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Twice had the Imperial Diet been dissolved in succession, and the national treasury was almost empty. The state of affairs evidently demanded the adoption of some thorough-going measures of relief; otherwise things would have reached such a pass that the post-bellum enterprises would have had to be given up before completion, the national progress and development stopped, and the political machinery of the country would have ceased to move altogether. I saw immediately, on examining the Budget for 1899–1900, prepared by the previous Financial Minister, that there would be a deficit of about 37,600,000 yen. No other course was now possible to pursue but to resort to an increased taxation, if we would restore the parity between the receipts and the expenditure of the Government, and hope for the healthy growth of national finance.

I drew up a Bill for increasing the rate of saké tax, as well as for revising the rate of income tax and registration duties, as also a Bill on tonnage dues and on the tax on the net profit of the Bank of Japan. These Bills, together with a Bill for the increased land tax, which was accompanied by a Bill for revising the legal valuation of lands, were presented to the thirteenth session of the Imperial Diet.

Then, further, the Government was obliged to resort to some public loans for paying back the sum of about 70,000,000 yen which had been temporarily borrowed from the Chinese Indemnity Fund in order to fill up the gap created by the difficulty in raising loans, as had been intended; otherwise it was clear that the enterprises already set on foot with the expectation of applying those 70,000,000 yen toward their expenses would have had to be stopped. Besides, there was the need of issuing another public loan of about 20,000,000 yen set down in the Budget of 1899–1900. Since, however, the condition of the money market at home did not permit of the issuing of so large a loan altogether, it was decided to resort to a foreign loan; and accordingly a Bill for the issuing of a foreign loan was presented, together with the increased taxation Bills, to the thirteenth session of the Diet.

Most fortunately, the Imperial Diet adopted the measures proposed by the Government. The result was an increase of the national revenue by about 40,000,000 yen, and the raising of a foreign loan in London, in June of 1899, of the sum, according to the face value of the bonds, of £10,000,000. Thus was at last attained the object aimed at, of relieving a most distressing condition of national finance.

The Government was now at last enabled, in preparing the Budget for 1900–01, to abandon the habit of employing temporary makeshifts, and, instead, to depend on revenues resting on a secure basis; and, moreover, to balance all ordinary