Keywords: Nanjing National Government's fiscal and taxation reform, unified fiscal tariff, independent salt tax, unified taxation, and abolition of the policy of changing two yuan into French currency.
1927 After the establishment of the Nanjing National Government in April, it achieved nominal national reunification in a short time. Facing the huge debts left by successive regimes from the late Qing Dynasty to the Beiyang government, facing the financial difficulties caused by internal and external constraints, and facing the practical needs of strengthening its political rule, we must first strengthen its economic foundation. On the basis of the development of domestic capitalism, the national government implemented a series of fiscal and taxation system reforms. Here, let's discuss the major adjustments made by the Nanjing National Government to the financial system, tax system and monetary system in the early days of its rule (1927- 1937).
The change of financial system is an important aspect of social and economic modernization in modern China. It is also an important tool for successive central governments to influence and adjust the national economic development by using national financial policies since the late Qing Dynasty, and it is also an important indicator to measure the national economic modernization level of China at that time. Next, I will mainly discuss the early financial reform of Nanjing National Government from several major financial policies of Nanjing National Government.
First, unified finance:
After the establishment of the Nanjing National Government, faced with huge military, administrative and financial difficulties in the civil war, and the grim reality that local warlords arbitrarily set up checkpoints to collect taxes, competed with the central government for tax sources and even seized the central government's fiscal and taxation by force, they held two national financial conferences in June 1927 and July 1928. 1927 and 19 formulated the Interim Standards for the Division of National Local Income and the Standards for the Division of National Local Expenditure (referred to as "Gu Division" because it was presided over by Gu Yingfen, then Minister of Finance), and 1935 promulgated the Law on Fiscal Revenue and Expenditure System on July 24th. It is clearly stipulated that the central government is responsible for collecting taxes on monopoly commodities such as tobacco, wine and salt, and taxes on special income such as lijin and minerals, customs duties and compensation income 19 (some scholars think that Nanjing National Government only has 1 1 tax items), and local governments are responsible for collecting land taxes, industrial and commercial miscellaneous taxes and miscellaneous donations, etc. 65438+. (1) Through these laws and regulations, we try to clarify and determine the financial relationship between the central and local governments, establish a fiscal revenue and expenditure system at the central, provincial and county levels, and unify the chaotic fiscal and taxation system that the central and local governments have been fighting for for for a long time since the Republic of China. At the same time, the Nanjing National Government also carried out a financial reform called "unifying taxes, cutting feet and fitting shoes". The so-called "unified tax" is the principle of one thing and one tax on industrial products. After the unified one-time tax, the original central 25 tax, ex-factory tax, lijin along the way and special provincial taxes will be abolished. To this end, the Nanjing National Government also set up a special "Tax Reduction Committee" in July 1928, and announced the completion of tax reduction in June 1929 (in fact, tax reduction and unified taxation were implemented simultaneously throughout the country in 193 1). 1932 "unified taxation department" (later renamed "taxation department") was established.
In this way, the central government has concentrated most of the country's financial resources, and at the same time reserved mobile financial resources for local governments. Through transfer payment, the local financial difficulties were solved, thus reversing the unfavorable situation that financial power was scattered in local areas since the late Qing Dynasty. Improving the central authority and suppressing local forces are conducive to the recovery and development of the national economy. These efforts of the Nanjing National Government to unify finance not only helped to alleviate the financial difficulties of the Nanjing National Government, but also helped to consolidate the rule of the Kuomintang Chiang Kai-shek clique. It also protects national industry and commerce to a certain extent and is conducive to the development of national capitalism.
