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tax about equal to the ordinary saké tax, in order to prevent undue competition.

The revenue from this tax was 144,148 yen in 1903–04.

The Customs duties were but a scanty source of revenue in the opening years of the present era, owing to the limitation of their rate by the old treaties to 5 per cent. ad valorem, in the case of both exported and imported commodities, as well as to the small volume of the foreign trade. For some years, indeed, the Customs receipts did not exceed 3,000,000 yen. But in consequence of the remarkable growth of commerce, the revenue from the Customs duties increased considerably in later years, even under the highly unfair conventional tariffs, and amounted to 9,000,000 yen in 1898. In addition to this, the following year saw the revised treaties put in operation, which in a large measure restored tariff autonomy to our country. Since then export duties have been entirely abolished, and a statutory tariff has been and is, generally, applied to imports, the rates of duties varying from 5 per cent. to 35 per cent. ad valorem, according to the kinds of commodities. A marked increase in the revenue from the Customs duties at once resulted from the application of the statutory tariff, as will be seen from the receipts for 1899 and 1900, which were respectively 16,716,382 yen and 15,870,335 yen. Henceforth the Customs duties may be counted as one of the chief items of the national revenue. Besides, the Government has now greater freedom in regulating certain imported articles, corresponding to the internal taxes on similar articles, as has already been done in the case of saké and tobacco. Tariff autonomy has been recovered so far as the general principle is concerned. It is to be regretted that the rates of import duties on certain important commodities are still limited by the conventional tariffs in the treaties with foreign countries. What the nation aspires to is the total abolition of the unilateral obligations imposed upon her by the existing conventions.

The revenue from the Customs duties was in 1867–68, 720,867 yen; in 1877–78, 2,358,654 yen; in 1887–88, 4,135,652 yen; in 1897–98, 8,020,513 yen; and in 1902–03 it reached the sum of 17,045,611 yen.

The total revenue from the above taxes increased as is shown in the following table: