Changes in China’s fiscal system in the late Qing

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the late Qing, due to frequent large-scale wars, the Board of Revenue (hubu) and provincial treasuries were often in a state of great difficulties, struggling to support the wartime needs. After the central government was forced to delegate the authority of fundraising, tax collection and expenditure to the provinces, the provincial governments had to rely on themselves to relieve financial difficulties. Hence, within the centralized and unified traditional fiscal system, the provincial finance was getting stronger, forming the new pattern that the central and provincial governments had equal control of finance. The allocation system of the national financial resources changed from the direct appropriation of funds from the Board of Revenue to the appropriation according to needs of provinces based on consultations with the provinces. In the later period of the Guangxu reign, the central government actively introduced the western fiscal budget system in order to solve the financial problems and prevent chaos. In revenue and expenditure, the Qing government adhered to the traditional principle of “adjusting expenditure according to the income” (liang ru wei chu), while in the wartime or when the demand of funds substantially increased due to the enforcement of the New Policy Reform, it became trapped in the predicament between the traditional principle and the new principle of “adjusting income according to the expenditure” (liang chu wei ru). When the modern budget system was implemented in the late Qing, the central government resolutely put into effect the above two principles into practical budgetary planning, trying to balance between the steady and the positive policies for expanding financial resources. However, the fiscal reform failed to save the Qing government from ultimate falling after the 1911 Revolution started.