The Meiji government suffered from a financial problem from the beginning due to a cost of the Boshin War which they fought against former retainers of shogun, and they could secure a right of owning land of only 800 koku (Japanese unit of volume, and 1 koku was defined as enough rice quantity to feed one person for one year) out of Japan's entire land, 3,000 koku.
明治政府は抵抗した旧幕臣らとの戊辰戦争における戦費などで発足直後から財政難で全国3000万石のうち800万石を確保できているのみであった。