacy and the ability to write have long been shrouded in superstition. In Europe, literacy was a concept handed down from classical Grecian society which incorporated itself into the tradition of European education. Cipolla sums this up as follow: In classical Greece there was no mystique surrounding the craft of writing such as we find in the civilisation of the East.214 Literacy was seen as a useful tool rather than something to wonder at, a practical tool rather than an art form in its own right. David Landes provides the following distinction of the difference between European and Asian literacy ... the Europeans of that day (the 18th century) were already interested in records. Mark the
212 213

de Moor and van Zanden, Vrouwen en de geboorte van het kapitalisme in West-Europa, p. 34. Rankin, M. The Emergence of Women at the End of the Ching in Women in Chinese Society, p. 44. 214 Cipolla, C. Literacy and Development in the West, p. 38. When talking about the civilisation of the East caution must be exercised as data on Japan belies this generalisation.

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difference between hieratically literate and generally literate societies. The Europeans, for all the analphabetism of the populace, were of the latter category. From middling on up, they read, but also wrote and published not only private citizens. The nearest equivalents in the non-European world would be the Japanese and the Jews.215 Landes view is a very traditional one therefore should be handled with caution. Extending his argument to its logical conclusion, Chinese (and Indian in his example) society can be classified as hieratically literate. It was only those at the top of the Chinese hieratical ladder who attained fully functional levels of literacy and they lectured from on high to preserve the status quo, in which debate was discouraged in favour of Confucian principles of harmony. Even assuming Rawskis estimates for the last half of the 19 th century are accurate, literacy in China was still considerably lower than in the other three case studies. Table 12 sums up literacy levels from the data available as it progressed for the four case studies. For China, the mean of Rawskis estimates is used from 1850 onwards, for want of other data. For England, Cressys estimates, as derived from graph 4 are used, because they constitute the most coherent source. For Japan, the information from the military conscription registers is used. For Scotland, a combination of Anderson and Houstons data is used:

Table 12: Estimates of Literacy in the four case studies

Case

Scotland

England

Japan

China

Men Women Men Women Men Women Men Women Year 1700 65 Percentage demonstrating literacy 43 27

215

Landes, D. The Wealth and Poverty of Nation, p. 164.

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1725 1750 1775 1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 89 94 97 77 89 95 65216

50 60 58 68 65 75 90 96

32 38 44 48 52 60 82 95218 43 50217 60 60219 15 29 37 37 37 37 6 6 6220

The data on literacy rates is shown in graph 6 to enable the reader to easily appreciate the trends over the course of the 18th and 19th century.
Graph 6: Literacy Rates in percent for men and women in the four case studies

Table 12 and Graph 6 illustrate a number of things. Firstly that Scotlands rates of literacy were higher, although not spectacularly so, than those in England. From 1700 onwards, this gap is narrowing apart from slight dips around 1775 and 1825 until the two rates are identical at the dawn of the 20th century. It is also evident that Japanese rates of literacy were higher than those of China and had passed the 40 percent mark, suggested by Anderson and Bowman, by the last decades of the 19th century. Although they were not yet level with those in the United Kingdom by the end of the 19 th century Japanese males were as
216 217

From Houston. From Dore. 218 All England data from Cressy graph. 219 This result and the one above - from average of graph provided of three prefectures. 220 From Rawski.

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literate as those in Britain a hundred years before, at the start of the industrial revolution. It is also noteworthy that, judging from this graph, Japans literacy divergence from China could well have been an occurrence of the 19th century only. It is hard to be certain about this as Rawskis data is the best available and it is far less comprehensive than the military surveys instigated by the Meiji restoration government. Japanese society may have laid the foundations for increased literacy in the Tokugawa period but these developments only seem to have come to fruition in the 19th century. It is also possible that prior to this literacy takeoff instigated by the Meiji male literacy rates had held steady at their 1825 level of just over 40 percent. One thing that jumps out from graph 6 is the sizable gender gap visible in all four countries under discussion. The graph demonstrates literacy rates for Scottish and English subjects of both genders converged towards the end of the 19th century. Both Scottish and English women increased their literacy levels at a greater rate than their male counterparts for the period shown. This probably represents a shift in attitudes to the education of women, resulting in their making up for lost time and their depressed levels of literacy and gaining on the men to eventually converge at the dawn of the twentieth century. Japanese men and women literacy levels were not converging as quickly, although women were making gains in the last decades of the 19th century when male literacy rates had temporarily stagnated. Japanese women were as literate as Chinese men, while Chinese women were the least literate group of all. Table 13 presents the literacy levels of the four cases averaged for men and women for a literacy level of total population (assuming that male and female proportions of the populations were roughly equal):
Table 13 Averages of literacy for the four case studies

