During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Mongolia and Han were mutually marketed, and the circulation of commodities became increasingly prosperous. To meet the needs of the development of border trade and commerce, but also to increase the financial revenue of the Qing court, in the seventh year of Shunzhi (1650), the central government set up a tax supervision agency in Jihukou - the Household Department Extraction Branch Bureau, whose functions were similar to today's Internal Revenue Bureau and Customs. The agency has the Daguan General Bureau and the Guards, which have jurisdiction over the sub-bureaus of Ninglukou, Naturalization, Gaomiao, Deshengkou, Xinpingkou, Shuoping, Xizhenchuan, Xiaocun, Xibaotou, Hebaoying, and the tax cards of Dongzhenchuan, Tokto, and Huangfuchuan. Its taxation jurisdiction is bounded by a border wall and the Yellow River, east to Xinpingkou in Tianzhen County, west to Shenmukou in Shaanxi, and more than 100 kilometers long from east to west. According to the regulations, "merchants carrying goods must go directly to the mouth of the tiger to pay taxes, and are not allowed to go around other places to avoid smuggling", so as to prevent tax evasion and tax evasion. Commercial taxes are calculated on the basis of prices, and livestock taxes are calculated on the basis of the number of heads. There are two methods of taxation: "passing taxes" and "sitting taxes". "Taxation", that is, the goods are taxed when they pass through the customs. "Sitting tax" means that the goods are taxed when they are sold in the store. There are more than ten types of tax items, such as salt tea tobacco tax, rice noodle sugar tax, meat and fishy pickled sea vegetable spice tax, dried and fresh fruit tax, copper iron tin tax, livestock trading tax, etc. Except for the tribute outside the mouth, the mule and horse that are driven, and the coffins transported back to the mouth are not taxed, all other past goods are basically taxed according to the regulations. In June of the eighteenth year of Shunzhi (1661), the household department determined that the threshold of the customs tariff on killing hukou was 13,000 taels of silver, which was 3,000 taels more than That of Zhangjiakou.
In the middle of the Kangxi Dynasty, the border people in the northern Part of Yanbei, Shanxi, were allowed to do business in various parts of the naturalized city (present-day Hohhot) outside the mouth, commonly known as "walking west". In the thirty-eighth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1699), he also approved the merchants of Datong, Shuozhou and other places in Shanxi to go to Daqingshan to cut wood for sale (Records of the Ancestors of the Qing Dynasty, vol. 193). In the first year of Qianlong, the naturalized city and the killing of tigers were also levied on timber. In the first three years, the annual tax revenue ranged from more than 300 to more than 600 taels, and in the fourth year of Qianlong (1739), it was decided to levy 446 taels of silver per year.
As a result of the fact that a large number of shanxi people in the interior, especially Shanxi, went to make a living outside the mouth, the demand for consumption materials increased, which in turn led to the trade in coal, alcohol, sesame oil, tobacco and other materials in Shuozhou and Datong in Shanxi. Oil, tobacco, and liquor were not taxed at the beginning of the Killing Tiger's Mouth, and later, due to the increasing number of exports, Qianlong introduced tobacco, alcohol and oil taxes in the twenty-sixth year (1761).
In the 100 years from the establishment of the customs in the Shunzhi period to the middle of the Qianlong period, the market became increasingly prosperous and tariffs continued to increase. By the middle of the Qianlong period, the annual positive tariff collected increased from 13,000 taels to more than 32,300 taels. The smoke increased by 1.48 times, and the surplus was 12,100 taels, and the total of the two items was as high as 44,400 taels. In the same period, Shuoping Province actually acquired 14684 silver. Right Yu County real land Ding Silver 1724 two. The sum of the two is less than half of the killing tariff. The customs tariff of killing tigers is 3 times that of the Tian Fu Ding Tax of Shuoping Province and 25 times that of the Tian Fu Ding Tax of Youyu County, and the Killing of Tiger Mouth has entered the second peak period of development since the Ming Wanli Calendar. In the first year of the Republic of China (1912), Gan Pengyun served as the supervisor of killing Hukou Pass. In only 7 months, the tax and silver collected amounted to 83,000 taels, an average of 395 taels per day, so the killing of the tiger mouth is known as "daily into the bucket of gold and silver". The Qing rulers adopted irregular and irregular management, and the tax was directly sent to the Ministry of Households, so the oil and water were abundant, and the personnel on duty flocked to it. In the Qing Dynasty, there were 100 families that directly ate and killed tigers, thousands of people; Through the provision of services, nearly a thousand shops of various colors have benefited indirectly? Smoking also has tens of thousands of people. With the development of commercial trade, the killing of tigers was extremely prosperous, with as many as 5,000 households, a population of more than 50,000 people, merchants gathered, shops were lined up, and the market was prosperous. Daily necessities, side food pastries, money shops, restaurants and restaurants, liquor, aged vinegar, gold and silver, woodware, fur, rice noodle processing and other handicraft workshops are all available. On the 14th to 16th day of the first month, the "Grandma Temple Lights Up melons", the Qingming Festival, the "City God Grandpa Leaving the House" on the 15th of July and the first day of October, and the "Yellow and Green Society" on The 20th of July, the Mongolian and Han ethnic groups gather, various juggling classes perform, and foreign merchants gather, which adds to the prosperous atmosphere of Bian Sai Xiongguan. Due to the large number of merchants coming and going, large and small guest houses receive different merchants. Among them, Yuanshengtai, Jintaiquan, Yuquan Chang, and Jintaidian specially welcome the famous business names Dashengkui and Xinjiang merchants; Ming Yu Quan, Yu Quan Tang, Tong He Mao, Changsheng, Tong He Quan, Ming Yu Chang, Xinglong Dian, Wanrong Shop mainly receive Mongolian merchants from The Front and Rear Camp, Damao, and SiziWang Banner; Fengshenghe, Dexinghe, Deqingsheng, Tianyide, Tianshengde, Juyichang, Sanheyi, Fuquan Store, Fuyi Store, Fulong Store, etc. do not refuse to come, and let the guests go their own way.