However, its negative impact is also remarkable: (1) Although Nanjing National Government was nominally the central government, the areas actually controlled at that time were only a few provinces in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and its policy of unified finance and "unified tax reduction" was also a centralized financial system. Once implemented, it will definitely harm the interests of local forces, and it will be strongly resisted or publicly rejected, and the result will be implemented step by step. For example, 1936, the three taxes accounted for nearly 65% of the total fiscal revenue of Nanjing National Government. However, local warlords mainly rely on land tax, business tax and license tax for their financial resources, and increase the collection of additional land tax due to the decrease of their taxes. For example, according to the investigation by the Legislative Yuan of the National Government, there are 26 kinds of land tax surtax in Jiangsu Province, 2 1 kind in Hebei Province, 20 kinds in Hubei Province, 8 kinds in Yunnan Province and 0/0 kinds in Zhejiang Province. By 1930- 193 1 year, the additional taxes in general provinces are several times higher than the regular taxes, and some areas even reach 30 times. In addition, all localities have also implemented land tax pre-levy, and the pre-levy time is getting longer and longer. For example, in some areas of Sichuan, land tax has been levied in advance for more than 30 years. Greatly increased the economic burden of farmers, leading to an accelerated decline in rural economy. (4) (3) On the whole, although "unified taxation" has increased the fiscal revenue of Nanjing National Government and "tax reduction and exemption" has helped to change the disadvantages of "numerous taxes and repeated collection", the tax rate of "unified taxation" is as high as 50%, which objectively increases the economic burden of national capitalism.
Second, tax reform.
Because of its unique compulsion, gratuitousness and fixity, tax has become the best economic lever for fiscal revenue distribution, and the proportion of tax in fiscal revenue is also an important symbol to measure a country's fiscal development level. The central link of Nanjing National Government's fiscal consolidation must be tax consolidation, and the central link of increasing fiscal revenue must also be to increase the proportion of tax revenue in fiscal revenue.
(A) Salt tax reform
From 65438 to 0927, the National Government promulgated and implemented the Charter of the General Audit Office of the Salt Affairs Department of the Ministry of Finance, re-established the General Audit Office of Salt Affairs, and set up the General Audit Office of Salt Affairs in Shanghai to integrate the collection and management institutions, strengthen the collection and management ability and improve the collection and management efficiency. At the same time, through consultations with Britain, France, Japan and other countries, the salt tax sovereignty lost by the former Beijing government was completely recovered. In addition, a new salt law has been promulgated, which reduces the tax burden compared with the old salt tax regulations of the Beijing government. For example, it is stipulated that the national currency is levied at five yuan per 100 kilograms, the fishing salt is levied at a triangle per 100 kilograms, and the agricultural salt is exempted. At the same time, by expanding the tax base, strengthening the collection and management, increasing tax revenue. According to statistics, salt tax revenue will reach 17065438.
(2) tariff reform
The biggest change of tariff policy in the early period of Nanjing National Government's rule was tariff autonomy. 1927, after the establishment of the Nanjing National Government, it issued the Declaration on Cancellation of Unequal Treaties twice in May and August of that year, formulated the Regulations on National Import Tariffs, and decided to implement tariff autonomy from September of that year. Subsequently, Song Ziwen, Foreign Minister of Nanjing National Government, and others started diplomatic negotiations with British and American ambassadors to China, focusing on "tariff autonomy" and "abolition of consular jurisdiction". 1928- 1929, the Nanjing national government successively signed new customs treaties or friendly trade treaties with the United States, Britain, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, France and other countries 1 1. In the new treaty, the European and American powers recognized China's tariff autonomy on the premise of retaining China's "most favored nation treatment" and continuing to control China's customs administrative power, and agreed to cancel the tariff privilege of the powers in China and implement the seven-level additional tax rate standard agreed at the special tariff meeting of 1925 (among which, the highest import tariff rate of 1932 and 1933 was raised to 50%.
The Nanjing National Government promulgated and implemented the Customs Import and Export Tariff on 1929, which declared China's tariff autonomy. By 1934, the import and export tariffs of four countries had been promulgated, with the lowest tax rate of 14, the highest tax rate of 80% and the average tax rate of 25%, which changed the unequal tariff system of 100% value of imported goods imposed by imperialism in the past. At the same time, land and sea customs tariffs have been unified. Since the land tariff was one third less than the sea tariff in the past, the revised New Testament will increase the land tariff. In order to develop national capitalism and improve the competitiveness of domestic export products, the national government also reduced or exempted export tariffs.
