Study On The Annual Silver From Capital To North Military Towns And Its Management In Ming Dynasty

This paper focuses on the Annual Silver from Capital to the North Military Towns, and also on the military expenditure of the Ming Dynasty, the Nine Frontier fortification system of the Ming Dynasty, the management of the supply of government officials, etc. It begins with the relationship between state’s finance and the Military expenditure of Nine Frontier fortification system, on the one hand, narrating the whole system of the Annual Silver from Capital to the North Military Towns from beginning to end, and its amount changes in the four periods. On the other hand, I will analyse the increases of the Annual Silver in different military towns during different periods, comparison of the numbers of army in different military towns, and their proportion.The historical evidence related to the amount of the Annual Silver is very large and complex, including the official local records in various provinces and towns, the private books of contemporaries, and some officials’reports which are related to the border issues. Although these documents have more detailed information about each case of the military towns, intervals of their completions are very large. Furthermore, different tows has different situations, and different document has different key point. So we can not reconstruct the whole picture of the nationwide, structural, long-term system of the Annual Silver. Therefore, my research is based on Wanli Kuaijilu published in Wanli tenth year (1582), then I use the data of Mingshilu to be proofread. Finally, my arguments will be perfected by gazetteers, border-chi, Official reports and other evidences. Because Wanli Kuaijilu and Mingshilu missed the data of Chongzhen Period, it will be supplemented by Bi Ziyan Duzhizouyi, in order to figure out the balance of the Annual Silver in each town.My research shows that the release of the Annual Silver in the Ming Dynasty has its profound historical background, which is closely related to construction of the state borders and military expenditure. The main purpose of Northern border’s fotification in Ming Dynasty is to defend the Mongolian invasion, and safeguard the security of the capital and the mainland. But this line of defense was gradually withdrawn in the Yongle Period, and at the end of Hongzhi Period, the Nine Frontier fortification system was eventually formed, with these strongholds: Liaodong Town, Ji Town, Xuanfu Town, Datong Town, Shanxi Town, Yansui Town, Guyuan Town, Ningxia Town and Gansu Town, in which one governor was instituted in each town. During Zhengde Period and Jiajing Period, the situation of defense in northern border areas changed, and Ming government continued to improve this defensive line, and ultimately extended to thirteen military town. It is notable that the concept of border area is not the same as that of military town, some of military towns has one side of border areas, and in some cases, several military towns shares one side. For example, as one of Nine Frontiers, Ji town is composed of Changping, Miyun and other small military towns.Prototype of the Annual Silver in the Ming Dynasty is the activity from Nanjing or Beijing to allocate supplies to the northern border line of from Hongwu to Xuande, and it is also known as“Transporting supplies from the capital to the frontier”period. During Zhengtong Period and Tianshun Period, which were the early period of the annual silver system, the Ming government began to release money to all the border regions, and made gradual perfection of this system. After Chenghua Period, there are many records about the total amount of the annual silver in various Periods, thus the system of the annual silver is fixed. Meanwhile, the amount of the annual silver grew higher, but the overall growth rate was still lower, and the Ming government could afford that expenditure. In Jiajing Period, the annual silver experienced substantial growth, particularly before and after the incident of Gengxu the amount reached the highest. Accordingly, the Ming government’s financial burden was also the heaviest. At that time, the release of annual silver finally completed its institutional transformation. From the middle age of Wanli Period, the release of the annual silver was decreased and fell into a decline phase, and the Ming government faced many dangers: deficit financing, increasing salaries of Three Kinds, unchanging amount of the total annual silver and payment in arrears for many years.This paper will concentrate on systematical analysis of the annual releasing amounts of the annual silver in the Nine Frontier fortification system, and it is followed: from the view of time, the foundations of many towns was earlier than the allocation of the annual silver; to its objects, it was first given to the local soldiers, then to the foreign soldiers, and finally to increase the recruitment of soldiers in silver due to lack of troops. To the amount of silver released, increasing or decreasing, there was no regular standards in each military town, and it depended on the military position, financial condition, the amount of recruiting soldiers of military towns, especially on the defensive posture of the Nine Frontier fortification system of the Ming Dynasty.In addition, having considering the complexity and importance of food and salaries for the balance of payments transactions in the Nine Frontier fortification system, the Ming government has created an institution of officials to administer food supplies,Which are divided into two kinds of officials, internal officers (central dispatch officers) and external officers (local officers).The central dispatch officers are sent by Board of Revenue, and their functions are of importance, although their ranks are comparatively lower. They are responsible for overseeing and regulating the food supplies and salaries of northern towns, controlling the frontier’s lifeblood of the army material supplies. It is typical case of the local officers with lower ranks having great power. Those officers sent by the central government are led by Board of Revenue, and their appointment and deposition are controlled by Board of Revenue according to parallel officers in the central government. The posts of local officers actually are held by the lower officers from local governments, and this institution is set throughout the country. Their duties are similar to the central dispatch officers with the exception of managing local affairs, urging the collection of arrears, but their powers are lower than latter, and under the guide and supervision of the central government and other higher officers.In short, the Nine Frontier fortification system of the Ming Dynasty was designed for dealing with the urgent threat of northern Mongolia, and the Ming Government set up some large military strongholds along the Great Wall at differet time. The first military stronghold was Ningxia Town, which was established in the fourth year of Jianwen Period, and foundation of Guyuan Town in the eighteenth year of Hongzhi Period was the last one. Concerning the silver release, there is much difference from town to town. The amount is highest in Ji Town among all the military towns because this stronghold is consists of five small towns, Jizhou Town, Miyun Town, Yizhou Town, Changping Town and Yongping Town. touching how much money should be paid and its arrear, it depends on the frontier war and the government’s overall finance of the Ming Dynasty. The general trend is that the less was paid from the beginning, regularly 30,000-50,000, and then gradually increased, And reached its first peak until the incident of Gengxu during Jiajing Perion. Since then, although the decline in the amount of The annual silver, but more to the late Ming Dynasty, the more serious arrears. The emergence and large-scale implementation of the annual silver system in the Ming Dynasty have twofold meanings for the national stability and social development. First of all, it provides military supplies and secures the defence of the northern border line, not only promoting the business and the development of food markets in northern frontier, but also indirectly accelerating liturgical reform of the Ming Dynasty and the monetization of silver. Secondly, the implementation of annual silver system also has many negative effects, such as the abnormal prosperity of northern frontier markets, Price increases in northern border areas, and then there has been a situation of inflation. Surge in the amount of silver indirectly leads to negative effects such as farmers’burden increased. The release of The annual silver in the Nine Frontier fortification system of the Ming Dynasty was enforced by officials at all levels of the Ming government. And the establishment of this system was the minor adjustment of the internal bureaucracy under the special conditions. It is a good solution to the food and salary problems of the frontier army, but there are some corrupt officials deceiving higher officers and soldiers, and defalcating money from the soldiers’ pockets. Therefore, the soldiers of the north region suffer greatly for these corrupt acts.