Year 1700

Scotland

England 35

Japan

China

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1725 1750 1775 1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 83 91.5 96

41 49 51 58 58.5 67.5 86 95.5 32.5 44.5 48.5 21.5 21.5 21.5

It is interesting to note that, assuming that the male and female population is roughly equal, England had achieved total literacy rates higher than 40 percent prior to the year 1750, traditionally associated with the inception of the industrial revolution. Perhaps Bowman and Andersons interpretation of 40 percent male literacy being necessary for economic growth should be reconfigured to total literacy in excess of 40 percent as women were almost just as likely to be making an economic contribution to society.221 Similarly considering the decade after the Meiji restoration (1868-1878) as the turning point in Japanese economic growth, it is clear that Japanese total literacy had exceeded 40 percent by this point. To leave women out of the story is to ignore half the population and this does not seem justifiable in societies were women contribute to the economic prosperity of the family unit. However, as the data on female literacy is even less complete than that for male literacy in the subsequent analysis male literacy will be used for the comparison.

Chapter 5 - Boolean Analysis and Conclusions

In this chapter a simplified type of Boolean analysis will be used to compare and contrast the four case studies and conclusions will be drawn as to the effect of the institutional structure and literacy on the economic development of each country. 5.1 Bastardised Boolean Analysis Table 14 summarises the preceding text for a quick overview:
Table 14 - Summarising Table:

Case England

Literacy High

Funding of education Private initiatives and charity

Goal of education Scriptural reading + practical skills +

221

Indeed in their original research Bowman and Anderson repeatedly refer to adult literacy, not just male literacy and it is unclear when of why adult for them suddenly took on the meaning of only those of the male gender.

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influence of humanism Scotland High Landowners by government decree based in churches + charity Supplementary schools funded by parents paying fees Tokugawa Japan222 Mediocre Village leadership based in Buddhist monasteries or village headmans house. Private academies teaching range of subjects Government provision of education Scriptural reading to support Knoxs view of Protestantism + humanist goals + practical subjects

Prevent spread of Christianity Conservative + practical fields + prepared village headmen for position they were to occupy Create a population that could compete economically with Europe Sitting exams for entrance into state bureaucratic system

Japan post Meiji

High

China

Low

Charity based funding and clan based funding, later stages of education = state funded

The data presented in table 14 will now be coded using a binary 1 and 0 system to indicate success or failure, with an extra column indicating economic growth. This will be based on the data presented in section 2.2 i.e. whether a country can be shown to have experience economic growth, based on evaluation of urbanisation and real wage trends, in the period discussed: Outcome of economic growth = 1 Outcome of lack of growth = 0
Table 15 Bastardised Truth Table:

Case

Literacy

Funding education 0 1

of Goal education 1 1

of Economic Growth 1 1

England Scotland
222

1 1

Splitting Japan into two periods, one before and one after the Meiji restoration, is justified by the changes in education and economic growth which this major political event resulted in.

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Tokugawa Japan Japan post Meiji China

0223 1 0

0 1 0

1 1 0

0224 1 0

If a full Boolean method were being employed table 15 would be known as a truth table. Due to the limited number of case studies a full truth table cannot be displayed. The reader must, therefore appreciate and take note of the fact that other combinations of variables may well exist to give a certain outcome. Therefore table 15 has the title bastardised truth table as it does not represent the Boolean method in its complete form. For the purposes of deriving Boolean equations the variables shall be coded as follows:

Table 16: Labelling the variables

Criteria Male literacy over 40%225 Male literacy below 40% Funding stimulated predominantly by state/church Funding predominantly by private initiative Goal of education relatively broadly defined Goal of education relatively clearly defined

Coding L l F f G g

5.1.2 Boolean Equations

The preceding table is now used to produce Boolean equations for the outcome of economic growth or no economic growth. The bastardised truth table is converted into the upper case and lower
223

This coding could be contested as male literacy may have approached the 40% level during the Tokugawa period however the evidence is less comprehensive than that available for England, Scotland and post-Meiji Japan. For this reason it receives a binary coding of 0. The implications of the alternative coding are discussed below. 224 This coding of Tokugawa economic growth as zero is not without controversy. Economic growth can be shown to have occurred in Tokugawa Japan but not on the same scale as in Scotland and England. It is the flaw of binary coding that this lesser degree of economic growth cannot be incorporated into the model, forcing the researcher to choose between the two extremes rather than allowing for median values. In order to try and overcome this problem the alternative coding of this outcome as 1 i.e. success, and its impact on the resultant equations, will be discussed below. 225 For literacy Bowman and Andersons finding of a 40% male literacy requirement shall be used as a bench mark.

