Chinese Empire Forced to Evolve the Economic System to Resist the Nomadic Empire--Case: Establishment of the Tea Tax System in the Tang Dynasty

Abstract

The rivalry between nomadic armies and the Chinese empire in the Far East never ceased. In order to be able to counter the threat from nomadic armies, the Chinese court poured huge funds into military organizations, which caused tremendous financial pressure on the state. Thus, obtaining more taxes or wealth through new means and ensuring that the overwhelmed people did not overthrow the dynasty became the problem to be solved by successive Chinese dynasties. This paper mainly discusses the tea tax system invented by the Tang Dynasty in the face of the pressure from the nomadic armies of the Anshi Rebellion, the tea monopoly trade method, and the benefits to the court brought by the tea and horse trade. The pressure from the nomadic armies kept the Chinese court from becoming arrogant and letting down its guard, forcing it to invent new institutions to evolve its system constantly. However, as wars became more frequent, taxes became heavier, the economic system collapsed and organized uprisings against the central government. The Tang empire failed to maintain its economic system in the later time and finally collapsed in chaos.