During the Ming dynasty, the grain tribute transportation system operated according to an annual amount of 4 million dan of grain and 400 dan per ship. With delays in shipbuilding and the occurrence of accidents such as sinkings and fires, the way of transportation by other ships, or sadai灑帶, became a temporary remedial measure. Due to a strict adherence to the original system and certain levies placed on shipbuilding materials, or the system of jiancun減存, in the Ming dynasty, sadai had always been regarded as an expedient measure rather than a regulation. However, as the system of jiancun could not make up for the large-scale lack of grain tribute ships, the adoption of sadai became increasingly frequent and was eventually proposed as a permanent strategy in the late Ming.
Moving into the early Qing dynasty, owing to the pressing lack of military funds and provisions as well as specific ships for grain tribute transportation, sadai gradually became normalized, and following the reformation of the “white grain” system, specified the principles of how it was consumed. At the same time, it complemented the restructuring of the garrison, or weisuo衛所, system which cut off a large number of ships, and thus, the dayun搭運 grain tribute transportation system was comprehensively established, which correspondingly resulted in two classifications of soldiers: “current transport” (xianding 現丁) and “reduction” (jianding 減丁). Under the dayun system, reduction soldiers were not needed to transport grain and only required to pay “military-agricultural colony,” or tuntian屯田, subsidies, which further deepened the monetized processes of the tax and corvee system within the grain tribute transportation system of the Ming dynasty.
This trend, however, was not irreversible. As long as it was needed by the state, reduction soldiers still had the possibility of transporting grain in the future. Therefore, the Qing government did not completely abolish the identity of reduction soldiers as “transportation” soldiers, or caojun漕軍, which legitimized the possession of tuntian by reduction soldiers thereby leading to the matter of the nationalization of garrisons. In another regard, the dayun system formed a cyclic pattern of a reduction in grain tribute transportation ships, the use of sadai measures, an increase in shipping capacity, and a rise in fiscal revenues. During the mid- and late Qing dynasty, the dayun system was being continuously put into practice and expanded into the field of social emergency services. In order to ensure a sufficient amount of food was entering the capital, for example, foodstuff which originally fell outside of grain to be transported to the capital was then incorporated into the dayun system. The actual carrying capacity of the ships thus increased, and eventually, the original amount of 4 million dan of grain was exceeded, further exacerbating the difficulties faced by the ships when shouldering such a load. Relatively, water levels were simply inadequate to keep the ships with their new weights afloat, thereby clogging waterways and worsening water transportation. Once again in efforts to ensure its food supply, the capital used the legal space of the military to carry the local products. As the loads of the dayun system were operated without restraint, not only was the expediency and the livelihood of the military sacrificed, but the prices of numerous goods also rose steeply in the capital, all of which made the implementation of sea transportation in the reign of the Daoguang Emperor imperative.
grain tribute transportation system (dayun搭運); grain tribute transportation ships; garrison system (weisuo衛所); monetization of the tax and corvee system
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