Prohibit taxation

During the Daoguang period, opium became a serious problem faced by the Qing Dynasty, and the imperial court always adopted a strict prohibition attitude. In the most severe period, "all smokers, traffickers and growers were beheaded". Although smuggling and trafficking are actually increasing, the imperial court has never let it go, even after the failure of the First Opium War.

1858 to 10, China and Britain held tariff negotiations in Shanghai, and Britain strongly demanded "legalization of opium trade". Emperor Xianfeng also wanted to use this as a bargaining weight in exchange for a blow to the entry of ministers into Beijing in the Tianjin Treaty.

And the result? China and Britain signed the Treaty on Trade Chartering and Customs Clearance, which stipulates: "Foreign drugs are allowed to be imported, and it is agreed to pay RMB 320 per 100 tons."

The goal of "legalization of opium trade" in Britain was achieved, but Emperor Xianfeng's wish of "cracking down on the terms of envoys stationed in Beijing" failed. In fact, the opium problem has become too serious to be stopped. It is estimated that in 1842, 28,508 cases of Indian opium were sold in China, but in 1858, this figure increased to 6 1966 cases, which is worrying.

Since imported opium can be sold openly, there is no need to ban local opium. 1859, Prince Hui urged all foreign and local medicines to be smoked, which was approved by Emperor Xianfeng. What needs to be clear is that the imperial court did not give up the attitude of banning opium, and imposed taxes on opium, which is euphemistically called "combination of prohibition and levy", that is, increasing the cost of smoking opium through taxation and curbing the spread of tobacco drugs. This is just self-deception, and its real idea is nothing more than: since it is unable to ban it, it is better to tax it to ease the huge financial pressure.

Opium commercial war

186 1 year, Empress Dowager Cixi seized power and took over a malodorous Qing Dynasty. On the one hand, the value of imported opium is increasing day by day, and the silver of the Qing Dynasty is going out; On the other hand, the area planted with poppies in the local area is increasing day by day, because it is more profitable to grow poppies to make opium, and farmers everywhere have abandoned their seeds.

All walks of life have seen that local cultivation is promising. Only when the local opium production is more can the import be reduced. In other words, encouraging local poppy production can reduce the outflow of silver and increase tax revenue.

As a result, the argument of "opium commercial war" began to be openly discussed. As early as the last years of Daoguang, Liang Zhangju, an official, wrote the words "Opium Commercial War": "Recently, the ban on opium has been gradually relaxed, and the disadvantages of missing the ban are more and more incalculable. Therefore, please pay attention to the national planners and invite all provinces to generally plant poppies, so that opium in the Central Plains is beneficial and foreign countries have no exotic goods ..."

It is obviously more acceptable to mention the "opium commercial war" at this time. Since opium is inevitable, it is better to produce and sell it, which will at least reverse the trend of silver outflow.

1873, industrialist Zheng wrote in the book "Exposing the essentials of saving time": "Isn't it one of the ways to strengthen the country and protect the people by letting everyone eat more Sichuan soil and less foreign soil?"

1874 February, Zhili Governor Li Hongzhang wrote in his memorial: "We can neither prohibit British businessmen from selling foreign cigarettes, nor can we prohibit China people from eating foreign cigarettes. Just temporarily relaxing the ban on poppies will not only capture foreign commercial interests, but also increase taxes ... Yin and Yang are balanced, and foreign medicines should be gradually banned. " Lao Li also said: "Native drugs are warm and cheap, and their addiction is thin, which is no more harmful than foreign drugs."

Empress dowager cixi has an ambiguous attitude towards the concept of "reaching the ocean with soil", and planting is still prohibited between words. Even in 1864, the "prohibition of poppy cultivation" was promulgated, but it was never seriously implemented. However, provincial officials all over the country took active actions, either encouraging or acquiescing farmers to grow poppies on a large scale and taxing them.

Poppies are everywhere.

Because this is several times more than the income from growing food, farmers are very enthusiastic about growing poppies. During the Tongzhi period, in the early years of Guangxu, opium poppy quickly spread all over the country 18 provinces, from northeast to southwest, from southeast to northwest, and no province wanted to stay.

Taking Shanxi as an example, poppy cultivation became a trend at the turn of salt and water, and then spread rapidly. In the early years of Guangxu, there was no county, and the north "stretched for hundreds of miles". The article "Wash Warm Horses, Quit Opium and Grow Poppies" provides a set of data: "According to the 495,934 hectares recorded in the old book" Tu Tian Zhi "in the Jin Dynasty, since the prevalence of poppies today, no less than 34 of the 10 plants have been planted in each county, accounting for150,000 hectares in the province."

According to Agricultural Journal 1903, "The output of Su Ying in Shanxi is the highest in Taiyuan, Yuci, Jiaocheng, Wenshui, Daizhou and Osmanthus fragrans", and the planting area of these six places exceeds 30,000 mu. According to the statistics reported by the International Opium Commission from 65438 to 0906, Shanxi Province produces 3 million Jin of opium every year, accounting for about 0.2 million mu of cultivated land/kloc-0.

Zhejiang, located in the southeast coast, also ushered in a prosperous period of poppy cultivation during Tongzhi and Guangxu years. "Everyone is willing to be a flower farmer and not willing to grow rice and poppy."

