From this time onward Ito’s rise to power was singularly rapid, he was in truth the man of the hour, the chosen counsellor of the youthful sovereign, the hope of a nation which had at the moment but a faint impression, if any at all, of the part that it would be called on to play in the not distant future, and was as yet merely groping towards the light. The finances of the revivified country needed exceptional ability for their reorganisation, for there were still in operation in the provinces the primitive arrangements for the introduction of which the at times urgent necessities of the feudal lords was often directly responsible, and which it was absolutely essential should be replaced by methods more substantial if local credit were to be maintained,—there were the inevitable heavy expenditures incidental to the adoption of a new system of administration,— a less cumbrous coinage was greatly wanted,—and a workable plan of taxation whereby to support the reformed Government of the country was above everything essential. These were among the matters that pressed for the attention of the department which Ito was called on virtually to control. Only a few months had elapsed when his services were demanded in a different capacity, but one that afforded still greater opportunities for the display of his talents, for he was chosen by the Emperor to take a most active part in the mission which it was resolved should visit America and Europe, there to gather information on matters of vital importance to the nation, and in December of the year 1871 the party, headed by Prince Iwakura, started from Yokohama in a Pacific mail steamer for San Francisco. Although it was not absolutely the first time that Japan had sent her messengers abroad, for two of the feudal barons with their secretaries had been to Europe on a short visit in the early sixties, the mission of Prince Iwakura, following immediately as it did the assumption by the real monarch of all the duties appertaining to his imperial station, bore a special and striking significance. The departure of the vessel from the bay of Tokio was watched by many thousands of people, and the event was acknowledged on all sides to be full of happy augury for Japan.