危机与应对:曾国藩与近代皖南茶税厘革考论

Crisis and Countermeasures:Zeng Guofan and the Reform of Tea Tax in Southern Anhui in Late Imperial and Modern China

咸丰十年(1860),曾国藩任两江总督并督办皖南军务期间,因“咸同兵燹”客观形势的逼迫,即着手改革皖南茶捐茶厘的征收,将其视为解决皖南驻军军饷问题的最重要途径。其核心措施包括任用专职人员,设置茶厘分局等管理机构;制订章程,明确规则,强化管理,颁行《洋庄茶引捐厘事宜管理章程十条》;“软”“硬”兼施,捐、厘分征等。这些厘革举措,为缓解军需之虞提供了良好的保障,效果甚为明显。同时,曾氏皖南茶捐茶厘的征收改革,也带来了华洋茶商勾结以规避茶厘以及纠纷处置乏力而致乱象整治成效低下等遗害。曾国藩在皖南茶捐茶厘税的厘革,体现了晚清权力体系和业茶者之间的利益博弈,也是我们考察晚清财税史和商业经营活动的一个重要视角。

In 1960,during the reign of Emperor Xianfeng,Zeng Guofan was appointed as the governor of Liangjiang and supervised the military affairs of southern Anhui.Compelled by objective circumstances of the War Havoc under the Reigns of Xianfeng and Tongzhi,Zeng Guofan started to reform the collection of tea tax in southern Anhui and regarded it as the most important way to solve the problem of military pay and provisions of the garrisons in southern Anhui.Its core measures included appointing full-time staff and setting up management organizations such as The Tea Tax Branch;formulating and clarifying rules,strengthening management and issuing The Ten Articles of Management Regulations on The Tea Voucher,Levy and Tax of the Exported Tea;adopting a carrot-and-stick approach,collecting tea levy and tax respectively and so on.These measures provided safeguard for easing the crisis of military supplies,and the effect was very obvious.Besides,this reform also brought about the legacies like the collusion between Chinese and foreign tea merchants to avoid tea tax and the ineffective disposal of disputes,which results in the low effect of chaos control.Zeng Guofan’s reform of tea tax in southern Anhui reflected the benefit gambling between the power system of the late Qing Dynasty and tea traders,and offered an important perspective for us to analyze the history of finance as well as taxation and the business activities of merchants in the late Qing Dynasty.