A Study Of The Financial Initiatives Of Zuo Zongtang During His Tenure As Shaan’gan Governor（1866-1880）

Between the Xianfeng and Guangxu of late Qing Dynasty,the current situation was turbulent,and financial power was shifted downward.From the fifth year of Tongzhi（1866）to the sixth year of Guangxu（1880）,Zuo Zongtang served as the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu.In the Qing Dynasty,the Shaanxi-Gansu region,especially Gansu,was barren and poor.Before the Taiping Rebellion,both Shaanxi and Gansu were unable to make ends meet and needed assistance from other provinces.After the Taiping Rebellion,the finances of Shaanxi and Gansu were affected,and the soldiers stationed there were seriously underpaid,so the Hui people took the opportunity to revolt.At the beginning of Zuo Zongtang’s appointment,there were frequent wars in Shaanxi and Gansu,government treasuries were depleted,people’s livelihood was in decline,and there was no finance to speak of.Zuo Zongtang had to spend a lot of effort to organize the finances in order to complete a series of tasks of suppressing the chaos and cleaning up the mess.During his tenure as the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu,Zuo Zongtang implemented a series of financial measures with the core intention of raising wages,which were divided into three parts:external struggle,internal clearance and expenditure control.Fighting externally includes striving for salaries and borrowings,and clearing inwards involves sorting out lijin（厘金）,donations,tea tax,salt tax and other sources of income,and controlling expenditures is to control military and non-military expenditures on the basis of controlling food supplies.These financial measures not only provided the basis for Zuo Zongtang’s military operations to secure Guanlong and recover Xinjiang,but also provided material guarantee for Zuo Zongtang to restore the social economy of the northwest,and it continued after Zuo Zongtang left office,affecting Shaanxi,Gansu and even Xinjiang for 20 years.