Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.4, 2014

 

The Building of a Credit Records System in Late Qing Tax Collection

(Abstract)

 

Li Guangwei

 

During the Guangxu reign period, the Qing court, facing debt and deficit problems that had become increasingly serious since the middle of the dynasty, introduced into a credit records model into tax collection. This was an effective, sophisticated and well-constructed system of public disclosure of financial information used by civilian charities. The government formulated and implemented the system of land tax records to prevent officials from lining their own pockets and to increase fiscal revenue. After several rounds of gaming between the central and local governments and some adjustments, the management of the land tax records got under way. But during the ten odd years of its operation, the system suffered from wasteful expenditure, backward technology, shortage of craftsmen, fraudulent records and malpractice, the population’s low standard of education and knowledge, mismanagement of the land tax and bureaucratic paper-shuffling, all of which hindered the system and led to its eventual failure. This demonstrated that the Qing court was unable to eliminate the malpractices that were deeply rooted in its land tax collection through institutional innovation.