清代榷盐体制下的官商关系

Relation Between Officials and Merchants Under the Salt Monopoly System in Qing Dynasty

榷盐体制下,清代盐官与盐商之间长期以来保持着一种极其微妙、复杂的关系。盐商要保全其食盐专卖特权,离不开盐官的支持和庇护;而盐务官员要想维持国家机器的正常运转和自身的体面生活乃至中饱私囊,又必须依赖于来自盐商的贿赂及其不可或缺的课税收入。在这一复杂的相互关系当中,盐官通常处于优势地位,当其要求无法得到满足时,他对待盐商的往往是压迫与剥削。

Under the salt monopoly system in Qing Dynasty, salt merchants had long kept a very subtle and complex relationship with salt officials. They had to depend on the support and shelter from salt officials to preserve their salt monopoly privilege, while officials needed the bribery and indispensible tax revenue from salt merchants to maintain the normal functioning of state machine and their decent living or even enrichment. In this complex relationship, salt officials were generally in a dominant position. When their requirements were not satisfied, they usually oppressed and exploited salt merchants.