From local jurisdiction to imperial domain: the making of Ji’an’s salt monopoly under the Imperial Household Department, 1644–1795

Abstract This article uncovers the Imperial Household Department’s holding of salt monopoly permits, a long-overlooked dimension of Qing salt administration, and examines how this practice reshaped salt monopoly operations in regions with chronic tax arrears as well as the department’s own revenue framework. Focusing on Ji’an Prefecture, a south-western Jiangxi border area plagued by rampant salt smuggling and persistent salt tax arrears, this study shows that after inadvertently acquiring Ji’an’s salt permits in the Yongzheng reign, the department leased these permits to merchant lessees and collected annual rents thereon. Coupled with supporting cost-sharing and cost-cutting measures—notably the triennial rotation of salt merchants responsible for Ji’an’s salt tax quotas—these institutional innovations substantially eased operational burdens for salt traders and forged an unprecedented operating model for jurisdictions chronically unable to fulfil the Board of Revenue’s tax targets. Meanwhile, the department centralised rent management and standardised remittance protocols, converting permit rents into its steady, exclusive revenue stream. While this mechanism prolonged the sustainability of the state-controlled salt monopoly, it generated profound fiscal frictions. On the one hand, it bifurcated salt fiscal revenues and undermined central authority over salt taxation. On the other hand, by tracing the evolution of Ji’an’s permit regime from localised mandatory rentals to blanket arbitrary surcharges imposed on all Huainan salt permits, this study lays bare the coercive underpinnings of such fiscal exactions. Accordingly, it further illuminates the rise of discretionary commercial taxation under the Qianlong reign and its enduring deleterious repercussions for Qing commercial development.