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

RESOURCES FOR DEFRAYING WAR EXPENSES

57

bonds, represented the actual expense required for the disposal
of business relating to the issue, and did not include the compensation for the risk involved in undertaking the flotation of
loans, as in the case of foreign loans issued during the war.
This commission, therefore, could hardly be counted among
the conditions of issue in the ordinary acceptation of the term.
However this might be, the first rate of commission for the first
issue was 0.3 per cent on the instalment allotments (excluding that part of the allotments which was paid in the shape of
deposits) and 2 per cent on the deposits. But in consideration
of the fact that there was a large number of applicants, entailing time and trouble on the part of the bankers, the former was
subsequently increased to 0.4 per cent and the latter to 3 per
cent. These increased rates applied as well to the second
issue. In the third issue, which required particular efforts on
the part of the financiers, the commission on instalment
allotments was raised to 1.3 per cent, while that on deposits
remained unaltered. In the fourth and fifth issues the former
was lowered to 0.7 per cent, while the latter was also reduced
by half, that is, to 1.5 per cent, because of the fact that the
deposits in these issues were double the amount for the earlier
issues.
The results of these issues of the exchequer bonds were that
the first issue was widely taken up among the people, but that
this feature changed with the repetition of issue, until the
subscribers came to be limited practically to very wealthy
men in the fourth and fifth issues. However, every issue was
a success and oversubscribed several times. As the result
of a vigorous campaign, the first issue secured the largest
number of applicants, and was oversubscribed four and a half
times, of which 33 per cent was represented by applications
above the minimum issue price. The number of applicants
markedly decreased in the second and third issues, yet the
amount of subscriptions exceeded the issue amount by more
than three times. The applications above the minimum
issue price represented 6 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively,
of the amount subscribed for on these two occasions. The