Chapter 2 - The Sung fiscal administration

Summary

This chapter first outlines in general terms developments in fiscal administration over the course of the Sung period. From our much longer vantage point, it is quite clear that the Sung fiscal administration succeeded remarkably well in collecting the revenues needed to cover unprecedented government expenditures. The Sung government's success derived from the evolution of the fiscal administration in directions that enabled the government to extract with unique effectiveness large revenues from the flourishing non-agricultural, commercial sector of the economy. In addition to its efforts to make agricultural taxes more equitable, the government was also active in promoting agricultural production, both on ideological grounds that emphasized a healthy rural order where peasants could above all grow enough food to meet the needs of the whole population, and because of the recognition that agricultural taxes, even as they represented a declining portion of total revenue, were indispensable to the government's fiscal health.