Study On Food Price In Disastrous And Famished Period In Modern Hunan

This paper is a study of the features and causes of food price fluctuation in the early modern Hunan from perspectives of History, Sociology and Economics based on the following materials :food prices materials of Hunan in the later Qing dynasty, Hunan chorography, annual records of natural disaster in Hunan, chorography of different cities and counties, personal diaries and memorials to the throne etc.Influenced by the law of value, the food price in modern China was on raising. There are four basic features: 1, the raising of food price is directly proportional to the intensity and frequency of natural disasters;2, food production areas with good waterway transportation saw more fluctuation than those without in the early time when natural disaster happened, but price in the latter areas raised more during the later time. 3, the fluctuation of food price varied during different time periods. 4, the price of stable food is more unstable than the minor ones. Common people couldn' t bear the soaring food price, so it brought negative impact on the people' s life and social stability. Landlords, food traders, government officials who played the market to benefit themselves deteriorated the situation, caused corruption in politics and decline in economy, made the disaster control issued by government ineffective, thus resulted in famine which is the major cause of the soaring food price in modern Hunan.Hereby, in order to control the food price during time of natural disaster, the food reserving capacity of the society and common people must be enhanced, a fair, effective government which serve for the people must be established to regulate and control the food market, and a fair distributive system should be set up to form a harmonious relationship between Human being and the Nature as well as among Humans themselves.