Chapter 12 Section 2 Salt Tax

During the Spring and Autumn Period, Guan Zhong once implemented a salt and iron monopoly system in Qi State; the production and sales of table salt were controlled by the government.Guan Zhong believes that salt is a necessity for human life, and everyone must eat salt every day.He pointed out that in a country of ten thousand vehicles, tens of millions of people eat salt, and one thousand bells of salt can be eaten a day.If the country increases the price of salt by 2 cents per liter (one bell = 1000 liters), it can earn 2 million yuan per day, 20 million yuan in 10 days, and 60 million yuan in a month.And the head tax of a country of ten thousand times is only 30 million yuan a month.Now, through the increase in the price of monopoly salt, the monthly income of the country is equivalent to the amount of poll tax in two countries of ten thousand times.If the country announces to increase the poll tax of the people, it will inevitably arouse the dissatisfaction and opposition of the people.However, this method of tax collection based on price is very concealed, and it is difficult for the common people to detect it, and no one can escape it.Therefore, it is a very ingenious and effective means of accumulating wealth for the country.During the Warring States Period, Shang Yang reformed in the Qin State and also implemented the salt monopoly system.

In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, the state once relaxed restrictions on the production and trade of salt. Private individuals were free to cook and trade salt, and the state levied a salt tax.Many businessmen have made a fortune through trading in salt and become upstarts.In the fourth year of Yuanshou (119 BC), Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty accepted the suggestion of Kong Zhi, a great iron merchant in Nanyang, and Dongguo Xianyang, a great salt merchant in Qi, to monopolize salt and iron, and appointed them as Da Nongcheng to take charge of salt and iron affairs. At that time, Sang Hongyang, the son of Jia Ren in Luoyang and the servant of Emperor Wu at that time, participated in the planning and calculation work.The method of salt monopoly is to implement the democratic system, official collection, official transportation, and official sales.The government provided pots and pans for cooking salt, recruited common people to make salt, and the salt produced by the common people was purchased by the government and shipped to various places for sale.The state has set up salt monopoly agencies in various places to take charge of the salt transportation and sales business, and it is strictly forbidden for the people to make salt and sell salt without permission.Although the salt monopoly can increase the country's fiscal revenue, it also has great disadvantages.The government's monopoly on the high price of salt hinders the sale of salt, and the poor have no money to buy salt, so they have to eat lightly.The purchase, transportation and sale of salt required a large number of salt officials and civilian workers, which not only increased state expenditure, but also increased the burden on the people.The government sells salt, but cannot go to every household, and people in remote areas often cannot buy salt.When there is a backlog of official salt, officials often forcefully sell it to the common people.Therefore, at the salt and iron conference held in the sixth year of Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty (81 BC), the salt and iron monopoly was severely criticized by the virtuous and literary participants.During the reign of Emperor Han Yuan (48-33 BC), the salt monopoly was once abolished, but soon the monopoly system was restored due to financial needs.Emperor He of the Eastern Han Dynasty ascended the throne (AD 88), abolished the salt monopoly system, and changed it to private operation, and the state levied salt tax.

During the Three Kingdoms and Western Jin Dynasties, the government still implemented a monopoly system for the production and sales of salt. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the separatist regimes had different policies due to different situations in different periods. At the beginning of the Sui Dynasty, the common people were forbidden to make salt.However, from the third year of Emperor Kaihuang (AD 583) to the first year of Tang Xiantian (AD 712), for 130 years, salt was collected and cooked by the people, and there has been no tax.In the first year of Kaiyuan (713 A.D.), the salt tax was levied, but the tax was very light.After the Anshi Rebellion, in the first year of Emperor Suzong of Tang Dynasty (758 A.D.), Fifth Qi, the envoy of salt and iron, created the salt law: all salt produced by Yanhu (called Tinghu) was bought by the government, and the price was increased by 100 per bucket. The money (the original price was 10 yuan per bucket) was monopolized by the state and became an important fiscal revenue at that time.In the first year of Daizong Baoying (AD 762), Liu Yan, as the salt and iron envoy, reformed the salt administration and implemented the on-the-spot taxation system. The salt produced by the salt households was bought by the state on the spot and resold to merchants, and the salt tax was added Among the selling prices, the salt merchants will then transport and sell the salt to various places. This is the monopoly system of civil system, government collection, commercial transportation, and commercial sales.Liu Yan's reform reduced salt officials and officials and saved state expenditure.In order to promote the circulation of salt, Liu Yan asked the imperial court to order to prohibit localities from collecting salt merchants' transit tax.In order to encourage merchants to sell salt, it is stipulated that merchants can buy salt with silk instead of money, and the price of silk will be increased by 20% to give preferential treatment to merchants.In remote areas where salt merchants are unwilling to sell, the state sets up Changping salt to adjust the contradiction between supply and demand and stabilize the price of salt.This reform mobilized the enthusiasm of salt merchants, expanded the sales of table salt, and greatly increased the country's salt tax revenue. At that time, half of the country's tax revenue was salt tax.

