明代四川食盐“开中法”的实绩及其折银原因研究

The Performance of Sichuan Salt “Kaizhong” Law in the Ming Dynasty and the Reason of Converting into Silver

明代四川周边存在着大量的驻军边镇,需要从四川内地运输粮食到边镇保障补给,明政府出于防止过度增加民众的负担的考虑,对征调民众运输粮食有所忌惮,就使用食盐的开中法来诱使商人运输粮食。要求商人运输到边镇换取盐引,再持盐引到内地的盐场获取食盐。明代中期以来,食盐的开中法不断产生变革,其中开中法折银是明朝盐政的重要变革,其变革由来各地不一。尤其是四川情况特殊,边镇路远,局势不稳,军屯少,无商屯,商人只能从内地运粮到边镇中纳盐引。因井盐产量有限,遇到军情紧急,粮食需求骤增,就导致了食盐延支或无盐支付,随之商人也不愿中纳。开中法已经无法满足四川周边的粮食补给的需求,政府不得不始终大量依赖强制民众运输粮食,造成民众沉重的负担,激化社会矛盾。开中法的运作方法也随着补给需求的增加不断改变,最终政府出于为自己主导的强制性运输提供佣金的支持,就将边地纳粮换引逐步改为内地纳银换引,遂成定制。用佣金减少民众的负担。由此,开中法丧失了为边镇运输和收购粮食的功能,变成了纯粹为政府获取白银收入的一种食盐商业税法。这就是四川开中法折银变革的主要原因。与以往的相关研究所认为的全国性的折银原因不同,这是有一定的四川地方性的原因造成的财政制度改革。

There were a large number of frontier military bases around Sichuan in the Ming dynasty. The food was needed to be transported from the inland regions to the frontier military bases to secure supplies. To prevent excessive increase of the burden of the people, the government was afraid of enlisting people to transport food. So the government used the salt ＂kaizhong＂ law to induce merchants to transport food. The government required businessmen to send food to frontier military bases and then they got ＂Yanyin＂. Then they exchanged ＂Yanyin＂ for salt in inland salt sahworks. Since the middle period of the Ming Dynasty, the Kaizhong salt law had constantly changed. Among them, the converting into silver was an important change in the Ming Dynasty＇s salt law. The cause of the change was not the same in each region. Especially in Sichuan, it was very special. The frontier military bases were far away, the local situation was not stable, military reclamation was less, and there was no merchant＇s reclamation, so the merchants could only transport food from the inland regions to the frontier military bases and buy ＂Yanyin＂. Salt production was limited and the government had to delay the payment with salt or did not have salt to pay when war situation was urgent and food＇s demand was rapidly increasing. So the merchants did not want to transport food either. Thus, the ＂kaizhong＂ law was unable to meet the food needs around Sichuan areas. The government had to force a lot of people always to transport food. It caused people＇s heavy burden and intensified social contradictions. Law enforcement way was always changing with the increase of demand for food. In the end, to provide the compensation commission of their organization＇s mandatory transport, the government gradually changed the way of using food for exchange for ＂Yanyin＂ at frontier instead using silver for exchange for ＂Yanyin＂ in inland regions. The commission was used to reduce the burden of the people. Therefore, ＂kaizhong＂ law lost its function of purchasing and transporting food for frontier military bases and became a kind of business tax law for the government to obtain silver. This is the reason why the Sichuan salt ＂kaizhong＂ law converted into silver. Different from the nationwide cause mentioned in the previous studies, there was a financial system reform due to the local situation of Sichuan.