明 天啓年間의 捐納制 시행과 재정 관리

Abstract

During the Tianqi reign, north-eastern districts were not recovered from Nurhachi's invasion and the southwestern region was under the severe strain of financial expenditure due to the revolts in Sichuan(四川) and Guizhou(貴州). Military conflicts in those places drove the Ministry of Revenue into the corner so that it was compelled to cover the war cost of 10 million silver nyang with the income of only 4 to 5 million silver nyang. Thus, the Ministry of Revenue introduced the Juanna system(捐納制) to overcome the financial crisis and the Ministry of Works also employed it to secure financial resources for the construction of Tianqi Emperor's tomb and three palace buildings. The Ministry of Revenue in Nanking local government collected 419,994 silver nyang between September of the second year and the end of Tianqi reign on the basis of the Juanna system. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works tried to cover a drop in the tax revenue in various ways. They alleviated the amount of overdue payment on the one hand and gave the public office in name(虛銜) to those who did not have any official rank(未入流) but were entitled to promotion according to the amount of their donations on the other, which was a feature of the age. The Ming dynasty had no central organization to control the financial situation across the bureaucracy. Of course, the Ministry of Revenue was in charge of planning and implementing the state budget but the Ministries of War and Works also had similar functions. Thus these ministries often made conflicts among themselves over the distribution of tax revenue. The emperor was also forced to intervene in the disputes if the budget was not put in practice as the Ministry of Revenue had intended. In case of insufficient tax collection, a document was dispatched from the central government to encourage provincial governors(督撫) and royal secret inspectors(巡按御史) to fulfill their targets.