The Five Articles Oath was the basis for political, social and economic modernisation of Japan. Prior to the Five Articles, Japan had been ruled by the Tokugawa Shogunate which repudiated technological change, and had been largely, though not perfectly, isolationist.

Article I

Deliberative assemblies shall be widely established and all matters decided by public discussion.

Article II

All classes, high and low, shall unite in vigourously carrying out the affairs of the state.

Article III

The common people, no less than the civil and military officials, shall each be allowed to pursue his own calling so that there may be no discontent.

Article IV

Evil customs of the past shall be broken off and everything based upon the just laws of nature.

Article V

Knowledge shall be sought through the world so as to strengthen the foundations of imperial rule.

The Shogunate form of government had largely sidelined the political power of the emperor who was rabidly isolationist. Many of the Shogunate leaders of the early 19thC had moved between isolationist policies and opening up Japan to western science and production.

But each liberalisation would be met with the next leader reforming toward a peasant and yeomanry economy which has definite limits of growth. The added problem was this form of social organisation, and the arbitrary application of power from the Shogunate government, steeped as it was in social inequality, meant that peasant riots were common.

The European powers were also trying to open Japan to trade in the same way that Britain opened up China to the globalising economy - through force. And this threat of force ultimately came through America and Admiral Perry.

There were other internal political dynamics at work. The emperor and conservative supporters were getting stronger; the Satsuma and Choshu clans ultimately came to a coalition agreement; modernisation had been slowly chipping away at Japan's entwined social and political structures; and the Tokugawa Shogunate was unable to stop the "imperial restoration".

The coal powered cruisers and battleships of America and Europe, as well as the large artillery guns the ships carried also impressed the Japanese into understanding their military organisations and methods were obsolete.

The articles were produced by the samurai of the Satsuma and Choshu clans after they had taken the palace over from the Tokugawa, but before all Tokugawan resistance had been quelled.

The articles became statements of principle as to how the new government would govern. W. Scott Morten argues that the first article, while appearing to proclaim democracy, was mainly to keep the other clans happy, thinking they would have a say in the new government. He notes once the new government established itself, it stopped conferring.

The second and third statements were announcements that feudalism would be abolished and social mobility would be based on merit, not class.

The fourth statement is a repudiation of the Tokugawa Shogunate, and everything it had done. While the fifth was an embrace of modernisation, the scientific method and the economic theories of the enlightenment.

The Meiji Restoration in Japan deposed the Tokugawa from dominating Japanese politics. The Tokugawa were just one of many competing daimyo, other powerful ones included the Chosu and Satsuma, who combined to overthrow the Tokugawa. The daimyo donated their lands to the national government and their domains became local government. One of the benefits of abolishing the old Shogunates was that all the tolls and tariffs between them were removed; it enabled the free movement of goods and labor at a national level.

The same thing happened in Europe as the medieval city-states grew into what we know today as nations. The tolls and tariffs on roads, waterways and political boundaries were slowly abolished and the free movement of goods, labor and capital inside that political domain occurred.

As the state expanded, and with it the reach of the economy, guilds lost their hold on labor. This is the same pattern that unions are experiencing as globalisation limits their ability to dictate wages, benefits and shares of output. The borders are economically porous, and as a result innovation and advantage are rewarded over political barriers and monopolies.

One of the benefits of Australian Federation was that it enabled free trade colony wide. Prior to federation only New South Wales had been a free trade colony, the rest were protectionist. This led to absurdities such different sleeper widths for rail tracks in order to protect industries and services.

While Federation, and the consequent domination of the Victorian Liberals led by Alfred Deakin, led to Australia practicing protectionism - something that took eighty years to be flushed from the Australian system - it did enable the free movement of goods, labor and capital on the Australian continent.

It is interesting to note that the European Union has expanded the zone of a free economy beyond national borders in an exceptionally meaningful manner. More than the bilateral Free Trade Agreements (misnamed, they are managed or restricted trade agreements, not free trade) can or could.

But the EU has done so without a monopoly on politics. The EU is probably best described as a Confederacy where the constituent political units only have to adopt EU 'rules' if they want to.

One of the greatest things I have seen in my lifetime is the old and unused border crossing between Germany and Belgium.

Photo: Border crossing. Steve Parker.