Although Qingdao began to prepare for the New Year's celebrations at this time, and the year was not completely over in people's minds and emotions, the government's work cycle had already crossed 1902 and entered the work cycle of 1903.

1902 was the first year after the official establishment of the East China government, and it was also a complete cycle of the East China government's rule in Shandong, and it was also the first official Spring Festival after the East China government moved to Qingdao, so a grand celebration program was also prepared for the New Year.

In the past 1902, the East China government has made great achievements, according to the year-end financial summary, the East China government's fiscal revenue in 1902 was 56.23 million yuan, which was about 39 million taels of silver. The Qing court's fiscal revenue in this year was only more than 90 million taels, and the East China government's fiscal revenue created by Shandong as a province reached more than 4 percent of that of Chunting, and Shandong was not considered a rich province in Chunting in the past, so it could not be regarded as a miracle.

Of course, the East China government's fiscal revenues were not obtained by expropriating them arbitrarily, and the incomes of Shandong residents were generally increased to varying degrees during the year, with the exception of a few people, of course.

There are three main reasons for the increase in the fiscal revenue of the East China government: First, the land reform was carried out, and the agricultural tax collection system was reformed, which not only eliminated the intermediate links of landlord exploitation and realized that the government directly levied agricultural taxes on the peasants, but also straightened out the amount of all the land, so that the tax base was raised, so that the agricultural tax collected by the government increased by a large margin, and the agricultural tax actually collected by Shandong this year increased by more than three times compared with the Qing court, and the peasants' incomes were also raised, which can be said to have achieved a win-win outcome.

Moreover, according to the experience of the old time and space, after the completion of the land reform, due to the increase in the peasants' enthusiasm for production, there will be a period of promotion for agricultural development, and if agricultural production increases, the agricultural tax collected will naturally increase, and the newly cultivated farmland can also raise the tax base for agricultural taxTherefore, in the next few years, although it is unlikely that there will be a leap in the increase in agricultural taxes, a steady increase is absolutely achievable.

The second reason is customs duties and commercial taxes, the tariffs of the Chunting Dynasty are controlled by the British, and the maximum can only reach 5%, and after foreign goods pay tariffs, they can no longer pay any fees; the tariffs of the East China government are completely autonomous, although compared with European and American countries, the average tariffs of the East China government are only 16%, which is not high, but after foreign goods enter the areas of the East China government, there are income tax, value-added tax, business tax, consumption tax, etc., so the highest tax rate actually reaches more than 50%. Of course, it is not that such a high tax rate will be levied on all foreign goods, but it will be adjusted according to the actual needs of the East China government, and it can be said that the tariff formulation of the East China government is not high.

Although the East China government has raised tariffs, it has also spent great efforts to improve the business environment, improve the efficiency of foreign trade procedures, and vigorously develop domestic and foreign trade, and countries must not give up the coastal market of Shandong, after all, although China's territory is large and the population is large, but the real opening up is still the southeast coastal area and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, totaling about 8-10 provinces, 1-150 million people, and Shandong Province, which has a population of 30 million, is naturally impossible to give up easily, not to mention Tianjin, which controls Beijing's economic lifeline, so ShandongCompared with the Qing Dynasty, Tianjin's import and export trade not only did not decrease, but on the contrary, it also increased greatly.

In addition, the East China government does not only pay attention to foreign trade and ignore internal trade, on the contrary, due to the development of external trade, it has greatly driven the development of Shandong's internal trade, and the East China government has launched a large number of policies and regulations to support and protect commerce, so that Shandong's commodity economy has developed at a very fast speed, and has canceled the local checkpoints. In addition, the East China Government has also strictly rectified the system of paying taxes; although the taxes collected were very high in the past, most of the taxes actually fell into the pockets of the officials who collected the taxes, and only 30 percent of the taxes actually went to the government. Therefore, although the amount of commercial tax collected by the East China government declined, the base of tax payment expanded, and the tax received was basically fully deposited into the treasury, and the actual commercial tax collected was naturally much higher than that of the Qing court.

Moreover, the East China government will certainly further vigorously develop commerce and foreign trade, and will also introduce domestic and foreign investment from the big side, so there is still great room for increase in tariffs and commercial taxes, and it is also one of the main sources of economic development and fiscal revenue increase for the East China government in the future.

