Peasant household economy under the influence of international trade, industrialization, and urbanization: A case study of Wuxi peasants' response to economic opportunities, 1860s--1940s (China)

This study approaches the issue of peasants' response to economic opportunities through an examination of the economic behaviors of Wuxi peasant households in sericulture and their reaction to the modern economic sectors. Based upon a careful analysis of historical quantitative data and literary records, the study offers its own arguments and opinions on the driving forces behind sericultural development in Wuxi and China, on the motivation of peasants to engage in sericulture and switch to the modern economic sectors, and on the main factors which influenced the decision-making of peasant families of whether or not to have family member working in cities.; The study contends that international trade was the main driving force behind the rise and fall of sericulture in China from the 1840s to the 1930s. From the 1860s to the 1920s, sericulture provided Wuxi peasant households not only a higher family total income but also a higher net income per workday. In its study on Wuxi rural laborers' emigration into cities, the study reveals that family structure and labor resources played significant roles in family decision-making. The development of factory industry and the urban economy in Shanghai and Wuxi provided Wuxi peasants not only a new outlet for family surplus labor but also a potential higher income source at no cost of land. The motivation of peasants to leave the countryside for cities came on the one hand from population pressure on land and on the other hand from the attraction of the new labor market. Underlying the so-called “push and pull” factors was the propensity of peasant households to maximize family income by optimizing their factor allocation.; The study concludes that despite small progress in agricultural technology and slow growth in grain output, the Wuxi rural economy of the late 19th and early 20 centuries underwent significant structural changes. With new factors introduced, peasants were not simply increasing labor input under the old agricultural structure, but were re-allocating their production factors and engaging in new occupations. The Wuxi rural economy had diverged from the long-term development pattern of the traditional Chinese agricultural economy.