Lishui's Grain Tax Commuted to Silver in Perpetuity, 1622

Background

Lishui had long sought to have its grain tribute commuted to silver. The Kangxi edition of the Lishui County Gazetteer, juan 1, "Annals of the County", records under 1600, the twenty-eighth year of the Wanli era, that after a dam was built at Guangtong the water above it had no outlet, drowning more than 80,000 mu of rich lakeside fields; the quota tax was apportioned afresh each year and every township bore the loss, so that the local men Zhang Xiao, Xiong Zicheng and others sent a memorial to the throne, pleading with tears that their grain tribute be commuted as in the case of Gaochun:

二十八年庚子，邑民张晓、熊子成等，以广通镇筑坝，上游之水无所泄，荡没沿湖腴田八万余亩，每岁额粮加派，各乡民苦赔累，具疏叩阍，泣请漕粮改折如高淳例。

Translated: In the twenty-eighth year, gengzi, the local men Zhang Xiao, Xiong Zicheng and others, because a dam had been built at Guangtong and the water above it had no outlet, drowning more than 80,000 mu of rich lakeside fields, while the quota tax was apportioned afresh each year and the people of every township suffered the loss, sent a memorial to the throne, pleading with tears that the grain tribute be commuted as in the case of Gaochun.

Time and place

The matter belongs to 1622, the second year of the Tianqi era. The petition was initiated by the prefect of Yingtian Prefecture, Xu Bida, on the detailed report of the Lishui magistrate Zhang Ximing, and was then referred to the provincial governor Wang Xiangheng and the censor Yi Yingchang for joint memorial. The gazetteer does not give the month or day of the approval.

The petition

二年壬戌，应天府尹徐必达据知县张锡命详文，移抚院王象恒、按院易应昌会题，准溧水漕米永远改折，（合）［阖］邑戴之。事载《改折全书》。

Translated: In the second year, renxu, the prefect of Yingtian Prefecture, Xu Bida, on the detailed report of the magistrate Zhang Ximing, referred the matter to the provincial governor Wang Xiangheng and the censor Yi Yingchang for joint memorial, and it was approved that Lishui's grain tribute be commuted to silver in perpetuity, to the gratitude of the whole county. The matter is recorded in the Complete Book of the Commutation.

Consequences

The commutation was approved; the gazetteer says the whole county welcomed it, and it assigns the detailed record of the affair to the Complete Book of the Commutation. The commutation did not last, however. In 1625, the fifth year of the Tianqi era, the capital's stores ran short and commuted districts everywhere were made to lend their grain tribute back for one year. The gazetteer adds:

是年京储告匮，天下改折地方暂借漕米一年。溧水自是不复改折。相沿。

Translated: In that year the capital's stores were exhausted, and districts throughout the empire whose tribute had been commuted lent their grain tribute back for one year. From then on Lishui no longer commuted it, and this continued.

Grain was therefore collected in kind again, and this became the practice.

Uncertainties

First, the commutation "in perpetuity" and its abandonment in 1625 stand side by side in the gazetteer; the practice changed in between, and this entry preserves both without choosing. Second, the Complete Book of the Commutation has not been seen, so its provisions and the course of the deliberations cannot be checked. Third, the gazetteer gives neither the rate of commutation nor the year from which it was to run.