清代的盐场管理在“节源开流”产销政策的指导下，“盐斤入垣”的基本制度得到确立。盐场的任务在于提供给运销环节足够的盐斤，盐斤入垣则意味着将盐场出产的盐斤尽数归入官方控制的公垣之内，以达到控制盐场的目的。这一政策在康熙末年受到私盐泛滥的挑战，雍正朝推行了以“火伏法”为代表的保障制度，实现场产额有数可稽，以维持“盐斤入垣”制度的落实。火伏法的推行同时也预留了商人控制盐场的制度空间。在“国恃商以办课”的盐政理念下，清廷在“盐斤入垣”的前提下，逐渐将产盐、收盐等事务转移给商人，以商养灶的模式在乾嘉时期达到极盛。清代盐场管理的流变，是“恃商以办课”和“节源开流”盐政策略的必然结果，但二者的紧密结合也限制了盐场的进一步发展，晚清就场征税改革也因此失败。

Under the policy of“restricting production and expanding sales,” the administration of saltworks was centralized in a“depot”in the Qing Dynasty. The task of saltworks was to provide enough salt to the salesman, while the institution of the depot was meant to put all the salt produced in the saltworks under official supervision to control production. This policy was challenged by the flooding of the market with private salt in the late Kangxi period. In Yongzheng reign, in order to maintain official centralization of salt output, the government implemented a new institution“huofu”to control the output of saltworks. The implementation of this institution also reserved institutional space for merchants to control the saltworks. Under the policy of“relying on merchants to manage salt revenue,” the Qing government gradually transferred the production of salt and the collection of taxes to merchants. The model of“salt merchants providing funds and taking charge of salt production” reached its peak in the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods. The change of the management system in Qing Dynasty was the inevitable result of the salt policy of“relying on merchants to collect taxes” and“restricting production and expanding sales.” But the close combination of the two also restricted the further development, and the reform of“taxation at the place of production” in the late Qing Dynasty failed accordingly.