Abstract: Before and after the Revolution of 1911, China’s finance was on the verge of bankruptcy. At the end of Qing Dynasty and the beginning of Republic of China, the Chinese governments carried out a series of tax reform measures to rectify the old tax system and levy new taxes, so as to save the difficult financial state from the crisis. These tax reform measures objectively promoted the transition gradually from China’s traditional agricultural tax system into the business tax system. However, such tax legislation and their implementation failed to effectively protect the development of the infant national industries and commerce, the reform encountered a lot of obstacles. The original intention of the reform, to cut expenditure, was far from the social evaluation of “draining the pond to get all the fish”, which left behind a profound historical revelation. In order to implement a new tax system, there should have a certain social and economic foundation; only in this way can the tax purpose of “from the people and for the benefit of the people” be truly realized.

Key words: the Revolution of 1911; tax reform; tax legislation; finance