Research On Fiance And Taxation Reform In The Late Qing Dynasty

Fiscal revenue is a country's economic lifeline. Not having enough revenue, any government is difficult to exist. Since the establishment of the Qing government, its taxation system had been changing. After the Opium War, as a result of invasion by foreign powers, the taxation sovereignty had been violated. And Taiping Rebellion had done a lot of damage to the existing management system of taxation. Besides, the development of modern capitalist economy and the importation of Western taxation system also had an impact to its taxation system. The defects of the existing taxation system had been increasing by of the late Qing Dynasty, so it can't keep up the trend of the times. All the above factors contributed to the fiscal reforms. The Qing government carried out reforms on financial and taxation issues drastically, which related to its lifeline, including the reform of financial institutions at all levels, the introduction of the budget system of the West in modern times, a thorough inventory of the local financial situation, the preparation of the National Budget, the concentration of property to the Central, the rectification the old taxes, the introduction of new taxes, the division of government revenue collecting offices, the establishment of banks, the currency reform, the planning of modern audit system and so on. In short, the financial and taxation reforms in the late Qing Dynasty were large-scale and wide-ranging, among which the creations of some systems are founded firstly in modern China and of epoch-making significance. Moreover, many fiscal reforms of Republic of China can be traced back to this reform. Therefore, the fi scal reform of the late Qing Dynasty is of great significance in the history of modern finance and taxation.This paper mainly studies the fiscal and taxation reforms of the late Qing Dynasty from the following aspects:The first part studies the taxation system of the Qing Dynasty and its changes, especially after the Opium War, in order to clear the source of financial and taxation reform of the late Qing Dynasty.The second part focuses on the causes of fiscal reforms of the late Qing Dynasty, which includes the impact of Western financial and taxation systems, the New Deal of the late Qing Dynasty, the increasing impact of financial crisis and the capitalist economic development.The third part discourses the main elements of the fiscal and taxation reforms. The main contents are as follows: 1, tax administration reforms consisting of the central and the local taxation agencies. The reform of central taxation agencies includes the reform of Ministry of Revenue and the establishment of Tax Section, Clearing Finance Section and Salt Department. The reform of local taxation agencies includes the reform of local Secretary Department and Salt Department; 2, the implementation of the budget composed of fiscal clearance and the preparation of the Budget; 3, the tax reform in the late Qing Dynasty including some tax levy, some old tax reform, the creation of new taxes and the reform of customs duties; 4, the division of government revenue collecting offices.The fourth part researches on some reform measures with relation to the fiscal reform, which includes the establishment of the bank, currency reform, the establishment of silver copper system and the initial reform of modern audit system. These reforms are closely related to the establishment of the new taxation system.The fifth part studies the tax burden of the late Qing Dynasty using a variety of analytical methods, which is in favor of inspecting the fiscal reform comprehensively. The last part of the paper evaluates the fiscal and taxation reforms. It gives a full affirmation of the financial and taxation reform in the late Qing Dynasty in the history of modern financial and taxation reform, as well as in the history of modern China. At the same time, it also observes some defects of this reform.