State finance, merchant stake, and foreign interests: The certificate system in the Chinese salt administration, 1912–1949
本文探讨民国时期盐政中引岸制度（一种包税制）为何能延续到1940年代末，分析了外国管理的盐务稽核所、中央与地方财政关系以及盐商与国家的互动，指出政府因担心盐税收入中断而未废除该制度。
The certificate system was a tax farming system that originated in the imperial era. During the Republic of China (1912–1949) the practice largely continued, despite being much criticised. Aiming to explore how and why the system was able to survive until the late 1940s, this article addresses three related issues: the role of the foreign-managed Chief Inspectorate of Salt Revenue in the Chinese state finance, the fiscal relationship between the central and provisional/local governments, and the interactions between the state and salt merchants. These factors contextualise the resistance of salt merchants against the abolition of the certificate system. The Chinese state did not abolish the system due to a concern about possible disruptions to salt revenues. During the wartime Japanese occupation (1937–1945), the concern became irrelevant, with the collapse of the prewar salt transport and revenue collection-remittance. After the war ended, the state simply ruled out a revival of the system.