Conflict And Compromise

The Boxer Indemnity,which consisted of two parts.One is the indemnity of 450 million taels of silver stipulated in the Boxer Protocol.In addition to this indemnity,there was a local indemnity,which was paid by each province to the local churches and Christians,totaling more than 20 million taels of silver.The Qing dynasty’s central finance could not cope with the amount of these two indemnities.Most of the Boxer Indemnity were divided among the provinces,while the local indemnity was also paid by the local governments.With the two reparations in Zhili to pay,the central government,local officials and gentry,the people made different reactions,which the conflict,contradiction and compromise,accommodation,reflecting the complexity and diversity of history itself.The Boxer Rebellion reached its climax in Zhili,where the conflict between the people and the church was intense.Due to the numerous conflicts,the amount of compensation was very large.In the aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion,the local reparations payments had distinct regional characteristics due to the peculiarities of Zhili society.At the time of the initial negotiation of the local reparations,Zhili was occupied by the Allied Forces and there were no senior officials in charge of the Zhili local government.In order to ensure the safety of the territory,each county official in Zhili negotiated with the local church.This resulted in the largest local indemnity in Zhili and Shuntianfu,amounting to more than 12 million taels.The local indemnities in Zhili were initially financed by the counties themselves,either by the land tax,or by confiscating the property of the people who participated in the Boxer Rebellion,or by the merchants,or by diverting local public funds.At the beginning of 1901,a campaign against local indemnity broke out in Anping.The local indemnity thus attracted the attention of the Qing government officials,such as Liu Enpu,Zhang Peilun and Wu Xu.They submitted memorials suggesting that the reparations should be paid by the central financial funds.Li Hongzhang and Zhou Fu,who also requested for national funds.Therefore,there was a kind of public opinion.The Qing government allocated 2 million taels from other provinces to pay the local indemnity in Zhili.Most of the provinces allocated the funds and sent to Zhili,but there were also cases of deferred and unallocated funds,which involved the interaction of different political forces.The Qing government recognized that the payment of reparations might provoke trouble and affect negotiation.Therefore,while suppressing the anti-donation movement,the Qing government tried to reduce the burden of the people by using national funds to pay the local indemnity.The Qing government also had considerations to reshape the legitimacy of its ruleZhili had to share 800,000 taels of silver each year.Zhili mainly used the salt,opium and alcohol tax to pay the annual share of the Boxer Indemnity.At the end of the Qing dynasty,for the collection of reparations and the New Deal,Zhili opened lots kinds of donations and taxes.The way of raising money in Zhili was the epitome of the Qing dynasty to raise money for reparations.Boxer Indemnity and the New Deal,objectively forced the Qing government to open up new sources of taxation.The principal part of fiscal revenue in the Qing dynasty gradually shifted from agricultural tax to commercial tax,the Qing dynasty further to "Fiscal State"transformation.