The trade throughput of The Killing Tiger Pass has been expanding, and commerce has shown a prosperous scene, which is greatly related to the convenient transportation in the Shuozhou area. The extensive trade routes transported a large number of goods from the Central Plains to Shuoping Province, through the Killing Tiger Pass, and the surrounding trade routes, to the grassland and the desert, and through the Killing Tiger Mouth, the livestock products of the grassland were distributed to all parts of the country. At that time, from Shuoping Province to the east through the Tiger Crossing, the camel caravan reached Jining via Liangcheng; North through Naturalization City you can reach Kulun and Kyakhta; To the west, along the route of the Kangxi Western Expedition, it can reach Tarbaha, Kobdo, Urisuyatai and other places in Xinjiang. There are five major trade routes in the interior, which converge on the Killing Tiger Pass in Shuoping Province.
Yunyang Yungang, Shuoping Province, Datong Beijing.
Shuoping Province Yunyang WujiaYao Dai Yue Shuo Prefecture Ningwu Jingle Taiyuan Province.
Shuoping Province Weiyuan Ping Lu Shuo Prefecture Shenchi Wuzhai Baode.
Shuoping Province Yunyang WujiaYao Daiyue Ancient City (Shanyin City) Yanmen Guandai Prefecture Chengyang Xinzhou Taiyuan Province.
Shuoping Province Yunyang Wujiayao Yingzhou Hunyuan Guangling Hebei territory.
The trade boom in the Shuozhou region also has a crucial causal relationship with the booming trade in Kyakhta between China and Russia. Sino-Russian land commerce began under the Treaty of Nebuchu (1689) and flourished after the signing of the Kyakhta Boundary Treaty (1727) and the Kyakhta City Treaty (1792). With the opening of the international trade route with Shanxi and Hebei as the hub, the Great Wall of North Vietnam, through Mongolia, and through Siberia to the hinterland of Europe, the number of people going north to the west through the east and west of Shanxi is increasing, so that "Kyakhta traders are all Jin province people". According to the "Suiyuan Tongzhi Draft", "Sui is the jurisdiction of Shanxi, so most of the merchants who do business here are of Jin nationality. At that time, the goods were trafficked, and after paying customs duties by killing tigers, they were unimpeded in marketing in Naturalization City. "Naturalization City... Foreign traders flock here, and Chinese and foreign goods are also gathered. "Every year, Jin merchants transport tens of thousands of quintals of silk, cloth, tea, sugar smoke, porcelain, and other commodities to Xinjiang and Lanzhou through the Killing Tiger Mouth, or into Kulun and Kyakhta, and even deep into Russia, to semicolons in Moscow, Domsk, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Petersburg, and other places. On the way back, they also transported hala, tweeds, blankets, clocks, gold sand, fur, hardware, deer antler velvet, raisins, apricot melons, etc. back to the mainland. Every year, more than 200,000 sheep are sold to Jingyangzhuang alone. Whenever the deer antler market opens, the daily trading volume is 200,000 taels of silver and the licorice is about 500,000 silver dollars.
Killing Tiger Pass is an important pass on the Great Wall, and the prosperity of its trade has also led to commercial trade along the border passes such as Pinglu Bailankou and Qidun Town.
