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

CHAPTER II

EFFECTS ON PUBLIC FINANCE
GENERAL REMARKS
The effects of the Russo-Japanese War on public finance
may be viewed in two aspects: the changes brought about in
the general finance of the Treasury on account of the raising
of war expenditures, and the determination of the sources of
revenue for these expenditures. As already stated, the cost
of the war aggregated 1,730,000,000 yen, including the wartime military expenditures of 1,508,000,000 yen disbursed in
four fiscal years from 1903-4 to 1906-7 and the war-time administrative expenditures of 221,000,000 yen defrayed in five
years from 1903-4 to 1907-8. Of the sources supplying the
war expenditures, those which met the military expenditures
consisted of 1,418,000,000 yen from public loans, 178,000,000
yen from the increases of taxation, etc., and I24,000,000 yen
from the funds of special accounts, receipts from sales of
public property, and other items of revenue. The administrative expenditures were met by incomes from the increases of taxation, etc., surpluses from the annual accounts
of the Treasury, and accommodations from special accounts.
During the war finance period comprising the four fiscal
years from 1903-4 to 1906-7, the financial resources of the
nation were entirely mobilized for the war, with the result that,
while ordinary expenditures not connected with the war
showed a considerable decrease, the war expenditures and
the increase of disbursements for various government industries connected with the war made the expenditures in our
public finance expand at a bound to more than ten times their
pre-war amounts. The large public loans raised to finance
the war after its outbreak caused a sudden rise in the public
debt expenses, particularly in the payment of interest and
principal of public bonds. The amount of pensions for mili116