Abstract：In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the salt traffickers near salt fields were mostly poor people. Most of them smuggled salt for a living, selling salt nearby or trafficking salt to other places to take advantage of price difference. Although it was against the law, salt trafficking was justifiably an important livelihood for the poor people near salt fields. Therefore, it was a challenge for the rulers of the Ming and Qing Dynasties to eliminate salt trafficking in the regions near salt fields and help the poor people there at the same time. The rulers of the Ming and Qing Dynasties tried to address this issue involving salt industry management and social assistance through institutional reform, such as relaxing ordinances against salt trafficking near salt fields in Ming Dynasty and the licensing system to the poor (authorizing the poor to carry certain amount of salt on daily basis) in the Qing Dynasty, but these policies did not achieve expected effects. The licensing system was abolished as a result, and only the relaxation of ordinances against salt trafficking near salt fields continued. The reason is that containing salt trafficking requires only punishment while social assistance requires management. Addressing the issue of social assistance through legalizing salt trafficking is equivalent to turning low-cost punishment issue into a high-cost management issue, which obviously touched the “ceiling” of the governance capacity of the ruling class of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and even the government during the Period of the Republic of China did not break this bottleneck. Therefore, the governance reform of salt trafficking near salt fields was bound to go nowhere.
吕小琴. 明清近场私盐治理的改革困境及制度移变[J]. 《深圳大学学报》（人文社科版）, 2021, 38(1): 17-24.
LV Xiao-qin. Reform Predicament and System Transformation in Containing Salt Trafficking near Salt Fields in Ming and Qing Dynasties. , 2021, 38(1): 17-24.
2021, Vol. 38 
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