The Research On Fishery Development And Fishermen's Lives Of Southern Jiangsu In Modern Times

As compared with any other region in China, Southern Jiangsu has its"comparative advantages"of water resources, climate resources, aquatic animals and plants resources, and labor resources in developing fishery industry. In modern times,"theYangtze River-the Taihu Lake Fishing Zone"and some part of"Zhoushan Fishing Ground"were located in Southern Jiangsu, containing both freshwater fishery and sea fishery. Therefore, its advantage in fishery resources was unique at that time. From the perspective of the advanced mode of production, Southern Jiangsu first started the mechanization of fishery industry and established the modem fishery companies. Besides, the largest professional fishery market was situated here. The conditions for developing fishery industry, including technique, capital and so on, were superior in modern China. The development of fishery economy not only built distinct regional characteristics of the agriculture economy in Southern Jiangsu, but stimulated the prosperity of local aquatic markets, form which the"fishery culture"with strong flavor of water and fishing village in Southern Jiangsu were derived. Greatly influenced by the fishery production and"fishery culture", the daily lives, religions, customs and beliefs of fishermen formed their own features, too. The development of fishery economy marked the economy, culture, even the entire social system of Southern Jiangsu a bright brand of the times, enhancing the strong flavor of fishing village.The modern market, system of company and the legislation of fishery provided the fishery development in Southern Jiangsu with a new"institution supply", which was also a new"gene"to the development of fishery industry. The professional fishery market in Southern Jiangsu was the largest one in modern China. It was a united market which functioned both as the trading mechanism of aquatic products and the community dealing with fishery business. Besides, it was a limited company. From the aspect of trading mechanism, the operation of modern market, influenced by"the invisible hand", the self-adjustment of price mechanism, greatly improved the efficiency in allocation of fishery resources. However, due to the pervasive monopoly in the market, the"in-appropriable nature"in fishery resources, and the huge"negative externality"caused by fishery production, the marker mechanism appeared inefficient in transforming resources. It seemed that only the government's intervention could be the remedy for the disorder of the market. Therefore, under the leadership of government, fishery communities were organized, fishery laws were passed through and fishery companies or cooperatives were proposed to establish so as to enhance the efficiency, promote the equality and exert the influence of"visible hand". Since modem China was a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society, most of the means of production were private-owned; its economy was filled with the fluid of bureaucrat-capitalism and feudalism. Hence, the new institution was hard to bring its advantages into a full play, and sometimes, even resisted. The government in the Late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China could not solve those deep-rooted problems of market failure. Government failure disordering, excessive fishing, and inequality of distributing in fishery economic activities.Meanwhile, with the development of fishery economy in Southern Jiangsu, however, the poor conditions and benightedness of fishermen did not change at all. In modem China, the exploration and poverty that peasants had to bear were unprecedented in human's entire history. The more exploration fishermen got, the worse their conditions became. As far as fishermen's lives were concerned, the distinctiveness in their daily lives, customs, religions and beliefs wore closely related to the poverty in material lives, to their isolation from politics, and to their lack of knowledge. Poverty resulted in lower social status of fishermen. They suffered from all kinds of restrictions and exploration so much that many of them felt despaired about the reality. Thus, seeking the spiritual consolation appeared necessary and urgent. Water God, Catholicism, Protestantism and even some evil religions became their choices. What should be pointed out here is that the fishermen of Southern Jiangsu in modern China were devout Catholics. Although their bodies were floating on the rivers or lakes, striking for the mere survival, their spirits were in heaven, escaping from the cruel realities, which formed the distinct feature of fishermen's spiritual lives. Actually, their lives were not the same as what some art works had described, which was decorated by dots of fishing lights or graceful fishing songs. Instead, they were refugees who had to live in their shabby boats day by day, and year by year, swaying in the wind, being almost naked and hungry.Therefore, to study fishery development in Southern Jiangsu and fishermen's lives would help to better understand the significance of the historical origin of"scientific development"and"construction of the harmonious society", broaden the scope of the research on economic history in Southern Jiangsu. Meanwhile, it promotes to investigate the peculiarity in the formation of"Wu culture"and the procedure of its development, for"Wu culture"is typical and has played an important role in the development of Chinese traditional culture. In addition, this research will also definitely improve the understanding of the historical evolution of Chinese traditional culture, the current national conditions, and carry forward the essence of Chinese traditional culture as well.