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case variable labels listed in table 16 and these are then grouped to generate the different equations which result in economic growth being coded either as a 1 or a 0.

Equations which result in economic growth226: LfG = 1 LFG = 1 Equations which do not result in economic growth227: lfG = 0 lfg = 0 (3) (4) (1) (2)

In order to derive the concluding equations one then eliminates any variables which appear both as present and absent to give a certain outcome. This is a process of the following logical argument: if a variable is both present and absent in equations resulting in a given outcome, then that variable cannot be affecting the outcome. The simplified equations are presented below: Simplified equations 1= LG 0 = lf (5) (6)

Equations 5 and 6 respectively indicate that economic growth requires the precursors of male literacy above 40 percent and a broadly defined goal of education, whereas a lack of economic growth occurs when male literacy is below 40 percent, and educational funding comes predominantly from private sources. If Tokugawa Japan were considered to have both literacy of above 40 percent for men and an outcome of economic growth this would, for the purposes of the binary coding, result in it having the same equation as England thus changing nothing about the simplified equations. This is interesting as it leaves the causation unchanged and would therefore support the equations presented above although the equation for lack of economic growth would remain in the form as derived from the Chinese case i.e. low literacy, funding mainly from private sources and a well defined goal. If, however, Tokugawa Japan is assumed to have had economic growth but literacy of below 40 percent for men this changes the
226

The first equation is derived from the English case; The second is derived from Scotland and post Meiji restoration Japan. 227 The first equation is derived from the case of Tokugawa Japan and the second from the Chinese.

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simplified equation for growth (5) to purely G = 1, in other words the only important factor for economic growth is the goal of education. If Tokugawa Japan is taken as a case of literacy above 40 percent for men and no economic growth, this changes the simplified equation for lack of economic growth (6) to f = 0 i.e. private funding is the only educational factor contributing to lack of growth. For the purposes of this analysis Tokugawa Japan will remain coded as it is as an example of lack of economic growth and low levels of literacy. This is one of the flaws of coding variables using a binary system. The paragraph above is an attempt to overcome this flaw of binary coding, while still keeping within the confines of the bastardised Boolean method being employed, by drawing the readers attention to the range of logical possibilities if Japan were coded differently. While flawed binary coding is also one of this methods strengths. Allowing for median values would lead to a method which gives blurrier results. By encouraging the researcher to choose between one option or the other it creates a system where the general, overarching, differences and similarities between cases can easily be analysed, while the preceding text has discussed the finer, nitty-gritty details of the case studies. It is hoped that this retains the level of detail required from historical research while creating a method which helps answer some of historys big questions.

5.2 Conclusions The link between education and economic growth is not straightforward. To give an example, it is difficult to establish whether literacy increases as a result of economic growth or whether it has to be there in the first place at a significant level in order for growth to take place. However, the evidence presented above seems to suggest that such a causal relationship between education, and therefore human capital formation, and economic growth does exist although other factors will obviously play a role in whether a country develops economically or not. The facets of education and the levels of literacy are likely to form a significant fraction of the residual left over in growth account, a proportion of TFP, and should therefore be used to endogenise growth and insert human capital formation into growth models. The Boolean equations, (5) and (6), show which characteristics play a role in economic growth and which play a role in failure to grow. It is worthwhile noting that Bowman and Andersons 40% male literacy criterion seems to be supported by the data presented in Chapter 4. Scotland, England and Japan all displayed rates of literacy above this level prior to their economic takeoff (placing this mark at 1850 for Japan and during the last years of the 18th century for Scotland and England). This is why the resultant equation for economic growth (5) features the L variable. The other component is that of the goal of education, which supports economic growth only if it is relatively broadly defined. The results show that the source of funding is does not determine economic growth, although private funding is implied in economic stagnation. A broadly defined goal of education leading to economic success suggests that education should open many doors and that individuals should be taught basic tools to then determine how they use them according to their own needs. 71 of 79

