Fiscal Cycles and the Low-Level Equilibrium under the Qing: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

This article questions the recent scholarship that attempts to draw parallels between Qing China before 1800 and the so-called fiscal-military states in early modern Europe. Beginning with a survey of “fiscal cycles” in China from the 1640s to the 1850s, the author argues that border wars and territorial expansion had little impact on the Qing state’s tax system and bureaucracy. Contrary to the high level of taxation necessitated by escalation in military spending among the contemporary European states, the Qing pursued the policy of light taxation by freezing land tax rates and practicing universal tax exemption. What prevailed in the Qing fiscal system thus was a “low-level equilibrium,” in which the fixed amount of revenues was sufficient to cover the state’s fixed amount of regular expenditures and generate a sizeable amount of surpluses.