Between 1868 and 1877 a series of basic reforms gave centralized
control to the Imperial government. The four western clans returned
their lands to the Emperor, thus enabling him to order the other clans
to do the same. In this way the government took over the land taxes,
the main source of revenue. But the lords, though they no longer
held the land registers, were still political rulers in their feudal
domains. So, in 1871, an Imperial decree established prefectures,
with Imperial governors, in place of the old clan divisions. Finally,
the feudal lords lost their private armies. At first, the Imperial
government’s army consisted mainly of the military forces of the
western clans. By 1873, however, the government was able to enforce
a system of universal military service, and thus build up a national
conscript army under its own absolute control.
Why, you ask, did the feudal lords accept so easily this rapid loss of
their former powers? In large part, it was a result of the lead taken
by the western clans, whose _samurai_ statesmen held the reins in the
Imperial government. For they were prepared to back the new measures
with military action, if necessary. But a second factor was equally
important. The clan lords, especially the great _daimyo_, were well
paid for the surrender of their old privileges. Their lands were not
confiscated outright. Large annual grants of money were allotted them
out of central revenues. But the payments originally promised in this
huge pension scheme turned out to be too heavy for the central treasury
to meet. The government therefore first reduced the pensions and then,
in 1876, compulsorily ended them by means of lump-sum payments, in
cash or short-term bonds. Though this drastic scaling down of the
original pension scheme amounted to repudiating its earlier promises,
the government had no other way of avoiding bankruptcy. As it was, the
total cost of commuting the pensions came to nearly 211 million yen--a
large sum for that period. In many respects, this way of dealing with
the pensions laid the basis of the new Japanese society which has since
developed.