晚清臺灣清賦事業的再考察──「減四留六」的決策過程與意義

Re-thinking Land Reform Policies in Late Qing Taiwan: The Significance and Policy-Making Process of “Cutting 40% and Retaining 60% of Large Rents”

清末臺灣巡撫劉銘傳在清賦事業後期推動的「減四留六」、「大租戶承糧」等政策，長期以來一直被認為是：政府在大租戶的抗爭壓力下，為了委曲求全而不得不讓步的一種退縮政策；政策的制定和推行違背了清賦事業最初廢除大租戶的理想，也使得該事業功敗垂成。本文藉由政策齬麒之重建發現：劉銘傳的清賦事業並不存在廢除大租戶的想法；「減四留六」等政策事實上也是對小租戶比較有利，而非大租戶。所以，「減四留六」等政策不會是大租戶壓迫政府而制定，畢竟大租戶不會想馞一個對自己不利的政策。因此我們應該重新魧察劉銘傳施行清賦事業的整體決策齬麒，才能看出決策後來發生轉折的意義。本文的結論認為：我們從清代文獻裡看到的劉銘傳清賦事業，之所以在到達完成階段時倉促推出「減四留六」等政策，主馞是基於土地、稅收之行政管理的魧量，而不是屈就於大租戶反抗的結果。我們現在對於「減四留六」等政策的評價，乃是源自於日治時期殖民地行政部門推行土地調查事業並廢除大租權的政策立場和觀點，因為這樣的評價有助於強化臺灣總督府廢除大租戶之正當性，並相對提升土地調查事業之歷史評價。

Liu Mingchuan 劉銘傳, the governor of Taiwan during the late Qing Dynasty, implemented a policy of“cutting 40% and retaining 60% of large rents,”recognizing the“large-rent holders paying taxes”in the latter phase of land reform. The above policies had long been regarded as retreating responses from the strong protests of the large rent holders. In retrospect, these changes violated the original idea of abolishing large rent holders, and eroded the achievements of land reform. From the construction of the policy-making process, the author has discovered that Liu Mingchuan did not intend to abolish large rent holders at all. Yet, those land reform policies did bring more advantages to the small rent holders. The validity of the traditional view, which emphasized the distortion of land reform policies under the pressure of large-rent holders, was thus challenged. This paper argues that Liu Mingchuan,s intention of enforcing the above policies upon the completion of land reform was to accommodate the difficulty of collecting taxes from small rent holders; that is, for the concerns of taxed-land administration and tax collection. The present evaluation of land reform policies such as“cutting 40% and retaining 60% of large rents”were inherited from the standpoints of land survey officials and their intention of abolishing large rent holders in the early Japanese colonial period. That was because such propaganda justified the Taiwan Governor-General's action in abolishing large rent holders, and promoted land reform in a positive manner.