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

RESOURCES FOR DEFRAYING WAR EXPENSES

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o1 per cent ad valorem was instituted on silk cocoons of all
kinds, and of 15 per cent on rice, hulled and unhulled. With
regard to other imported goods, the duties on raw material
(of all classes), with the exception of those towhich the conventional tariff applied or which were not produced in the country,
were raised 5 per cent ad valorem. This new rate applied to
dyestuffs, colors, and paints (Class 5); horn, ivory, tortoiseshell, etc. (Class 8); metals (Class 9); wax and oils other than
petroleum (Class io); raw materials specified in Class I6,
etc. As to manufactured goods, except those coming under
the conventional tariff, 5 per cent ad valorem was added on
necessaries of life, io per cent on ordinary goods, and io per
cent was added to or newly imposed on luxuries.
To find new sources of revenue for war expenditures, the
government established the monopoly for the manufacture
and sale of tobacco at the time of the first tax increase, and the
monopoly of salt at the time of the second increase. The
income from these monopolies is a business profit as well as a
tax; yet in view of its being a method of imposing consumption duty de facto, we will dwell upon it further side by side
with other indirect taxes.
On the conclusion of the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese
Government formulated a plan for the monopoly of the tobacco industry in the country as a part of the post bellum financial program. In January, I898, it began to buy the tobacco
leaves grown by cultivators at home or imported from abroad,
and sold leaf-tobacco to the general customers until in 1903-4
it obtained over 14,890,000 yen, a sum about five times as
large as that received from the tobacco duty previous to the
monopolization. To meet the financial needs of the RussoJapanese War, the monopoly was extended further to the
manufacture of tobacco; on July I, I905, the monopoly of
cigars and cigarettes was opened, while on April I, I906,
fine-cut tobacco was also monopolized, so that the government undertook the manufacture and sale of all kinds of
tobacco. Of the proceeds from the tobacco monopoly, the
profit from the manufacture of tobacco alone went to the war
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