By implementing the policy of "tariff autonomy", Nanjing National Government not only gained formal tariff autonomy, but also actually raised the tariff rate. It has also changed the two unreasonable provisions of unified tax and non-unified land and sea tariff in China's tariff system for a long time. "Tariff autonomy", as an important financial foreign policy adopted by Nanjing National Government in the early days of its establishment, is of course aimed at expanding tax sources, increasing the fiscal revenue of the central government, and solving the huge expenses such as military expenditure urgently needed by Nanjing National Government in the civil war. Its positive role is undeniable to some extent. This positive effect is mainly manifested in: (1) Through the implementation of "tariff autonomy", the China government can greatly increase import tax and reduce export tax, which undoubtedly plays a positive role in encouraging and improving the competitiveness of China's goods in the international market and protecting and supporting the development of China's national industry and commerce. (2) Through "tariff autonomy" and making tariff rules independently, the structure of imported goods in China has also changed. Among them, the most obvious change is the sharp decrease in the import quantity of various cotton fabrics. (3) The implementation of the tariff independence policy greatly increased the fiscal revenue of Nanjing National Government. According to relevant statistics, China's tariff revenue increased from1916.97 million yuan in 2003 to 1928 to 179 1400 yuan and 1929 to 275.54 million yuan. The proportion of tariff revenue in the total revenue of the central government has also increased from 2191%in13 to 4 1% in 1928 and 5 1% in 1929, making it a national of Nanjing.
(C) the establishment of a unified tax system
As the national government abolished lijin and some exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous fees, the fiscal revenue decreased. Therefore, the Ministry of Finance decided to start unified taxation to make up for this loss. Cigarettes, cotton yarn, cement, matches, wheat flour, flue-cured tobacco leaves, foreign wine, beer, kerosene and other commodities with relatively concentrated production, large-scale production by machinery, large consumer groups and flexible taxation are selected as tax targets. Because the unified tax is classified as central revenue and the target of collection is bulk consumer goods, it is stipulated that the same commodity cannot be taxed twice for one thing and one tax, and the national unified tax rate is not allowed, and Chinese and foreign products are equally taxed. The unified tax revenue rose sharply, reaching 1.6 1.57 million yuan in 1936, accounting for 12.25% of the central fiscal revenue.
Third, the reform of the monetary system.
Currency Reform: During the period from the late Qing Dynasty to the Beiyang government, China's monetary system was extremely chaotic, and there were many kinds of currencies. In the early days of the establishment of Nanjing National Government, the functional currencies in circulation were silver and silver dollar, among which silver dollar included regular yuan, Kuping and Guanping, and silver dollar included Angelababy, Yang Mo, Yang Long and Yuantou. There are copper coins, copper coins, coins and all kinds of paper money. The chaos of monetary system has caused difficulties in domestic commodity circulation, which is not conducive to economic development and has also seriously affected the financial collection of the national government. In this regard, the Nanjing National Government has successively implemented the "waste two products, change yuan" and "legal tender policy".
(1) Waste two yuan.
"Abandoning two items and changing yuan" is a monetary measure adopted by Nanjing National Government to determine the silver standard currency. 1in March, 928, the Zhejiang provincial government took the lead in putting forward the proposal of "unifying the national currency" and "changing the two yuan". In June of the same year, at the national economic conference held by the national government, another proposal was put forward, which attracted the attention of the national government, but for various reasons, it was not implemented at that time. Until July 1932, the Ministry of Finance of the National Government decided to implement the principle of "two wastes into yuan" and formulated the principle of "two wastes into yuan".
On March 1933 and 1 day, the Ministry of Finance of the National Government issued the "Order of Exchange of Two Wastes for Yuan", announcing the implementation of "Exchange of Two Wastes for Yuan". On the basis of establishing the silver standard policy and standardizing the fineness, shape and weight of silver, the silver dollar will become a unified currency in the country. "Abandoning the two items and changing the yuan" has objectively played a role in unifying the currency, developing the economy and facilitating the people, expanding the scale and function of the central bank, facilitating the implementation of the central government's paper money, and laying a foundation for the implementation of the legal monetary policy in the future.
