西方预算制度与清季财政改制

The Influence of the Western Budgetary System on the Financial System of the Late Qing Dynasty

光绪中叶以降,朝野积极引介西式预算制度,冀能取代日益僵化的旧式理财制度。部分省份和机构为缓解财政压力,也不断尝试模仿这一制度。宣统年间,清廷将试办预算作为解决财政困境的制度性措施鼎力推行。预算制度的嫁接并不顺利,删减例案,改良收支,选择确定预算方针均系移植新制度的重要举措。新制移植过程中,旧式协饷制度、奏销制度、财政积习无一不成为迎拒新式预算制度的排异性因素,旧制衍生的国省财政矛盾在预算编制的过程中空前激化。清廷本藉财政改制以挽救命运,却因新旧对峙、人事派分等制约因素,难破僵局,最终形成新制与旧规并存的尴尬局面,解困的愿望更成泡影。

From the middle of the Guangxu reign (1875-1908) on, the call for introduction of the Western budgetary system in place of the increasingly ossified old-style financial system grew louder both inside and outside the imperial court. Some provinces and departments made repeated attempts to copy the Western system in order to cope with the financial pressures they were facing. During the Xuantong reign (1909-1911), the court made strenuous efforts to encourage the trial of a budgetary system as an institutional means of solving financial problems. However, the transplant did not go smoothly. The major new measures, such as reducing accustomarily followed percedents, improving balance and determining budget principles, were in sharp conflict with such long-standing institutions as the inter-provincial financial support system, the final accounts system and other conventions. The conflicts between national and provincial finance that had arisen from the old system intensified to an unprecedented degree in the course of the budget-making process. The Qing government’s original intention of saving its fortunes by means of financial reform ultimately led nowhere due to the conflict between the new and the old systems and difficulties in personnel deployment. The absence of a solution to this dilemma resulted in an awkward mixture of the new and the old institutions.