Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/431

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COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES

391

II. General Survey of the Industrial and Financial System^[1]

By Baron Eiichi Shibusawa

In order to make the actual economic condition of the empire of Japan plain, I make a brief note on national revenue and expenditure, and a few other items and an explanation of the changes thereof, in the following pages. The tables of figures are divided into two sections, showing the development in the five years before the Chinese War and in the subsequent five or six years.

Revenue and Expenditure.

From 1881 to 1895, during fourteen years, there was no variation to speak of either in the revenue or in the expenditure of the empire, each being between 70,000,000 and 80,000,000 yen. But after the Chino-Japanese War in 1895, the Government, adopting a so-called ‘ten-years’ plan for public works,’ increased its enterprises along all lines, beginning with the work for national defence and all other public works. This caused a sudden aggrandisement, the revenue increasing in 1897 to 187,019,423 yen, and the expenditure to 168,856,508 yen. Thence they increased yearly; in the year 1903, for the revenue there was appropriated the large sum of 251,681,961 yen, and 244,752,346 yen for the expenditure. If we compare the revenue and the expenditure of 1901 with those we had before the Chino-Japanese War, we see that in only a few years they both were almost tripled. (See Table, p. 392.)

The Public Debt.

During the period between 1874 and 1895 the total sum of public debts amounted to between 230,000,000 or 240,000,000 yen and 260,000,000 or 270,000,000 yen, and there was not any marked change in the amount of the public debts. Indeed, since 1890 the national indebtedness rather inclined to diminish.

↑ The tables showing the productions of weaving, raw silk, tea, rice, wheat, barley, and rye, have been prepared from the results of inquiries carried out by the Agricultural and Commercial Department; but the Department expresses its regret that the means of getting materials for the above reports have been very much complicated owing to the extensive inquiries necessitated, so it must be taken into consideration by readers that the tables referred to will, comparatively to the other tables, be wanting in minute accuracy.

[1] The tables showing the productions of weaving, raw silk, tea, rice, wheat, barley, and rye, have been prepared from the results of inquiries carried out by the Agricultural and Commercial Department; but the Department expresses its regret that the means of getting materials for the above reports have been very much complicated owing to the extensive inquiries necessitated, so it must be taken into consideration by readers that the tables referred to will, comparatively to the other tables, be wanting in minute accuracy.

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