The participation of financial institutions in fiscal operation is the key historical node of the fiscal transformation in modern China. Starting with the cooperation between Piaohao and government finance in the second half of the 19th century, this paper analyzes the changes in the relationship of silver flows between central and local and inter-local silver flows after the collapse of the traditional financial system. The paper finds that, as a national financial institution under the monetary and market structure of the Qing Dynasty, Piaohao was highly dependent on the local financial market. The replacement of physical silver escort by ticket exchange essentially implied a“localized”fiscal-market relationship replacing the fiscal relationship of physical silver redistribution.The“localized”logic of silver mobilization made it not only in tension with the fiscal principle of redistribution but also unable to truly expand the state’s fiscal mobilization capacity. Therefore, Piaohao could not solve the fiscal crisis of the traditional state. When the exchange relationship replaced the physical movement of silver, the traditional fiscal relationship, which was already on the verge of collapse, further disintegrated.