Abstract：Academics generally refer to the salt trade system of Qing Dynasty as monopoly, showing that it was planned and disconnected from the market. However, the analysis of the official population and the statistics of salt licenses of the Qing Dynasty reveals that the salt policy of the Qing Dynasty has following characteristics: the issue of salt licenses was in line with the market capacity at the macro level; the Qing Dynasty was obviously market-orientated in the major issues such as salt policy, salt licenses and the division of salt areas in new territories. However, the regional salt administration system resulted in disputes and conflicts over salt in border areas, which obviously deviated from the market-oriented policy. This is closely related to the administrative rationality and institutional path dependence the officials developed in addressing issues such as the performance assessment in salt administration, the protection of salt taxation in Huainan and Huaibei, the maintenance of their own interests in salt administration, and the traditional salt administration of a thousand years. A certain degree of market orientation, administrative rationality under specific circumstances, and the long-standing institutional path dependence constitute the operation mechanism of salt administration in Qing Dynasty. Under this mechanism, the salt administration of Qing Dynasty showed that some areas violated the market logic while the overall administration was market-orientated to some extent. This contradictory phenomenon was reflected in dramatic conflicts and disputes in some areas, which leads to the misunderstanding that the salt administration of Qing Dynasty was completely disconnected from the market.
黄国信. 市场导向与行政理性：清代盐政运作的原则和机制[J]. 《深圳大学学报》（人文社科版）, 2021, 38(1): 5-12.
HUANG Guo-xin. Market Orientation and Administration Rationality: The Principle and Mechanism of Salt Policy in Qing Dynasty. , 2021, 38(1): 5-12.
2021, Vol. 38 
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