In 1840, the Western powers opened the gates of China with strong ships and cannons, and then took advantage of the victory to ask for money, and the Qing government was forced to cut the land and pay reparations. What is fatal is that through this loss, it is like exposing the essence of their own delicacies to a group of hungry robbers like wolves, and the Western powers flock to them, scrambling for money. What else can I do, I can only obediently pay for it.
This annoying external trouble has made the Qing court helplessly tighten the waistband of its pants, but the tragedy is a wave of uneven waves. With the turmoil of the situation, there have been cases of rioting and uprisings in various places. In 1851, Hong Xiuquan recruited a group of brothers to start the vigorous Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, and its power developed far more rapidly than the Qing court imagined, and less than two and a half years after the incident, he captured Nanjing and controlled most of the main grain-producing areas in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. For a time, the fertile middle and lower plains of the Yangtze River were completely lost, the passage of the "south-to-north grain diversion" was completely blocked, and the Qing court not only lost its territory, but also lost the best quality tax sources in southern China.
In order to maintain the survival of the empire and preserve the power of the old ancestors, the Qing court decided to engage in new tricks. The Qing court understood that in difficult times, it was not enough to do great things on its own, and it was necessary to mobilize localities to form a trend of burning plains that blossomed everywhere. But how can the localities be mobilized without spending money? The Qing court is very clever, we can't give money, just give policy, anyway, it's all scraping the people, what's the matter with me? So the Qing court decided to grant greater autonomy to the local forces, acquiescing to their own looting of people's wealth and organizing armed forces to balance the rebels. Since then, the "local tax" policy has gradually taken shape.
With the introduction of the "quantitative easing" policy, do local forces not have to make full use of the reason? Zeng Guofan and other local officials immediately seized this opportunity and patted the Qing court on the chest: Without spending a penny from the state, we can self-reliantly organize private armies (such as the Xiang Army, huai army, etc.) to fight against the Taiping Army. The Qing court felt very good, did not want my money, but also helped me fight, then of course we have to reuse you. At this time, Zeng Guofan and others took advantage of the situation to show the bottom card: Boss, I know that you are difficult, so I don't want your money, but I want the policy! You can not give money, but you have to let me collect the money. As a result, the "land tax" policy gradually entered the Chinese political and economic stage.
With the policy in hand, local governments soon began to collect taxes to meet the expenses of the private army. The tax they levied was called "gold". Taking Guangxi as an example, 1942 items were expropriated for "lijin", ranging from handkerchiefs, purses, vinegar, garlic and other items, covering almost all commodities. For the sake of local interests and peaceful rebellion, the greed of local forces has also increased day by day, constantly increasing the number of merchants and small industrialists in the jurisdiction to eat, take, card, and demand, levying and extorting violently, and then using the looted money to raise soldiers with high salaries. It catalyzed and strengthened the local armed forces such as the Xiang Army and the Huai Army, and also enriched a number of prominent local officials, so that they had enough funds to buy advanced weapons in the West, bribed high-ranking officials of the imperial court, called the wind and rain in the upper class, and finally successfully suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and other rebels. The Qing Empire, which was already in its infancy, was thus desperately revived by the "land tax" policy.
Although the "land tax" policy extended the life of the empire to a certain extent, it buried more fatal hidden dangers for the empire. The departments that collect "cents" vary, and I don't know who the real statutory tax authority is, anyway, as long as you have a knife and a gun in your hand to knock on the door, you have to obediently pay taxes. What is worse is that the local forces only care about the immediate interests, do everything possible to expand the source of taxes, increase the amount of taxes, avoid the control of the central government, and compete with the people for profits, which will inevitably increase the burden of the people, and even more cause a fatal blow to the newly emerging commodity economy, and eventually lead to an increase in the cost of domestic commodities, soaring prices, and people's livelihood.