Bailankou at the foot of the Ministerial City in the northwest of Pinglu is also an important pass for communication between Jin and Mongolia, from here across the border wall into the Qingshui River in Inner Mongolia, and the Six Halls of Linger and Guisui, which can reach Baotou and Tumo River. In the Qing Dynasty, the number of residents of Bailankou increased day by day, forming a village. Except for the drought years, there are hungry people passing by, most of them are merchants who help camels and horses pass by here. During the Qianlong period, the Dong family, the Hou family, the Gao family, the Zhang family and the Yang family opened shops here to receive past merchants, and the business was extremely prosperous. By the late Qing Dynasty, the father and son of Dong Bo, Dong Dewen and Dong Dehou, the descendants of the Hou family in Dingxiang, and the brothers Hou Xiwa and Hou Lianshan, descendants of the Hou family whose ancestral home was Dingxiang, stood out, and the family business was greatly revitalized, and they were still rich in the township, becoming a big household that made their fortunes by opening shops. The Dong family took the closed border and made the sale and purchase in the Qingshui River in Inner Mongolia, with a capital of one million taels of silver, and its business shop covered half the street from the East Gate to The Garden Lane. At that time, The Bailankou business names were Deshengquan (Treasurer DuanShi), Deshengyuan (Treasurer Wang Xixiang), Derunquan (Treasurer Huang Runtang), Yongshengheng (Treasurer Li Zhenchun, more than 30 clerks), Deshengyi (Treasurer Qiao Yuming), Fu Hecheng, Dejinheng (Treasurer Yang Shixiang), Guangjicheng (Treasurer Ren'an), Yongshengchang (Treasurer Cao Zhi), Yongshengmei, Houji, etc. The big treasurer of the Dong family is Dong Wangui. Zhengjiashan goods shop opened the sun, and the treasurer was Zheng Qiankao. The Hou family, with its doctor Hou Yinghua in the United Kingdom, was engaged in business in Suiyuan Baotou, and achieved remarkable achievements, and the family moved to become an important member of the Jinshang Merchant Gang. There are also the Zhang family, the Yang family, the Gao family, these large and solid households are still in the courtyard, although after the war and fire and wind and rain erosion, the original rich and noble scene has disappeared, but from the broken but noble gatehouse, exquisitely carved upper and lower horse stones, several heavy into the courtyard of the strict layout and giant stone steps and other physical remains, it is completely conceivable to see the identity of the owner of that year.
Pinglu Qidun Town is located at the great wall pass at the northernmost point of Pinglu County, and was established as a town during the Qing Yongzheng period. Along the border north, you can go directly to the Killing Tiger Pass, and the border pass of Yueqidun Town, that is, enter the Mongolian pastoral boundary: to the west through the Guisui Liu Hall, you can follow the ancient Silk Road; To the north, through naturalization, Suiyuan through the Mongolian steppe, Kulun into the Sino-Russian border trading city - Kyakhta. Kyakhta is located at the southeastern tip of Siberia on the border with the Tatars of China. According to Kong Xiangyi's "Shanxi Merchants and Commercial Capital in Modern History", in the middle of the 19th century, around the Daoguang and Xianfeng years of the Qing Dynasty, the tea exported by Jin merchants from here gradually increased from an average of 40,000 boxes per year to 100,000 boxes. In the second year of Xianfeng (1852), there were 175,000 boxes, as well as sugar, cotton, silk fabrics and so on. A large number of imports were returned from Russia, including various types of woolen fabrics, leather, metal products, furs and opium, and the value of goods traded was more than $15 million. The town of Qidun thus became the main trade route of Suimeng in the northwest of the mountain. This trade route was passed through the town of Qidun, Pinglu, Yanmen Guanshuo Prefecture, Taiyuan, Jinzhong, and crossed the border into inner Mongolia, all the way to the west and all the way north, which was very active in the Qing Dynasty. Pinglu local merchants rely on the favorable geographical advantages of the chokehold, the rising of foreign merchants in the South Jin Dynasty, the increasing import and export of goods, the flexibility of internal and external trade information and other convenient conditions, with Qidun Town as the center of the timely border trade activities, and gradually along the border, the scale is gradually expanded. Merchants who trafficked in miscellaneous goods from other places often stopped selling their feet in Qidun Town and returned home.
The prosperity of commercial trade in Shuozhou was not caused by the heavy commercialism of the ruling class, on the contrary, the Qing rulers, like the rulers of the past, practiced heavy agriculture and suppressed commerce, but they were unwilling to give up their rich tariff revenues (the national tariff revenue accounted for the third place in fiscal revenue). The "Chronicle of Shuoping Province" records: "The March of Guanshi has a long history. The people of Gaigu, the villagers, the peasants are all farmers, the farmers are all received from the fields, and the fields are all endowed. The people of the city do not specialize in li tian as their business, and often the products of mountains, forests, rivers and rivers, trade and migration, and tend to the end of the line. If the husband seeks profit, the people will compete, and if the people are at the end, the people will be light. The dispute over the establishment of customs and the city is suppressed, and the tax is levied. The five territories of Shuoping are all border plugs, and there is no mountain and zeal, but the right jade kills the tiger and passes through the northern domain, which is the source of cattle, sheep, camels, horses, leather, and wood plants, and the merchants call it the Flowers. ”
Source: Wenshi Art Garden
Original title: Shuozhou Economy in the Ming and Qing Dynasties - Border Trade Commercial Prosperity