清代盐价制定中的地方干预——以康熙年间衡、永、宝三府为中心的考察

Local Intervention in the Formulation of Salt Price in the Qing Dynasty: A Perspective with the Three Prefectures of Heng, Yong and Bao during the Kangxi Reign

康熙年间,清政府曾规定盐价的制定原则为:价由商定,官员调控。康熙四十三年(1704),偏沅巡抚赵申乔核减衡州、永州、宝庆三府盐价一事,集中体现出在这一原则主导之下地方官员对盐价的干预。其作用不直接体现于盐价的确定,而是通过监控,对商人的定价形成一定的制约。这种干预行为的起因、曲折过程及实际效果,充分反映了地方官员、盐政官员、盐商以及市场等多种力量对于盐价的影响,揭示出清代盐价的制定机制是结合市场调节与行政干预、并受官商利益关系影响的多轨机制。

In response to the problem of how salt price should be formulated, the Qing government during the reign of Emperor Kangxi stipulated a very flexible principle: salt merchants formulate salt price according to market supply and demand, and relevant officials need to control salt price in a certain price range. Under this principle, Zhao Shenqiao,a governor of the PianYuan Province,reduced the salt price of the three prefectures of Hengzhou,Yong zhou and Baoqing by concentrating on the intervention made by local officials in the market of salt prices in 1704.This intervention is an administrative act taken by the local governor to adjust supply, increase demand and ensure the daily needs of public under the established salt market conditions. Instead of setting an accurate price directly, the government would set some constraints to merchants by monitoring the price of salt. The causes, winding process and the actual results of the intervention fully reflect the role of local officials, salt officials, salt merchants and markets in the price of salt. It reveals that the mechanism of salt price formulation in the Qing Dynasty is a combination of market regulation and administration act,and influenced by the interests of officials and businessmen.