英文摘要
|
In order to control piracy, the early Ming government established numerous garrisons along coastal Zhejiang. Because the primary task of these garrisons was to secure the coastal area, the portion of military farm soldiers was very low. Some coastal garrisons did not have military colonies at all. To support the living of garrison soldiers, the government permitted garrison supernumeraries to purchase private lands, and pay taxes by registering the lands to the local government. This practice was referred to as "attaching registration" (fu ji 附籍). Some government-owned wastelands, brought under cultivation by supernumeraries, were later registered as taxable lands and administered by garrisons. Initially, members from military households who purchased private lands were responsible for civil corvée, but in the first year of the Jingtai reign (1450), all the supernumeraries were ordered to return to their garrisons for military corvée. The private lands could only be registered in the name of old or young supernumeraries or women, so that military corvée could not be evaded. These military households with attaching registration had registered lands but no adult male, so it was difficult to collect taxes from them. Moreover, the registered taxable lands of military households were mixed with private lands, and powerful military households took this opportunity to encroach on private lands. These factors, along with a proliferation of various tricks for evading taxes, seriously eroded the local government's tax base. In the mid-Ming, local officials started to establish tithing of military household to compensate for the loss from civil tithing. Military households with attaching registration were registered in the name of one adult male, who had to pay taxes but did not have to perform civil corvée. Instead of performing civil corvée, these households paid extra taxes. Adult males with attaching registration could be called back to their garrisons as soon as the garrison did not have enough adult males. Therefore, although they were registered under civil government, they were not beyond the control of military garrisons. After the single-whip policy, civil taxes and corvée were determined based on the number of "adult males"—now simply an administrative rubric, under which women and minors were sometimes included-and lands. The tax of adult males for each military household with attaching registration was decided by the number of registered lands, so that the taxes collected by the local government from military households with attaching registration were all decided by the number of lands. Therefore, there was no conflict in the service of the adult male between civil and military administrations. Under this trend, there were variations in practice according to the actual conditions of different areas. This article examines these variations through several case studies in coastal Zhejiang, and attempts to illustrate the actual condition of military households with attaching registration, and the significance of the establishment of military tithing in the history of tax reform during the Ming.
|