The Grain Transport By Water Of Henan Province In Qing Dynasty

In Qing Dynasty, as one of the eight provinces with grain transport tasks, Henan province bore the burden of supplying grain to Beijing and Zhili area. The canal transport system involves many aspects:distribution of tribute grain, exemption and relief policy, expropriation and transportation of tribute train, official system and ship system, etc. All these reflect the socioeconomic status of Henan province in Qing Dynasty from different point of views. During the Qing Dynasty, canal transport of Henan province finally declined and stepped down from the stage of history. To study the evolvement and interaction of canal transport of Henan province in Qing Dynasty with social economy has great significance for getting an overall understanding of the socioeconomic status of Henan province in Qing Dynasty.From early Qing Dynasty to Jiaqing period, Canal transport of Henan province recovered. The canal transport system got a further improvement on the basis of the previous dynasty. The tribute grain of Henan province is about250,000dans in most years. With the changing of the limit of exemption and relief policy, the amount of tribute grain changes with it. The transportation of tribute grain mainly depends on the Wei River in the north, because there isn’t a canal flow through Henan province. The places of turned over tribute grain changed many times, but finally determined Chuwang, Neihuang as the main place. The transportation of tribute grain of Henan province mainly depends on Zhili, Shandong and Jiangnan. Overall, though the transportation of tribute grain of Henan province got a recovery and development during this period, its historical status greatly reduced. Henan province lost the status as a hub of the transportation of tribute grain.After the Daoguang period, the canal transport of Henan province had resulted in a variety of evil disadvantages and declined gradually till abolishment. At that time, the canal transport policy was damaged—farmers suffered from a great burden due to the willful demands of governors. This situation intensified the internal contradictions of the canal transport system. Because the peasants were unbearable the extortions, Nao cao happened frequently during that time. Because of the apparent drawbacks of the canal transport system and the domestic strife and foreign aggression, Qing government gradually began to collect silver, and the canal transport system was finally ended with abolishment.In Qing Dynasty, the canal transport of Henan province exerts a great effect on every aspect of the social economy. It mainly relies on Wei River which is a very important irrigation water source. Because of the increasingly contradiction between the canal transport and irrigation, the Qing government devised many schemes expecting to neglect neither of them. However, due to the limitation of water supplies, the canal transport came before irrigation. In the mid and late Qing Dynasty, collecting silver instead of tribute grain is more frequent. Because of this, the county towns are distinguished as "tribute-grain-town" and "non-tribute-grain-town". The tribute grain the presents borne varied from place to place. The trading market of purchasing tribute grain developed since then. There were many towns on the way of the canal transport due to the Qing government’s relaxing the restrictions on the tribute grain amounts of each ship.Because there was no canal flowing through Henan province, Henan has not a greater wharf for purchasing tribute grain. But the town as Daokou and Chuwang which located on the way of Wei River obtained a certain development. With the abolishment of canal transport, the economy of these areas declined.