The Financial Division Of The Central And Locality During The Period Of The Governments Of The Northern Warlords (1912--1927)

In last years of Qing Dynasty, the system of feudal financial centralization of state power collapsed gradually, and the national ownership of property was " moved outside " and " shifted down " seriously. Imperial Palace of Qing Dynasty had to begin to imitate and set up western financial system, and divided finance as state finance and local finance. This financial reform action had not succeed , but it was a try which carried on the financial reform learning from the west in the latter stage of Qing Dynastied. It was a chapter that took in the process in modern times, and offered some deep experience and lessons for financial reform later on. After the Republic of China had been set up, the fraction ideological trend of the republicanism was very popular. The central authority of new regime had not strengthened because of the extinction of Qing Dynasty's old regime , its financial state was also unable to make ends meet. Yuan Shikai , during his ruling period, promulgated and applied a standard of revenue and expenditure division of the central and locality for a time . Having carried on a series of coordinated reform, the result had been realized the concentrating on unifying transiently of state revenue; Behind the death of Yuan, local warlords'power expanded. Special fund that central authorities made, every province paid little but end , as for zero , even tariff , revenue stamp , wine & tobacco tax were all withheld by local provinces. And every province also had a finger in the salt gabelle , which was related to external debt. Central government relied on internal and external debt and subsisted reluctantly for the first time. Then the external debt was cut off because its credit was weak day by day, and the internal debt had also become the spent force. The state revenue had no in storage at last. Then, the central government which lacked the financial foundation ceased to exist except in name, only became a signboard , with which each warlord scrambled for power and profit. In the meantime, Beijing government imitated the modern tax system of western direct tax, indirect tax, and tax on acts, and divided every tax including the existing one and the forthcoming one in 1923. Finally, this division failed to implement too. However, like the division of Yuan , it had offered valuable experience and lesson for the fact that the finance was divided in the period of national government of Nanjing. During 16 years, the Governments of the Northern Warlords (1912 ——1927) divided finance between central and locality one after another . It was obvious that the chess match launching around the financial problem and the struggle between central and locality was fierce during this period. Through clarifying and analysing the operation of finance division of central and locality in this transition period, I draw its reason to fail, and its lie in : The central authority did not stabilize ; The financial revenue and expenditure were out-of-balance seriously; The first group (central ) conflicted with interests of the second group (locality ); The system was imperfect; The great powers' intervention,etc.. The finance division had not succeed in the period of the Governments of the Northern Warlords (1912 ——1927), but compared with the division at the latter stage of Qing Dynasty, it had obviously been greatly improved: The standard of the financial division of central and locality began to be systematized; The scheme of the financial division of central and locality was collated and stipulated clearly; Once transient implementation was tried. And, The financial division of the central and locality during the period of the Governments of the Northern Warlords(1912 ——1927), established the foundation that the finance was divided in the period of national government of Nanjing . Certainly, compared with western countries of the same period, the finance division of the central and locality during the period of the Governments of the Northern Warlords (1912 ——1927) was nothing but a failed test . But it was really a very important chapter in the process of China's modern finance reform.