“大利在淤”:清末沅江县湖田升租与升科之争

Great benefit lies on the silted:Controversy of levying rent or tax on polders in Yuanjiang County in the late Qing Dynasty

自清初至光绪前期,清政府对淤洲的征税都是开垦数年之后升科,百姓可以享有湖田业权。受地势影响,滨湖洲地的收益悬殊,清政府在征税时体恤民情,对地势低下者加以豁免。雍正元年起,清政府便确立了“水田六年起科,旱田十年起科”的定例。乾隆初年,清政府对所有二亩以下“零星土地”正式免除升科。针对地势低洼的濒江洲地和洲田,清政府仅征收芦课,具体额度因地制宜,五年一丈。但自光绪十六年(1890)湖南巡抚王文韶奏请将洞庭湖区淤洲统一收为官荒后,官方便开始采取强势介入的态势。不过,湖区原有的产权秩序仍然在发挥作用,省府在华容等开发较早的地区也只得承认部分湖田的民业性质。至光绪二十九年(1903),湖南省的财政状况明显恶化,筹备总局试图按照南洲章程对沅江县成熟垸田进行升租。然而,沅江知县张谟等在勘察报告后表示异议,原因是沅江县对湖田一向是纳税升科,未有升租成案。垸董们也多次呈文反对升租并提议升科,这不仅是因为升租要缴纳的钱数更多,还在于他们投入大量资本筑堤建垸却无法获得湖田的合法业权。然而,省府仍然打破原有定例,坚持对民垸熟田进行升租,目的是将租课归地方开支而无需上缴中央。不过,这一过程在争论落幕六年后才得以完成,在垸董接受升租办法的同时,省府也不得不承认“由民筑围成垦者”是“民垸”而非“官田”,且在折亩时给予优惠。湖田本身变动无常的自然特性、清政府治理能力的局限、地方绅董的崛起等因素使省府和垸董之间不得不相互妥协,达成一种微妙但脆弱的平衡。

From the beginning of the Qing Dynasty to the first half of the Guangxu period,the Qing government always taxed the silted land after it had been reclaimed for a few years,and people could have the right to polders.The yield of the silted beside the lake varied greatly depending on the topography.The Qing government was sympathetic to the people’s situation and exempted the tax on low-lying fields.Since the first year of the Yongzheng period,the Qing government stipulated that taxes on paddy fields would be levied after six years of reclaiming while taxes on dry fields would be levied after ten years.In the early years of the Qianlong period,the Qing government officially exempted the sporadic land below two mu from tax.For the low-lying silted and fields beside water,the Qing government only levied the reed tax measuring once every five years,whose amount was decided by local condition.But since the sixteenth year of the Guangxu period,Hunan governor Wang Wenshao requested that all of the silted should be state-owned land,and the government began to take strong intervention.However,the original order of land in Dongting Lake area was still in effect,and the provincial government had to recognize the civil property nature of some polders in the earlier developed areas such as Huarong County.In the twenty-ninth year of the Guangxu period,when the financial situation of Hunan Province had deteriorated significantly,the Preparatory General Bureau attempted to levy rent on the mature fields in Yuanjiang County following the case of Nanzhou.However,the magistrate of Yuanjiang County Zhang Mo objected to it after survey because the government had always levied tax rather than rent on the polders in Yuanjiang County.The directors of polders also submitted petitions against the rent and proposed to be taxed,not only because the money to be paid for rent would be higher than tax,but also because they wouldn’t obtain the legal property right of the polders after investing a large amount of capital to build embankments.However,the Hunan government still broke the original rule and insisted on levying rent on ripe polders,to reserve the rent on the local expenses without submitting to the central government.But this process had not completed until six years after the controversy ended,and while the directors of polders accepted the rent,the provincial government also had to admit that polders constructed by people were private polders rather than state-owned fields and make a discount in the calculation of mu of polders.The natural characteristic of the polders,the limitation of the Qing government’s governing ability,and the rise of the local gentry made it necessary for the provincial government and local directors to compromise with each other and strike a delicate but fragile balance.