In the two previous chapters, discussion has been devoted to the relations between production and trade. In this chapter I shall look further into economic changes to study the working of the marketing system and to estimate the level of per capita trade.
Scholars who have studied the rural marketing system in the Ch’ing dynasty have generally agreed that the rural markets were periodic. Katō Shigeshi 加藤繁 had surveyed numerous local gazetteers and found that periodic markets existed in Chihli (Hopei), Shantung, Shansi, Honan, Fukien, Kwangtung, and Kwangsi. By contrast, the gazetteers of districts in Kiangsu lack information about market days.
Katō suggested that this was probably because the rural markets in Kiangsu were held daily. He believed that small markets convening periodically might still have existed in Kiangsu, although they were rot recorded. At any rate, Katō concluded that the daily market was the highest development of the rural market and from the beginning of the Ch’ing dynasty, the general tendency was for the number of rural markets to increase and the market schedule to intensify.1 G. William Skinner, who did field work in Szechwan, had formulated a model of the Chinese rural marketing system.
The hexagonal marketing area depicted by Skinner was based on different market schedules that were distributed among a number of market towns, which in turn were situated a certain distance apart. Skinner also pointed out that the distribution of markets and patterns of marketing behavior provided a sensitive index of the progress of modernization, which was characterized as a process of gradual commercialization of the agrarian economy. He concluded that in traditional times, the marketing system developed when new market towns were added and the size of the marketing area was reduced. On the other hand, progress of modernization involved a decrease in the number of market towns while the size of the marketing area was enlarged.2 The first half of Skinner’s conclusion is similar to Katō’s, but Skinner goes further to formulate a hypothesis for testing the progress of modernization in the rural marketing system.
Although both Katō and Skinner cover many provinces in their studies, they do not give examples from places within the Han River area. Moreover, although Morita Akira 森田明 has written an article dealing with the periodic markets in the Hu-kuang 湖廣 area, his study shows that the localities where rural markets convened
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1 Katō Shigeshi, “Shindai ni okeru sonchin no teiki ichi,” in Shina keizaishi kōshō, II, pp. 505-506.
2 G. William Skinner, “Marketing and Social Structure in Rural China,” Journal of Asian Studies, Part I, 24.1 (Nov. 1964): 3-43; Part II, 24.2 (Feb. 1965): 212-215.
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periodically were in Hunan rather than in Hupeh.3 It seems that further study on the working of rural marketing system in the Han River area is still needed.
To begin with, I shall try to clarify the terminology used in Chinese records. But before going to do this, it should be noted here that although Skinner has defined three levels of “market town,” this study will not attempt sorting the rural markets in the Han River area into these levels. The main reason is that there is no precise way of sorting. This will become clear in the following discussion. But, the settlement pattern of market towns is different from that of other rural markets. In this study, the term
“market town” will be used to mean a site, situated in the rural areas, where there were streets and permanent shop buildings. The term “rural market” will be used to mean a site, where there was a marketplace but no streets and permanent shop buildings.
Based on the size of a town and the amount of commercial tax levied there, Chang Hsüeh-ch’eng mentioned that the market towns in Hupeh could be divided into two categories: the fan-sheng 繁盛 (busy and prosperous) and the p’ien-p’i 偏僻 (out of the way and isolated).4 But these categories are not found in any prefectural and district local gazetteers. Instead, in local gazetteers, markets found in the rural areas are listed under various categories, such as chen-shih 鎮市, shih-chen 市鎮, hsiang-chen 鄉鎮, hsiang-shih 鄉市, shih-chi 市集, chi-chen 集鎮, ts’un-chen 村鎮, ts’un-chi 村集, or tien 店. Apparently, there are no standardized criteria for applying these names. Moreover, not every place name under these categories is suffixed with a character that indicates a market. However, key terms are chen (town), shih (marketplace), chi (rural market), and tien (shop). Philologically, these terms have different connotations. In the usage during the nineteenth century, at least from records along the Han River area, these terms are all used to mean rural markets, large or small. But it seems that place names suffixed with these terms were ranked only roughly in a descending order in the marketing hierarchy.
In Ch’ing times, a chen, as a rule, was a site where a sub-district magistrate (hsün-chien 巡檢) had his office.5 In this sense, a chen had administrative as well as commercial functions and was usually a large market town. In the regulations of local self-government (tzu-chih chang-ch’eng 自治章程) issued in 1908 by the Ch’ing court, a chen was defined as having a population of 50,000 in its administrative area.6 Although the administrative area referred to in this definition might not coincide with
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3 Morita Akira, “Shindai Kō-kō chihō ni okeru teiki ichi nit suite,” Shōkei lonsō, 5.1: 55-56.
