稅收、價格與華洋商人：經濟危機下的捲煙稅制（1929-1937）

Taxes, Prices, and Local and Foreign Merchants:The Cigarette Tax System during the Great Depression, 1929-1937

1930年代發生在美國的「大蕭條」影響了國際金銀貨幣體系，加劇了中國經濟的動蕩。當時中國還面臨複雜的國內外形勢，如何在經濟危機下保障稅收穩定，關涉南京國民政府的正常運作。捲煙統稅是南京國民政府的重要收入來源，先後歷經七次改制。以往研究多注意到英美煙公司和南京國民政府的兩次煙稅協定，以及當時華商和輿論有選擇性的報導，忽視了經濟危機下捲煙價格的因素，從而誤以為南京國民政府的幾次改革均是由英美煙公司主導的。事實上，該時期的捲煙稅制是分級等額制，在經濟危機下，南京國民政府利用稅級的變動操縱捲煙稅率，根據捲煙價格的浮動使捲煙稅於從量稅和從價稅之間調整，保障價格波動中稅收的穩定增加。稅制的變動極大地影響了華洋商人，但「大蕭條」下輿論「華洋不均」的報導和民族情緒使華商忽視了洋商在稅制上的相同訴求，將洋商推向敵對一面，在與政府交涉時尤為被動。在請求稅改的提議被拒絕後，華洋商人分別採取不同的策略應對經濟危機和捲煙稅制，體現出時代背景下稅收、價格和華洋商人間的微妙關係。

The Great Depression that occurred in the United States during the 1930s affected the international gold and silver monetary system, which exacerbated the turmoil of the Chinese economy. The Nanjing Government sought to ensure tax income stability during the economic crisis. The tobacco tax was an important source of income for the government and underwent seven reforms. Previous research has only examined the two tax agreements between the British and American Tobacco Company and the Nanjing Government, and the selective reports of local merchants and media at that time, ignoring the factor of cigarette prices. As a result, scholars have concluded that the reforms were all dominated by BAT. In fact, the tobacco tax system in this period was a ranking system. The government used changes in tax levels to manipulate the tobacco tax rate and adjusted the tax between the specific tax and the ad valorem tax according to the fluctuation of cigarette prices. This guaranteed a steady increase of taxation income. The changes in the tax system greatly affected both local and foreign merchants. However, reports of “inequality between local and foreign” and national sentiment caused Chinese merchants to ignore the similar demands of foreign merchants, arousing their hostility and leading to passivity in official negotiations. After the proposal for tax reform was rejected, local and foreign merchants adopted different strategies to deal with the economic crisis and the tobacco tax system.