<論説>清代後期四川における地方財政の形成 : 会館と釐金

Abstract

嘉慶以降、国家財政が窮乏化すると、独自の財源を持たない地方当局は商税に注目するようになる。四川省巴県(重慶) では、既に乾隆期から差務と呼ばれる地方行政協力費が商人層より半強制的に徴収されていたが、嘉慶白蓮教反乱鎮圧のための軍差賦課を契機として次第に強化・恒常化されるようになった。威豊以降、差務は釐金の付加税部分に収斂され、従来公的には殆ど認められていなかった地方財政を不完全ながら制度化させた。 差務負担の公平化と忌避の防止を図るため、商人は同業者間の結束を強化した。その役割を担ったのが幇である。幇は会館の下部団体で同業組合中心に組織され、各牙行を介して差務そして釐金の徴収を請け負い、清末以降商会を形成した。一方、本来客商の同郷組合であった会館は、従来の商業秩序維持・紛争調停機能の他、釐金付加税を基礎に地方行政へも参画していった。地方財政の公的制度化と商人層の地方行政への誘導を通して、四川では新たな地域支配体制が構築されていったのである。

From the Jiaqing period (1796-1820) on, as the central government became increasingly short of funds, the local government authorities, which had no independent sources of revenue of their own, began to pay attention to the commercial tax. The government of Ba 巴 county (comprising the city of Chongqing) in Sichuan had already since the Qianlong Period (1736-95) been collecting a fee called chaiwu 差務 from merchants to defray local administrative expenses, but it took advantage of the imposition of a tax known as the junchai 軍差 for the suppression of the White Lotus rebellions to strengthen and regularize the practice. From the Xianfeng period (1851-61) on the chaiwu was absorbed into the lijin surcharge, and the hitherto unofficial local finances became somewhat institutionalized. The merchants strengthened their organization in order to prevent unfairness in the chaiwu tax burden and tax evasion. it was the so-called bang 幇 that handled these functions. Bang were lower branches of guilds organized for collecting chaiwu and lijin through brokers ; from these, shanghui 商会 were formed from the late Qing on. Thus the guilds, which were originally associations of merchants from the same regions, came to participate in the local administration (which depended on the lijin surcharge) in addition to their original functions of preserving order in the business world and arbitrating disputes. Through the institutionalization of local government finances and the introduction of the merchant class into local administration, a new regional governing structure was constructed in Sichuan.