Qing Dynasty, Zhejiang The Likin Study

Likin was a kind of local business tax , which levied in late Qing dynasty. At first, it was only used to defray the military expense, after the end of Taiping rebellion, however, magistrates of provinces regarded it as a regular tax and continued to collect it. Although Qing dynsty could withdraw parts of income from Linkin, the income and expenses of the new tax was normally controlled by local financial administration, which was almost regarded as a local business. Therefore,from the study of Likin, we can realized more detail about the downward of central fiscal authority, and the expansion of local financial activity. On the other hand, because the collection of Likin was greatly adsorbed in the complicated network of local business circulation, the study of it will provide us with a chance to elaborate the conformation of local commodity market ,and follow it's track of transportation.In my master dissertation, limited in Zhejiang Province, I investigated the configuration and alteration of Likin system, analyzed it's various expenditure and the following consequences. Combined with the data of collecting Likin, I also presented the structure and transportation of commodity market of Zhejiang province in late Qing dynasty. From the study, we can find that the Likin collecting system showed the same essential character as traditional land tax and native customs, namely, they are all some kinds of tax farming, which have to function at the cost of tolerating it's staff acquiring illegal income. The only difference is that, in collecting Likin, the unit of farming is not the fixed village but the numerous toll-gates. After Taiping rebellion, these toll-gates had densely distributed along local commercial routes. For unable to acquire the exact statistics of trading volume, and restrain the staff's greedy, the official revenue have to stagnate at a fixed amount. Even paying for great institutional costs, it's ability to make profit from the increase of commodity economy was still restricted.When analyzing the expenditure of Likin, despite the local military cost, the employment of Likin also made great contribution to local post-war reconstruction. In somewhere, by applying this revenue to regional public enterprises, an orderly corporation between local government and gentry had emerged, which revealed the traditional energy for local self development. However, with the pressure of central financial apportions became more and more heavy, local financial activities were deeply engulfed in the waves of disturbance.On the basis of the detailed depiction on levy system of Likin in Zhejiang province, I reviewed the regional commodity markets with the data in levying Likin. Among this, we can know how the revenue system impacted the circulation of commodity, and how the distribution of civil market demand was altered irregularly by various limitations of the special farming tax.In accord, the Likin system levied in Qing dynasty arose from the conformity of traditional social resources, In my opinion, it's a kind of transfiguration and amplification of original convention, among which, we not only find the vitality in the regenerating process of traditional relation, but discover the defect which can not be resolved by the system itself.