明代前期大同镇的军饷问题

The Datong(大同) Frontier Defense Soldiers’ Pay and Provisions in the Early Ming Dynasty

明代大同镇的军饷收支是理解整个明代军饷问题的典型案例。明代前期,大同镇"以一镇之收入,供养一镇之军士",屯田、地方税与食盐开中是大同军饷的经常性来源,收支基本平衡。这一时期的军饷开支尚未成为国家财政的严重负担,但是其饷源结构的固有缺陷已经存在,表现为屯地不足、环境制约和官僚势要强占等,军饷增长空间受到严重制约。到明朝中期,因明蒙战争频繁发生,军饷支出暴增,大同镇对国库的依赖日深,边镇粮饷才成为明朝国家财政危机的主要因素。

The revenue and expenditure of soldiers' pay and provisions in Datong was a typical case for understanding the issue of the Ming Dynasty. In the early period of Ming Dynasty,the regular state in Datong was that "local revenue of the town can afford soldier' s expenditure of the town ".Garrison troops farming,local taxes,and trading of salt business licenses were the major sources of local revenue which was sufficient to afford military expenditure. At this stage,military expenditure had not become a heavy financial burden on national level,yet there already existed the internal defects rooted in the structure of revenue sources. This problem was reflected in inadequate garrison farmlands, environmental restrictions and rapacious extortion of bureaucrats, which led to restrictions on the revenue growth. In the middle period of Ming Dynasty,with frequent wars between Mongol and Ming,military expenditure surged dramatically. Consequently,dependence of Datong on the national treasury increased enormously and military expenditure at the frontier became the primary factor of national financial crisis of the Ming Dynasty.