<論説>日中両国におけるヘンリー・ジョージの思想の受容 : 主として孫文・宮崎民蔵・安部磯雄らの土地論をめぐって

Abstract

本論は、ヘンリー・ジョージの思想の受容をめぐって日本と中国の土地問題を検討するものである。日本の自由民権運動から社会主義運動へ、中国の辛亥革命運動から新民主主義革命運動へと発展する過程において、両者の共通点と相違点は、実にさまざまであった。土地問題をめぐって展開された議論は、いずれもヘンリー・ジョージの単一租税論と直接か間接に関連している。 日本では、単一租税論がキリスト教社会主義者の間で唱えられただけであったのに、中国では、クリスチャンである孫文が、単一租税を一つの土地政策として実施した。ヘンリー・ジョージの単一租税論に影響された日本と中国が、その思想に対して、どう吸収し、また、どのように反響したかについてを究明し、両国の近代化の理解を深めるのが、本論の主な目的である。

This paper is a comparative study of the reception of Henry George's ideas in Japan and China. As we know, the American socialist Henry George presented his arguments in favour of a Single Tax system in his works Our Land and Land Policy and Progress and Poverty. His views not only marked a turning point in Western economic theory but they also exerted considerable influence in Japan and China. In Japan, from the Popular Rights Movement to the Social Movement, and in China, from the Revolution of 1911 to the May Fourth Movement, land problems were connected with the Single Tax theory. The most fervent supporters of the Single Tax theory were the American missionary C. F. Garst in Japan and the Canadian missionary W. E. Macklin in China. They introduced the views of Henry George and exerted considerable influence on the land problems of the two countries. On the other hand, most people in Japan and China who eagerly espoused the views that George had put forward were Christians. Miyazaki Tamizo, Abe Isoo and Sun Yat-sen were all Christians. Miyazaki's views on the restation of land rights were influenced by George's theory of Natural Law and by Christian humanitarianism, but they were also closely connected with Rousseau's natural rights theory. Both Abe Isoo and Sun rat-sen considered George's views and Marxism to be parallel and regarded Progrss and Poverty and Das Kapital as the classice of the nineteenth century. In particular, Sun Yat-sen advocated and put into practice a programme for the equalization of land rights based on George's Single Tax theory. It should be pointed out that there were in fact a variety of reactions to Henry George's ideas when they reached both Japan and China. His ideas reached China later than they did Japan, but their impact on China was much greater than it was in Japan.