The Salt Industry Commission was an organization created in 758, during the decline of

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, used to raise tax revenue from the state monopoly of the salt trade, or salt gabelle. The commission sold salt to private merchants at a price that included a low but cumulatively substantial tax, which was passed on by the merchants at the point of sale. This basic mechanism of an indirect tax collected by private merchants supervised by government officials endured to the mid-20th century. The salt tax enabled a weak government to sustain itself; the government need control only the few regions that produced salt. Plans to end the government monopoly on salt by 2016 were announced in 2014.

History

Following the

An Lushan Rebellion The An Lushan rebellion was a civil war in China that lasted from 755 to 763, at the approximate midpoint of the Tang dynasty (618–907). It began as a commandery rebellion attempting to overthrow and replace the Tang government with the rogue ...

(756–763) revenues from the land tax began to fall. The

equal-field system The equal-field system () or land-equalization system was a system of land ownership and distribution in China used from the Northern Wei dynasty to the mid-Tang dynasty. By the Han dynasty, the well-field system of land distribution had fallen ...

that sustained the land tax was undermined by the aristocracy and

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

monasteries acquiring large tracts of land, decreasing the amount of land which was taxable.Theobald, Ulrich
"Chinese History – Tang Dynasty 唐 (618–907)economy"
Chinaknowledge.org. Retrieved 14 February 2010. To compensate the state found a new mechanism for the taxation of salt. In 758, Chancellor Liu Yan created a Salt and Iron Commission. Liu had already proved his worth by using impressed labor to dredge the long silted-over

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...

connecting the Huai and

Yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In t ...

rivers; this project lowered transport costs, relieved food shortages, and increased tax revenues with little government investment. The Huai river ran through Northern Jiangsu, the location of coastal

salt marsh A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. I ...

es which were the major source of salt. Liu realized that if the government could control these areas, it could sell the salt at a monopoly price to merchants, who would pass the price difference on to their customers. This monopoly price was an indirect tax which was reliably collected in advance without having to control the areas where the salt was consumed.Samuel Adrian M. Adshead. ''T'ang China: The Rise of the East in World History.'' (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004; ), p. 50. The commission formed to oversee the new scheme was headed by the salt commissioner (''yantie shi''), a financial specialist, which was uncharacteristic of the Tang unspecialized political administration.

Effects

Salt was to be sold only at regional offices by licensed producers, and then only to licensed merchants at marked up prices. The distribution by merchants ensured the effects of the policy penetrated into areas where the central government had limited authority. The merchants then passed on the high cost of salt to consumers. Peasants were most affected as they spent a higher percentage of their incomes on basic food goods. By 779, taxation of salt quickly accounted for over half of government revenues.Ebrey, Patricia, et al
"East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History to 1800"
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2009) p. 85.

List of salt commissioners

* Jian Youwen

References

{{portal bar, Food Economic history of China Economy of the Tang dynasty History of salt Salt industry

2016 disestablishments in China

History

Effects

List of salt commissioners

See also

References