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

54 EXPENDITURES OF THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR

bonds, the government endeavored, on the other hand, to
insure the success of the loans by appealing to the sentiment
of the people to subscribe to them.
DOMESTIC LOANS
The domestic loans issued as war bonds consisted of two
kinds, namely, short-term exchequer bonds and long-time
emergency loans. The exchequer bonds were issued for this
purpose five times during the continuance of the war, that is,
from March, 1904, to May, I905, and totaled 480,000,000 yen
in estimates, while the emergency loans, which were issued in
March and June, I906, and afterward, to meet the extraordinary needs after the war, aggregated 310,720,000 yen.
It was therefore the exchequer bonds that were issued to
supply the imperative necessities for prosecuting the war.
The reason the short-term exchequer bonds were adopted
for war loans was because the interest rates were necessarily
high in Japan on account of the small accumulation of capital, which was, in turn, due to the backward condition of the
country in comparison with Europe and America, and because
the flotation of loans at a time when the interest rates at home
were taking an upward tendency on account of the war involved necessary disadvantages to the Treasury. The Treasury, under these circumstances, intended to convert its bonds
into low-interest loans, especially foreign loans, to be floated at
a proper time after the war. It was no easy task, however, for
Japan at that time to raise such a large amount of funds, and
yet it was considered that the results of the issues of exchequer
bonds would affect the loan flotation abroad, reflecting, as
they must, Japan's financial credit and the extent of her economic power. The government, therefore, paid strict attention to the issue of these bonds, and directed the local governors and financiers throughout the country to support the loan
issues to the best of their powers, fixing at the same time the
conditions of issue so as to bring the loans within reach of all
classes of people.
The exchequer bonds issued consisted, as a rule, of unreg