从财政史视角再析海防塞防之争

The Further Study of the Dispute of Coastal Defense and Frontier Defense from the Financial Perspective

海防、塞防筹款之争是中国近代史上的重要事件,焦点是在国家财力有限的情况下,如何争夺更多的饷源。而这场财政博弈过程,也展现了同光之际晚清财政一些新的特点。同治朝时期,左宗棠西征军饷主要得益于东南各省,并借助自己的个人关系加以催解。后伴随沿海大规模地准备海防建设,西征军饷拖欠严重。因海防、塞防在财力上"不能兼营",李鸿章、左宗棠先后挑起筹款之争。在此过程中,清廷中枢始则坚持二者并重,继则明显偏袒塞防,通过"贻误京饷"例和由户部"指名严参"的处分规定,保证了西征军饷在晚清协饷系统中"最重""最急"的地位。光绪朝初期清政府对地方财政控制的加强,是左宗棠赢得这次财政博弈过程的关键,而西征军饷的优先地位,不能不对海防经费的筹解产生负面影响。

It was an important event of the dispute of coastal defense and frontier defense for raising more funds when the state financial resources were limited. The frontier defense funds were mainly collected from the southeast provinces and urged by Zuo Zongtangs personal arteries and veins in the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty.However,there were many coastal constructions in the southeast provinces after the Japanese attacked on Taiwan in 1874,which caused a huge gap of frontier funds. Considering the financial difficulty to balance the coastal defense and frontier defense,Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang launched the dispute on the national defense one after another. The central government was impartial from the start and then sloped to the frontier defense. As a result,Zuo Zongtang won the dispute and the frontier defense funds got the most important role like Jingxiang in the national financial system,which influenced the coastal defense funds raising negatively.