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

52 EXPENDITURES OF THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR

LOAN ISSUES a
Authorization Amounts
Yen
Imperial Ordinance No. 29I, December, I903.......... I00,000,000
Statute No. I, April, I904.......................... 280,000,000
Imperial Ordinance No. 228, November, I904.......... 120,000,000
Statute No. 12, January, I905....................... 455,000,000
Imperial Ordinance No. I94, November, 905........... 300,000,000
Statute No. I, February, I906....................... 433,000,000
Total......................................... i,688,ooo,ooo
a The Imperial Ordinance of December, I903, did not specify the amount of issue. This loan,
however, is included under the first category, taking the amount authorized in the budget as the
specified amount.
the two items aggregating 1,591,280,000 yen. It was, however,
no light task for Japan at that time, with her limited financial
power and her low international position, to raise such a large
amount of money by loans. But the success or failure of
these loans would immediately affect the working of the
budget of war expenditures, constituting one of the important
factors in deciding the fate of the Russo-Japanese War. The
people therefore, out of patriotic fervor, gave an enthusiastic
response to the call of the state, and the government took
every step to enhance the value of domestic bonds and to
insure the success of bond issues at home, upholding thereby
Japan's financial credit abroad and facilitating the flotation of foreign loans. The government, in consultation with
representatives of the money market, determined the valuation of the bonds (minimum issue price). For the purpose of
maintaining this level so far as concerned the payments to or
transactions by the government, it engaged that it would
accept the bonds issued for the defrayal of war expenses in
lieu of cash in payment of deposit moneys to be placed with
the government by officials in charge of accounts, of securities
by commission merchants or contractors of government works,
or of other kinds of deposits or securities, taking the bonds at
the minimum issue price in case of the bonds paid in full, or
at the value already paid in case of the bonds in instalments,
even when the market prices of these bonds were below the