Lack of economic growth, as shown by equation (6), is characterised by funding from predominantly private sources and low levels of literacy. This means that where there is no government or church drive to promote education and literacy rates are under 40 percent, economic growth will not occur. This equation suggests that in terms of failure or an outcome of 0, the goal of education is not significant. These findings are interesting from the perspective of present-day state-funded education. In order to avoid non-growth scenarios, countries must avoid either low rates of literacy or entirely privately funded education. The logical course for a government is then to up funding of education which will in turn, presumably, promote literacy. The other option would be to attempt to stimulate private funding for educational facilities which would also reduce illiteracy. This might work in theory but be hard to achieve in practise. It would mean stimulating all levels of society to fund the education of their children in preference to other goods and services or encouraging private, charitable initiatives. As such public money funding education, thereby promoting education would seem to be the surest way of avoiding economic stagnation as far as the influence of education extends. Graff says of literacy that historical findings confirm that there is no one route to universal literacy, that there is no one path destined to succeed in the achievement of mass literacy levels.228 Literacy is likely to expand only if there is an incentive on the parents part to invest in the education of their children, whether this is by paying for it or taking the time to teach them, and by freeing them from labour for the family unit, to be educated in the basics of reading and writing. Where labour requirements are dictated by seasons, children can be allowed to attend some form of schooling during winter months, as seen in late 18th century Japan229 and Europe. It has been argued that Europeans married relatively late in order to keep family sizes smaller as farming techniques were land intensive and therefore could not support massive numbers of population. However in sub-tropical, riverine cultures, such as China, the focus is on maximising population so as to maintain a high supply of labour to satisfy the demands of the labour intensive agricultural techniques being employed.230 This factor influences education, because children are not necessarily needed at as young an age to bulk up the labour market and so parents can "afford" to allow them to spend longer in formal schooling. As a contributing factor to the development of education for al In terms of its educational and literate development Japan appears as an Asian success story, especially when compared to China. Dore's conclusion on literacy in Tokugawa Japan is "that the literacy rate... was considerably higher than in most underdeveloped countries today. It probably compared favourably even then with some contemporary European countries."231 This he backs up with the findings of the British Select Committee in 1837, which stated that in the major industrial towns only one in four or five children was ever
228 229

Graff, H. Literacy and Social Development in the West, p. 7. Rubinger, R. Popular Literacy in early modern Japan. 230 Landes, D. The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, p. 22. China is a country of many varying climates and agricultural variety therefore this idea must be handled with caution yet the ability to harvest crops year round is a feature of parts of China in a way that it is simply not in the other three cases. 231 Dore, R. Education in Tokugawa Japan, p. 291.

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attending school and the statement by a French visitor to Japan in 1877 that primary education in Japan has reached a level which should make us blush.232 These levels of literacy and widespread education helped the post-Meiji restoration government in their efforts to make Japan an economic competitor on the world market. In both Asia and Europe, education, and the mass literacy which would arise from education, was seen by conservatives as a phenomenon with the potential to cause the destabilisation of the masses. However, in Europe and Japan the more progressive voices appear to have drowned out their adversaries pointing out that education and literacy could also be used to stabilise society. In Japan, the silencing of the conservatives occurred when it was realised that literacy could be used as a vehicle by which the population could be informed of the dangers of Christianity.233 In England and Scotland, education and literacy lent itself to this end by incorporating a strong moral and biblical element. In China, education became a means to create an elite bureaucratic group and was used to maintain separation between the Manchu and the rest of the population. In Scotland and Japan national systems of education arose as a result of government action. In China this system had been in place for many years before the Qing came to power, and in England one did not develop until the very end of the period under discussion. There therefore seems to be little link between the establishment of national systems of education and a countrys economic expansion. The education system may be established before economic growth and support growth, it may be established after economic growth has started when the country realises its educational facilities are flagging, or it may have been established centuries before and neither promote or support economic growth but rather maintain the status quo. The Chinese educational system was the most highly structured of the four but this does not appear to have worked in its favour. Forcing its graduates to jump multiple hurdles in the form of exams seems to have focused attention away from creativity and the basic tools and towards archaic forms and fulfilling exam requirements. British education is frequently criticised for setting exams at too many different stages throughout a childs development. The critics might find support for their arguments, that such examinations limit the value and breadth of education while forcing children in to too narrow a mould and high stress situations, in the history of Chinese education. Writing alone is not an agent of change; its impact is determined by the manner in which human agency exploits it in a human setting. 234 In Japan, the fact that Japanese farmers had access to books and that networks through which they eagerly shared ideas existed, meant that literacy became an agent of change. In China, where literacy was more limited, book sharing less common and less evidence can be found to establish that similar networks of provincial literati existed literacy was a tool to enter formalised bureaucracy and
232 233

Dore, R. Education in Tokugawa Japan, p. 291. Rubinger, R. Popular Literacy in early modern Japan, p.46. This occurred at the beginning of the 17th century and did not lead directly to a significant expansion in the level of literacy but was a basis upon which future educational developments could be based and symbolised a conservative realisation that education could be used for conservative ends. 234 Graff, H.J. The Legacies of Literacy: Continuities and Contradictions in Western Culture and Society.

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less a means to express innovative ideas. China, disadvantaged by its writing system and institutions, was almost fated to be slower in the development of a concept of mass literacy and truly public education.

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