Analysis On The Data Of Cultivated Land Area In China And Britain From 14^th To 19^th Century

Cultivated land is a major means of production for agricultural society; it's also the biggest asset and the main source of income for families and individuals. Thus collecting the amounts of cultivated lands of individuals and families, and looking for the historical track of change, can explain the internal cause of the income per capita and the change of the asset. This is the most important idea studied in this paper. At the same time there are many factors, such as reclamation rate, population, multiple crop index, ratio of fallow, influencing per capita possession of arable lands and the income and assets. Studying the relationship between these factors and possession of arable land per capita and its change of income and assets is the second essential element in this study.We make a comparison of the Sino-British cultivated land per capita by combing the historical data of cultivated land per capita in China and Britain from 1393 to 1914, to find out the historical elements causing the change of the family and personal income and assets, and to achieve the comparison of Chinese and British national wealth.Data analysis on the Sino-British land reclamation rate shows that, in 1887, the reclamation rate is 12% in China, still below 25.54% of the Britain in 1400. It's important to note that, our statistics only cover the mainland China area, not including Tibet, Xinjiang, Qinghai, and outer Mongolia. In mainland China, the reclamation rate changes from 6.35% of Ming dynasty to 12% in 1887, having nearly doubled. But the population of China has increased from about 60 million to 400 million. This shows that the proportion of cultivable lands among all the lands in China is too low. Because of few plains in hinterlands of China and uneven rainfall distribution, large population share limited arable lands; as a result, per capita arable land is much fewer than that in the UK. This is the main element causing the backward labor productivity and low per capita income in China before 1550, which falls behind the UK.By comparing the modern data of the planting structure in China and Britain, we find that China's arable land is mainly used for food production and the British used for cash crops, especially after 1750. This suggests that the cultivated land acreage gradually turned to textile materials, feed and drinks such as beer, it reflects the British rapid advancement of income per capita and the transformation of consumption structure. China still stays in the subsistence level, so the gap of per capita income between China and Britain in modern times is not shrinking, but further widening.Through the comparison of Sino-British farming structure, it shows that multiple cropping index in China increases from 120% to 140% during 1380-1700, but the multiple cropping index in UK is 0%. British fallow rate decreases from 40% in 1380, to 20% in 1700, but fallow ratio in China is 0%. Multiple crop index reflects that there are more people and less land in China, so people use the land excessively; fallow rate reflects less British people owns more lands, so they can make a reasonable utilization of land and rehabilitate the land.Through the data comparison of Sino-British per capita arable land area, we can discover, the amounts of cultivated land area per capita in both China and Britain are falling, and the Sino-British difference of the per capita arable land area is narrowing, from 19.94 mu in 1393 to 1.19 mu in 1994. Data shows that the cultivated land per capita of UK declines faster than that of China, and it shows that the British population is growing faster than China in the later period. But the Sino-British shrinking data of per capita arable land data doesn't mean the productivity of China is close to the UK, on the contrary, it means that the British labor productivity grows much faster than that of China. The reason is that after 1550, owing to the development of animal husbandry and wool textile industry and the discovery of the new route, the Britain gains the advantage of an island country with low cost shipping industry and the low logistic cost; compared with China, Britain has gained greater competitive advantage than per capita arable land. During this period, the increase of per capita income gradually benefits from the wool textile industry development, the decrease of logistics cost and the rapid expansion of trade and commerce, thus Britain gradually changes from agricultural country to a state of industry and trade. Therefore, before 1550, the per capita income of Britain is higher than China, mainly because it has the advantage of cultivated land per capita; after 1550, the per capita income being greatly higher than that of China, mainly benefits from animal husbandry and the development of the textile industry trade. These new economy is the main competitive advantage in the UK.