4 Chang Hsüeh-ch’eng, Chang Shih-chai hsien-sheng i-shu, 1: 19.
5 T’ung-tzu Ch’ü, Local Government in China under the Ch’ing (Cambridge, Mass., 1962), pp. 8-9, 6 These regulations are included in Ta-ch’ing fa-kuei ta-ch’üan (Shanghai, 1909), 3: 2. Cf. Chu Tzu-shuang, Chung-kuo hsien-chih shih-kang (Chungking, 1942), p. 64; Wen Kung-shih ed., Ch’ü-hsiang-chen tzu-chih ts’ung-shu (Shanghai, 1933), I. p. 145, chen is defined as a nucleated settlement with one hundred and more households.
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the marketing area around a chen, the official definition of a chen shows that it was ranked highest below the hsien in the local administrative hierarchy during the modern transition obviously owing to an earlier development. This indicates that in traditional china, a rural commercial center was not independent of administrative control. There are, however, exceptions to the official usage of the term chen. In the Yün-hsi hsien-chih (1866) all markets in the rural areas were suffixed with the character chen.7
Although some chen might not always have administrative roles, they were consistently market towns. For instance, T’ien Tsung-han 田宗漢 , a native of Han-ch’uan, did investigations in the 1890s in his native district and along the Han River in Hupeh. He used chü-chen 巨鎮 (big towns), chung-chen 中鎮 (middle towns), and chi-shih 集市 (rural markets) to mark the sites of markets on maps. But his usage of these terms shifted in relation to the area being considered. For instance, when he dealt with the individual case of Han-ch’uan, he mentioned two chü-chen in the district. However, these two were marked as chung-chen in a larger spectrum along the Han River.8 T’ien Tsung-han’s category do demonstrate that the use of chen was restricted to market towns and not rural markets. But this shifting in defining the size of market towns is important to keep in mind, because the same practice may also occur in records of different local gazetteers.
Places indicated by shih had no administrative functions, and they were most likely market towns smaller than a chen or just rural markets. Leaving out its modern usage for a metropolitan area, shih originally meant a marketplace. The compilers of the Hu-pei t’ung-chih (1921) commented on a lack of information about markets in the rural areas in some local gazetteers and said, “In remote areas, there may be no chen, but how can it be possible that there is no shih?”9 In this statement, chen was apparently restricted to mean market towns and shih marketplaces or rural markets.
However, in some districts all markets in the rural areas were referred to by the character shih.10 Moreover, the Yün-hsien-chih (1866) said, “The markets in the rural areas (ssu-hsiang chi-shih 四 鄉 集 市 ) are either composed of several hundred households or one hundred and several tens of households. These are situated along rivers or near mountain roads. Shops are lined up side by side and the volume of their trade differs.”11 From this statement it is apparent that the markets in the rural areas of Yün-hsien, although not called chen, had permanent shop buildings and thus can be
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7 Yün-hsi hsien-chih (1866), 2: 17-18.
8 T’ien Tsung-han, Han-ch’uan t’u-chi cheng-shih (1895), ts’e 5: 43; Hu-pei Han-shui t’u-shuo (1901), map: 1b-2. The two market towns are Hsi-ma-k’ou and T’ien-erh-ho.
9 Hu-pei t’ung-chih (1921), 33: 1.
10 For instance, see T’ung-shan hsien-chih (1867), 1: 21a-b; T’ung-ch’eng hsien-chih (1867), 8:42b;
Ta-yeh hsien-chih (1867), 3: 41a-b.
11 Yün-hsien-chih (1866), 2: 55.
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ranked as market towns rather than rural markets.
