Public interest and the financing of localwater control in Qing China, 1750–1850

River works constituted the largest civil expenditure of the Qing state. In theory, the fiscal responsibility of the Qing state only stretched to major conservancy efforts of the Yellow River and Grand Canal, as well as the construction and maintenance of major river banks and irrigation initiatives. Smaller projects were funded and managed by local communities. Nonetheless, this division of funding between the state and local society was blurred in practice. Since the early eighteenth century, the Qing state routinely advanced the monies to pay for major repair and reconstruction of nonstate water-control projects; the communities who benefited from the finished project returned the investment to the state through extra duties on land taxes. This special method for financing hydraulic projects was frequently used in the first half of the nineteenth century when the Qing state experienced increasing fiscal difficulties. By examining the application of this financing method in different places and under varying circumstances between 1750 and 1850, this paper argues that the legitimation of state power through public good provision was the major justification of this policy.