Society Investigation Of Shandong Fishery Product And Fishermen In Ming Dynasty

Fish was as famous as salt in ancient China, but “salt was often more detailed thanfish” in literature. Salt industry was under control of various dynasties of courts, whilefishery developed among people. Although previous governments also managed thefishery sometimes, there was never a definite institution or a set of systematicmechanisms at that time until the court of Ming Dynasty set up River&Lake Officesin all national water areas including coastal areas, assigned River&LakeAmbassadors to collect fishery tributes and taxes and required fishing families tomake household registry for systematic management. In the periods of Song and Jin,Shandong fishery had already boomed, which was even more flourishing in MingDynasty, and especially after the middle period of Ming Dynasty, Shandong fisherygradually reached the peak to lay a preliminary foundation for modern Shandongfishery economy.Fishery economy was an integral part of the national economy of Ming Dynasty,playing a very important role in the whole national economy of the Dynasty. Thisthesis investigated the development of Shandong fishery economy in Ming Dynastyfor the purpose of systematically describing the whole national economy of MingDynasty from the points of Shandong fishery economy and fishermen society. Inrecent years, the research on fishery economy fishermen society has become the hottopic in academia, but such research was mostly made on Southern Ocean or Yangtzevalley and rarely made on Northern Ocean or Yellow River valley, therefore theauthor also hopes that this thesis will work on this point somewhat. Besides, MingDynasty was the late period of China’s feudal empire, the research on its economywill be very helpful for investigation on Shandong’s early modernization.