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of financial administration were directed to unification and regulation within the Government, and, when this was fairly accomplished, the Constitution provided for political restraints from the outside over the management of the public purse. It will be seen, therefore, that our present system is, on the whole, in accordance with accredited principles of financial administration that prevail in the Western countries.

The reform of the monetary system forms one of the most important chapters in the financial history of new Japan. One yen in gold, which is the new unit of coinage, was made approximate in value to the old unit in silver so as to avoid an abrupt change in the price of commodities and a disturbance of the relation between creditors and debtors.

In 1897–98 and the following years five of the principal taxes levied by the central Government were abolished. These were the confectionery tax, the tax on vehicles, the tax on vessels, the fishery dues in the Hokkaido, and the tobacco tax. This last-named was removed on the institution of the tobacco monopoly.

The land tax was instituted in 1873. The earliest law was directed to the substitution of the former system of collecting land tax in grain, according to the area of rice-fields and farms, by a system of collecting the tax in cash, according to the value of land, and for this purpose an elaborate general assessment of the value of the land of the whole country was commenced in 1873, and was completed in 1882. As, however, the conditions of land were constantly changing, repeated readjustments have been made since 1882 by comparing the actual conditions of land with the official registers of land.

The rate of land tax was at first fixed at 3 per cent. of the assessed value of land, and in 1877 reduced to 2½ per cent.; but subsequently, owing to financial necessity, the tax was increased for five years, from 1899 to 1903, to the rate of 3.3 per cent. of the value of land on rice-fields, farms, building sites in Gun (districts) and Son (villages), hills and plains, and 2½ per cent. on building sites in Shi (cities). In 1903 it was reduced to 2½ per cent. Owing to the rise in the price of the produce of land, notably rice, the real value of land has been at least trebled on the average since its legal value was fixed as the basis of taxation, so that there is at present a wide discrepancy between the real and legal values. Therefore, even with the