耗羨提解の研究 : 『雍正史』の一章としてみた

Abstract

The term hao-hsien or huo-hao (火耗) means the loss in weight caused in the process of minting the silver coins. After the payment in silver of the land and poll taxes became the rule at the middle of the Ming dynasty, a kind of additional tax called huo-han came into existence. Generally speaking, it was about 10 per cent of the amount of the regular taxes, but sometimes it reached 30 to 50 per cent. While the regular taxes constituted the income of the Government, the huo-hao was taken by the rural tax collectors, who used about 20 per cent of it for adminstrative purposes, another 20 per cent for their own living, and the rest for bribery to their superiors. The latter gave, in turn, part of it to officials in the Central Government. From the economic viewpoint, the whole bureacratic system of the Ch'ing Government was operated on the basis of this huo-hao income. Emperor Shuo-chin tried to abolish the practice in vain, while Emperor K'ang-hsi was compeled to recongnize it semi-officially. The present author attempts to clarify why and how Emperor Yung-cheng made efforts to use the hitherto privately appropriated huo-hao for the benefit of the Government treasury, and to what extent was he successful in his endevors.