唐代の水陸運賃について : 脚法を中心として

Abstract

The freight regulations of the Tang Government (jiaofa) roughly consisted of three provisions, respectively on overland transportation, on transport by water, and on exceptional cases. The overland freight contained labor costs and cart fare. For the carriage by cart both of them were paid, while in the case of transporting by laborers or livestock only the former was paid. Therefore, on flat roads, cart carriage was twice as expensive. Concerning shipping expenses, the freightage upstream cost three times more than downstream. The exceptional provision was stipulated on the regulations of freight in the prefectures where the abovementioned transportation provisions were not applied, or where goods could be carried over sea. In general, the transport over flat roads was more expensive, about 13-26% than that by ship upstream, and 2.5 times than downstream. The regulations prescribed the freight which the Government had to pay, but the one paid by the private sector was apparently even higher. The Government paid 2.2 strings of copper cash for carrying goods weighing approximate 60kg from Yangzhou 揚州 to Bianzhou 汴州. This illustrates how excessively high distribution/transport costs were, as compared with 40 or 50 cash, the average price of doumi 斗米 (about 6 litres of rice) in the provinces of Jiangnan and Huainan. Such high costs due to an undeveloped transport sector, formed one of the reasons why long-distance circulation of commodities was prevented from coining into being.