<論説>清代前期の平糶政策 : 採買・食儲政策の推移

Abstract

清代前期の経済政策の中で最も重視されたのは、次第に発達しつつある地域間分業に対応し、米穀等の需給バランスを保つこと、即ち平糶政策であった。平糶政策は、康煕末頃より本格的に開始され、雍正初期には、産米地より大量の米穀を緊急移入する採買政策が模索されたが、買付け先で激しい米価騰貴を招くことが問題となり、雍正中期以降、平時より平糶用米穀を常平倉等に備蓄しておく倉儲政策に力点が移された。これによって、特定地域の米貴は回避されたが、米貴が全国に拡散するという新たな問題が発生し、乾隆初期に倉儲の削減が論議された。しかし、倉儲削減案は裁可されたものの実行には移されず、結局、倉儲政策は、米価の漸増を伴いながら乾隆末年まで一貫して推進された。清朝が、経済的に優れた採買政策を捨て、安全だが不経済な倉儲政策を採ったのは、地方当局の経済的分権化を抑止するためであったと考えられる。

Official control of rice was the most important economic policy in the early Qing. It was intended to keep the balance between the demand and supply of rice, in response to the increasingly developing interlocal division of labor. The provisions commenced on a large scale at the end of the Kang-xi era. In the early Yong-zheng era, a policy was pursued whereby the state urgently brought a large amount of rice into districts that where short of supply in times. of scarcity (cai-mai, 採買). However, this soon proved to be problematic because of violent and frequent rises in the price of rice in the rice-parchasing districts. After the mid-Yong-zheng era, the emphasis of the policy shifted from buying up rice (cai-mai) to the storing of rice in warehouses (chang-ping-cang, 常平倉). during the moderate price years by the local authorities (cang-chu, 倉儲). Thus, the price rises in particular districts were avoided. As a result of this, however, the price increases became nationalized, and there were arguments for the reduction of the cang-chu in the early Qian-long era. Although the reduction was granted, it was not put into practice. The cang-chu was consistently enforced until the end of the Qian-long Era, with a steady increase in the price of rice. These analyses make it clear that the Qing dynasty adopted the safe, but wasteful, policy of cang-chu instead of the economical policy of buying up rice (cai-mai), in order to deter the local authorities from being de-centralized.