清代财政与贫困救助

Government Finance and Poverty Relief in the Qing Dynasty

清代财政对社会救助给予了较大程度的支持,但这主要体现在救灾救荒方面。尽管清政府始终宣扬和大力提倡扶助社会贫困群体,然其物质层面的实际行动却极其有限。政府对贫困的救助,基本由地方财政承担。但对于维持政府正常运转已很艰难的清代地方财政而言,实际上根本无力实施有效的贫困救助。政府财政的运行状况,从一个侧面反映了清朝社会救助政策及其行为的被动性与应急性。正由于此,清代的贫困救助不得不更多地依赖于基层社会。

In the Qing Dynasty, the central government provided some financial support to poverty relief, which was mainly used to help the victims of disaster and famine. Although the central government tried hard to advocate the relief of the people in poverty, the relief materials and actions of the central government were very limited actually. On the other hand, the poor local finance, which was not enough to keep the local government run smoothly, determined that the local government could not provide efficient relief to the people in poverty either. The poor operation status of the government finance mirrored from one aspect that the relief policies and actions of the government were passive and emergency-oriented. As a result, the poverty relief had to depend much more on the grass-roots society in the Qing Dynasty.