It was while matters remained in this awkward fix that Matsukata Masayoshi received the portfolio of Finance in October 1881. “It was at this crisis,” he states in his Report, “that it occurred to me as I studied the case that in order to effect the object in view the Government should, side by side with the redemption of a portion of the paper money in circulation, take steps to increase the specie reserve of the Government preparatory to the resumption of specie payment. Moreover, in order to put the country’s finance on a sound basis and relieve the pressing distress of the time, I felt the need of a central bank having the sole privilege of issuing convertible notes. I submitted a scheme for the establishment of such a central bank to my colleagues. In the Cabinet Council which followed my suggestions were approved, and in June 1882 the _Nippon Ginko_ (Bank of Japan) was established. Two years later it was empowered to issue convertible notes. After the necessary foundations were in this way laid, the Government used every means in its power to raise thereon a sound financial superstructure. The method of receiving and disbursing the State revenue was changed, and the strictest economy was practised in the expenditures of the different departments. One half of the surplus obtained in this way was devoted to the redemption of paper money, while the other half was added to the specie reserve of the Government. Besides, after the latter part of 1881 this reserve fund was employed for discounting foreign bills of exchange, with a view to encourage the export trade of the country, which in its turn would lead to the importation of specie.” Something more was done, however, in the way of accumulating specie besides the transaction of foreign exchange. Count Matsukata proposed as an important adjunct to the scheme that the Government should engage in the direct exportation of rice and seaweed, and his memoranda on the subject, dated November 1882 and February 1883, only adopted by the Cabinet in June 1883,—a clear proof that there was no undue haste in any of the steps taken in this pre-eminently momentous national affair,—took in part the form given below. It should serve in its tone to explain with what solicitude the Government of Tokio views all questions that hinge upon the successful cultivation of Japan’s most valuable staple.