Expenditures of the Russo-Japanese war / by Gotaro Ogawa.

114 ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR

I0,000,000, or the economic backbone of the nation, some
2,000,000 were drafted and put in the war service. It is easy
to see that this had a most far-reaching effect upon our economic world. Besides, various organs of communication were
put to military uses, which was also a blow to industries.
However, the two causes above mentioned were the most
important of all. They affected practically every branch of
national economy by their complication, interplay, and combination. The question before us, therefore, is to trace the
influence of these two factors. It has to be observed that,
though the disbursement of war expenditures and the withdrawal of productive labor acted conjointly, there were cases
where either one or the other was of particular importance.
Consequently, we may divide our study into two departments,
i.e., the cases where the effect of war expenses was the dominant influence, and the cases where the effect of the enlistment
of labor was comparatively more serious. What effect had
the war on the national finance? What changes did the war
produce in monetary circulation? Such questions belong to
the former department, while we may mention the effects of
war upon various industries as belonging to the latter. What
blow did the war deal to primary industries? What were the
direction and extent of the changes produced in trade and
industry? What was the extent of the pressure upon the
communication service, intensified by the appropriation of
communication facilities for war purposes, which was counted
as a subsidiary cause of the changes? Besides these two sets
of questions, we may consider what effects the war had on
the general life of the people. Thus, the subject-matter of
our inquiry is divided into three departments: (I) the effects
on public finance and monetary circulation; (2) the effects
on primitive industries, developed industries, trade, and communication service; (3) the effects on the general life of the
people.
We shall consider in the following chapters the consequences
of the war in the three departments above outlined. We
purpose studying the extent of the blow dealt by the war to