论清代“盐法”律例实施中贫民的困境

The Salt Law in the Qing Dynasty and the Plight of Paupers

清统治者深知贫民有困于饥寒而流于盗贼的可能,所以在财税法制中多有体恤贫民的条款,"盐法"例文中允许"贫难军民,将私盐肩挑背负,易米度日"就是一例。但一法立、一弊生,通过对清代相关"盐法"律、例、则例、事例、省例、章程和成案的考察发现,此例在实践中虽然部分地缓解了由于贫民为生计所迫而引发的社会问题,但同时也沦为了奸商豪强转嫁税收负担、借机贩私的工具。在增加国家财政收入与苏民困以保税源之间的权衡,是终清之世历任统治者都无法解决的难题,贫民作为社会的"最少受惠者"却承担了社会发展的主要成本,也是清代财税法制自身难以克服的顽疾。

The Qing rulers deeply knew that paupers probably tend to be thieves when pressed with hunger and coldness,and thus established many clauses showing their solicitude for paupers.An instance was the rules of the Salt Law,by which 'poor soldiers and people were allowed to live on exchange of private salt for rice'.But every established law had its disadvantage.It was discovered through the investigation of related Salt Law,cases,regulations,instances,provincial cases,constitutions and legal precedents in the Qing Dynasty that this rule not only failed in practice to effectively maintain the livelihood of paupers,but also became a tool for profiteers and despots to transfer tax burden and take the opportunity to smuggle salt.The balance between increasing the state revenue and settling people's hardship to guarantee tax fund was a problem that could not be solved by the successive rulers of the Qing Dynasty until its end.Paupers,as 'the least beneficiaries' of the society,undertook major development cost of the society,which was also a stubborn disease that was hard to be overcome by the legal system of financial taxation in the Qing Dynasty.