新瓶旧酒:民初长芦盐业自由贸易改革与新包商的出现

Old Wine in a New Bottle: the Free Trade Reform and the Emerge of New Monopoly Merchants in the Salt Business in Early Republican Changlu

在新制度推行中,人们往往难以摆脱以往制度运行中所形成的认知和经验的影响,从而倾向于利用原有的行为逻辑和观念习性来应对新情形。民国初年被视为中国盐务近代化的长芦盐业自由贸易改革,其运作过程实际上反映的是近代新旧制度、东西方思想之间的博弈与互动。来自英国的丁恩试图将西方"自由竞争"的经济理念带入中国盐业以增加中央政府盐税收入,但在长期专商垄断、官商勾结的中国盐政体制下,这一改革主张并未能轻易达成。事实上,以张弧为首的中国官员与商人,利用前清盐业旧制的逻辑来包装新政策,借自由贸易之名,行包商垄断之实。他们先是通过颁发贩盐特许证的形式,使"自由贸易"在表面上得以开展,又以租办方式私下从旧商手中垄断特许证,并通过组织长利公司进行经营,成为新包商,"包揽转运之利"。

When implementing new institutions,men are often restrained by perceptions and experiences gained from the practice of old institutions,so that they tend to use previous logics and ideas to deal with new conditions. The free trade reform in Changlu salt business was regarded as the modernization of Chinese salt business in the early Republican period.The process of this reform illustrates the negotiation and interaction between the new and old institutions and between the Eastern and Western thoughts in modern China. Richard Dane from Britain tried to introduce the Western economic idea of'free competition'to the Chinese salt business in order to increase the income of the central government from salt tax,but in the salt business system then monopolized by merchants with officials' patronage,Dane's reform could not be achieved easily. In fact,some Chinese officials and merchants,represented by Zhang Hu,interpreted the new policy with the logic of old salt business in the Qing period,so as to resume their monopoly in the name of free trade. They issued certificates forsalt trade to merchants to implement the so-called'free trade'and then rented the certificates in private to monopolize the salt trade. They established Changli Company as a new monopolist for the salt business to exploit profits from the trade.