Taizhou Prefecture "Tianjia is ripe in spring, planting poppies, and beans and wheat are twelve Liang"; In Wenzhou, "(Poppy) first came from Taizhou, and there are nearly many kinds of plants ... although it is forbidden to pull out, it is beneficial to cultivate"; In Yuyao County, Shaoxing Prefecture, "(poppy) is twice as profitable as cotton, and it is planted with more waste" ... By 1900, the poppy planting area in Zhejiang Province has reached 473,700 mu.

/kloc-during the period of 0/873, the British missionary Jacob visited China, and what he saw along the way was that "the land between the Yellow River and the Yangtze River was covered with poppy fields", even in Confucius' hometown.

1894, Mo Li Xun, a young Englishman, was traveling in the midwest of China. According to what he saw, "during the whole journey of 1700 (from Hubei and Sichuan to Yunnan), the poppy plantation never disappeared from my sight."

Palace poisoning

"Reaching the ocean with soil" has achieved remarkable results. According to Yao Xianhao's statistics in the book "China's Modern Foreign Trade History, 1840- 1895", the opium import value of 1894 accounted for 46. 15% of China's import value, and the proportion dropped to 20.56%.

Historian Fei Zhengqing once pointed out: "After 1880, China's local opium gradually replaced Indian products." Another set of data quoted in the book Social History of China: History of Drug Abuse shows that in 1906, the local opium was 584,000 tons, while the imported quantity was 54,000 tons, and the opium self-sufficiency rate reached 9 1%.

It can be concluded that the Qing Dynasty won the opium commercial war.

While the "native medicine" is growing wildly, the government is as busy as a bee in tax collection. From poppy cultivation to opium production, transportation and sales, all provinces have set up various taxes, levies and donations. At the beginning, the idea of "banning levy" focused on "levy" to solve the financial crisis. Opium tax has become a pillar income in many places. For example, the ten-year customs report (1882- 189 1) in Chongqing pointed out that opium tax and salt tax are the two most important sources of income in Sichuan Province, and from 1882 to 1, opium tax is more important than salt tax. This is true in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Gansu, Yunnan, Guizhou and other provinces.

According to some scholars' rough statistics, from 1868 to 1886, the national opium tax revenue is about 3 million yuan per year. After 1887, it suddenly increased to 9 million yuan per year or even exceeded10 million yuan. After 1895, it fell to 6 million yuan to 7 million yuan.

190 1 year later, in order to repay boxer indemnity and hold new policies such as training and running schools, the imperial court imposed unified taxation on soil and gypsum in all provinces. This tax is several times higher than before, pushing up the opium tax at once. 1908, the tax revenue of foreign medicinal materials was 33.02 million, accounting for 1 1.8% of the total national fiscal revenue (279.92 million).

In the late Qing Dynasty, the national treasury was empty and there were many expenditures. The silver collected from the opium trade did provide funds for the court and maintained its operation. However, just like drug addicts, the imperial court was deeply poisoned by cigarettes, and once it left the opium tax, its financial system was in danger of collapse at any time.

The spread of tobacco poisoning

Imported and local opium are competing to flow out of the market, and the number of smokers is bound to increase. How many people smoked opium in the late Qing Dynasty? It is difficult to come up with a more accurate figure, and there was no relevant statistical data at that time.

According to some calculations and people's experience, we can still understand the general situation. This description is surprising enough. From dignitaries to vendors, a large number of smokers are trapped.

In the early years of Guangxu, eunuch Xu Zhixiang opened an opium museum in Donghuamen Housheng Hall. 188 1 arrested on suspicion of a theft. According to his confession, there are more than 70 private cigarette shops and 7 casinos in the Forbidden City.

In this way, in the power center of the empire, the people became more rampant, and countless people became "heavy smokers", "depressed and dizzy, squinting at the lights and shooting souls."

After visiting ten provinces in 1893, missionary Hudson Taylor said, "When I first came to China in 1854, there were relatively few people who were addicted to opium, but opium spread rapidly in the last twenty years, even faster in the last ten years, and now the consumption of opium is staggering."

Omar L. Kilborn, a Canadian practicing medicine in Sichuan, said: "In some areas where opium is prevalent in Sichuan, it is estimated that 50% to 80% people are addicted, and 30% to 50% of them are women. ..... In the streets of Chengdu and other cities in Sichuan, opium dens can often be seen. "

William Edward Soothill, a missionary in Wenzhou, made a survey. There are more than 700 public cigarette houses in Wenzhou from 65438 to 0892, and the number has increased from 65438 to 0904 to more than 65438 to 0200. According to local population statistics, every 30 adult men have 1 person smoking opium.

It's not serious. In Xi 'an County, Quzhou area, there are more than 300 cigarette houses in the small county town of 1909, which are all over the streets, and the proportion of men smoking opium reaches 20%.

1909, Guoan Tang, a representative of the Qing court who attended the Shanghai World Anti-Smoking Conference, estimated that the number of smokers in China reached about13.45 million. According to the opium sales of 6.5438+0.906 (54,000 tons of foreign drugs and 584,800 tons of local drugs), historian Lin Manhong estimated that there were 6.5438+0.96 million smokers in China, accounting for 4.56% of the total population.