During the Five Dynasties, the later Tang Dynasty implemented the distribution of salt by household, and the towns and cities collected money according to the distribution of house tax, which was called "house tax salt"; in rural areas, salt was distributed by household when silkworms were raised in February, and money was collected when paying the summer tax in June, which was called "silkworm salt". ".The silkworm salt system was still practiced in the later Jin Dynasty, and at the same time, salt tax was levied according to households. Households were divided into five classes, and the tax amount for each class ranged from 200 to 1,000 Wen.In order to increase national income, salt merchants were taxed at the same time. Residents and merchants were taxed 10 coins per catty of salt, and merchants were taxed seven coins. The common people suffered from one salt and two taxes.In the next week, the towns were diverted to salt monopoly, while the villages were engaged in commercial sales.During Zhou Shizong's reign (954-959 A.D.), the Hebei salt tax was divided into two taxes (field tax) and paid with the tax in summer and autumn, which was called "two tax salt money".

There were two methods of collecting salt tax in the Song Dynasty: the official vend method and the commercial method.The official vend law is the monopoly law. The state monopolizes the production, transportation and sales of salt. Generally, the country is divided into several salt regions. The salt produced in each region must be sold according to the methods and regions stipulated by the state. The monopoly price of salt Constitute state revenue.For example, in coastal salt areas such as Huainan, Fujian, and Zhejiang, the purchase price of salt is 4 Wen per catty, and the price of selling it to the common people is 33 Wen, which is more than eight times the price.There are two forms of trade law. One is the free trade law. The state collects a certain salt tax from salt producers, and salt farmers can trade freely with salt merchants.After merchants pay the salt tax to the state, they can be transported and sold in a certain area according to regulations.In the Song Dynasty, this method was mostly adopted for the transportation and sales of sea salt.However, the method of the Northern Zhou Dynasty was still implemented for the Hebei salt field. After the government collected salt money along with the two taxes, the sale of salt was free trade.

Another form of commercial law is: common people can freely produce salt, the government implements a unified purchase, and then sells it to merchants for free distribution and free trade.There are several specific methods as follows. The first is the "introduction method" or "compromise method".During Emperor Yongxi of Song Dynasty (984-987 A.D.), due to the lack of food and grass for the Liao army, he recruited merchants to transport grain and grass to the frontier fortress, which was called "entering the middle". "Go to the capital to get cash or go to the designated saltworks to get salt for trafficking.Later, merchants were recruited to transport millet, and the price was preferentially given according to the distance of the journey, and a certificate was given to the merchant. With the certificate, the merchant went to the capital to withdraw money or sell salt in the salt field. This method is called "compromise method".After a long time, the merchants manipulated the price changes of grain and salt to make huge profits.In the eighth year of Qingli (1048 A.D.), Fan Xiang, who was in charge of the salt affairs in Xiechi, created the Salt Banknote Law: he ordered merchants to go to Bianjun to receive a banknote with four consecutive 800 coins. Take the banknotes to the place of origin for inspection, and receive the salt for transportation and sales.After Cai Jing came to power, he changed to citing in the third year of Zhenghe (1113 A.D.).Salt quotations are divided into long quotations and short quotations.The long-term introduction period is one year, and it is sold on foreign roads (the road is the highest local administrative organization above the government), and the short-term introduction period is one season, and it is sold on this road.Merchants pay the salt price lead including tax, and the salt is transported and sold by the lead.

