Social And Economic Changes Of The Coastal Regions Of Taiwan In The 17-19 Century

The early immigrants of Taiwan were mainly from the coastal areas of southern Fujian in the Qing Dynasty,and the inner sea area of southwest Taiwan was the main habitation of them.This paper uses the theories and methods of historical anthropology to investigated the social and economic changes in Taiwan’s coastal areas from the 17th to the 19th,and the interaction between livelihood patterns,ecological changes and institutional environment.The full text is eight chapters,about 120,000 words.The livelihood mode of Taiwan’s coastal population was mainly in shipping and fishing,which followed the means of make living in their native areas.After the mid-term of Qing Dynasty,with the solidification of sea area property rights and the change of ecological environment,the livelihood mode of Taiwan’s coastal population tended to diversification.As the rapid development of the aquaculture,salt,commercial and shipping industry,the economic model was highly commercialized.Merchants and officials involved in the development and operation of coastal floating land,which expedited the coastal area of the gentry-merchant groups and merchant family.The ecological environment of the southwest coast of Taiwan,characterized by a large number of rivers,lagoons and ports,had formed three inner seas:the Daofeng,the Taijiang and Raogang.The coastal population early immigranted to Taiwan,mostly concentrated in Haipu and Ports,around the Inner Sea,and lived on fishing and shipping.After the middle of the Qing Dynasty,due to frequent natural disasters,silting into land of inner seas,and deposition of the harbour line,the coastal population were unable to maintain their original livelihood mode.They were forced migrating or changing their occupation.During this process,a new type of aquaculture,salt,commercial and shipping industry gradually formed.The livelihood mode of coastal population became more and more diversified.Dutch colonists had begun to control the Sea resources by taxes on fishing,shipping and port During the colonial period.The Ming Zheng followed the tax system of Dutch colonists,which increased both the tax code and the tax amount.In the early days of the Qing Dynasty’rule of Taiwan,the tax books of the Ming Zheng period were still used to levy taxes on the use of sea areas by the coastal population.After the middle of the Qing Dynasty,the tax system was gradually implemented,so that the sea property rights and taxes tend to solidify.As a result,it restricted the social mobility and freedom of economic activities of coastal population,and led to ongoing disputes over maritime property rights.In the study of Taiwan’s history,how to understand and explain the historical and cultural traditions of the original townships,the interaction between the ecological environment of the settlement and the government’s governance model is always an unresolved issue.The author thinks that using the theory and method of historical anthropology,walking into the historical scene,examining the living state and survival strategy of historical actors in the specific space-time environment,and making a new explanation of history with a theoretical height,should be one of the main development directions of the future Taiwan history research.This paper makes a preliminary attempt to deepen the understanding of Taiwan’s development history.