Which of the following statements concerning the Tokugawa Shogunate in the 19th century is most accurate?
a. By the 19th century, the Tokugawa were able to dispense with the feudal organization of earlier Japan.
b. The Shogunate bureaucracy had been opened to talented commoners, a reform that improved the standing of the government with the masses of the Japanese people.
c. Increasingly, the Shogunate depended on its long-standing alliances with Western powers to maintain its dominance.
d. The Shogunate continued to combine a central bureaucracy with semi-feudal alliances with regional daimyos and the samurai.
e. The Shogunate managed its finances carefully, and never carried a deficit.
Answer: D