at his apostasy.
He knew that would be the effect, and to prepare himself for the storm
that would greet him on returning he put in all his time studying European
institutions, and in acquiring the rudiments of French and English.

When he arrived home in 1868 the revolution that ended forever the power
of the Shogun, abolished the Samurai, and vastly curtailed the privileges
of the nobility had begun. He remained true to the Shogun, but after the
utter defeat of the latter before the walls of Kioto he entered the
service of the Mikado, and his knowledge was of vast importance in the
reorganization and rebuilding that came after the revolution had done its
work.

In 1870 he was appointed assistant vice-minister of finance, and in that
position he undertook to place the currency of the country on a firm
basis. Japan was flooded with depreciated paper money, with a face value
of so much rice. This was steadily called in and more stable money issued.

Helped Build First Railroad.

This same year the first railroad in Japan--the Tokyo-Yokohama, twenty
miles long--was constructed, and Shibuzawa aided in the work to the full
extent of his power. Higher political offices were open to him, but he
decided he could be of more use to his country as a business man than as
an official, so in 1873 he resigned office.

"I realized," he said, "that the real force of progress lay in actual
business, not in politics, and that the business element was really the
most influential for the advancement of the country. I soon came to the
conclusion that the capital of an individual was not enough to accomplish
very much, and I then became the means of introducing the company system
into Japan. The idea was successful, and the government approved it. Since
then, I may say, every industry in the country has increased--some twenty
times, some ten times, and none less than five times."

His first act was to establish a national bank, modeled on the national
banks of the United States, and two years later he organized the Tokyo
Chamber of Commerce, modeled also on American chambers of commerce, and of
this became president. The extension of railroads, the establishment of
gas companies, pulp-mills, cotton-mills, iron-foundries, shipyards, and
steamship lines next occupied his attention, and he was successful in all
of them. The amount of money he made personally was not great, but he
placed Japan on a sound, modern commercial basis.

The