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above-said increase, the rate of the tax on land is not much more than 1 per cent. of its real value. In fact, increase on the land tax to 3.3 per cent. was only a partial offset for the relative reduction of the burden of landowners that has automatically come about since the time of the land-tax reform. In 1873 the receipts from this tax were 60,604,242 yen; in 1882–83 they were 43,342,188 yen; in 1892–93, 37,925,243 yen; and in 1903–04, 46,996,212 yen.

The business tax, which was created in 1896, is imposed generally on commerce and industry. As the commerce and industry had hitherto often been taken as the sources of local taxation, businesses of smaller scales are exempted from the new business tax and reserved for local taxation. For the purpose of taxation all kinds of business are classified in nine categories, and for each of these classes different bases of assessment and different rates of tax are established, so as to maintain equality of burdens among different kinds of business.

The importance of the business tax as a national tax lies in its bearing on the distribution of franchise, for the payment of a certain amount of direct national tax is one of the qualifications of a voter for the members of the House of Representatives. While the payers of the land tax are mostly of the agricultural class, the payers of the business tax are mostly of the commercial or industrial class. The introduction of the business tax, therefore, was calculated to counteract the political preponderance of the agricultural population in some measure.

The following are the principal businesses specially dealt with. The rate of the tax varies considerably: Sales of wood; banking, insurance, money-lending, and letting of goods; warehousing; manufacturing, printing, and photographing; transport, exploitation of canals, piers, docks, wharfs, etc.; contracting for engineering works or for supplying labourers; letting of chambers and salons for special occasions; restaurants; inn-keeping; public intermediation, agencies, commission business, brokerage, etc. In 1902 railway business was also taxed. In 1897–98 the business tax brought in 4,416,249 yen, and in 1903–04, 6,792,818 yen.

The income tax was created in 1887, and is imposed upon incomes above 300 yen derived from property, trade, or business or other sources.

The rates of the tax were revised by the Income Tax Law of 1899 as follows:

Class I.—Incomes of juridical persons, ⁠25/1000⁠.

Class II.—Interest on public loan bonds or companies’ debentures payable in places where this law is in force, ⁠20/1000⁠.

Class III.—The rates on incomes not belonging to the two