Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/141

 these grades received two-thirds of a male's share, the consideration shown to them being thus twice as great as that extended to women of inferior position. Finally, land was given in lieu of official emoluments; the Prime Minister's salary being the produce of one hundred acres; that of the second and third Ministers, seventy five acres each; and that of other officials ranging from two to fifty acres. Land, indeed, may be said to have constituted the money of the epoch. It was given in lieu not only of salaries but also of allowances,—even post-stations along the high-roads being endowed with estates whose produce they were expected to employ in providing horses, couriers, and baggage-carriers for Government use. It need scarcely be added that meritorious public services were rewarded with estates, granted sometimes in perpetuity, sometimes for two generations only.

A special arrangement existed for encouraging sericulture and the lacquer industry. Tracts of land were assigned to families for planting mulberry or lacquer trees in fixed quantity, and such land might be leased for any term of years or sold with official permission; neither did it revert to the Crown unless the family became extinct. But any land left uncultivated for three years was regarded as forfeited, and had to be resumed or re-allotted.

The exact amount of taxes levied at various eras in Japan has always been difficult to ascer-