ClippingKK

如果得不到薪酬，那么书吏以什么为收入来源呢？其主要来源之一，类似于州县官的陋规。事实上，书吏及其他衙门职员收取陋规的整个模式，不过是在较低一些的标准上重复州县官的所作所为

Though the slave trade mostly ended after 1807, subsequent European colonialism not only threw into reverse nascent economic modernization in parts of southern and western Africa but also cut off any possibility of indigenous institutional reform. This meant that even outside of areas such as Congo, Madagascar, Namibia, and Tanzania, the areas where plunder, mass disruption, and even whole-scale murder were the rule, there was little chance for Africa to change its institutional path.

The great differences in world inequality are evident to everyone, even to those in poor countries, though many lack access to television or the Internet. It is the perception and reality of these differences that drive people to cross the Rio Grande or the Mediterranean Sea illegally to have the chance to experience rich-country living standards and opportunities. This inequality doesn’t just have consequences for the lives of individual people in poor countries; it also causes grievances and resentment, with huge political consequences in the United States and elsewhere. Understanding why these differences exist and what causes them is our focus in this book. Developing such an understanding is not just an end in itself, but also a first step toward generating better ideas about how to improve the lives of billions who still live in poverty.

absolutism in China was stronger, and the opposition less organized and autonomous. There were no equivalents of the leaders of the other domains in China who could challenge the absolutist rule of the emperor and trace an alternative institutional path. This institutional difference, in many ways small relative to the differences separating China and Japan from Western Europe, had decisive consequences during the critical juncture created by the forceful arrival of the English and Americans. China continued in its absolutist path after the Opium Wars, while the U.S. threat cemented the opposition to Tokugawa rule in Japan and led to a political revolution, the Meiji Restoration,

具体来讲，幕友一职所拥有的较高社会地位、可观的收益，以及其他诱人的因素，对有能力的人从事这一职业产生了吸引力。相反，书吏、衙役和长随这些职业，由于缺乏上述令人艳羡的因素，就难以吸引能谋到更好职业的人。通常来讲，可以获得非法收入是从事这一毫无吸引力的工作的主要动机

由于书吏的服务没有报酬，其自备办公用具也没有补偿，所以他索受陋规被认为是正当的。怎么能指望他只做事不吃饭呢？[9]王凤生坦承，书吏不得不靠陋规生活。[10]汪辉祖曾指出，州县官不应绝对禁止实际上行之已久且已成为书吏必要生活手段的陋规，但一定不要纵容书吏公然贪污腐败

The people who suffer from the extractive economic institutions cannot hope for absolutist rulers to voluntarily change political institutions and redistribute power in society. The only way to change these political institutions is to force the elite to create more pluralistic institutions.

大量资料证明，尽管参与征税的官员都非常强调对百姓要体现“仁爱”原则，[71]但大部分州县官都将杖责作为强迫花户缴税的唯一手段。[72]即使以仁厚著称的州县官也坦率地承认，仁爱原则在实践中很难真正贯彻