A Study Of The Legal System Of Commercial Tax In Ancient China

The collection of commercial taxes has a long history in ancient China,commercial taxes began to be levied during the Western Zhou Dynasty,But it was subject to the development of the economic level at that time,the ruler doesn’t take it seriously.Later,with the development of the commodity economy,the position of commerce in the national economy is constantly improving.The rulers had to change their previous concepts,began to pay attention to the development of commerce,and strengthened the management and supervision of commercial tax collection.In the process of continuous changes in history,the rulers constantly updated their ideas and innovated forms,gradually established a complete set of ancient commercial tax legal systems,and formed a commercial tax legal system with ancient Chinese characteristics.The "Shihuo Zhi" of the past generations is a chronicle that records the actual conditions of the financial and economic systems,industrial and commercial development,and agricultural production of each generation,Among them,records of the types and levy status of commercial taxes in each period,provide a reference for studying the dynamic development of the ancient Chinese commercial tax legal system.The various commercial thoughts recorded in Shihuo Zhi are closely related to the ancient Chinese commercial tax legal system.The continuous collision and integration of ideas have jointly promoted the improvement and development of the ancient Chinese commercial tax legal system.In ancient societies where the small-scale peasant economy dominated,the rulers of all dynasties followed the policy of "emphasizing agriculture and restraining business".On the one hand,they were humiliated by restricting their food,clothing,housing,and transportation;on the other hand,they were trapped by imposing high taxes on them.From the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty,commercial development was slow,and commercial taxes accounted for a relatively small proportion of the national finance.In the Tang and Song Dynasties,the commodity economy developed and commercial tax revenues increased greatly.The rulers strengthened the management and control of commercial tax collection through the improvement of commercial legislation.In the Ming and Qing dynasties,with the germination of capitalism,new types of commercial taxes such as new customs duties and lijin appeared and became the mainstay of the feudal government’s financial sources.In the process of changes in the content of ancient Chinese commercial tax laws,The regulations on soliciting business are gradually detailed,and the legal system is gradually improved,the purpose of soliciting business has also evolved from a simple "suppression of business" at the beginning to a later "consultation for capital use by the country".Although the appearance of these characteristics is the result of a combination of many factors,But in the final analysis,the ruler was to maintain feudal rule,compromises made in the conflicts between the commodity economy and the natural economy.Affected by the traditional ideology of the bottom line,the policy of suppressing business has become an important means for the ancient Chinese feudal rulers to manage the economy.Politically,it maintained feudal rule and promoted the stability of the country.At the legal level,it is a means of adjusting economic and legal relations,embedded in the country’s legal system.Although the traditional ideology suppresses and hinders the development of commerce,it has to be admitted that it is this strict control of commerce that has promoted the establishment of the ancient business tax legal system to a certain extent.,it’s just that this commercial tax legal system is more feudal and arbitrary in nature.And the emergence of anti-traditional ideology broke the traditional dogmatic thinking,promoted the continuous improvement of business economic theory,and it laid the foundation for the commercial tax legal system to gradually move from feudal to scientific and democratic.The ancient Chinese commercial tax legal system played an irreplaceable value and role in maintaining feudal rule and adjusting social economy,of course,there are also the ills of conflict between legal regulations and enforcement.Take time as a mirror to know the rise and fall.On the basis of rethinking the ancient commercial tax legal system,we should take the essence and discard the dross.Learn from the progressive ideas of ancient commercial tax collection and apply it to the current tax reform process in China,so as to formulate reasonable tax burdens,continuously improve taxation efficiency,and promote national taxation fairness.