均輸平準と桑弘羊 : 中國古代における財政と商業

Abstract

The policies of the "equalization through transportation" and the "balanced standard" implemented by Sang Hong-yang during the Former Han 前漢 underthe reign of Wudi 武帝 involved the following points. During the second year of the era yuanding 元鼎(115 B.C.), Sang Hong-yang, acting as the assistant to the minister of agriculture, appointed junshuling 均輸令 (officers of"equalization through transportation") to the ministry of agriculture, and junshuguan 均輸官 to the provincial district administrations. This was to constitute the system by which goods essential to the ministry of agriculture were to be distributed and transported. Up to this time, the government had relied upon contracts with agents of the ministry of agriculture, and the buying of merchants, to distribute goods. Abuses of the system had been rampant. In the sixth year of the era yuanding (111 B.C.), the government however made regulations through these offices for "equalization through transportation" in order to rationalize a policy of governmental monopoly in the transport of iron and salt. The government raised a large revenue in this way. In the first year of the era yuanfeng 元封(110 B.C.), Sang Hong-yang was made secretary in charge of grain and put in control of the ministry of agriculture. He effected the policy of "equalization through transportation" throughout the empire. In the capital, he established the "balanced standard" which, in one stroke, guaranteed the purchase of goods required by the offices. Thus, the twenty or thirty assistants appointed to the ministry of agriculture directly supervised all the provincial district junshuguan, as well as the salt and iron offices. At this point, the central junshuguan, responsible for the transportation and sale of goods purchased in the locality of their production, thus had acquired a commercial aspect. The capital requirements for the purchase of goods by the junshuguan were met by taxes sent previously to the government from the provincial districts. Under the policy of "equalization through transportation", the junshuguan also received those funds drawn previously from suanfu 算賦 taxes and allocated to cover transportation costs. They orgeinized agents of the ministry of agriculture to transport the goods. Furthermore, under the system of distribution effected by the "equalization through transportation", even the productive potential of enterprises such as fishing depended upon the direct management by government officials. The central government office tried to monopolize, by any means possible, all high-priced goods. The "balanced standard" involved not only the purchase of goods required by government offices. It also involved the regulation of prices by means of the accumulation of goods in the capital through "equalization through transportation", as well as any means of the production of articles by government artisans. In buying and selling, the govenrment moreover raised large revenues. Hence, the programs of the "equalization through transportation" and the "balanced standard", based upon a policy of governmental monopoly" of goods, transportation, and selling, signified the regulations of a commercial enterprise operated by the government. However, after Sang Hong-yang's time, the inherently commercial policies of the "equalization through transportation" and the "balanced standard" had to be changed.