A Study On The Economic History Of Uygur In Qing Dynasty

In history, Orxun Uyghur Khanate, Qochu Uyghur Kingdom,Karahan Uyghur Dynasty, Chaghatay Uyghur Khanate and Seidiye Uyghur Khanate were founded by Uyghur people successively.By the period of late Ming and early Qing, Seidiye Uyghur Khanate, which was established by the descendants of Chaghatay, controlled the most part of the South of Tianshan Mountain. In the 19th year of KangXi(1680), Galdan’s army marched into Seidiye and conquered this area.After that, Uyghur people were under the rule of Dzungaria Tribe.Dzungaria Tribe inherited the old Uyghur feudal Beg System and propped up the puppet government to collect tribute. Uyghur people were enslaved and looted by the household taxes, the burden of corvee and 50% depreciation of the new coining currency, which resulted in serious damage to the economy.In the 24th year of QianLong (1759), the Qing government unified the South and the North of Tianshan Mountain, and the Yili General Government was set up. Later the policy of land reclamation to raise the boundary areas was made, as well as the economic policy of administration under the local customs. Abolishing the Begs’ hereditary privileges, the Qing government carried out a series of measures to reform the Beg System and gradually bring it into the government bureaucratic establishment. Mainland businessmen were also encouraged by the government to trade with the Uyghur. All of these made contributions to the growth of the Uyghur centralized bureaucratic economy.Through the ways of tax cuts, distribution of state-owned lands and construction of water conservancy facilities, the enthusiasm of agricultural production was thus protected, promoting the development of the oasis agriculture.At the same time, the state-run pastures in that area prospered the Uyghur livestock husbandry. And the Qing government’s incentive was also a continuation of bazar market trade, long-distance trafficking and other Uighur business tradition of long history.After 19th century, numerous wars broke out in the South and North of Tianshan Mountain. Uyghur people were being invaded constantly by Tsardom of Russia and Kokand in Central Asia. Meanwhile they suffered the insurgency within, led by the descendants of Khwaja.Domestic troubles and foreign invasion were realistic reflection of the feudal beg system, the backward social and economic system which was tending to perish.In the 10th year of GuangXu witnessed the establishment of Xinjiang Province. At the same time, the Qing government abolished the Beg System of the Uyghur society, the system of prefectures and counties was set up instead, which means the Beg government office that unified politics and religion was finally canceled. This is a great milestone in the Uyghur social and economic system history and the transition from the Beg System to centralized bureaucratic system was finished. The Qing government implemented a series of economic reform measures in the Uyghur region including dredging canals, encouraging land settlement, ratifying taxes, approving currency, reviving agriculture, developing traffic, promoting education and so on.All of these were causes of the prosperity of the Uyghur centralization bureaucratic economy. The revival of towns and the rise of businessmen are significant features of the Uyghur commercial development under the centralized bureaucratic system.Economic evolution of the Uyghur in Qing was achieved through the economic exchanges with other nationalities, both foreign and domestic. Manchu as the ruler of China was the major object of the Uyghur economic exchange.The two nations’economic exchanges were mainly about Tribute and the official trades, accelerating the transition from the Uyghur Beg System to the centralized bureaucratic economy.The Uyghur economic communication with nationalities like Han, Mongolian, Hui and Tibetan made a compensation for the official monopoly trades with Manchu, and the Uyghur economy advanced as a result.The economic relationship with Tsardom of Russia and Kokand made the Uyghur economy a semi-colonial one.Uyghur economic history of the Qing Dynasty plays an very important role in the Uyghur economic history and Chinese minority economic history.This essay adopts the method of contradiction analysis to investigate the backwardness of the Uyghur Beg System in the Qing Dynasty and its inevitability to be replaced by centralized bureaucratic system. The main attempt of this paper is to interpret the vicissitudes of a nation’s economic from the perspective of the social and economic system.