One Public Borrowing in the 15th Year of Chongzhen Emperor's Reign:A Discussion on the Flow of Silver and Military Finance in the Late Ming Dynasty
In the 15th year of Chongzhen Emperor's reign,the capital was besieged,the state treasury was exhausted,and outside funds was difficult to access.Therefore,there was a proposal to use the salt tax revenue of Lianghuai as collateral to borrow from guest merchants who planed to transfer their silver to south China.This paper shows that although this borrowing was implemented in the form of exchange of remittances,it was still an innovative but neglected public debt experiment in Chinese history.The background of this experiment was the birth of a periodical remitting and clearing system(Biaoqi)as a result of commercial exchanges driven by the north-south silver flow along the Grand Canal in the late Ming.This experiment not only drew on the financial practice in this large-scale dynastic state,but also introduced new elements from commercial finance.Although this public borrowing experiment was not enough to initiate the financial transformation toward"fiscal state",nor did it change the fate of Ming dynasty,its implementation process reflected the emperor and the bureaucratic group's understanding of the late Ming economy and state credibility,as well as the changes in the relationship between the state and merchants under economic transformation.It also provided new clues for understanding the development path of finance in the Ming-Qing eras.
Public DebtBiaoqiFinance in the Ming-Qing ErasFisical-Military State
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
