First, he proposed that the government held the expenditures expected during the three years starting in 1882 at the level of the previous year (1881), and that at the same time it raised taxes on cigarettes and brewery and evenly divided the excess of revenue from those taxes so that it could spend half of the excess on the incineration of paper money and hold the other half in the form of specie to keep as reserves for the future when it would be converted into convertible paper money.
まず、1882年（明治15年）から3年間、前年度（1881年/明治14年）の歳出額で据え置くこと、その一方で煙草税・酒造税などの増税を行い、そこから生み出された歳入の余剰分を2分割して半分を紙幣消却に、もう半分を正貨形式で保有して、然るべき兌換紙幣への切替時の準備金とすることとした。