 State finance, merchant stake, and foreign interests: The certificate system in the Chinese salt administration, 1912–1949Xiaoqun Xu and Yin Xu Business History, 2024, vol. 66, issue 4, 807-828 Abstract: The certificate system was a tax farming system that originated in the imperial era. During the Republic of China (1912–1949) the practice largely continued, despite being much criticised. Aiming to explore how and why the system was able to survive until the late 1940s, this article addresses three related issues: the role of the foreign-managed Chief Inspectorate of Salt Revenue in the Chinese state finance, the fiscal relationship between the central and provisional/local governments, and the interactions between the state and salt merchants. These factors contextualise the resistance of salt merchants against the abolition of the certificate system. The Chinese state did not abolish the system due to a concern about possible disruptions to salt revenues. During the wartime Japanese occupation (1937–1945), the concern became irrelevant, with the collapse of the prewar salt transport and revenue collection-remittance. After the war ended, the state simply ruled out a revival of the system. Date: 2024 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:bushst:v:66:y:2024:i:4:p:807-828 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2022.2105836 Access Statistics for this article Business History is currently edited by Professor John Wilson and Professor Steven Toms More articles in Business History from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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