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

RESOURCES FOR DEFRAYING WAR EXPENSES

77

estimates were 34,790,000 yen by the first increase in 1904-5;
39,850,000 yen by the first collection and 32,530,000 yen by
the second, a total of 72,390,000 yen, in 1905-6; 41,380,000
yen by the first collection and 38,I00,000 yen by the second, a
total of 79,480,000 yen, in 1906-7. The details of this are set
forth in Table B at the end of this chapter.'
Indirect taxes
To meet the financial needs of the war, taxes were increased on alcoholic drinks, sugar consumption, and soy, the
customs tariff was raised, while government monopolies of tobacco and salt, as well as a consumption tax on petroleum and
woven fabrics, were created. These taxes being borne by
the consumers and therefore falling on the lower classes as
well as others, an excessive rate of taxation would render the
living of the poorer people very difficult and consequently
might frustrate the very object of increasing the national
revenue. Yet the exigencies of war were such that it was
necessary to call upon even the poor classes to share the
national burden to a certain extent.
The liquor duty formerly comprised the duty on sake, beer,
spirits, and all other drinks containing spirits, and in Okinawa
prefecture an export duty on intoxicating drinks as a special
liquor duty. The sake brewing duty was divided into three
classes according to the quantity of the alcohol contained;
the greater the quantity the higher the rate. The duty on
the first class was 15 yen per koku (39.7033 gallons), on the
second class I6 yen, but the third class was taxed 75 sen per
koku for every per cent of pure alcohol contained. In the
first increase of taxes the rate on the first and second classes
was raised by 50 sen each and that on the third by 2.5 sen;
and in the second increase, the rate on the third class was further raised by 7.5 sen and that on the other classes by 1.50
yen. The liquor duty had frequently been raised after the
war with China, but now it had to undergo another and a
far greater increase in this way. Beer-brewing was first
1 Post, p. 95.