In the second year of Shaoxing, Emperor Gaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty (AD 1132), Zhao Kai, the general of Sichuan, created a law in Sichuan to impose a salt surcharge; The contract field manages the production of salt households, so that merchants go to the contract field to buy salt, and the tax is 25 yuan per catty, the local property tax and an increase of about nine and four cents, the tax fee is seven cents, and the residence tax is 1.5 yuan. The tax of 66 yuan was paid for the survey and investigation, and later the money for posting and losing was increased, which greatly increased the additional tax on salt.

Liao implemented a taxation system on salt and allowed the people to collect vend freely.Gold implements the banknote quotation method. The government makes banknote quotations, and the quotations are loaded with the number of catties of salt, and the quotations are attached to the banknotes.Merchants who wanted to sell salt had to buy bills, and then use the bills to fetch the salt from the salt farms for transportation and sales.The amount of salt collected by kitchen households is 150 catties of normal class salt for each rock salt, plus 22.5 catties of salt consumption; according to this catty, the price is paid.

In the Yuan Dynasty, the salt taxation line "introduced the shore law", and the state designated a certain area to sell salt from a certain field, which was called "inshore".The government collects salt from kitchen households to make salt, and then sells salt at various local bureaus, each of which pays 400 catties of salt.After the salt merchant pays the salt to buy the salt, it goes to the salt field to sell the salt to the designated area, and it is not allowed to cross the area.At the beginning, the price of salt was nine guan in Zhongtong banknote, which was converted into silver for four taels of five coins. Later, the quoted price gradually increased, and finally increased to 150 guan.The above-mentioned areas are called "Xingyan land", and the method of approaching the shore is implemented.Corresponding to it is the area near the salt field called "salt land". Due to the flood of private salt in these areas, the government implements the "dictation of salt" system, that is, the distribution of salt according to population or household, and the forced collection of salt classes. The amount is even several times higher than taxes and grains.

The shore diversion system is a system of exclusive merchants, and non-expert merchants cannot transport salt.Due to the monopoly of patents by large salt merchants, the price of salt is often high.In order to stabilize the salt price, the Changping Salt System was implemented in the Yuan Dynasty.The state transports the salt to designated locations for storage, and sells it at a par price when the price of salt rises.For the same purpose, the Yuan Dynasty also set up 15 bureaus in the northern and southern cities of Dadu (now Beijing) to sell salt by the government to stabilize the price of salt.

