ABSTRACT
The last half-century has witnessed three great constructive efforts in the field of practical politics. The sudden, the almost meteor-like rise of an Empire with such a strange and peculiar culture to the proud position of by no means the least among the Great Powers of the modern world is indeed a startling phenomenon. The foregoing propositions are so obvious that the impatient reader may be tempted to dismiss them as so many mere commonplaces. In the enumeration of the national assets of Japan in 1854, the national intellect may well seem to have been dwelt upon at disproportionate and inordinate length. In presenting the story of centuries historians find it convenient to have recourse to the expedient of epochs or periods. The land system introduced by Kamatari in 645 had some serious defects; the chief being its numerous exemptions from taxation. The aim of the present volume is limited in scope.
