同治初年江苏减赋新探

Revisiting the Decrease of Land Tax in the Early Tongzhi Reign of the Qing Dynasty

同治二年至四年间(1863—1865),江苏官绅在兵燹之余推动重赋之核减,计减去额赋54万余石,约占原额的26.77%。这既是"同治中兴"的标志性事件,也是明清江南重赋问题的最终缓解。督抚司道在该事件中始终发挥主导作用,而为重赋压力下的地方官员减负,实为同治减赋的重要动机。减赋后30余年间,江苏漕额仍常年亏缺,交仓额数始终不及额征之七成。这在相当程度上是由于地方官吏捏报荒歉、亏空正供所致。同治减赋及其后的漕粮征解情况,反映晚清财政收入结构变动之背景下,各级政府既无动力、也无勇气对田赋制度进行彻底清厘,以恢复至19世纪中期前的征收水平。

In 1863-1865,the officials and local gentry in Jiangsu Province proposed to reduce the quota of land tax after the war against the Taiping Rebellion.Their efforts resulted in a decrease of more than 540,000 dan of tax rice,or 26.77%of the original quota.It helped relieve the heavy burden of land tax in Jiangnan in the Ming and Qing periods.Local officials played a leading role in this reform.However,in the three decades after the decrease of the land tax,the local officials in Jiangsu were still unable to collect the full quota of the land tax,somehow because local officials fabricated famines and embezzle some of the tax.The decrease of the land tax in the Tongzhi Reign and the tax collection and transportation afterwards illustrated that,against the background of the structural change of the Qing court’s fiscal income in the late Qing period,all the levels of the bureaucracy lacked motivation and courage to fundamentally reform the land tax system in order to recover the tax income to the level in the early 19^(th) century.