In the Yuan Dynasty, there was also a millet salt system. The government recruited merchants to transport the grain to designated areas (frontiers or places where the army was stationed), and then gave salt to the salt field to sell the salt.A taxation system is implemented for folk self-made soil salt and Sichuan private salt wells.The Yuan Dynasty also increased the plunder of the common people and merchants by means of adding salt lessons, expropriating them, and pre-borrowing them. The salt tax of the Ming Dynasty adopted various systems.In addition to inheriting the Yuan Dynasty’s approach to diversion from the shore, the Kaizhong method was also implemented, that is, imitating the Song Dynasty’s compromise method. According to the needs of preparations for border storage or disaster relief, the Ministry of Households issued a list and recruited merchants to transport grain and rice to frontier fortresses or other food-deficient areas. The government registers the amount of grain paid by merchants and the amount of salt that the government should pay to merchants, and issues "Yalin" to merchants as a proof of receiving salt. Merchants take salt and lead them to designated salt farms to collect salt, and then go to designated areas for marketing.The Kaizhong method first came to Datong in the third year of Taizu Hongwu (AD 1370). At that time, it was stipulated that merchants should put in one meter for one stone in Datong warehouse, and three buckets of rice for one stone in Taiyuan warehouse, and give a small quotation of Huaiyan salt (Xiaoyin is 200 catties, The big quotation is 400 catties).In the future, the provinces will also recruit merchants in the border area, and the number of nanometers will vary depending on the region.Later, businessmen thought that the cost of transporting grain to the frontier was too high, and it would be more beneficial to recruit people to cultivate crops in the frontier fortress, so they built villages in the frontier fortress one after another, which promoted the development of production in the frontier fortress area, which not only guaranteed the frontier storage, but also benefited the frontier defense. In the Ming Dynasty’s Kaizhong method, in addition to nanometer salt, there are Nama medium salt, Namo medium salt, Nabu medium salt, and NaFe medium salt.In the third year of Yingzong Zhengtong (AD 1438), Shi Zhaozuo, the commander-in-chief of Ningxia, invited the horse Zhongyan to pay 100 citations for each horse and 80 citations for the second horse.In the first year of Renzong Hongxi (1425 A.D.), Xia Yuanji, Minister of the Ministry of household affairs, asked the family with banknotes to accept the salt in banknotes in order to return banknotes.In the ninth year of Zhengtong (1444 A.D.), Nabu medium salt was implemented in Shandong, and one piece of cotton cloth was introduced for each piece of cotton cloth for use in Liaodong.In the ninth year of Chenghua of Emperor Xianzong (AD 1473), iron medium salt was collected in Xi'an County, Shanxi Province (merged with Xieyu in 1958 to form Yuncheng) for the iron needed for manufacturing weapons. The Chinese method has been practiced for a long time, and there are many disadvantages. For example, the government does not take into account the actual production of salt, and distributes salt quotations indiscriminately, which makes it impossible for merchants to exchange salt.In the 45th year of Shenzong Wanli (AD 1617), Yuan Shizhen, the Lianghuai Salt Law Shuli Dao, created the outline method for dredging sales.Later, Long Yuqi, the censor of salt inspection, put this method into practice, and compiled Huainan salt into 10 categories, and Huaibei salt into 14 categories.It is compiled into a book, and all leading salt merchants are registered in the book.Those who are well-known in the compendium can make new quotations every year as before, and those who are not named are not allowed to join. Salt merchants will pay salt tax and pay silver according to the quotation.As a result, the gang merchants became exclusive merchants who obtained a certain salt profit, and the monopoly system of salt gang merchants came into being. The Ming Dynasty also implemented the Salt Ticket Law in the remote mountainous areas of Zhejiang and Zhejiang provinces and the counties near the salt fields.In the near-field area, the common people buy a lot of illegal salt, which makes it impossible to import salt.The transportation in remote areas is inconvenient, and merchants are reluctant to sell official salt there, which also makes private salt popular.In the 16th year of Jiajing (AD 1537), in the remote towns of Zhejiang and Zhejiang, where officials and businessmen were not available, local aboriginal merchants were ordered to issue salt tickets at a tax rate of eight cents per 100 catties of silver, and the local merchants took the tickets to receive salt to the mountainous area. sell.These merchants are ticket dealers.Ticket merchants also have designated branch salt farms and sales areas. If crossing the border into an official salt sales area, it will be treated as private salt. In addition to the above-mentioned methods, the Ming Dynasty also implemented the method of salt distribution according to the mouth.In the third year of Hongwu (AD 1370), as food for the army, in Kaifeng, Henan and other places, the people were ordered to send rice to the government, and the government gave salt as compensation, one catty per month for big mouths (over 15 years old), and one catty for small mouths (over 10 years old) half a catty.In the second year of Yongle (AD 1404), in order to return banknotes, it was stipulated that the officials of the two capitals and the officials and people who counted salt