德意志帝国军费比例虚高成像及其财政体制成因

The Virtual Height of Military Expenditure Ratio and Its Cause Derived from Fiscal System in German Empire

德意志帝国的分税制财政体制延续自德意志关税同盟时期,完整的国家财税体系为帝国政府财政和各邦财政分割。分税制下的帝国政府财政不仅收入有限,还要独自承担庞大的军费开销。因此以帝国政府财政为参考的军费比例远高于其他列强,造成德国财政分配失衡的假象。事实上,德国实际的军费比例和数额均没有超过其他列强。不仅如此,帝国政府重视国民经济发展,并通过不断优化的财政体制,积极推动工业化发展,使社会保障、基本建设和帝国行政管理等非军事支出的比重上升。德国大规模造舰计划和海外殖民行动没有改变上述事实。

The fiscal tax separation system of the German Empire continued from the period of the German Customs Union, and the complete national Financial management system was divided by the imperial government’s finance system and the states’ finance systems. Because of the tax separation system, the imperial government not only had limited revenue, but also had to defray huge military expenditure alone. The unreasonable structure of revenue and expenditure led to the fact that the proportion of military expenditure only based on the imperial government’s fiscal system was far higher than that of other powers, which gave rise to the illusion that Germany’s financial distribution was unbalanced. In fact, behind the fiscal tax separation system Germany’s actual military expenditure ratio and amount did not exceed those of other powers. Moreover, the imperial government attached importance to the development of the national economy, and promoted the development of industrialization through the constantly optimized fiscal system, so that the proportion of non military expenditures such as social security, capital construction and imperial administration increased. Germany’s large-scale shipbuilding plan and overseas colonial action did not change the facts above.