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

238 ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR

This explains the failure of the national bonds of the first
series, of which those subscribed but not paid up amounted
to no less than 3,022,000 yen. In the issue of the later
series, too, patriotic considerations are said to have induced
the rural population to subscribe to the bonds beyond their
resources. The farming class, therefore, suffered from increased taxation and from the paying up for national loans,
so that their burdens of war were excessive both in blood and
money.
To what means, then, did they resort in order to meet the
exactions of this twofold nature?
GENERAL ECONOMY
There was no option but to exercise rigid economy in all
directions to tide over the difficulties, because the peasants
had to shoulder heavy burdens with no possible way of increasing their earnings. It may occur to anyone that
700,000 young men withdrawn from agriculture would cause
serious shortage of farm labor and ultimately lead to the
desolation of the land under cultivation. But such was not
the case; on the contrary, the area of land under cultivation
increased during the war.
AREA OF LAND UNDER CULTIVATION, 1903-1906
Year Paddy fields Other fields Total
Cho Cho Cho
I903............................ 2,831,697 2,438,474 5,270,171
1904............................. 2,818,276 2,476,584 5,294,860
I905.......................... 2,832,569 2,476,584 5,308,153
906............................ 2,840,308 2,497,40I 5,337,709
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In spite of the enlistment of great numbers of peasants the
number of farming households increased during the war,
contrary to general expectation.
It is to be noted that there was some decrease in 1905, but
the figures even for that year showed an increase as compared
with 1903.