“牵輓不易”：清中期解盐运销自由化探析

“Difficulty in Transportation and Sale”: Analysis on Liberalization of Transportation and Sale of Xie Salt in the Middle Qing

清初,解池施行"畦归商种"后,成为恢复和发展较快的产盐地之一。由于清政府的加引增课和管理腐败,又导致了解盐经营的周期性危机。在解盐经营出现不可收拾的局面下,"课归地丁"改革被提上了日程。但是,这次解盐运销的全面自由化,未能达到盐政目标的长期均衡,尤其是未能实现"裕课"和"杜私"之目标,清政府在嘉庆十一年(1806)又恢复了专商运销制。很明显,盐业制度变迁的深层原因最终是基于清政府的现实利益,而非"恤商"和"利民"。

In the early Qing, after the adoption of＂qi （a small saltem） assigned to merchants to produce＂, Xie Salt Lake became one of the producing areas where salt production recovered and developed fast. But, the increase of tax and corruption of government administration resulted in business crisis periodically. Later, it evolved into an unmanageable chaos. So the reform of ＂salt tax collected with land tax＂ was proposed. However, the full liberalization of transportation and sale of salt did not strike the balance within salt administration. Especially, the objectives of increasing taxes and preventing the production and sale of private salt were not realized. In the eleventh year of Jiaqing period, Qing government restored the system of exclusive merchants for salt transportation and sale. Obviously, change of salt system was rooted in the realization of Qing government＇s real interests, rather than the interests of merchants and ordinary people.