The "Sprouts of Capitalism" in Agricultural Development during the Mid-Ch'ing Period

-84THE "SPROUTS OF CAPITALISM" IN AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT DURING THE MID-CH 'ING PERIOD Ramon H, Myers Hoover Institution ou War, Revolution & Peace During the 1950's one of the major themes of historical research in China was to identify and describe various forms of capitalist development during the Hing and Ch'ing periods. These efforts concentrated principally upon merchant activities, the organization of urban handicraft in the Kiangnaa region, and the behavior of unskilled and seiai-skilled workers who were employed in urban handicraft. During the 1960's Chinese scholars were compelled to abandon their research, but in 1975 there were signs that the climate had sufficiently improved for scholarly research to revive because the "sprouts of capitalism" theme was being re-examined. This note assesses this renewed interest in Ming-Ch'ing social-economic history. A recent article in Wen-wu (Cultural Relics) by Li Min refers to historical records in the Palace Museum of Peking (Ku-kung po-wu-vuan) and argues that in certain 1 areas new production relationships could be observed by the mid-eighteenth century. These records contain more than 58,000 examples of land debt cited in memorials of the censoraie's section for examining the affairs of the Board of Punishment during the Ch'ien-lung period (1736-1796). The revelation that such a huge quantity of documents exist for only one of the branches of the Ch'ing central administration for a single imperial reign period suggests that only the tip of tha iceberg has been exposed of those historical documents located in the Peking Palace Museum. What do some of these land debt cases show? They reveal two very interesting developments during the eighteenth century, one of which has already been examined by the Chinese scholars Ching Su and Lo Lun in their classic study of the managerial landlord economy (ching-ying ti-chu chinR-ehi) in Shantung during the nineteenth 2 century. These land debt decuments prove beyond any doubt that managerial landlords -85could be found in many areas of China during the eighteenth century either on private land or land claimed by Manchu Banner families. Two interesting cases demonstrate this In Ting-an county of Kwangtung province two brothers named K'o Feng-hsiang and K'o Feng-chi and the husband of their younger sister, Lin Sung, formed a partnership to buy a plot of hillside land. The K'o brothers each advanced 20 silver taels ; Lin Sung put up 10 taels. They hired workers to plant 50,000 betel nut trees. When the nuts were harvested and sold, each received a profit share based upon the original capital advanced: 40 percent for each of the K'o brothers and 20 percent for Lin Sung. On November 25, 1741, the K'o brothers mortgaged their share in the betel nut enterprise for a sum of 86 taels to Liu Pai-shih, who thereafter received four-fifths of the annual profits. Much later, after the price of betel nuts had risen, Liu transferred his mortgage claim to a partnership of three persons for 132 taels. Meanwhile, Lin Sung mortgaged his share to one Chang Hung-liieh. Chang and the three partners employed their workers to harvest the betel nuts, but eventually a fierce quarrel erupted over which trees each had a right to harvest. The case then went into litigation . This example shows that individuals pooled their wealth, reclaimed barren land, organized production for the market by employing a large labor force to harvest a cash crop, and then transferred their property rights to others with the option of eventually re-purchasing. The second case pertains to two Manchu Banner nobles and a Chinese who collectively owned some Banner land in Hsin-ch'eng county of Chihli province. These landowners employed a manager (chuang-t'ou) named Ch'ien Chin to manage their land which produced winter wheat. On May 11, 1771, Ch'ien Chin sent Li Hsien-tsung to hire two workers to supervise a gang of day laborers to harvest the winter wheat. As many as 50 to 60 workers were usually hired, each receiving a marker. At the end of the day each worker received a cash...