本文認為，南宋龐大的稅收規模以及赤字財政的推行，均是為滿足不斷增長的戰爭費用，未必能夠完全歸咎於宋代「中央集權政府」或「專制官僚國家」。以往學者認為，宋代賦稅徵收數額長期持續成長，其實是沒有考慮到物價的因素，但如果考慮到通貨膨脹的影響，其真實稅收不增反減。南宋政府在赤字財政的壓力下，被迫通過公共債務的手段來解決財用不足，開創了新型財政國家（宮崎市定語）。 宋代稅收主要來自於茶、鹽、酒徵榷等間接稅，納稅人主體是城市居民，與農民關係不大。就農業稅而言，宋代政府徵稅時採用累進稅制，還考慮到當時民眾普遍有收入多元化的情形。但是由於南宋城鄉社會中，窮人佔據了人口的大多數，所以整體來講，還是貧弱人家承擔了最大部分的賦稅。

Scholars often argue that the Southern Song (1127-1279) carried out financial policies that taxed farmers excessively, thus hindering economic development. This paper explores three major questions in the study of the Southern Song taxation and finance: could the increases in the Song state tax revenues keep pace with the long-term inflations in the three centuries from 960 down to 1279? What were the farmers’ real tax burdens? How did the government attempt to meet public demand if the budgetary deficits became inevitable? The author challenges current wisdom, and demonstrates that the majority of Song tax revenues were collected from non-agricultural sectors, a major feature of a fiscal state in the early modern world, and therefore, most of Song farmers, especially the owners of middle-sized landholdings and above, benefited much from the Song tax policies. The constant budgetary deficits resulted from military defense expenditures eventually led the Song government to seek loans from the financial markets. Song public debts had already exceeded the amount of yearly tax revenues toward the end of the twelfth century.