should pay 12 guan of banknotes with large mouths and 12 catties of salt every year, and six guan of banknotes with small mouths and give six catties of salt.For citizens' salt, 200 guan notes are received for each quotation; for villagers' salt, 500 guan notes are converted for every nanometer five shi.In the fourth year of Yongle (1406 A.D.), the law of counting mouths and accepting banknotes and salt was implemented throughout the country.After the adoption of the banknote law, it was changed to grain and banknotes.After ten years of Chenghua (1474 A.D.), the government no longer gave salt, but still collected money by mouth.The salt law was turned into an additional poll tax.After the implementation of a whip method, it was incorporated into the land tax together with other miscellaneous taxes. The salt tax in the Ming Dynasty was the second largest national fiscal revenue item after the land tax. In the Qing Dynasty, the government-supervised commercial marketing system was implemented for table salt, also known as the Gangfa, which was the continuation and development of the Ming Dynasty's Gangyan system.The tax collection method of the introduction system is as follows: The first is the levy on salt producers.Field lessons are levied in beaches, stoves, pots, and wells where the salt is produced, so there are details such as beach lessons, stove lessons, pot lessons, and well lessons.Stove class and pot class are taxed on Zaoding, the producer of salt.The beaches and wells are taxed on the place where the salt is produced.The field tax is mainly collected in kind (salt), but the salt sent to the capital of Kyoto needs to be paid in silver. The second is to lead lessons.Citation is a tax levied on salt merchants who transport and sell table salt.The specific collection method is as follows: the salt produced by the kitchen households is sold to market merchants (monopoly operators franchised by the state), and the market merchants store the purchased salt in Yanyuan or Yantuo for sale to transporters.The salt in each salt-producing area has a designated sales and sales area, which is called "shore".If a merchant wants to sell salt in a certain area, he must take a "lead" lesson.Citation is the salt sales certificate of the transporter, and there is a fixed amount of salt for each import (generally 200 catties, more than 800 catties).Citations are issued by the Ministry of Households, called Ministry Citations, and are claimed by merchants.After accepting the leadership of the class, the merchants became specialists in selling salt in the specified areas.The name of the transporter, the number of sales, and the sales area are all registered in the "Outline" of the salt tax management agency.It is necessary to pay a huge sum of money for the initial identification of the land, so after the transporter obtains the patent right to transport and sell in a certain place, he will inherit it from his descendants and become a world business.In the future, every year before the salt is transported, it is necessary to take a class guide. The salt officer checks the "Compendium" and fills out the Zhu Dan (printed) before the salt can be purchased and sold.Anyone who does not lead or sells across borders will be punished as private salt.The tax rate of the introduction class was relatively light at the beginning. For example, for every silver levied in Huainan, it was six cents and seven cents, and in Huaibei, it was five cents and five cents. After that, it gradually increased.There are also titles such as package class (salt class is collected under the item of land land or paid by contractors), miscellaneous class (additional salt tax) and so on. In the late Qing Dynasty, there were more and more disadvantages, such as the monopoly of gangs and merchants, resulting in excessively high salt prices, a decline in salt quality, stagnation of normal salt, and a shortage of salt taxes, which seriously affected the country's income.In the 11th year of Daoguang (AD 1831), Tao Shu, the governor of the south of the Yangtze River and the salt censor of Lianghuai, implemented the salt law reform in Lianghuai, abolished the outline salt system, and implemented the "ticket salt" law. The specific method of the ticket salt system is as follows: Set up a bureau in a moderate location of the salt field to supervise the production of salt by the stove, pay the salt, and be responsible for paying taxes to the salt merchants.No matter who, as long as they pay taxes, they can get a ticket to transport salt, breaking the monopoly system of a small number of merchants on salt transportation and sales under the system of salt.Each salt ticket is priced at 500 taels.Each ticket can carry 10 yin of salt (400 jin per jin), and the tax on each lead is 125 cents and 1 cent, plus various surcharges, a total of 225 cents and 1 cent of silver.After purchasing the ticket and paying taxes, all the salt can be freely transported and sold in the land, unlike gang salt, which is limited to a certain land.For example, Huainan ticket merchants could sell salt in Huainan prefectures and counties, while gang merchants could only transport salt within certain prefectures and counties stipulated by Yanyin, and were not allowed to go beyond the border.Because the ticket salt system broke the monopoly of gang merchants, it promoted the sales of salt, lowered the price of salt, increased the volume of transportation, and thus increased the national salt tax revenue.After the implementation of the Ticket and Salt Law, "the far and near converge, and the salt boat arrives at the shore, which is unprecedented in decades. Before April, more than 300,000 salt have been shipped." ("Manuscript of Qing History·Shihuo") Four")