(2) legal monetary policy
1935165438+1On October 3, the Ministry of Finance of Nanjing National Government promulgated the Law on the Implementation of Legal Currency Policy and the Measures for Legal Currency Exchange to implement legal currency policy. . The Ministry of Finance decided to set up a special committee to deal with the issuance, exchange and storage of legal tender reserves.
On the eve of the introduction of monetary reform measures, Kong Xiangxi, then Minister of Finance, held a two-hour meeting with financial leaders in Shanghai and immediately announced the reform plan. On that day, speculation in the Shanghai market was active and prices soared. The Shanghai Monetary Industry Association specially convened an emergency executive committee to discuss remedial measures and decided to deposit all the cash in the central bank and issue paper money at one time.
main content
1) unify the right to issue currency and implement legal monetary policy. Banknotes issued by the Central Bank, Bank of China and Bank of Communications (later the Farmers Bank of China) are legal tender; Other banks may not continue to issue new banknotes; All taxes paid on grain and the income and expenditure of all public and private funds are limited to legal tender, and cash is not allowed; Other bank notes originally approved by the Ministry of Finance are allowed to be used as usual, and the Ministry of Finance will exchange them in legal tender on a regular basis. ⑻
2) implement state-owned banks. Prohibit the circulation of silver and transfer the silver nationalized to foreign countries as foreign exchange reserves; All silver shops, other public or private institutions or individuals holding silver functional currency or raw silver and other silver coins will turn them into legal tender from165438+1October 4th.
3) Abandon the silver standard and adopt the foreign exchange standard. In order to stabilize the exchange rate of legal tender against foreign exchange, it is stipulated that the central government, China and communications are not restricted in buying and selling foreign exchange. The value of legal tender is expressed by foreign exchange rate; At that time, it was stipulated that legal tender 1 pound 1 shilling was 2.5p, so the United States fought for it. In February of the same year, the United States changed the way of buying silver, which forced the world silver price to plummet and affected the stability of China's exchange fund. 1936 In May, the Nanjing National Government was forced to conclude the Sino-US Silver Agreement with the United States, and the exchange rate between the legal tender and the US dollar was fixed. The fiat 1 yuan is equal to 0.2975 USD, making it a vassal of the British pound and the US dollar.
The implementation of the legal tender policy has unified and standardized the chaotic and diverse currencies in the country since the late Qing Dynasty, which is conducive to the development of commodity economy and the formation of a unified domestic market, as well as the development of domestic finance and industry and commerce. It also reduced the heavy economic burden brought by the chaos of the monetary system to a certain extent; After the currency reform, the foreign exchange rate of legal tender was determined, which stabilized the relationship with foreign currency and promoted the development of China's import and export trade.
However, the "currency reform" of 1935 is obviously predatory and monopolistic. It was through this "currency reform" that the four major banks of Nanjing National Government issued/kloc-0.4 billion French francs, totaling * *. The national government regarded legal tender as cashless paper money with legal compensation qualification, and used inflation to fill the fiscal deficit, which led to hyperinflation and became an important reason for the collapse of the national economy.
Objectively speaking, judging from the development of monetary form, the legal tender policy of the Kuomintang government has entered the modernization ranks. However, due to the corruption of the political and economic system of the entire Kuomintang government, the role of modern currency has not been fully exerted. Later, it developed into a shackle that hindered social and economic development. ⑼
In the early days of its rule (1927- 1937), the Nanjing National Government implemented a series of effective fiscal policies and tax currency reforms in the face of the national economy destroyed by years of war, the cruel oppression of Beiyang warlords and imperialism, and the chaotic fiscal and taxation system. Most of these reforms conformed to the laws of market economy and the reality of China at that time, and played a huge positive role in improving the national government's finance, promoting the formation of a unified domestic market, developing national capitalism and facilitating people's economic life. It was also through the financial and economic reforms in the first ten years of the rule that the conditions were created for the development of the national economy and the financial strength was enriched, which enabled the Nanjing National Government to reorganize the army on a large scale during the outbreak of September 18th to War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and strengthened the armed construction of the army. Only in this way can we organize more effective resistance in the war of resistance; Only in this way can we create possibilities for future victory in the war of resistance against Japan.