南宋の上供米と兩税米

Abstract

At the beginning of the Southern Song period, the regular tribute grain consisted, as it had in the Northern Song, of both regular tax grain and harmonious purchase grain 和糴米. The annual quota was fixed at 4, 690, 000 shi 石, which was the amount of the quota in the Northern Song minus the quota for Huainan 淮南 circuit. But because of decreasing grain production, the quota of regular tribute grain was not actually able to be established, tax grain collected at prefecture/county levels had to be remitted in full to the central government, and local government offices had to collect large surcharges 加耗 to meet their own need. Later, the annual quota of harmonious purchase grain was set at 1, 225, 000 shi in 1148, and then at 2, 000, 000 shi in 1156. In 1159, the harmonious purchase grain was then separated from the regular tribute grain, the annual quota of which was fixed at 3, 320, 000 shi, that is, the amount that was actually collected in the said year. Establishing a quota for regular tribute grain improved the financial position of prefecture/county authorities, whose income increased because of growth in grain production. This period saw storage granaries 備蓄倉 being built one after another in local area, which received harmonious purchase grain according to their respective quotas. This system, however, began to break down around 1250 with the escalation of the war with the Mongol.