Agricultural Land System And The Agricultural Economy In Southern Jiangsu Province In The 20～(th) Century

China has long been a large agricultural country. Agriculture, rural area and the farmer issues have been the key concern that has gained great attention of the Chinese government and its people. Land, especially the arable land is not only the important resource for the subsistence and development of the Chinese people, but also the key production materials of the farmers.Twenty century was the one in which China has experienced huge changes in its social, political and economic sectors. With the rapid social and economic development, the agricultural land system has also been under reform and improvement. It has experienced several changes and has exerted a huge impact on the agricultural economy in China.The southern Jiangsu province has been an economically developed area in China since the Ming and the Qing dynasties. Particularly since the implementation of the reform and open door policy, agricultural economy has gained enormous progress in the area with the rapid development of township enterprises and the continuous changes of the agricultural land system in China. However, the social and economic development also brought new issues to the agricultural economy in the area. Challenged by the dramatic changes of the exogenous conditions, it is imperative to further reform and improve the land system.Since the 1930s, scholars have carried out a number of studies on the land system with the founding of the People's Republic of China as a division line. The subject on "Agricultural Land System and the Agricultural Economy in southern Jiangsu Province in the 20th Century", which is selected as the subject of my thesis, has rarely been covered inthe previous studies. Therefore, the conduction of this thesis has a practical significance and academic value.There are altogether five chapters. The first chapter is an outline introducing the resource, objectives and significance of the study, a general introduction on the related research both in China and in foreign countries, the main theory and methodology used in the study. In the second chapter, a summary and an analysis was given on the characteristics of the agricultural land system of the southern Jiangsu province in different periods on the basis of the review on the agricultural land system evolution in the area in the 20th century. The third chapter was a discussion of the driving force of the evolution from the following perspectives: people-land relationship, national politics, labour migration and technical innovation. Then it comes to the analyses of the impact of the agricultural land system evolution on the agricultural economy in the area from aspects like the grain production and farmers' income in the fourth chapter. The last chapter analyses and validate the practical issues the agricultural land system reform or innovation are facing in Southern Jiangsu province and eventually recommendations are given on the further innovation of the agricultural land system in Southern Jiangsu province.