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=志九十五=食貨一明末，苛政紛起，籌捐增餉，民窮財困。 有清入主中國，概予蠲除，與民更始。 逮康、乾之世，國富民殷。 凡滋生人丁，永不加賦，又普免天下租稅，至再至三。 嗚呼，古未有也。 道、咸以降，海禁大開，國家多故。 耗財之途廣，而生財之道滯。 當軸者昧於中外大勢，召禍興戎，天府太倉之蓄，一旦蕩然，賠償兵費至四百餘兆。 以中國所有財產抵借外債，積數十年不能清償。 攤派加捐，上下交困。 乃改海運以節漕費，變圜法以行國幣，講鹽政以增歲入，開礦產以擴財源。 以及創鐵路，改郵傳，設電局，通海舶。 新政繁興，孳孳謀利，而於古先聖王生眾食寡、為疾用舒之道，昧焉不講。 夫以唐、虞治平之世，而其告舜、禹也，諄諄以「四海困窮，天祿永終」為戒。 有國者其可忽哉！ 茲取清代理財始末，條著於篇。 戶口田制
Treatise 95: Food and Money, Part 1. In the closing years of the Ming, oppressive policies multiplied—special levies were raised and military allotments increased—until both the populace and the treasury were drained. Once the Qing assumed rule over China, they swept these burdens away wholesale and let the people begin anew. By the Kangxi and Qianlong reigns, the empire was flush and the people at ease. No matter how much the population grew, the poll tax was never raised; land taxes across the realm were remitted again and again—two and three times over. Truly, nothing like it had been seen in all of history. After the Daoguang and Xianfeng periods, the maritime ban was largely lifted, and the dynasty was beset by one crisis after another. Avenues for spending money multiplied, while ways of producing it stalled. Men at the helm failed to grasp the larger forces shaping China and the world; they courted calamity and war until the imperial storehouses were emptied overnight and war reparations alone ran to more than four hundred million taels. The nation's assets were pledged to service foreign loans, and decades of payments still could not clear the debt. Assessments were spread and surcharges piled on until court and country alike were squeezed dry. The government turned to sea transport to cut grain-shipping costs, overhauled currency to put a national coinage in circulation, reworked the salt monopoly to swell annual receipts, and opened mines to broaden the revenue base. Railways were built, the postal system modernized, telegraph bureaus established, and steam shipping brought into regular service. New policies multiplied and officials strained every nerve for gain, while the sage-kings' counsel—to swell the population, lighten consumption, and husband resources in haste—was left unheeded. Even in the golden age of Yao and Shun, their charge to Shun and Yu rang with one warning: "When the four seas are impoverished, Heaven's mandate is cut off forever." How can any ruler of a realm afford to ignore this! What follows sets out the full arc of Qing revenue policy, arranged section by section. Household Registers and Land Tenure