清代传统金融机构的业态创新暨放款利率特征——兼谈“利率革命”的供给侧条件

Business Innovation and Lending Rates of Traditional Financial Institutions in the Qing Dynasty:A Discussion on the Supply‒Side Conditions of the Interest Rate Revolution

金融业态的产生和发展是特定商品货币条件下金融创新的结果。清代中后期,不同的传统金融业态因资本规模、市场定位、经营方式等存在差异,提供的工商业放款利率也高低不一。其中,主要发放小额、零散贷款的典当、印局利率偏高;主要为从事长途商贸的优质客户提供放款的账局利率较低;而起初并非以借贷为主业的票号和钱庄大量使用汇兑或拆借款项作为资金来源,放款利率也较低。但总体上,中国传统金融机构的放款利率高于近代西欧,未能达成“利率革命”要求。这与清代财政—金融结合不足以及公共信用建设滞后有很大关系。

Major traditional financial institutions were the consequences of financial innovation under specific economic developments.In the middle and late Qing Dynasty,since lending rates were affected the scale of an institutions’capital,market positioning and management,the interest rates for loans varied widely in different financial institutions.Pawnshops(diandang)and Seal Bureaus(yinju),which mainly provided small and miscellaneous loans,usually charged high interest rates,while Account Bureaus(zhangju)generally offered loans at relatively low rates for long-distance commerce.Shanxi Banks(piaohao)and Money Shops(qianzhuang)increasingly made loans by utilizing remittance and interbank borrowing at lower interest rates.However,interest rates in traditional Chinese financial institutes remained at a higher level than modern Western banks and failed to complete the“interest rate revolution”.This was largely because of the insufficient combination of public finance and private finance as well as the lagging of public credit construction.