The Kangxi Depression and Early Qing Local Markets

Abstract

Since 1949 much research has been devoted to the study of the economy of premodern China. The debate during the 1950s over the sprouts of uncovered a great deal of data on the Ming-Qing economy, but failed to reach any definitive conclusion. Empirical research during the last few decades shows that the predominant elements of the Ming-Qing economy were to use the words of Paul Sweezy neither feudal nor capitalist. This phrase was used by Sweezy in the celebrated debate on the transition from feudalism to capitalism in Europe (Hilton, 1978: 49). As is widely known, this remark was criticized by scholars who define feudalism as a mode of production in which the surplus product is extracted from small producers by a landed ruling class through various means of extraeconomic compulsion. This definition of feudalism as a mode of production also pervades Japanese historical studies of China. As a result, Ming-Qing society, where land tenancy widely existed, is characterized as a feudal society. (For a lucid exposition in English of Japanese controversies over Chinese feudalism see Grove and Esherick [1980].)