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  3. In the eighteenth century, Japan’s feudal overlords, from the shogun to the hu

In the eighteenth century, Japan’s feudal overlords, from the shogun to the hu

游客2023-12-16  48
问题   In the eighteenth century, Japan’s feudal overlords, from the shogun to the humblest samurai, found themselves under financial stress. In part, this stress can be attributed to the overlords’ failure to adjust to a rapidly expanding economy, but the stress was also due to factors beyond the overlords’ control. Concentration of the samurai in castle towns had acted as a stimulus to nude. Commercial efficiency, in turn, had put temptations in the way of buyers. Since most samurai had been reduced to idleness by years of peace, encouraged to engage in scholarship and martial exercises or to perform administrative tasks that took little time, it is not surprising that their tastes and habits grew expensive. Overlords’ income, despite the increase in rice production among their tenant farmers, failed to keep pace with their expenses. Although shortfalls in overloads’ income resulted almost as much from laxity among their tax collectors (the nearly inevitable outcome of hereditary office-holding) as from their higher standards of living, a misfortune like a fire or flood, bringing an in crease in expenses or a drop in revenue, could put a domain in debt to the city rice-brokers who handled its finances. Once in debt, neither the individual samurai nor the shogun himself found it easy to recover.
  It was difficult for individual samurai overlords to increase their income because the amount of rice that farmers could be made to pay in taxes was not unlimited, and since the income of Japan’s central government consisted in part of taxes collected by the shogun from his huge domain, the government too was constrained. Therefore, the Tokugawa shoguns began to look to other sources for revenue. Cash profits from government-owned mines were already on the decline because the most easily worked deposits of silver and gold had been exhausted, although debasement of the coinage had compensated for the loss. Opening up new farmland was a possibility, but most of what was suitable had already been exploited and further reclamation was technically unfeasible. Direct taxation of the samurai themselves would be politically dangerous. This left the shoguns only commerce as a potential source of government income.
  Most of the country’s wealth, or so it seemed, was finding its way into the hands of city merchants. It appeared reasonable that they should contribute part of that revenue to ease the shogun’s burden of financing the state. A means of obtaining such revenue was soon found by levying forced loans, known as goyo-kin; although these were not taxes in the strict sense, since they were irregular in timing and arbitrary in amount, they were high in yield. Unfortunately, they pushed up prices. Thus, regrettably, the Tokugawa shoguns’ search for solvency for the government made it increasingly difficult for individual Japanese who lived on fixed stipends to make ends meet. [br] The reason that individual samurai did not find it easy to recover from debt is ______.
选项 A、taxes were irregular in timing and arbitrary in amount
B、the Japanese government had failed to adjust to the needs of a changing economy
C、there was a limit to the amount in taxes that farmers could be made to pay
D、the domains of samurai overlords were becoming smaller and poorer as government revenues increased
答案 C
解析 事实细节事，考的还是因果关系，问个人武士的债务不容易偿清的原因。这题比上一题简单，根据关键词 individual samurai可以找到第二段的第一句“It was difficult for individual samurai overlords to increase their income because the amount of rice that farmers could be made to pay in taxes was not unlimited，个人武士很难提高其收入，因为佃户们能提供的米税是有限的”，结合上一段指出的武士们财政问题的原因是入不敷出，这儿就可以得出收入无法增长就是有债进无力偿清的原因。所以C“农民能交的税有限”为正解。而A“税收时间不定、数量随意”是最后一段说起解决方式时的内容，不对题；B“日本政府没能适应经济变化”是泛指的，不单指武士：D“武士的领地在国家资金增加时却越变越小和贫瘠”根本是文没提到。
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