買二第張五第 日五初月十年未巴歷夏
1980
中學會考試題預習專欄
歷史
(E)
明德出版社胡應亮提供資料 History (7)
Philip Y. L. Voo
(MILL & DALE PRESS LTD)
When we come to Japanese. history from 1870 to about
1900, we so often come across the idea of modernization that the period of history is always equal to modernization itself. It is therefore important that we understand what modernization is all about first.
To put it simply, modernization is just the process that clears a country of all feudal, unprogressi remains and gives the country all the necessary and progressive elements that modern country possesses. Thus a knowledge of the feudal remains that
Tokugawa Japan (1603-1868) had and the requirements of
a modern state is necessary. They are:
I. Feudal remains -
A/ Political - feudalism (lack of centralized political control over the country at large by the Emperor), lack of a modern bureaucracy to govern the country: (bureaucrats are paid
civil servants).
Social -e existence of a warrior class in so society (the samurai) who enjoyed special social privileges; the commoners enjoying no. equality with their superiors; people forbidden to move geographically; limited education:
3
Economic – government revenue obtained from yields of land; agriculture, as the main form of economic activity; lack of industry.
Military - lack of a modern national army; lack of modern military technology. Requirements of
modern state
-
industrialization of the traditional economy. Increased agricultural commer cialization and... specialization.
Importance of industry
and trade-over
agriculture. More machines used for production,
B possession of a
nationally conscripted military force.
increased geographic mobility (people going from one place to another) and social mobility (people. moving from one social position to another). spread of popular, scientific and technical education,
se in material increase standards of living..
F/ politicably conscious
citizens.
increased urbanization (more cities) and well-developed,
rati
onwide
communications.
I centralized and
specialized administra-
tion by the government. Itule of law, not of man,
When we speak of the degree
of modernization that Meiji-
Japan (1868-1911) experienced,
we therefore have to compare
the clearance of "feudal
remains with the requirements
of a modern state. We will
turn to this question in the
WAH KIU YAT PO
later issues of this column,
In the following, there is a distinction between
Westernizati în and Japaniza¬
tion, hoth terms of which can commonly be found in this
period of history:
Westernization and Japanization
A. Westernization.
In the 1870s, when the Meiji leaders first took up the job of modernizing Japan they had no examples to follow except those of the Western countries. Thus ""Westernization" – the direct borrowing of Western knowledge, Ideas,
institutions, even customs and manners was very popular, Traditional things were thrown away. Buddli sm was under attack; many Buddhist temples were destroyed. Confucian learn. ings were neglected. Instead, Christianity was favoured by the people, and Western knowledge was taught in school. Many societies for studying Western civiliza- tion were founded. Things Western were admired by the Japanese. There was the saying, "America (is) our mother, France our father".
Socially, Western dress vas popular. It was prescribed for men at official functions by the government. Even the Emperor always wore European-style military uniforms. People took every occasion to speak English. Social contact bet tween Japanese and foreigners was broadened. Many social, clubs in European style were set up for dining, dancing. or playing cards, Ladies vore Western fashions and imitated Western manners. It was satirically said that they complained about their inability to dye their eyes blue and to whiten their skin. Some Japanese went so far as to propose improving the
Japanese race by inter-marriage with the superior Western peoples. In short, in order to appear modern and civilized to the Western pow
powers, the Japanese people westernized not only their institutions but also their social customs and culture.
B. Japanization
that in
Beginning from the mid-1880s, however, there gradually were reactions against over-Westernization. Conservatives feared é blindly westernizing the country, the Japanese would finally lose their unique identity and quality. Japanese traditions were therefore revived. In politics, the sacred nature. of imperial rule and the unbroken succession in the imperial line were
報日僑華
†ECONOMIC (7)
emphasized. In education, Confucian rules of conduct were brought back for moral- education, Western thoughts and customs were under attack. There was a revival of interest in traditi onal Japanese art, literature and history. The enthusiasm for Christianity declined. Many Shinto societies appeared. Conservative intellectuals set up societies to preserve the Japanese national essence, in short, a process of Japanization — the
re-discovering of native, Japanese traditions and
identity was increasingly active. National
self-consciousness was
strong.
1980
中學會考試題預習專欄
經濟
(+)
王啓光 明德出版社之 生提供資料
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不隨禮柯多新彩無報請遠 另報拜式采穎色任販就道 收附出印多雜華8歡訂閱 費送版刷姿誌僑迎閱向戶
E. Wong & L.T. Chan
(Nill & Dale Press Ltd.) BUSINESS UNITSTAND OWNERSHIP.
Definition of a firm
六期星R
A firm is a business unit formed for the purpose of carrying on some kind of économic activity. It is the basic unit of production. Most business firms are privately owned and motivated by profits. It should be noted that ownership is a determining factor in a firm's behavior, Public and Private Enterprises The basic unit of planning and control over production is the enterprise. The terms fire and enterprise actually belong to one group. 411 modern enonomic societies have such control units, but there are wide differences in the ways they are: organized,
Public enterprise is owned and managed by the state. In Hong Kong, the owner of such enterprise is the government. The Post Office, the Water Works, the airport, and the British section of the Kowloon and Canton Railway are public enterprises.
Private enterprise is owned and managed by the private individuals. In our community, which follows the laissez- faire (free enterprise) principle.
most of the commercial and industrial concerns are privately owned, The Sole Proprietorship
This is the oldest and simplest type of firm that has the characteristic o "one-man". business. All the firm's decisions, are centered in him; all profits from the firm is his, and he is personally liable for all the firm's debts. There is no legal distinction between the personality and possessions of thous
of the owner and those of the firm. In fact the owner is the firm and is personally responsible for everything the firm does, The Partnership.
