Book Review: Hobson and Imperialism: Radicalism, New Liberalism, and Finance 1887-1938: CainPeter, Hobson and Imperialism: Radicalism, New Liberalism, and Finance 1887-1938. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. ix + 320 pp. ISBN 0-19-820390-X

The spread of musket production in central Honshu provides the subject matter for four brief segments that follow the Kunitomo Teppoki translation.Chapter 8 is devoted to the analysis and contextualisation of the source.The next chapter addresses the production of firearms in the well-established steel-and ironworks of Sakai, on the shores of Osaka Bay, and Chapter 10 deals with Negoro.Chapter 11 concludes the story with a discussion of musket production in Kyushu, the homeland of the Bongo lordship and of Satsuma, whose Shimazu rulers were Tanegashima's overlords.The final chapter deals with the presence of St Francis Xavier in Japan.Xavier arrived in Japan in 1549 and left in 1551.His primary objective was, predictably, Christian proselytisation, but his experiences compelled him to change his strategy from relying on the central authority -the emperor or the shogun -to forging alliances with individual daimyo.The provincial lords, highly competitive with their neighbours, were indeed likely to permit proselytisation in exchange for trade and particularly weapons technology.This strategic shift heavily influenced both Jesuit fortunes in sixteenth-century Japan and the spread of firearms.Udin's approach to the material is consistent with the analytical presentation, well established in the field of Oriental studies, of newly translated Far Eastern historical and philosophical texts.Nonetheless, he makes a concerted effort to transcend the 'translation and commentary' venue and provides, in addition to his invaluable renderings of the Japanese texts, a historical analysis of the early years of the Portuguese presence in Japan.As a result, however, the book represents a sometimes uneasy marriage of two approaches.The difficulties manifest themselves most prominently in the structure of work, in terms of thematic transitions and the sequencing of chapters.Key information is unfortunately buried in the extensive endnotes or hidden within unrelated passages in subsequent chapters.There is also a tendency to repetition, particularly in Chapters 1 and 5.Finally, LJdin's work with the Portuguese sources seems weaker by far than his handling of the Japanese material.Wherever possible Portuguese primary sources and literature were used in translation, and some Portuguese words are misspelled.The latter defect might be due to a certain amount of carelessness at the press, but it is difficult to apportion the blame.Yet, its flaws notwithstanding, LJdin's Tanegashima represents an essential contribution to the study of early European overseas expansion by making key Japanese sources on early contact with the Portuguese available to an English-speaking audience in a broader contextual framework.

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