The Financial Problems Of The Early Qianlong Period: A Case Study Of Chai Chaosheng's "Three Policies To Achieve Sound Fiscal Management"

Finance is the foundation of a country's functions and a country's financial condition is inextricably linked with the politics and economy of the society. The kangxi-Qianlong period is the most glorious period of the Qing Dynasty. The socio-economic achievements have attracted worldwide attention. However, Chai Chaosheng, a censorial of this period, saw profound the problems through the Qianlong period of prosperity, and submitted " Three Policies to Achieve Sound Fiscal Management ". He was worried about the revenue to the state and analyzed the factors causing the expansion of the state's fiscal expenditures. He provided the three proposals aiming at reducing the state's financial burden and public expense, hoped to benefit the state's financial operations. This paper discusses Chai's suggestions ,and analyzes the financial management and fiscal operations in the early Qianlong period.This study may help to achieve better understanding about the prosperity of the 18th century, as well as Chai Chaosheng himself.The full text is composed of the preamble and five sections.The preamble contains the content of " Three Policies to Achieve Sound Fiscal Management " and provides the related historical background, the issues to be discussed, the methodology and the resources. The first part generally introduce the " Three Policies to Achieve Sound FiscalManagement "and the financial problems of the early Qianlong period.The second part discusses the first suggestion of Chai: reclaiming the Northeast borderland to settle Manchu idle persons. First, I analyzes the changing conditions of of the Eight-banner livelihoods, the various proposals advanced by the Ministers about this issue. Then this study eximes the process, influence and the reasons of the failure of Eight-banner's reclaiming the Northeast borderland, which is connected to the evolution of the Eight-banner problem after the early Qianlong period.The third part discusses the second suggestion of Chai: dismissing the Han soldiers from the Eight-banner to settle the Hanjun (汉军) problem. The reasons, the evolution process and the impact of this policy are discussed.as well.The fourth part discusses the third policy of Chai: Leaving the income of Juanjian(捐监) to local governments to resolve local public funding shortages. Chai Chaosheng collecting argues that Haoxian(耗羡) to the central government is leading to the funding difficulties to the local governments. I discuss mainly from the perspective of the impact of Haoxian issue. Then focus is located to the financial operations of the local government in the Qing Dynasty. After that,I also illustrate that the proposal advanced by Chai Chaosheng is certainly reasonable.The fifth part comments on Chai Chaosheng's ideas. According to"Three Policies to Achieve Sound Fiscal Management",the actual situation of the financial operations in the early Qianlong period is not ample,but very strained. Chai Chaosheng has some traditional financial managing concepts and the thoughtful attitude toward matters relating to people's condition and public work. His courage and insight is also admirable.