「紳糧」考 : 淸代四川の地域エリート

Abstract

The development of Sichuan during the Qing period, until the end of the 18th century, made progress owing to large numbers of immigrants flowing into the region. An explosive growth of the population and complication of administrative affairs were accordingly brought about. However, the structure of administrative expenditure and tax collection that had been taking shape in the early Qing were almost permanently maintained until the end of the dynasty, and they gradually began to be unfitted for the actual condition of the society. The fixed scale of administrative expenditures was relatively cut down in proportion to the complication of administrative affairs. The gongju 公局 was established so that it might deal with the above mentioned problems. The gongju was an institutionalized supplement to the local administration, and at the same time had the feature of a local financial organ, through which the local society paid the necessary expenses to the local administration itself. It was during the Daoguang 道光 period, in other words, during the same period as the emergence of the gongju that the term shenliang began to be widely used. Shenliang stood for the local elite-class which was created and authorised as leadership of gongju system for the purpose of the local finance by the local government.