Environment, National Policy And People's Livelihood:A Study Of Economic Changes In Xiahe Region In The Ming And Qing Dynasties

"Xiahe" refers to the vast area south of the Huaiyang Canal,west of the Yellow Sea,north of the Yunyan River,and south of the Abandoned Yellow River.It is under the jurisdiction of the administrative prefectures of Huaizhou and Yangzhou in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.After the middle of Jiajing period,the economy of the Xiahe region tends to decline,only some local areas maintain a continuous commercial prosperity.While scholars have sparsely referred to Xiahe region in their studies on environment,disaster,transportation and salt industry history,the above mentioned economic phenomenon still lacks systematic investigation.Therefore,this dissertation,by specially focusing on Xiahe region,with the perspective of local society and people's livelihood,aims on the one hand,to display clearly the economic landscape and changing routes through comprehended examinations of the local water conservancy,agriculture,commerce,the salt industry and the people's living conditions,and on the other,to analyze the various factors and their causes affecting the economic changes and pattern of the Xiahe region.Finally,the author will discuss briefly the relationship between the state and society in the late imperial times.The generally conclusions are as following:The deterioration of the water conservancy environment of Xiahe since the middle of the Ming Dynasty is the result of the gradual practices of national policies.In the Ming Dynasty,the governance of Yellow River aimed firstly to protect the Water transportation,which misappropriated the route of the Huaihe River entering the sea,thus caused the canal of Huaiyang,areas of ancestral mausoleum and Xiahe suffered simultaneously from flooding.Because of the special significance of the ancestral mausoleum and the water transportation route to the royal family and the imperial rule,Xiahe region became the victim and was chosen as a flood-relief area.Although the government of Qing Dynasty has actively countervailed the difficult situation of water conservancy in Xiahe region,the role as a flood-relief area has not been changed.The main reason is the adhering to the policy of ensuring the maintenance of transportation,and the lack of stable capital investment and effective overall management mechanism weakens further the effectiveness of the river water conservancy.Due to the difficulty of a fundamental improvement of the water conservancy environment,the frequent occurrence of disasters greatly effects agriculture as the leading industry and economic lifeline of the Xiahe region,which are manifested in the large-scale destruction of the fields,the low efficiency of farming,the loss of production caused by changes in the cultivation system,and the decline of re-investment capabilities.Evaluating from agricultural products,there were under-harvest years in most time of the late Ming Dynasty,and this situation continued in nearly half of the years in the Qing dynasty before the watercourse of Yellow River changed to the north.The agricultural foundation of Xiahe region was completely shaken.The well-developed internal and external transportation network of Xiahe region provides convenient conditions for circulations of commodities and trade developments.However,the commercial development is also faced with restricted factors,such as fluctuations in the trade of the canal,low added value of commodities,and lack of stability in the production of commodities.In particular,the lack of production stability directly led to the double shrinkage of commodity production capacity and consumption capacity in Xiahe region.Commercial development thus had to rely more on the large-scale commodity circulation brought by the advantages of transportation and strong consumption of personnel agglomeration.This not only limited the space of economy and commercial activities,but also magnified the potential risks of business development of Xiahe region.Part of the population and land resources of Xiahe region are prescribed for salt production,however,it is difficult for people to profit from the salt industry under the national policy.Both the "salt" and "shoulder-bearing" policies are small profits to them;although salt merchants will share some benefits by charity,this does not constitute an effective "feedback" to the economy of Xiahe region;The collusion of natives with foreigners in salt selling has affected the stability of the order in a certain degree.From the perspective of pay and return,the salt industry does not constitute a natural advantageous development resource because of its natural possession.The significance of resources to the location of resources depends mainly on the mechanism of allocation by the state.From the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty,the burden of the taxes and labors of Xiahe region have been alleviated.Based on the wide water space,as well as the work opportunities released by the river industry,the salt industry,and water transportation,the landless people still have a variety of ways to make a living,but most of them are poor.Although the state relives can alleviate the people's livelihood damage caused by disasters,they are unable to overcome the people's livelihood caused by policy-induced disasters,and they cannot reverse the fate of the overall decline and poverty of the Xiahe region.The local gentry of Xiahe region have tried to change the living conditions of the place.In terms of water conservancy,they understand the cause of the disaster and have made appeals,however,they have not strongly resisted the situation of Xiahe region being the flood-relief area as understand deeply the stake with the royal rule.Thus,it is difficult to achieve the overall goal of improving water conservancy.The effectiveness of tax relief appeal depends on the status of state's financial resources,and it is clear that in facing of the deterioration of the water conservancy environment and the resulting dilemma and decaying fate,the local gentry are powerless.On the whole,the environment,national policy and local gentry constitute the keys to understanding the evolution of the economy of Xiahe region.The environment is the basis for the economic evolution.The advantages of transportation,rice cultivation and salt industry in the area are based on environment,which not only constitutes the background of the economic evolution,but also becomes the background for the association between the state and Xiahe region.Because of its transportation and salt industry,Xiahe region is closely connected with the national economy,and become the core bearing area of the national financial resources.This makes the economic evolution of Xiahe region is inevitably affected by national policies besides its environmental endowment,that is,it become a victim due to the state policy of "Baoyuntongcao",agriculture has declined,and the regional economy has lost its ability to self-generation.Although commodity circulation and population agglomeration brought about by the policy of "Baoyuntongcao" have promoted business prosperity,the role being a flood-relief damages the capacity of strong production,makes it difficult to take the advantages of transportation to build a wide range of commodity exchanges,the commercial prosperity is spatially limited.In the end,the partial commercial prosperity formed by the national policy and the decline of the agricultural economy caused by the policy of discharge have coexisted,which causes a two-layer phenomenon of local economic development.Xiahe region is regulated to provide resources for salt production,but it is excluded from the benefit distribution system and become purely a salt extraction area.The maintenance of the transportation and the delivery of the supply brings a great burden to the people of this region.On the other hand,the improvement of the intermittent hydrological environment formed by the state water control,the work opportunities brought about by the salt transport and the active measures of the state relives,to a certain extent,bridged the survival crisis caused by the decline of agriculture and stabilized the social order.However,the negative consequences and positive effects caused by national policies cannot be equal.After all,under the influence of state policies,the people in this region are in widespread poverty,and the regional economy has thus declined.The active role of the state is only to fulfill the duty of maintaining local order and guaranteeing the minimum living condition of the people's livelihood,rather than helping the local people to get rid of poverty.The local gentry of this region tried to improve the local living conditions,but the effect was limited,they were unable to control the economic development.For the economy of Xiahe region in the Ming and Qing Dynasties,national policies play an absolute leading role.The historical evolution of Xiahe region provides a typical case of social and economic changes triggered by national policies and behaviors during the imperial time.This suggests that the regional economy is subject to the state's large economic structure,it plays a preconditioned role and does not have the ability and means to evolve independently from the state.Therefore,regional history research needs to be overviewed in the national economic context,the "state factor" has to be fully considered.Local gentry' autonomy and initiative in local affairs are limited,their influence in this area are not dominant,Xiahe region is therefore not a "local elite-society".Thus,in the interpretation of the state-society relationship in the late imperial time,it is inappropriate to seek a unified interpretation model,nor to deduct and default a single regional model as the national model.As for what is the dominant force of the local society in the later period of the imperial history,more cases might be required for a thorough and comprehended discussion.