Granary for Famine?: Rice Markets and Social Changes in the Xiangtan County of Hunan Province during the Qing Dynasty.

详细信息   

• 作者：Chen ; Yao.
• 学历：Doctor
• 年：2011
• 导师：Choi, Chi Cheung,eadvisorPoo, Mu-chou,eadvisor
• 毕业院校：The Chinese University of Hong Kong
• ISBN：9781267258724
• CBH：3504679
• Country：China
• 语种：English
• FileSize：30330796
• Pages：241

文摘

This thesis studies the social and economic history of Xiangtan County, rice market centre of Hunan, from early Qing dynasty to the 1860s. It attempts to analyze the construction and development of rice markets and its relation with local societies. Xiangtan County had developed from a standard market to a transport center in the late Ming to early Qing period. However, the market, dominated by foreign merchants, was focused on import and re-export of non-local goods. In the countryside, lineages and individuals were busy consolidating their control of land and water resources under the new regime. Since the early Qing era, there was high demand of subsistence grains in the Yangtze delta and Guangdong province. Hunan, particularly Xiangtan, became the major rice supplier to these places and Xiangtan was the center of rice trade. In the eighteenth century, the governments granary system and national rice market played a critical role not only in regulating the supply and demand of rice in different regions, but also helped developing standard markets and local granaries. In the process of becoming rice market center, local societies in Xiangtan also encountered drastic changes. Stakeholders like local officials, granary administrators, and foreign merchants, dealers in the city as well as wealthy landlords and their tenants all played an important role in the rice trade. The granary system stimulated local strongmens incentive to manipulate rice price through controlling of granaries and local market. Local communities integrated into this rice trading system not only as producers, but also through establishing and maintaining piers and warehouses. They also secured the safety of waterways through utilizing the governments pier regulating system and incorporating unsettled fishermen into their lineage. In the first half of 19th century, the tension between native and non-local merchants intensified. A horrifying vendetta broke out between Jiangxi porters and Xiangtan native in 1819. In the reign of Emperor Daoguang, merchant groups, jointly set up institutions such as Fushan Bureau and Qianji Hall in order to deal with disputes among themselves. After the vendetta, Yisuhe rice market, a common market near the Xiangtan central market town, gradually developed into a regional center of rice trade with Guo Huating as the biggest rice broker there. The Granary Bureau, closely related with the Hunan Army, was established in Xiangtan City in 1862. The Bureau provided legitimate basis for local people to accumulate and hoard grains, while private granaries supported various rural organizations financially. Committee members of the Granary Bureau also controlled rice brokers and rice traders in Yisuhe market. Local gentries control of granaries and rice firms, both institutions deciding rice price, reflected the tendency of socio-political structure and economic integration. In conclusion, this thesis shows the dynamic interaction between market structure and social structure. On the one hand, in respond towards the formation and expansion of rice market, local societies gradually integrated into a cooperative community which intensified the competition among local and non-local merchants. On the other hand, local societies utilized various types of organizations to control rice-related resources. Lower level central places became more and more important and eventually changed the entire marketing structure in the Xiangtan region.