The Preliminary Discussion Of Luxury Restrictive Policies In Republic Of China

Luxury,generally refers to something or a consuming behavior beyond the average level of both personal and social consumption,meanwhile non-essential and useless.Imported commodities flocked in after it was forced to open in Late Qing Dynasty,forming an international luxury market.The status of luxury consumption was greatly enhanced in Republic of China,with more and more Treaty Ports.On the one hand,official attitude and policies towards luxury differed among different historical periods of Republic of China.On the other hand,Honor Thrift and Restrain Luxury seemed to be a mainstream view during the whole Republic of China.This article aims to sort out regulations relevant to luxury and luxurious behaviors on specific practice,including luxury taxing,luxury control and the Honor Thrift and Restrain Luxury Campaign,thus to explore the inherent rules of luxury restrictive policies,and finally supplement the social and economic history study of Republic of China.When it comes to research methods,this article mainly adopts a relatively traditional historical methodology called positivism.It takes advantages of files on ministry of finance,Da-cheng database,and publications during Republic of China.To establish a solid foundation of historical facts,researches about tax system,luxury consumption and Thrift Campaign has been widely referenced.As to some specific problems,such as illustrating the developing trends of the Excise on Cigarettes,statistical methods are also be adopted.Meanwhile,transforming text to table makes a more intuitive expression.Finally,comparative methods is used to analyze the luxury restrictive policies from two dimensions.Specifically,this article is composed of five chapters,which are arrayed by time sequence.In chapter I,sorting out the luxury tax is a central task.Special Luxury Tax in Beijing and Stamp Duty on Luxury Goods in Guangdong are taken as examples when discussing about inland tax.The evolution of surtax on luxury is decided on several international conferences,especially the Paris Peace Conference,the Washington Conference and the Special Tariff Conference during 1925-1926.Chapter II is about luxury policies of early Nanjing government.Discussion of this period is focused on"abolish Lijin and establish Excise",which brings out the Special Consumption Tax as well as the establishment of Excise.Chapter III introduces policies during World War II,when luxury restrictive policies turning to a more strict face.A unified Excise,Wartime Consumption Tax and wartime luxury control contributed to new features of luxury tax.To explore the improvement and strengthening on Thrift Campaign is another task.The core of chapter IV is the so-called Counter-insurgency and Establish New Republic.This part focuses on the amplification of luxury control and prohibition of imported luxury.To "counter the insurgency",building the republic with diligence and thrift was publicized by Chiang himself.This article makes comparative analysis in the fifth chapter.Based on Chapter I to Chapter IV,this part explore features of luxury restrictive policies both horizontally and vertically.As to the vertical axis,it analyses the purpose,the fluctuation rate of luxury tax,the range of luxury,and the purpose,the initiator,scale,and thrift essence on different stages of Honor Thrift and Restrain Luxury Campaign.As to the horizontal axis,it needs a comparison between China and other countries.Finally,Conclusions are drawn based on the comparisons above.On the one hand,purpose of luxury tax differed before and after 1938,which leads two periods characterized by "taxing" and "prohibition",while new items of luxury appeared constantly and tax rate kept changing.On the other hand,purpose of the Honor Thrift and Restrain Luxury raised from promoting life style to national policy,initiators changed from social groups to country,the thrift essence evolved from single to complex and finally turned to a policy influencing almost every aspects of agriculture,industry,commerce,government agencies,daily life and entertainment.Taking the international situation into consideration,the luxury restrictive policies of the Republic of China undoubtedly adapted to the international trends.However,the policies failed to achieve its initial results due to the out of control on tariff,long-term wartime and the shortcomings of the policies themselves.In addition,the.policies lack reasonable tolerance with the pursuit of facial strict manner.To conclude,policies on luxury are all means of state intervention whether the luxury and luxurious behaviors was utilized or banned.The luxury restrictive policies of the Republic of China constitute the epitome on state control together with policies in other fields.