As for tien, it may have become an alternative tern for a market town rather than just a shop. For instance, Wu-chia-tien 吳家店 in Tsao-yang had a thousand households (yen-huo ch’ien-chia 煙火千家, ch’ien should not be taken too literally) and it was a large town south of the district city of Tsao-yang.12 Moreover, in Te-an-fu 德安府 and other localities along the Han River, market towns were usually referred to by the character tien.13
As for chi, a typical term for a rural market, it was sometimes interchangeable with chen in meaning. For instance, Sung-pu-chen 宋埠鎮 in Ma-ch’eng hsien was described as “i-chung shou-chi 邑中首集”, or the first market town in the district.14 In addition, in Han-yang hsien, several chi were ranked with chen, and the inhabitants were called “chen-shih hsiao-min 鎮市小民”, or common people in the market towns.15 But, chi was probably more often used to refer to small rural markets. For instance, T’ien Tsung-han said that chi was used for some market towns where traveling and sedentary merchants (shang-ku 商賈) no longer gathered but only peddlers (fu-fan 負販) who served the needs of villagers.16
Furthermore, some brief references found in local gazetteers also shed light on understanding the function of market towns. For instance, the T’ien-men hsien-chih (1765) remarked, “In big towns, traveling merchants (hsing-shang 行商) trade, sedentary merchants (tso-ku 坐賈) gather, and pawnshops issue pledges (chih-chi 質 劑). But there are only a few of these towns in the districts.” 17 The Yün-hsi hsien-chih (1866) had all markets in the rural areas suffixed with the character chen and said, “A chen is established for protecting people and also for providing conveniences to people. Commodities can be obtained there, trade is carried on there, and merchants and artisans gather there.”18 Moreover, as mentioned before, in Yün-hsien, market towns were places where shops were lined up together along the road. All these statements suggest that in places along the Han River, the people spoke of market towns as places where there were shops and where trade was carried on continuously rather than periodically. These market towns, in fact, should be distinguished from other rural markets, which convened periodically or only a few hours daily.
Clarifying the usage of terms is but the first step. In the following paragraphs the working of the market system in the Han River area will be discussed in terms of
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12 Tsao-yang hsien-chih (1854), 1: 21b-22.
13 Te-an fu-chih (1888), 2: 42b-246; cf. Sui-chou-chih (1667), 2:4b. Huang-an hsien-chih (1822 and 1882) also uses tien as the category of rural markets, both in chüan 2.
14 Ma-ch’eng hsien-chih (1935), 1: 42.
15 Fan K’ai, Han-k’ou ts’ung-t’an (1822), 1: 17; Han-yang hsien-chih (1868), 3:5b-6b. . 16 Han-ch’uan t’u-chi cheng-shih (1895), ts’e 5: 43.
17 Yün-hsien-chih (1866), 1: 17.
18 T’ien-men hsien-chih (1765 ed., 1922 reprint), 1: 33b.
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the distribution of markets, the market schedules, the changes in the number of markets, the size of marketing areas, and the average population per market. In each of these themes Katō’s and Skinner’s theses will be tested. Also the vicissitudes of economic development along the Han River will be illustrated.
Spatial Distribution of Markets
The structure of the marketing system is first of all spatial. This is succinctly pointed out by Chang Hsüeh-ch’eng. When talking about the market towns in Hupeh, he remarked, “Cities are created according to strategic positions of mountains and rivers; small and large market towns are formed between cities and village settlements.”19 The implication of geography and transportation as determining factors for locations of cities and towns is thus clear. Consequently, Chang Hsüeh-ch’eng provided a list of major market following the directions of rivers – the Yangtze, the Han, and their tributaries. The importance of these trade routes is obviously implied.
Market towns situated right along the Han River can serve as an example of spatial distribution of markets. Chang Hsüeh-ch’eng mentioned thirteen major market towns along the Han river in Hupeh.20 Among these, seven were marked as big towns, three as middle towns, and another three as rural markets by T’ien Tsung-han in 1901.21 The seven big towns were: Hankow, Ts’ai-tien 蔡甸, Hsien-t’ao-chen 仙桃鎮, Yüeh-chia-k’ou 岳家口, Sha-yang 沙洋, Fan-ch’eng, and Lao-ho-k’ou. This suggests that as far as big towns along the Han River were concerned, there was little change during the nineteenth century, apparently because these places already occupied the most strategic positions. Moreover, from details about rural markets provided by T’ien Tusng-han, it is possible to say that below Yüeh-chia-k’ou, markets were closely distributed on the banks because the course of the river was tortuous and the river bed narrow. Higher up the river, however, where the river bed widened and where there were more shoals, the markets were more sparsely distributed and situated further away from the banks.22 The locations of markets along a river seemed to be determined more by the natural course of the river and its surroundings than by any other spatial considerations.
The distribution of markets in the rural areas can also be observed from the point of view of a district. In most local gazetteers, as a rule, the markets in the rural areas of a district were grouped according to their relative position to the hsien city in
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19 Chang Hsüeh-ch’eng, Chang shih-chai hsien-sheng i-shu, 1: 15b.
20 Ibid., 1: 16.
21 T’ien Tsung-han, Hu-pei Han-shui t’u-shuo (1901), map.
22 Ibid., cf. Ferdinand von Richthofen, “Letter on the Province of Hupeh”, pp. 1-2, for description of the Han River.
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terms of four or more directions. Thus, the structural relationship between the rural market towns and the hsien city is clear. Moreover, in each district, there were sometimes more than one road connecting the rural market towns and the hsien city.
