Fire Consumption Tax System Of The Ming And Qing

A country's finance and taxation has the close relationship with its society's economy and people's life. The finance and taxation system of Ming Dynasty originated in the Hongwu Time, at that time emperors' income didn't distinguish with the state revenue, the national income could not distinguish with the provincial income clearly, the system forced to manage the national source of wealth, such plan was also too arduous in the modern society. Hongwu emperor centralized the financial authority in central, but the concentration was superficial, lacked the depth. He had no intention to improve the finance and taxation operation. Therefore from the very beginning, the finance and taxation management demonstrated the characteristic of simple and stiff. This operation reduced the people's tax revenue at the beginning of Ming Dynasty, but lacked the safeguard practices. At the intermediate stage of Ming Dynasty, the situation worsened. At the end of the Ming dynasty, the storehouse was void, the annual income was insufficient.In order to solve this problem, at end of the Ming Dynasty performed the reform—the single whip system. Merge various public funds with the tax burden together, discount silver collection. When levies the tax, locals had some surplus, which was the result of relaxing the collection criterion, thus "levies one, namely does not add one cent, gatherings also has the earnings". In addition, when collecting certain various extra taxes should be increased in the positive number foundation, in order to offset the transportation expense and the loss expense. Aparting from the transportation expense, "the consume of silver" also had some part of surplus, which was preserved in the counties. This was called "the envy extra money". Actually, taxing "the consume of silver" has its deeper reason. The further centralization was showed though levying taxes, the majority concentrating at the national capital, preserving few in locals. Under this kind of distribution system, even the most honest official will also discover that the administration will be very difficult. Although the funds included the item of officials' salary, the number was minimum, not only was insufficient for officials' life, but also was insufficient for administration. The place funds were excessively low, which caused all officials to practice strict economy. But the officials must had the ostentation, and also need to subsidize many relatives, supported the servant as well as attendents, in fact it was impossible to have the true thrift. Moreover, the official division of income system was insufficient to provide such as the small scale disaster relief, the urban construction, the county alley employment and so on, which caused the magistrate to take other methods. The most important method is levying additional tax "the consume of silver", although this procedure had not obtained the legal confirmation at that time, it was already the very universal phenomenon. But legally speaking, "the consume of silver" was the inevitable loss, had its rationality. Therefore "the consume of silver" was stipulated in Zhang Juzheng's reform "the single whip system" for the first time.In the initial stages of Qing Dynasty, the attitude towards "the consume of silver" had changed.In the Shunzhi Time and the Kangxi Time were oppositive to "the consume of silver".But, in the Kangxi Time"the consume of silver" was one prominent question in society. At that time some people proposed the suggestion that using "the consume of silver" to make up the financial debt, but Kangxi worried that this will dampen magistrate's enthusiasm andoffend the local official, thus he did not obtain the proposal, therefore the reform had not been able to implement. In the Yongzheng Time, the people's poverty and the country's deficit as well as official corruption seriously influenced the rule of the country, which should be solved as soon as possible. Therefore the legalization of "the consume of silver" was also on the agenda, which urged the generation of an important finance reform—"the consume of silver".Yongzheng maked the decision of carrying out this reform stemming from the maintain the feudalism dynasty's benefit, causing "the consume of silver" turns over to the whole nation, reversed corruption and state treasury void condition in the later period of Kangxi Time. It can be said that the reason to the peace and the prosperity of Qing Dynasty was owing to the reform—"the consume of silver". Unfortunately, although "the consume of silver" made the contribution to the early time's development of modern China, but it was failure at last.The article is divided into three parts:Frist, an introduction to the overall tax system between Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty .Ming Dynasty is similar to the previous dynasties, was still the agricultural economy primarily, the agricultural tax—land tax was the main finance income of the country. Meanwhile along with the further development of the industry and commerce, the industry and commerce taxes also occupied the suitable status in the country tax system. In this part overview the finance and taxation through the introduction of the land tax, the industry and the commerce tax in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.Second, "the consume of silver" in the end of the Ming Dynasty. "the consume of silver" was an important component in the tax system. In this part, making the concrete analysis and the elaboration of "the consume of silver" through these aspects: used the silver in the tax administration, the origin and the reason of "the consume of silver".Third, rationalization finance reform at the beginning of Qing Dynasty—"the consume of silver". In this part, the writer will introduce the reason and the process of "the consume of silver" in the Yong Zheng Time, analysis deeply the relation between "the consume of silver" and keeping incorruptness, and appraise the failure of "the consume of silver".