A brief analysis of the role of the Qing government’s economic system reform

The Qing Dynasty adopted wasteland reclamation, immigration to border areas and the promotion of new crops to increase production. Due to the increase in domestic and foreign trade, economic agriculture is also relatively developed. In the handicraft industry, the corvee system for craftsmen was changed to the tax service system. The main industries are textile and porcelain. The cotton weaving industry surpasses the silk weaving industry. Porcelain is painted with enamel on the porcelain body. Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, is the center of porcelain. The Qing Dynasty had developed commerce and was divided into ten major merchant gangs. Among them, Shanxi merchants and Hui merchants dominated China's financial industry, while Fujian merchants and Chaozhou merchants controlled overseas trade. The Qing Dynasty implemented a maritime ban policy. It was not until after the occupation of Taiwan that coastal trade became slightly more active, and the currency adopted a silver-copper bistandard system. In the late Kangxi period, in order to prevent civil unrest, the mining ban policy was implemented, which hindered the development of industry and commerce to a certain extent.

The population of the Qing Dynasty was also the highest in all dynasties. By the end of the 18th century, the population of the Qing Dynasty had reached more than 300 million, and it exceeded 400 million in the late Qing Dynasty. In the early Qing Dynasty, in order to ease class conflicts, policies were implemented to reward land reclamation and reduce or exempt taxes, which led to social and economic development in the inland and frontier areas. By the middle of the eighteenth century, the feudal economy of the Qing Dynasty had developed to a new peak. There is a saying that the Qing Dynasty's economic and population growth was mainly attributed to the American crop sweet potato, and the so-called "Kangxi and Qian Dynasties" were called the "Sweet Potato Prosperity". As a result, the centralized autocratic system became more rigorous, the country became stronger, and order was stable. In the early days of the Qing Dynasty, bad policies such as land enclosure and investment were vigorously promoted, which greatly damaged the economy of the Central Plains region; the emphasis on agriculture and suppression of business restricted the development of budding capitalism.

Economic conditions in various periods of the Qing Dynasty

1. After entering the customs to the Qianlong period. After entering the customs, the Qing Dynasty's economy was in difficulty for a time. This is mainly because the resistance of the Nanming regime turned the wealthy Jiangnan into ruins. The rulers of the Qing Dynasty also implemented policies such as enclosure of land, massacre of cities, surrender and escape. The main purpose of enclosing land was to allocate ownerless wasteland to kings, ministers and soldiers. However, land enclosure often involves owner-occupied land, causing many people to lose their land. Investment and charging allowed each banner to recruit poor people as servants. The Manchu nobles forced Han people into slavery at will. Fugitive laws refer to severe punishment for runaway slaves. The "Ten Days in Yangzhou" and the "Three Massacres in Jiading" turned these areas into ruins. These policies benefited the Manchus but also greatly damaged the economy. After Shunzhi came to power, these policies were gradually abolished.

By the time of Kangxi, the three feudal lords were pacified and Taiwan was unified. He also completely abolished the above-mentioned policies, rewarded land reclamation, and provided free money and food many times. Emperor Kangxi also ordered flood control in the Yellow River. These measures enabled the domestic economy to begin to develop rapidly. Emperor Kangxi also ordered the opening of foreign trade in Guangzhou, Zhangzhou, Ningbo and Yuntai Mountain (Lianyungang). At that time, the European Industrial Revolution had not yet begun, and it was difficult for products to compete with those of the Qing Dynasty. As a result, the Qing Dynasty's foreign trade has always been in an outstanding position. The main export products include silk, tea, porcelain, cotton cloth, etc. Imported goods include pepper, ivory, etc. Since foreign countries buy a large number of products from China every year, and the goods imported from China are luxury goods, the sales volume is not large. Therefore, foreign trade has become an important economic industry. The development of foreign trade promoted the development of commerce and handicraft industry. This caused capitalism to begin to develop slowly.

When Yongzheng arrived, tax reform was also carried out. After the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, the national tax collection still followed the whip law, which was collected according to the rules of the Ming Dynasty. The land tax and Ding tax were collected separately. However, as land annexation becomes more and more serious, the disadvantages of separate expropriation of diyin and dingyin become increasingly prominent; because the population grows faster than the increase in land area, land continues to be concentrated in the hands of big landlords, and farmers continue to lose their land and have to bear heavy burdens. Ding Fu, so landless farmers were forced to flee into seclusion, which not only affected national tax revenue, but also caused social instability. In order to resolve this contradiction, in the fifty-first year of Kangxi (AD 1712), in response to the situation that "the household registration was increasing day by day, but the land was not expanding", a fixed number of ding silver was stipulated, and no tax was levied on the children born after that. In the fifty-fifth year of Kangxi (AD 1716), fixed dingyin was first spread across acres of land in Guangdong and collected, and was gradually implemented throughout the country. In the first year of Yongzheng's reign, the "Unification of Di Ding and Di Ding" was fully implemented. From then on, the land tax was called "diding", which was the Qing Dynasty's tax reform of "divide every ding into an acre". Land rent was levied entirely on the basis of acres of land. Regardless of whether it was a wealthy gentry or an ordinary farmer, if there was more land, there would be more tax, and if there was no land, there would be no tax, making the tax burden more reasonable.

Dividing one person into one mu is not only a further simplification of the content of taxes and servitude since the Ming Dynasty's one-whip law, but more importantly, the reunification of the national taxation and servitude system, which is not only conducive to the implementation of the national fiscal and taxation system, but also promotes the social and economic development of various places.

By the time of Qianlong's reign, the government made great efforts to manage seawalls to protect Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas from wave attacks. Emperor Qianlong attached great importance to the development of commerce and gave loose policies. He stipulated that merchants selling grain in areas with poor harvests could be exempted from customs rice tax, and allowed people to traffic in small amounts of salt. Financial institutions (ticket accounts) also began to appear in the Qianlong Dynasty. Due to the development of production , the national fiscal revenue began to increase year by year. Emperor Qianlong maintained the unity of the country and expanded the territory. This resulted in the expansion of the country's arable land. In the second year of Yongzheng's reign, the country's arable area was more than 6.83 million hectares, and in the 31st year of Qianlong's reign it expanded to more than 7.41 million hectares. .Corn and sweet potatoes introduced from abroad during the Ming Dynasty were also spread throughout the country. However, the seeds of the Qing Dynasty's economic decline also began to appear in the late Qianlong period. For example, Emperor Qianlong implemented seclusion, which restricted the development of commerce and handicrafts. And his "complete military exploits" also cost a lot of money. In addition, corrupt officials continue to appear. In the last years of Qianlong's reign, natural disasters occurred frequently.

During this period, the economy of the Qing Dynasty gradually recovered and developed. Commerce and inland water transport are developed. The development of commerce promoted the prosperity of the city. The original big cities such as Beijing and Jiangning (Nanjing) were even more prosperous. Yangzhou, which is mainly engaged in salt industry, Suzhou and Hangzhou, which is mainly engaged in silk weaving, and Guangzhou, which is mainly engaged in foreign trade, are developing rapidly. Capitalism began to develop slowly. The silk weaving industry in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the iron smelting in Guangdong, the copper smelting in Yunnan, and the porcelain making in Jiangxi all have sprouts of capitalism. This is conducive to the development of handicraft industry. But the economy of the Qing Dynasty also began to decline in the late Qianlong period. This is mainly due to seclusion, land annexation and corruption in government.