Directory_and_Chronicle_1904 — Page 546

JAPAN

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authority. Under the Shogun three hundred or more Daimios (feudal princes) shared the administrative power, being practically supreme in their respective domains, conditionally upon their loyalty to the Shogun; but their rank and power disappeared with the Shogunate. On the 7th July, 1884, however, His Majesty issued an Imperial Notification and Rescript rehabilitating the nobility, and admitting to its ranks the most distinguished civil and military officials who took part in the work of the Restoration. The old titles were abolished, and have been replaced by those of Prince (Ko), Marquis Ko), Count (Haku), Viscount (Shi), and Baron (Dan).

REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE

The Budget for 1903-4 estimates the revenue at 252,159,113 yen and the expenditure at 252,092,823 yen, leaving a surplus of 66,299 yen. This is a much smaller surplus than is shown in the Budgets of the past three years, but one of the political parties is demanding retrenchments aggregating about 12,000,000 yen, so that before the Budget is passed by the Diet, the figures above given may be modified. Among the new sources of revenue proposed is a tobacco manufacturing monopoly.

In the Budget for 1899-1900 the estimate of revenue amounted to 188,930,(35 yen, while the expenditures aggregated 218,807,147 yen, showing a deficit of 29,876,512 yen, which was provided for in a special budget. Included in the extraordinary expendi- ture were votes for military and naval expansion, under the Military and Naval extension schemes, the period for which terminates in March, 1906, and the intended expenditure, was as follows:-Army, first period, 43,329,400 yen; second period, 38,350,000 yen ; total 81,679,400 yen; Navy, first period, 116,086,400 yen; second period, 144,618,770 yen; total, 260,705,170 yen; making a grand total for Army and Navy of 342,384,570. The Army programme provided for the construction of forts, building and equipment of barracks, manufacture of arms, development of arsenals, and extraordinary constructions. In the ordinary expenditure there was also a large increase in the Army and Navy votes to provide for the increase in the number of the officers and men.

In 1899 a sterling loan of £10,000,000 was issued. The loan is for 55 years, from January 1, 1899, but is redeemable at £100 per cent. after January 1, 1909 by drawings from time to time at the option of the Government of Japan, on their giving six months' notice. The rate of interest is 4 per cent., and the loan was issued at £90 per £100. The proceeds of the loan are to be applied towards the completion of the various remunerative public works cited in the following Acts of Parliament: Railway Construction Loan of 1892. Public Undertakings Loan of 1896, Hokkaido Railwa Construction Loan of 1896, the law relating to the placing of a public loan in a foreig country of 1899. The expenditure under these Acts is estimated to be as follows £8,900,000 for railway construction and improvement; £900,000 for establishment o steel works; £1,000,000 for extension of the telephone service. On March 31, 1899. before the issue of the last loan, the national debt stood as follows:-Funded debt, £39,125,000; debt to the Bank of Japan, £2,200,000; paper money (for the redemption of which by March 31, 1900, provision has been made), £511,000; total, £41,836,000. On this it was remarked in the prospectus of the 1899 loan that "The amount of debt, therefore, is 18s. per head of the population," but against this the State owns assets (railways, telegraphs, telephones, etc.) valued at £30,000,000 sterling, and lands valued at about £82,000,000 "exclusive of timber." The total debt then stood at £51,836,000. In April, 1903, it was officially given as 552,000,000 yen (= £56,350,000). Of this sum 190,009,000 yen has been obtained from the United Kingdon, the balance being practically all held in Japan. In ten years the debt has increased 130 per cent, and this notwithstanding that during the interval the whole of the China indemnity (370,000,000 yen) has been absorbed into the general finances of the country. The ordinary revenue and expenditure have increased in the same period 163

per cent.

ARMY AND NAVY

Until the war with China the Army consisted of six divisions and the Imperial Guards, with a peace footing strength of 70,000 in round numbers and a war footing of 268,000, exclusive of the Gendarmerie and the Yezo Militia; but on the conclusion of the war a large scheme of expansion was adopted, under which the number of divisions was raised to twelve, exclusive of the Guards. The peace footing is now 145,000, and the war footing 520,000.

At the conclusion of the war with China, Japan found herself in possession of a fighting fleet of forty-three serviceable vessels-independent of twenty-six torpedo- boats--their aggregate displacement being 78,774 tons. Of these, ten, with an aggregate displacement of 15,055 tons, had been captured from China- namely, an