秦汉时期借贷的期限与收息周期

The Time Limit of Repayment and Frequency of Interest Collection in the Qin and Han Periods

偿还期限和收息周期是有息借贷立契时不可或缺的要素。该文通过爬梳史料,认为秦汉常见的借贷期限略分为超出或等于1年、不满1年、以出行返归为限3种。超出或等于1年的放贷,债权方主要是官府(或封君),面向初置产业的民众,有较强的扶助和劝勉意图。因其目的特殊,民间借贷中很少见。不满1年的放贷,在秦汉时最流行。以出行返归为期限的情况,可能存在于小吏上计等因公差旅中。关于收息周期,同样能归纳为逐年、逐月和期满收息3种。逐年收息,针对约期超出或等于1年的长期借贷,渊源于农耕生产的周期性。逐月收息,以工商投资性借贷为生长土壤。期满收息,约期内无债务往来,是秦汉时最寻常的收息方法。

The time limit of repayment and frequency of interest collection are key elements in interestbearing loan agreements. Until now, loan agreements in the Qin and Han periods have not been fully explored due to scarcity of discovered contracts from those times. This paper comes to the following conclusions after making careful use of existing historical records. For loan agreements, there were roughly three different time limits for repayment in the Qin and Han times： no less than one year, under one year and until return from a trip. No less than one year repayment was mainly agreed on between the government （ or ennobled lords） and people who were to start a business for the first time, out of the purpose to support the people＇ s life. Such a long time limit of repayment was rather rare in civilian loan contracts. The most popular time limit of repayment was under one year. The agreement in the contract that the repayment period will be based on returning from the outside may occur when Shang-Ji officials and other officials travel on business trips. There were also three popular frequencies of interest collection： yearly, monthly and until repayment. Yearly interest collection applied to loans of one year or more than one year, probably resulting from the periodicity of agricultural production. Monthly interest collection was based on loans which functioned as industrial or commercial investments. No interest collection until repayment of the loan was the most commonly seen choice among loan agreements from the Qin and Han periods.