An Analysis On The Reform Of Salt Industry Policy During The Preliminary Constitutional Period

During the preliminary constitutional period in the late Qing Dynasty, the reform of salt industry policy is an important component of the financial reform, as well as a vital element of the "New Policies Reform" But many scholars did not make a focused study on this subject. Based on the previous studies and numerous historical materials, this thesis is going to take a perspective of political history and a method of empirical research to comprehensively analyze the background, the implementation, the conflicts, the specific content, and the impact on the salt industry reform in the early years of Chinese Republic, of the salt industry reform during the preliminary constitutional period in the late Qing Dynasty.There are three parts of this thesis:introduction, body, and the conclusion. In the part of introduction, the writer clarified the selection cause and the meaning of writing this thesis. The writer also made a literature review in this part, and stated the key points, difficulties, and the innovations of this research. The body is divided into four chapters. In the first chapter, the background of the salt industry reform during the preliminary constitutional period is elaborated. Firstly, the writer stated the changes of the salt industry system and its problems. Then the public voice about the reform in the society is given. In the end, the direct cause of the salt industry reform in the late Qing Dynasty is introduced. The second chapter discusses the introduction of reform articles of the salt industry and the governors'attitude. The introduction of the reform articles immediately triggered a boycott o several provincial governors. The reason for their objection is analyzed here. The third chapter focuses on the implementation of the policy reform, which is the theme content of this thesis. Through the relevant materials, we found that the reform was conducted around four aspects:reform of the system (including salt distribution system reform, salt tickets reform, salt price control, and fund arrangement); reform of the salt bureaucracy; resisting salt input; and the appearance of salt merchants. Chapter four discusses the cause to the ineffective reform of salt industry in late Qing Dynasty and its impact on the early years of Chinese Republic. It is largely due to the weakness of the Qing government and its corruption, the incompetence of the commissioner, and the conflicts between the central government and local government. However, there are still some advantages that threw some light on the salt industry reform in the early years of ChineseThe conclusion part ends the thesis. Through the detailed discussion in the four chapters above, the salt industry reform is evaluated in the background of new policies in the late Qing Dynasty. We can see the struggling towards the current policy. We can also see the attempt of the Qing government to centralize the power by reforms in various forms. However, the attempt failed because of the Qing government's own internal problems and the external situation, accelerating the process of Qing Government' perishment.