Research On Rural Economy In Region Of Upstream Yellow River (1644-1949)

The area of the Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai three provinces which located in the junction ofthe loess plateau, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Mongolian Plateau, is the main area of theupstream Yellow River. This article on the rural economy of this region from Qing Dynasty tothe Republic of China(1644-1949), mainly involved the ecological environment and the ruraleconomy, the population, the cultivated land and the change of crops-planting structure,irrigation and water conservancy and rural economy, rural economy system, countrysidehandicraft industry and rural market and so on. The research indicated that, the region ruraleconomy has taken place a series of changes in the Yellow River upstream from the QingDynasty to Republic of China, mainly displayed that the production of the agriculture and thehandicraft industry had the commercialized tendency. Countryside economic system, whichcomprised the land system, land tenancy relationship and lending money relationship, all hada change. The countryside market network was basically established, and had a quite closedrelationship with the nation market and the international market. But compared with thenation rural economy, the rural economy in the upstream of Yellow River was at a laggedcondition continuously. By investigation we find that its main reason lies as follows: First, thenatural environment has affected the rural economy development in the region, one was thatthe distribution of water resources was imbalanced, two was that the complex terrain hasaffected the rural economy development, three was that the ecological environment worsenedunceasingly, causing the rural economy lack of the sustainable resources. Secondly, the slowdevelopment of commodity economy remained the main reason for the slow development ofrural economy in upstream Yellow River region. And the direct consequence caused bylow-degree commercialization was the drying up of rural finance and lacking essential capitalfor the sustainable development. Thirdly, the countryside impoverishment seriouslyinfluenced the rural economic development in upstream Yellow River region. Besides thenatural environment and the less-developed commodity economy, the direct factors causedcountryside impoverishment included the following three aspects: one, part of farmers lackedlands for cultivation;two, the rural finance dried up and the usury was in vogue;three, theoppressive taxes were extremely numerous. Caused by the above-mentioned factors, ruralfinance in upstream Yellow River region dried up, and it lacked the capital and ability forreproduction, and caused a long time stationary state in the rural economy.