A history of China., [3d ed. rev. and enl.] eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 552 pages of information about A history of China., [3d ed. rev. and enl.].

A history of China., [3d ed. rev. and enl.] eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 552 pages of information about A history of China., [3d ed. rev. and enl.].
* Approximately

It may be objected that these figures are incorrect and exaggerated.  Undoubtedly they contain errors.  But the first figure (for 1578) of some sixty millions is in close agreement with all other figures of early times; the figure for 1850 seems high, but cannot be far wrong, for even after the great T’ai P’ing Rebellion of 1851, which, together with its after-effects, costs the lives of countless millions, all statisticians of today estimate the population of China at more than four hundred millions.  If we enter these data together with the census of 1953 into a chart (see p. 273), a fairly smooth curve emerges; the special features are that already under the Ming the population was increasing and, secondly, that the high rate of increase in the population began with the long period of internal peace since about 1700.  From that time onwards, all China’s wars were fought at so great a distance from China proper that the population was not directly affected.  Moreover, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Manchus saw to the maintenance of the river dykes, so that the worst inundations were prevented.  Thus there were not so many of the floods which had often cost the lives of many million people in China; and there were no internal wars, with their heavy cost in lives.

But while the population increased, the tillage failed to increase in the needed proportion.  I have, unfortunately, no statistics for all periods; but the general tendency is shown by the following table: 

Date Cultivated area mou per person
in mou

1578          701,397,600                  11.6
1662          531,135,800
1719          663,113,200
1729          878,176,000                   6.1
(1953)      (1,627,930,000)                 (2.7)

Six mou are about one acre.  In 1578, there were 66 mou land per family of the total population.  This was close to the figures regarded as ideal by Chinese early economists for the producing family (100 mou) considering the fact that about 80 per cent of all families at that time were producers.  By 1729 it was only 35 mou per family, i.e. the land had to produce almost twice as much as before.  We have shown that the agricultural developments in the Ming time greatly increased the productivity of the land.  This then, obviously resulted in an increase of population.  But by the middle of the eighteenth century, assuming that production doubled since the sixteenth century, population pressure was again as heavy as it had been then.  And after c. 1750, population pressure continued to build up to the present time.

Internal colonization continued during the Manchu time; there was a continuous, but slow flow of people into Kwangsi, Kweichou, Yuennan.  In spite of laws which prohibited emigration, Chinese also moved into South-East Asia.  Chinese settlement in Manchuria was allowed only in the last years of the Manchus.  But such internal colonization or emigration could allevitate the pressure only in some areas, while it continued to build up in others.

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A history of China., [3d ed. rev. and enl.] from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.