For instance, the Ying-shan hsien-chih (1871) mentioned that there were five marketing paths (chi-lu 集路) in the southeast, one in the northeast, two in the southwest, and three in the northwest (see Map 3).
Map 3: Markets in the Rural Areas of Ying-shan hsien, Market Paths, and the Distance in terms of li to the hsien city.
Source: Ying-shan hsien-chih (1871), map and 6:2b-5.
The distance between two markets in the same direction and on the same road was about 10 li, 15 li, or 20 li (1 li = 0.5 km). The maximum distance was 30 li.23 This indicates that the distribution of market towns and rural markets depended on the walking distance from villages situated in between two markets. Although not every local gazetteer provides information about marketing paths, most gazetteers do provide the distance from each market town or rural market to the hsien city. From these data, one can gather that markets were rather evenly distributed in all directions radiating from the hsien city.
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23 Ying-shan hsien-chih (1871), 6: 2b-5.
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The distribution of market towns and rural markets in Tsao-yang hsien is given here as an example (see Map 4).
Map 4: The Distribution of Market Towns in Tsao-yang hsien, ca. 1910
Source: Tsao-yang hsien-chih (1865 and 1923).
Tsao-yang is situated on a plain with an average altitude of 50-250 meters above sea level.24 In addition to transportation over land, navigation of small boats was possible on Kun-ho 滾河, a tributary of the Han River.25 The terrain is favorable for an even
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24 See Chang Ch’i-yün. Chung-hua min-kuo ti-t’u-chi (Taipei, 1962), Map C7.
25 Han-chiang shui-tao ch’a-k’an pao-kao, p. 28. Kun-ho is also known as K’un-shui 昆水. See Tsao-yang hsien-chih (1923), 3: 7b, 9.
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distribution of markets in this district. But it seems that the structural relationship between the large market towns and the small ones does not appear in a rigid hexagonal model. Moreover, the situation differs from district to district as the topography is not all the same. For instance, in Han-ch’uan hsien, market towns and rural markets were mostly found on the banks of lakes and rivers, and some were situated very close to each other (see Map 5). A rigid hexagonal model is likewise not applicable to this case. On the other hand, in the mountainous Ning-ch’iang chou, the distance between two rural markets is longer and the distribution appears in a simple triangle pattern rather than a complicated hexagon (see Map 6).
Map 5: The Distribution of Market Towns in Han-ch’uan hsien, c. 1900
Source: This map is adopted from Han-ch’uan-hsien chien-chih (1959). The Market towns are from Han-ch’uan t’u-chi cheng-shih (1895), ts’e 5:43-50. Cf. Han-ch’uan hsien-chih (1921), 33:12b-13.
The figures indicate the distance to the hsien city in terms of li. For Hsia-tzu-kuo-chi (60), Hsin-chi (61), Han-chia-chi (60), Heng-ti-chi (63), Ma-ho-tu (59), the distance is by water route; for Liu-chia-ke (30), by both land and water route.
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Map 6: Market Towns in the Western Part of Ning-ch’iang-chou
Source: Ning-ch’iang chou-chih (1888), Map, 1: 23b-24.
Market towns and market schedules, 1: 42b. Roads and the additional distance between two places in terms of li, 1: 17b, 18b.
Market Schedule
As for the rural marketing system regulated by different market schedules, Skinner’s model shows that a higher-level market town had a number of dependent market towns. The operative relationships were built on the principle that the periodic market schedule of the higher-level market towns was not in conflict with those of its dependent market towns. This device, on the one hand, enabled the peddlers to circulate among a number of markets in order to acquire enough demand for their goods and services. On the other hand, it gave the villagers the opportunity to visit higher-level markets for goods and services that they could not obtain at their own markets.26 Although the hexagonal model depicted by Skinner existed in Szechwan, the practices in other localities may be different. In some places, the periodic market schedules might be distributed among different markets that formed a triangle rather
As for the rural marketing system regulated by different market schedules, Skinner’s model shows that a higher-level market town had a number of dependent market towns. The operative relationships were built on the principle that the periodic market schedule of the higher-level market towns was not in conflict with those of its dependent market towns. This device, on the one hand, enabled the peddlers to circulate among a number of markets in order to acquire enough demand for their goods and services. On the other hand, it gave the villagers the opportunity to visit higher-level markets for goods and services that they could not obtain at their own markets.26 Although the hexagonal model depicted by Skinner existed in Szechwan, the practices in other localities may be different. In some places, the periodic market schedules might be distributed among different markets that formed a triangle rather