Turning Private Revenue into Public One:The Institutionalized Evolution of Irregular Charges in the Qing Dynasty and the Transformation of the Modern State from the Perspective of Public and Private Perspectives
Irregular charges are various customary fees under the unwritten rules of officialdom,which are not recog-nized by the formal system but tacitly approved by the government and the public.They have long been half-pub-lic,half-private,half-explicit and half-discreet.Irregular charges seriously damaged the administration of officials and people's livelihood,but because of their"sub-finance"role under the traditional political system,they have become a major problem for the governance of the country.However,the Qing Dynasty tried twice to institutionalize the irregular charges by"turning private into public",namely the Yongzheng Dynasty's"incorporating the extra revenue into the public coffers"and the reform of the irregular charges during the New Deal Period in the late Qing Dynasty.Although the Yongzheng Dynasty's reform changed the non-institutionalized nature of the irregular char-ges for a short time,but by the Qianlong Dynasty it was back to the old ways.In contrast,the reforms of the late Qing Dynasty eventually included irregular charges into the"proper items",bringing them into the official national tax system,an important change in the nature.The institutionalization of irregular charges at the end of the Qing Dynasty responded to the transition of the state system from imperial to constitutional,from small government to big government,and from old-style finance to new-style one.However,the transformation at the end of Qing Dynasty was not successful and complete;Althouth incorporating irregular charges into the public coffers was in line with the financial needs of the transition period,it increased the burden on the people and failed to get rid of"Huang Zongxi Law".
irregular chargesincorporating the extra revenue into the public coffersNew Deal Reforms at the end of the Qing Dynastyfiscal crisistransformation of the state
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