Rice Circulation And Modern Anhui Province Society (1877-1937)

In early Qing Dynasty, Anhui was the major rice production region in domestic market and its rice was mainly sold to Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces. In modern times,the rice outputs of Hunan and Jiangxi reduced greatly than before. Guangxi autonomous region no longer the main rice source for Guangdong province. Fujian also lost Taiwan as its main rice supply. However, as the population of Anhui province declined greatly, its grain consumption fell down dramatically.Besides, Anhui agricultural production was characterized by its rice production as its major grain outpout and its rate of rice production commercialization is higher than the national average. The rice yield also had grown in a certain degree. Wuhu rice market played a great role in gathering markets, which also helped stablize domestic rice market. Due to those combined efforts, Anhui became the primary rice source region in China,its rice can be sold to Guangdong and Fujian provinces to its south, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces to its east, Sichuan and Hubei provinces to its west, Beijing and Tianjin municipalities to its north, and even exported to some foreign countries like Japan.The rice circulation of Anhui is multidirectional. On the one hand, inside the province, rice flowed from superabundant to those insufficient areas; On the other hand, rice gathered from its production place to those markets in Bengbu, Chuxian and Wuhu in order to be exported outside Anhui province. Among those three regions, Wuhu had the largest rice distribution center, whose rice exportation also towered over other two markets. The rice of Anhui markets was mainly exported to JiangZhe and Guangdong provinces.At the same time, due to transportation conditions and historical conventions,some areas in Huizhou were lack of rice and still need imported rice perennially from Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces. When Anhui was striken by heavy natural disasters and its own rice production was insufficient, rice had to be imported from other provinces, even from foreign countries to supply enough food for those refugees.The organization of Anhui rice market was very complicatedly structured, mainly consisting of those people working in such walks of line as rice retailers, rice dealers, rice brokers, rice production and storage men, and rice measurer, rice packager, rice-carrying men; stone powder for rice-polishing that were affiliated to rice circulation, and those industries such as financial and transporting industries that were closely related to rice circulation. Rice trade was the major part of Anhui commercial industry. Therefore, the developing trend of those industries can be easily affected by the rise and decline of rice circulation.Anhui rice circulation markert was a multi-leveled system, whose center was Wuhu, a port city in South Anhui. Inside this market system,the rice price in different places was strikingly interrelated. On the use of rice-measuring tools, the volume of their measuring tools matched with their rice price, which appeared to be similar standard. Wuhu rice market underwent its rising, flourishing and declining periods in its past 60 years. In its primary level, there are numerous rice-dealing countryside markets. To those rice gathered in the bazaar market, some were directly transported out of Anhui province, more were transmitted through those smaller markets. Based on transporting situation at that time, there existed three types of rice exchanging and transmitting market inside our province.Rice circulation exerted great influence upon the local society of Anhui province in early modern times.The circulation of rice was closely related to the lives of peasants and landlords living in rice-producing areas. It also corresponded with the living situation and economic income of those people who took in this line of rice trade. The rice price controlled the land price in a large sense. The selling and transporting of rice occupied the majority of Anhui commercial activities. In rice-producing areas, rice trade took control of the rise and fall of local commerce.To a local government, rice circulation was the source of its financial support for construction of local public facilities, which included running school, building roads, training policemen,municipal construction, repaying debts, collecting military expenditure and other various kinds of donations and taxes. They are all collected from the trade of rice in terms of public credit. Rice circulation played an important role in the development of cities and towns of Anhui province in early modern times. It especially affected the arrangement of those cities and towns lying in the rice-producing regions. To those industries related to the circulation of rice, they were major industries in local cities and towns, where the professional commerical centers of rice came into being in the process of trade exchange.The development of those cities and towns were controlled by their local rice trade.In early modern times, natural and man-made disasters often took place. In those rice-producing provinces like Anhui, accidents related to the circulation of rice often happened, which easily triggerd off social problems and endangered social stability. That accident,Forbidding Buying Grain in Nanling took place in the second year of Emperor Xuntong'reign in Qing Dynasty was a typical example. The masses, the local government officals, the gentries and businessmen were all involved in that accident.As they had different interests, their demands and propositions varied. From that accident, it reflected the significance of grain issue in the rice-producing areas when the society of late Qing Dynasty was reduced in chaos,rice circulation of government lacked of security and social classes underwent some changes.In early modern times, the rice circulation in Anhui functioned as a tie connecting city and country, communicating domestic with foreign markets. While competing with foreign rice markets, Chinese rice market clearly showed its weakness, which can be mainly enbodied in those aspects such as the isolation between markets, circulation retarded, multi-leveled changing hands of exchange, costly expenditure; heavy taxes; belated transportation, various corrupt rules, passive selling, storage equipment incapable of meeting the market demand, poor quality of commodity, lack of market competitiveness and effective measures in regulating market. As a typical rice market in Anhui, Wuhu rice market also had those disadvantages and even worse in some aspects. In order to improve domestic rice market and promote its competitveness in dealing with foreign rice market, both political and commercial officials took active actions and adopted many improving measures. Scholars from academic community also put forward different kinds of advice on improving grain market. As the decline of rice trade in early modern times was caused by the semi-colonial and semi-feudal social reality and other complicated social matters, any efforts from single side would never get their expected results.