The third factor is actually closely related to the second factor, that is, the establishment of a number of modern factories, not only to promote the economic development of the East China government, but also to expand the base of tax payment, now the East China government by the government to invest in the establishment of a total of 66 large and small factories, including more than 1000 employees of large factories and enterprises have 9, and under the drive of the East China government, by the local people to invest in the factory there are 104, although the local people invested in the factory are basically 50 people below the small factory, and even the number of people in the number of less than 20 people micro factories accounted for nearly half, but this is a good phenomenon after all。

However, there are still many problems, first of all, the government invests in the vast majority of factories, and the proportion of privately run factories is too small, according to the experience of the old time and space, this is certainly not a good phenomenon; secondly, although there are many people who have devoted themselves to personal entrepreneurship, they are basically invested in the service industry, and no one has invested in manufacturing; and the manufacturing factories invested by the local people are not only small in scale, but also the ordinary efficiency is not high, and the basic production is still manual, and there is very little use of machinery, which is mainly due to the current investment of the local people, basically some individual handicraftsmen, they see that the market is prosperous now, and they have a skill, so they recruit a few people to open a factory。 However, limited investment, as well as the limited vision and knowledge of advanced technologies for individual artisans, also limited the development of their factories.

Industrial and mining enterprises are also one of the other locomotives for the future development of the East China government, so in order to make the manufacturing industry get better and faster development, the East China government needs to use policies to guide the work in the future, first of all, to attract the travelers to invest in the manufacturing industry; secondly, for small and medium-sized factories, investors who are small factories should be trained and educated, so that they will be transformed from traditional handicraftsmen to modern enterprise managers, and actively attract local rich people to invest in the manufacturing industry; and finally, we must strive to attract foreign capital investment。

Of course, on the whole, the East China government in 1902 did make considerable achievements, the government's financial revenue increased substantially, and the people's living standards have also been improved as a whole, and the East China government will naturally carry out vigorous propaganda on this, so the government's credibility and prestige among the people have also been greatly improved, if the East China government was just established, the Qing court still had a certain influence in Shandong, then now there are few people who miss the Qing court.

However, although the fiscal revenue of the East China government has been greatly increased, the expenditure is even greater, and the fiscal expenditure in 1902 was as high as 82.66 million silver yuan, and the fiscal deficit was as high as 26.43 million yuan. Among them, military spending accounted for the largest amount, reaching 26.73 million, exceeding expenditure by 1/ 3 strong, this is also the most criticized place, some people even half-joke that this is more Japanese than Japan, but now the People's Army is being formed and perfected, so it is not surprising that military spending is higher, in addition to this is also a normal phenomenon in Chinese history, the military expenditure of ancient Chinese dynasties generally accounts for about half of the expenditure, this is mainly due to the low fiscal revenue, during the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing court's annual financial revenue is about 80 million silver, and Japan's land area is only 1/30 of China, and the population is only 1/ of China. 15, but the fiscal revenue is actually similar to that of the Qing court, which shows that China's fiscal revenue in this era actually has huge potential to be explored.

The investment in the five-year plan, which accounts for the second largest part of the expenditure, reached 22.85 million yuan, and these two items exceeded 50 million yuan. However, because the East China government had gained a lot of benefits from the previous battles with the Eight-Nation Alliance, and the amount of silver collected from the Eight-Nation Alliance alone was more than 9,000 taels, it was still possible to make up for the deficit despite the large fiscal deficit in 1902. In view of the fact that the East China government still has sufficient reserves and that there will be further economic development, it is entirely possible to gradually achieve a balance between payments and even a surplus in the future.

In addition, in this year, the East China government also made a great achievement, that is, the currency reform has achieved phased success, the issuance of the silver dollar has been very smooth, and even the paper money has not caused too much controversy, this is because of the strong support and credit guarantee of the government, the second is that the East China government has a large amount of silver as a deposit, which can be exchanged at any time; third, the silver dollar is indeed more convenient to use than silver, so it quickly won the support of the people. After all, you can exchange it for silver, you can buy goods, and you can use it to pay taxes, who wouldn't want to use such a currency?

Although it is still the stage of using both silver and silver coins, in the economically developed areas of Tianjin and Qingdao, silver coins have occupied a dominant position in currency circulation. For the East China government, this is an important step in rectifying and standardizing the financial order, and it has ensured the orderly and healthy development of the East China government's economy.

Just after the New Year, Japan changed its consul in Qingdao, and Keishiro Matsui replaced Hikoyoshi Ijiin as consul in Qingdao. Keishiro Matsui used to be the counselor of the Japanese legation in the Qing court, and he was acting as a minister for a period of time, so he was very familiar with the situation in China, and Japan's appointment of him as consul in Qingdao also showed that it attached great importance to this position, after all, the Qingdao consul was also equivalent to the minister in the East China government.