Abstract:

Likin system is an important commercial tax system in modern times, which affects the development of commodity economy and market. This article attempts to restore the actual state of likin collection in the southern Jiangsu area in the late Qing Dynasty, and sort out the collection items and various collection modes. The taxation model was not completely divided between commodities. Rather, there were various options which not only facilitated merchants choosing to pay according to their own circumstances, but also ensured that the officials maximize their collects, so as to balance the relationship between the two. In addition, this paper uses the likin stations as a carrier to perform ArcGIS Thiessen polygon(泰森多边形) segmentation to analyze the market space structure in southern Jiangsu. The results show that the radius of Southern Jiangsu area likin stations(厘卡) in the late Qing Dynasty was 5.56-6.67 kilometers, and the radius of Head offices was 16.45-21.93 kilometers. The difference between the Thiessen polygons generated by the Head office and the likin station is different from the regional market analysis under the Skinnerian Model. This difference is due to the difference in the attributes of the space division carrier in the regional market, which partially reflects the spatial characteristics of the “local market according to likin stations” issue.

Key words: end of Qing Dynasty, Southern Jiangsu, Likin, actual state of the grassroots, market structure