In Table F.1 I supply data on the distribution of imperial budget expenditures. For national income estimates, it is necessary to separate expenditures for goods and services (administration, health and welfare, and defense) from other types of expenditures, namely, interest and principal payments on government debt, subsidies and transfer payments, and expenditures on government enterprises. Moreover, if possible, one would also like to determine the distribution of government expenditures between current and capital expenditures.

EXPENDITURES IN CURRENT PRICES

I have analyzed the budgetary data provided in the various reports of the Ministry of Finance for the purpose of determining the magnitude and distributions of government expenditures. Budgetary data vary in the amount of detail for various years, ranging from approximately 600 expenditure categories (the 1913 budget) to 150 positions (the 1900 budget). The accounting system was fairly uniform throughout the 1885 to 1913 period, a fact that greatly assisted my analysis. The capital expenditure data suffer especially from the varying detail, as such capital expenditures are likely to be lost in the aggregation of budget positions. By the use of assumptions derived from distributions in nearby years for which more detailed information is available, I sought to avoid downward bias in the capital expenditure figures in the years for which less detailed data are available, but I must caution that the capital expenditure figures are approximative and are not to be regarded as reliable.