清代长芦盐商承办内务府“永庆号”引地考论

The Management of the Changlu Salt Merchants on the Salt Monopoly Place"Yongqing"Owned by the Ministry of Internal Affairs

清代中期,内务府在长芦盐区拥有“永庆号”21处引地,并招募长芦盐商承办这些引地,每年收取一定数额的利银。从乾隆十五年(1750)到嘉庆初年(1796),近10位长芦盐商先后轮流承办永庆号引地,并觅请了大量的保商,这些盐商的利益与皇家利益由此被捆绑在了一起。承办商尽力维持永庆号的经营,在获取余利的同时为内务府贡献巨额的利润。到乾隆朝后期,永庆号已经成为承办商的沉重负担,山西凤台王氏、浙江鄞县王氏家族都因此而走向破产。这个过程反映了清代皇权对盐商的剥削和控制。

In the middle of the Qing Dynasty,the Ministry of Internal Afiairs owned 21 salt monopoly places of"Yongqing"in Changlu salt district and recruited Changlu salt merchants to manage these salt monopoly places,collecting a certain amount of profit every year.From the fifteenth year of Qianlong(1750)to the early years of Jiaqing,the Yongqing was successively managed by nearly 10 Changlu salt merchants in turn and a large number of insurance merchants were recruited,the interests of these salt merchants were thus tied to the royal interests.The contractor tried his best to maintain the operation of the Yongqing,who contributed huge profits to the Ministry of Internal Affairs while obtaining surplus profits.By the late Qianlong Dynasty,the Yongqing had become a heavy burden on the contractors,thus the Wang family in Fengtai in Shanxi province and the Wang family in Yinxian in Zhejiang province went bankrupt.This process reflected the exploitation and control of salt merchants by the imperial power in Qing Dynasty.