北宋の上供錢貨

Abstract

The percentage of money in the revenue of the Song Dynasty increased year by year. This situation, which is called the Monetization of Finance, was brought about not by the growth of private economy but by the financial expenses of the central government, which threw huge amount of money into the markets all over the country and co-ordinated the circulation of various goods as military necessities. Under the system of Provincial Remittance, money was collected through the following three ways. (A) Provincial Remittance money, which was a monetary tax. The central government compelled the local governments to send the whole monetary tax except their own expenses to the Capital. Since 1020 the share of the central government was fixed at some 70%. (B) New Coinage 新鑄錢, which was the coinage produced by four official Bureaus of the Mint from 982. From 1019 until the end of the Northern Song the amount of the coinage was fixed at about one million and fifty thousand guans 貫 per year. (C) Unfixed Provincial Remittance Money 無額上供錢, which was the unfixed miscellaneous monetary receipts of the local governments. Since 1082 the central government had exploited several incomes which the local governments had so far treated as their own expenses. According to rough statistics in the 1080's, the monetary incomes of the central government amounted to approximately eight million guans. These consisted of (A) some four million guans, (B) some one million guans, and (C) some two million guans. Besides, there were the miscellaneous monetary receipts up to some one million guans collected in the metropolitan area. Only in accordance with statutory directions the local governments saved and used several times as much money as the central government.