桑弘羊の均輪法試論

Abstract

Equalization through transportation can be conceived as the government's commerce. It is commonly explained as the system by which the government, instead of collecting general taxes, collected an excise tax levied on local produce that it would transport and sell for its own profit in other places. There are problems however in this traditional explanation that result from confusing "equalization through transportation" with the "balanced standard." First, conclusion reached through an investigation of the records of the "Salt and Iron Debates, " and the text of the "balanced standard "in the Shiji 史記, makes the following point. With the administration of "equalization through transportation, " large quantities of silk were accumulated in the central government. This happened once the government regulated its holdings of tributary goods and sought for payment in useful goods essential to its economic administration from each locale of the country. This howeveris only part of the outcome of the administration of "equalization through transportation." From comprehensive investigation of the advocations of Sang Hongyang in the " Salt and Iron Debates, " as well as the mathematical problems concerning "equalization through transportation" in the Jiuzhang Suanshu 九章算術, it is clear that the most important principle of "equalization through transportation" was the following point. In the transportation to the capital and to the local bases of campaigns of grains and other goods deemed essential by the government, marked inequalities occurred between the places whose responsibility it was to transport the goods because the distances to and from each locale differed. "Equalization through transportation" was an attempt to adjust fairly the responsibilities held by each locale by proportioning the amount of taxable grain each owed to the government. The measure became essential during Wudi's 武帝 time because great campaigns and water control projects were undertaken and the necessity for transporting great amounts of grain to the capital and to local places arose. This became difficult for the existent system of transportation to support. Transportation had become a factor in the crisis of the system of public finance.