A Study Of The Intendant Of Ever-normal Granary,Tea And Salt Office And Its Operation In The Southern Song Dynasty

After the establishment of the Southern Song Dynasty,this regime did not adjust the structure of the intendant of ever-normal granary office by concurrent post and commanding the subordinate officer in charge(主管官)until the intendant of ever-normal granary,tea and salt office was founded in the fifteenth year of Shaoxing Era(1145)which coordinated the rank in the official system(官体)and the function.The subordinate officers of intendant of ever-normal granary,tea and salt office which contributed to the operation of this institution included GanBanGongShi(干办公事),QianTingGuan(签厅官),ZhuGuanZhangSi(主管帐司),FenSi(分司)and so on.The court paid more attention to the GanBanGongShi(干办公事).The Southern Song Dynasty wanted to mobilize the properties of ever-normal granaries and public granaries and participate in the market in order to fulfil the economic requirement of court,war and common people.So it took advantage of the intendant of ever-normal granary,tea and salt office to eliminate the problem of false number in documents by reporting the properties of ever-normal granaries and public granaries annually,signing on personal autobiography,urging exchanging the rice harvested before,regulating the principal,rechecking with other circuit intendants and the ministry of revenue.However,Southern Song dynasty had to take properties of ever-normal granaries to support battlefront and depend on the rice in public granaries which were levied based upon the Two Taxes to relief and war.Freezing rice and rice by urging sharing was also taken to relief.Those led to the degree of the intendant of ever-normal granary,tea and salt office fall.The intendant of ever-normal granary,tea and salt office transported the imperial birthday’s tribute,hired service fee,Fang field of money and other kinds of financial category name to capital and battlefront.With the change of fiscal system,destinies of the intendant of ever-normal granary,tea and salt office all over the country were different.In Jiangxi,its function change with the adjustment of distribution situation in revenue of tea between court and the department of military logistics in the area of Huguang.In Zhejiang,their some functions about salt were deprived from the period of Lizong Emperor.In Guangdong,it transformed from providing tribute of silver which took the place of the fiscal commission to struggling for those silver businessmen with fiscal commission.Their different fates reflected on the aim of Southern Song Dynasty to maximize the interests of the central government by the intendant of ever-normal granary,tea and salt office adjusting financial circulation.The intendant of ever-normal granary,tea and salt office surveyed the ability and behavior of subordinate officials through contact of document and quality of work.They also influenced prefectures and counties and implemented directives from court by tours of inspection,motivating officials,organizing Ju(局),etc.Thus,there were different level of authority in using properties of the intendant of ever-normal granary,tea and salt office.The intendant of ever-normal granary,tea and salt office could take advantage of part of some properties to take part in the adjustment of local taxes and local construction by means of giving the same quantity of taxes(抱认)and saving expenses(撙节)under the premise of fulfilling central government’s financial demand.