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

EFFECTS ON COMMERCE

183

ing cheap eating houses. Such small tradesmen being apt to
become bankrupt through slight hitches, the closings of their
businesses were most frequent. In fact, these men could
open or close their shops in quick response to the ups and
downs of trade, so that the statistics of their activity and inactivity might be expected to run almost parallel with those
indicating the general conditions of the market. Previously
to the war a large number of the farming population used to
pour into the cities year after year and swell the business
population of the cities, but the number of new shops began
to fall far below that of closed shops after the outbreak of the
war began to tell upon these tradesmen. (See table on the
preceding page.)
Similar data for 1905 and later are lacking; so we must now
limit our observations to the tradesmen who paid national
taxes, according to the annual reports of the Revenue Bureau,
in the Treasury department.
TRADESMEN PAYING NATIONAL TAXES, I903-I907
Proceeds Amount
Number Number Rental Number of taxes
Year of trades- of estab- value of of em- at fixed
men lishments Wholesale Retail buildings ployees rates
Yen Yen Yen Yen
I903..... 318,312 319,401 1,183,722,280 535,140,125 26,791,351 629,914 3,096,347
1904..... 324,918 325,473 1,344,326,948 565,364,850 28,569,421 65I,453 3,263,965
I905..... 312,091 312,613 1,234,107,617 577,456,020 28,I20,564 627,252 3,235,595
I906..... 316,385 316,822 I,358,605,372 616,547,504 28,954,023 635,134 3,397,610
I907...... 328,972 j 329,609 1,507,154,290 622,527,347 30,819,993 657,108 3,576,512

Although the depression in 1904 as a result of the war is not
visible in the above table (it must be noted that in I904 the
rental value of buildings was revised, and that, owing to the
exigencies of war, the statistics for that year were carefully
compiled), considerable decrease is seen in the number of
tradesmen for 1905, as well as in the amount of taxes at fixed
rates. But all the causes of depression above described disappeared with the restoration of peace, and the peace-time
demand for ordinary commodities, which was minimized to
the extreme through war, reasserted itself with marked rapid