A partnership is composed of several (more than one) owners who pool their resources together to form the firm. The partners agree among themselves about how much - capital each is to contribute, what role each ⠀⠀⠀ will play in the management, and how much each will share in the profits. A partnershi has
more capital and resources and thus has greater possibility of staying in the business. Since different partners may have different skills or
experiences,
each can contribute to the firm. În various ways. Also there is flexibility and adaptability for the firm when partners are directly involved in supervision and thus the motivation to work is therefore, strong.
The Limited Company
(Joint-stock Company)
"This is a legal form of enterprice (organization) designed to take advantage: of large-scale production methods by pooling the wealth of many people into a single enterprise while at the same centralized
time control
and responsibi-
The major characteristic of a limited company is that the liabilities of share- holders are limited. This simply means that the
Jiability of the shareholder is limited to the fully paid
up value of the shares be holds, 80 that should the
company find itself in
difficulties and unable to meet the demands of its creditors the shareholder can lose un more than the
日四廿月一十年九七九一膳公年八十六國民中育教偾藏:
In this way, a large amount
amount he has invested, the
ress
of his property heing from any claims by the company's creditors.
In Long Kong, línited company is. set up under the Companies Ordinance. Each limited company is a' legal entity, ie,, it is treated" as a legal person and has the right to sue and to be sued can own property in its name and makes contracts. The capity) of the entity is divided into shares and the shareholders normally do not manage the firm. Instead, a Board of Directors is, elected and it holds respon sibility to the shareholders, i.e., to report the state of business and publish the annual reports to the public.
* There are two types of limited companies, the public limited company and the ___ private limited company. The tvo are quite different as far as legal commitment, organization, and capital raising are concerned. A detailed comparison of them is found in the question and Answer Beetion in the part of this lesson. The Co-operative Society,
later
This is another form of business organization bút ia quite distinct in its
re and structure
objectives.
The major aim of such a society is to provide benefits which are common to all its members.
The most common type of co-operative society is the Consumers' co-operative. The owners are sometimes. also the customers and the profits----- are distributed among the members. The students co-operatives in many universities are examples of such, In Producers co-operatives, the workers themselves own the business and elect some of their members to manage it the profit then being divided- among them. Co-operation - among farmera is a good example of the producers co-operatives.
Co-operative societies în Hong Kong have to register with the Registrar of Co-operative Societies and
incorporated, under the Co-operative Societies Ordinance,
e. Presently, there are over 400 registered co-operative societies and all are under the
control of the Registrar. (The Director of Agriculture and Fisheries). Examples of co-operative societies in Hong Kong are the rural sucieties (e.g. the Vegetabl Marketing Societies), the fishermen's societies (e.g. the Federation of Fishermen' Credit Societies), and the urban societies (e.g. the Building Societies).
Questions
1. Distinguish between a
public limited company and a private limited company..
The public and private limited companies are different in many aspects. A private limited company is usually small in scale and its number of shareholders ranges from 2 to 50, a public limited company is usually large and there is no upper limit in the number of shareholders, but there must he at least seven. The shares of a private limited company are not quoted in the stock market and thus it can only raise capital from its shareholders in private. On the other hand, the shares of the public limited company can be quoted on the stock market and therefore it can raise a large amount of capital from the public through the stock exchange by issuing shares or by issuing debentures (bonds)
of capital can be accumulated
from small savings of the
public for the public
ited company.
As far as the private limited company is concerned, a shareholder cannot transfer his shares without the consent of the company for can any invitation be wade to the general public to
subscribe for shares. llence the company cannot be controlled through trading of shares. Also, the shares cannot be used for specula- tion. For the public limited companies, shares are freely traded in the stock exchange: and the company can be controlled by purchasing shares. Therefore, the shares can be manipulated for speculation.
It should be noted that the financial statement of a private limited company is not open to
the public and there is a close relationship between shareholders and management. for such a company. The opposites are true for the public limited company,
the financial statement of the company is open to the public and the shareholders usually only invest without taking part in the management of the company.
2. What are the advantages of,
public enterprise? of private enterprise? Advantages of public enterprise
⠀⠀ Public enterprises are motivated by the sonsideration of the well- being and interest of the people, not that of making profits. Therefore a state-owned organization can offer to the public cheap, uniform pi
piece and regular services, or products. Unlike private enterprise system, ex
excessive competition can be avoided and the government can ensure that essential goods and socially necessary services are maintained, Public invest- meut also can finance Long- tern and big projects such as the
costly to
which Ver Cove Scheme private inves caraont-run
speaking, a
Generally
enterprise has better access to various kinds of informa tion and statistical data and thus enables fúrther development.
Advantages of private enterprise
The activities of private enterprises are generally regulated by the law of demand and supply. Competition among private enterprises not only lead to new product and technology
thus économic
development and..
bút
also allows a wider range of higher quality goods and services offered to the consumers. In addition, competition ensures p
price to
be kept at a competitive
can
level so that consumers be benefittéd more. The profit-making objective is a powerful incentive in -making private enterpriser
to work hard and display greater initiative in his work. This kind of drive usually leads to more efficient and effective management, Moreover, the free market ensures the optimal (best) allocation of resources including labour and thus the possibility of wastage of resources will then be limited. Hence in such a system, the interesta of the consumers are taken care of
in that the production of various goods and services
is based on satisfying consumers'
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