Lesson 19: Socio-economic development of the early Qing Dynasty

Restoration and development of agricultural production

The great turmoil at the end of the Ming Dynasty caused serious damage to the social economy, and the rulers of the early Qing Dynasty realized that economic recovery, especially the recovery and development of agricultural production, was the "great plan of the country. The Shunzhi, Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors all attached great importance to agricultural production and vigorously implemented the policy of land reclamation, so that agricultural production soon recovered and developed greatly, laying the foundation for the prosperity of the early Qing dynasty.

In the early Qing Dynasty, the arable land area was expanded continuously, a large area of barren land was reclaimed, many barren mountains and wilderness were transformed into farmland, and remote areas were also developed. By the end of the Qianlong period, the arable land in the country had increased by nearly 300 million mu compared to the heyday of the Ming Dynasty. In the area of water conservancy, the Yellow River, the Huai River, and other major rivers and the Grand Canal were managed, and many dikes, ditches and weirs, and sea ponds were built with manpower. In grain cultivation, we improved cultivation techniques, new varieties, and promoted high-yielding crops such as corn and sweet potatoes, which led to a substantial increase in grain production. At the same time, the cultivation of cash crops has also developed considerably, with an increase in varieties and an expanding area of cotton, sugar cane, tobacco, tea, medicinal herbs, as well as flowers and fruits.

The development of agricultural production is conducive to social stability and prosperity. The increase in the variety and output of agricultural products also gave a boost to the development of handicrafts and the commodity economy of the towns.

The development of handicrafts and commerce

In the early Qing Dynasty, silk weaving, cotton weaving, printing and dyeing, mining and metallurgy, porcelain, sugar, tea and other handicraft industries had great development. In particular, silk weaving, cotton weaving, printing and dyeing, porcelain, etc., a wide range of products, fine products. At that time, there were more mature handicraft workshops, some of which were quite large, such as the famous Jiangning Li Bantan, Li Dongyang, etc., each with 500 or 600 looms; Foshan Town, operating cotton weaving handicraft workshops amounted to 2,500, weavers more than 50,000 people.

During the early Qing Dynasty, commerce was well developed, with frequent land and water transport, and merchandise trade flourished everywhere, forming a commercial network consisting of rural bazaars, town markets, regional markets and national markets. Some former rural areas developed into industrial and commercial towns, some with more than 10,000 residents, larger than the size of the county. The town of Shengze in Wujiang County, for example, had a scene of "boats jamming the harbor and shouldering the streets"; the town of Hankow in Hubei developed only in the mid-Ming Dynasty, but by the Qing Dynasty had become a metropolis with "dozens of miles of people and thousands of families". In Beijing, Jiangning, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and other large cities, industry and commerce were very prosperous. In Suzhou during the Qianlong period, according to me, there were "100,000 fireworks" and wealth "in the world", and some lots were "worth an inch of gold".

In the commercial activities, there were some big merchants who had strong commercial capital and carried out commercial activities in the country. For example, the Jin merchants, consisting of merchants from Shanxi Province, mainly sold grain, salt, silk, etc. In the Qianlong period, they specialized in exchange, money lending and deposit business, and opened "ticket offices" throughout the country to facilitate the circulation of money. They were mainly engaged in the business activities of salt, pawnshop, tea, timber, grain, cloth and silk, etc. The Huizhou merchants, who were rivaled by the Jin merchants, were mainly engaged in the business activities of the Huizhou merchants in Jiangnan Province. The merchants of Huizhou were rich in the area. The activities of these merchants had a great impact on the development of social economy at that time.

Population growth

During the heyday of the Ming Dynasty, the population of the country reached more than 100 million. The economic decline and years of war since the end of the Ming Dynasty caused a sharp decline in population. The rulers of the early Qing Dynasty took a series of measures to restore the social economy, which led to economic development, national strength, social stability, and a great increase in population. By the time of Kangxi, the total population of the country had reached 150 million. By the end of the Qianlong period, the country's population had grown to 300 million, accounting for one-third of the world's total population at that time.

The rapid growth of the population also brought many problems. In some places, due to the increase in population density, the conflict between people and land gradually became prominent, followed by further reclamation of land, is a lot of natural vegetation and primitive forests were destroyed, soil erosion is serious, the decline in land strength. The huge population also causes social pressure and affects the sustainable economic development.

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