Study On The Salt Administration Of Modern Shandong

As one of the major producers of salt, Shandong played a vital role in modernChina. Salt administration was an important system of economical management. Thesalt administration of modern Shandong experienced two periods---the late QingDynasty(1837-1911) and the Republic of China(1912-1937). This thesis introducedthese methods, such as historiography, plutonomy, statistics, sociology etc, to carrythrough integrate study, trying to make the true history of the salt administration ofShandong reappeared factually and roudly, at the same time to review the process ofthe modernization of the salt administration of Shandong.During the late Qing Dynasty, the traditional salt administration of Shandongwas declining and manifold problems converged to the nth degree, which provided aprerequisite for the reform of the salt administration. First, the salt production ofShandong was bogged down by the family-based mode of production. Second, the yinsystem merely gave the privilege toward hereditary merchants, but the traditional saltbusiness decreased and transporting and selling salt was mainly conducted by officialsrather than by individual merchants. Third, incontinent levy of the taxes on salt, thelarge variety of taxes and the tangled tax rates all burdened salt merchants so heavilythat they ran away to evade taxes with much frequency. Finally, the system ofsupressing smuggling combined official patrol and commercial patrol, but it did notattach emphasis to dealing with smuggled salt comprehensively and therefore did notprevent salt smuggling effectively. Being strongly antiforeign, the salt administrationof Shandong remained independent for quite a long time instead of beingsemicolonized. However, since the year of 1898, western powers had deprived thegovernment of Shangdong of part of the authority of the salt administration, whichresulted in the destruction of Shandong's independence in the salt administration. Inaddition, the self-management mode of the salt administration of Shandong wasgreatly impacted by the centralization of the salt administration conducted by thecentral government. However, due to the speedy crash of the Qing Dynasty, thecentrally affiliated mode of the salt administration was not actually established inShandong during this period.During the early Republic of China, the government of Shandong established theSino-foreign inspectorate according to the Reorganization Loan Agreement, whichmet the needs of western powers to supervise and control the salt adminisration ofShandong on the one hand, and set the stage of the modernization of the saltadministration of Shandong on the other. The inspectorate was subordinate to thecentral government and its establishment put an end to the original self-managementmode. Obviously, the modernization of the salt administration of Shandong waspassively initiated by the external forces. Later on, the modernization of the saltadministration of Shandong became conscious little by little with various relationshipsinvolved in the salt adminisration. In nature, the modernization of the salt administration of Shandong was thetransformation from the traditional feudalistic mechanism to the capitalisticmechanism. Its contents covered various aspects, including the reforms of itsinstitutions, salt production, transportation and sales, taxation and supressingsmuggling. During the period of the Republic of China, the government of Shandongfirst reformed the structure of the salt management and developed the three systemsrespectively related to administration, inspecorate and suppressing smuggling, whichwere all subordinate to the central government. Eventually, the three systems weremerged together into a unified one with the purpose of raising the efficiency. Besides,the government of Shandong also reformed to adjust the production, promote the wayof trading, unify the tax rates and fortify the suppressing of smuggling, all of whichconducted to a greatly improved salt administration. Specifically, in production, thereexisted two big companies producing refined salt, called Yongyu and Tongyi, whichadopted advanced techniques to conduct massive production using capitalisticmachines and employed the advanced western corporation-based mode of themanagement system. In trading, corporation-based reform was also carried out and thesalt companies raised funds to run the business by buying shares, which wascharacterized by the capitilistic mode of the management; the salt produced inShandong began to be exported and gradually its export covered more and more areas;the selling of the refined salt also broke away with some restrictions of the yin system;the free-trade mode was established in some areas, which also impacted the yinsystem; the modern transporting vehicles distinguished themselves in transporting salt.In the taxation on salt, a series of innovations were conducted, which simplified thetax items and unified the tax rates. In the suppression of smuggling, the governmentof Shandong established special system and constantly reformed its forces. As a result,the salt police became the leading body of the forces and commercial patrol becamenegligible and the situation of suppressing smuggling was greatly improved. All thesereforms of the salt administration of Shandong during this period complemented eachother and formed a comprehensive system of the modernization of the saltadministration of Shandong. However, the reform of the salt administration of modern Shandong wasconfronted with a number of frustrations. Reasons for that were manifold. In the firstplace, although the yin system was enervated during the period of the Repulic of...