In general, grains were the staple of farm production. In the nineteenth century, food supply in the Han River area was at least sufficient during normal years (see appendix). This was the basis on which the production of cash crops developed. As mentioned before, along the upper Han River, the cash income of farming households in the valley depended on growing a few mou 畝 (1 mou = 0.16 acre) of tobacco, turmeric, or medicinal herbs, while those in the mountains relied on rearing pigs. Thus, even in the remote mountains, peasants devoted some effort to producing cash income.
In local gazetteers, there is usually an entry of huo-shu 貨屬, or “commercial goods,”
in the section dealing with local products. Occasionally, specialties of certain villages or towns are also mentioned. The general impression is that the peasants were market oriented, although the intensity of marketing varied in different places and cannot be measured precisely.
In this chapter there will be no attempt to analyze land utilization and cash income of individual farms because this sort of information is almost non-existent for the period and region under study. Instead, the focus will be on notable cash crops, which were produced in the Han River area and were transported over the Han River.
Some cash crops were produced on the plains while others were produced in the mountains. The items to be discussed in this chapter are beans, sesame seed, tea, tobacco, turmeric, fungus, and other mountain products such as wood oil, varnish, and vegetable tallow.
Both qualitative and quantitative data will be used to describe and analyze the tendency of development. Although the development of each crop involved different places and followed a slightly different pattern, general trends can be observed. On the one hand, the progress of commercialization was accelerated during the late nineteenth century owing to the new developments in processing industry that called for a larger demand for raw materials. Thus, despite fluctuations in prices, the exported volumes of soybeans, sesame seed, tobacco leaf, wood oil, and vegetable tallow were increasing. On the other hand, the development of certain products, which supplied mainly the domestic market, was limited because the demand was rather stable. The production levels of fungus, varnish, and prepared tobacco indicated this tendency. Foreign merchants were involved in some way with the trade of most
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products, but their role in the tea trade provides an outstanding example of foreign competition at work in interior China. Moreover, certain products such as turmeric indicate that specialties of a district could have a nationwide market.
Beans
Beans played a role in the diet of Chinese people comparable to rice or millet.
The T’ien-kung k’ai-wu 天工開物 (Exploiting the Works of Nature) said, “There are as many kinds of legumes as of rice and millet. Their sowing and harvesting times last through the four seasons, and they have been used daily as human food since the beginning of man’s need for sustenance was known.”1 This was a conclusion made in the early seventeenth century. In the Shou-shih t’ung-k’ao 授時通考 (Comprehensive treatises to instruct the people during all seasons), compiled in 1741 by order of the Ch’ien-lung emperor, three volumes (chüan 卷) were devoted to beans and references in this work showed that considerable literature had been written on the species.2 The uses of the beans varied widely. Commonly, beans were used both as fodder and as food for human beings. Some traditional uses were as follows: green lentils could be ground into flour and made into chips or noodles; soybeans were mainly for making curds and sauces as well as extracting oil; red mung beans had some medicinal use.3 Since the last decade of the nineteenth century, Chinese soybeans became well known on the world market. More and more industrial products were discovered which used soybeans as a basic raw material.4
Beans were grown quite extensively along the Han River valley. The T’ien-kung k’ai-wu remarked that broad beans were grown in great amounts on the upper reaches of the Han River and that their usefulness equaled millet as a staple food.5 Chang Hsüeh-ch’eng mentioned that yellow soybeans, green lentils, red mug beans, black soybeans, and white soybeans (fan-tou 飯豆) were sent to Hankow from Hsiang-yang, Yün-yang, and Te-an prefectures.6 In other local gazetteers various kinds of beans are listed, although little is said about their output or role in trade.
In the late nineteenth century, an increasing amount of beans was exported from Hankow. Before the railroad was extended to Honan, these beans were mostly sent via
__________
1 Sung Ying-hsing, T’ien-kung k’ai-wu: Chinese Technology in the Seventeenth Century, trans. E-tu Zen Sun and Shiou-chuan Sun (University Park and London, The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1966), p. 24.
2 Chiang P’u et al., Shou-shih t’ung-k’ao (1826), chüan 27, 28, 29.
3 Ibid.
4 J. Arnold, Commercial Handbook of China (Washington, D. C., Government Printing Office, 1919), II, 282.
5 Sung Ying-hsing, T’ien-kung k’ai-wu, p. 31.
6 Chang hsüeh-ch’eng, Chang Shih-chai hsien-sheng i-shu, 1: 16.
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the Han River. According to Japanese investigations during 1908-1915, in addition to the beans carried by the railway, 800,000 shih 石 (1 shih = 120 catties) of beans from Honan were shipped down the Han River to Hankow annually. These beans were known as the T’ang-tou 唐豆, that is beans from the T’ang-pai-ho valley.7 The same investigations also mentioned that beans arrived yearly at the trade centers along the Han River as follows:8
Place Yellow Soybean Broad Bean Garden Pea
Fan-ch’eng 200,000 shih -- --
I-ch’eng 25,000 shih 200,000 shih --
Sha-yang 150,000 shih 200,000 shih 50,000 shih
A great proportion of these beans must have been transshipped to Hankow, although amount is not indicated clearly in this source.
In the Maritime Customs returns of trade, started in 1889, beans are listed in an entry in the table of native goods exported from Hankow, and from 1893 on, different kinds of beans are listed separately. This indicates that beans became a principal item in the export trade of Hankow during the 1890’s. Table 1 is a summary of exports of beans from Hankow.
Table 1: Exports of Beans from Hankow, 1893-1914 Period Average Quantity
Source: Imperial Maritime Customs, Reports and Returns of Trade, for each year, pt. 2, section on Hankow.
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7 Shina shōbetsu zenshi, IX, 574.
8 Ibid., IX, 557-560.
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Table 1 (continued)
Method of calculations:
(a) Average quantity and average value are derived from dividing the sum of each period by the number of years in each period, and then rounded off to the nearest 1,000.
(b) Average price is the arithmetic average of the average price of each year, rather than simply Average value/Average quantity. The two are not the same.
(c) This method will be followed in other tables of this study.
In addition, during 1900-1914, beans unclassified by category were entered separately in the Maritime Customs returns. The average quantities for the two periods amount to 11,000 piculs and 909,000 piculs respectively. This can help to clarify why the quantity of yellow and white beans decreased so drastically during 1910-1914 as compared with the previous period. Beans of the unclassified category were mostly broad beans which were shipped abroad as cattle feed.9
Processed beans were also a part of the trade pattern. Soybeans were used as a raw material for extracting oil and beancake was an important by-product. Japan took a large share of the exported beancake.10 Western countries took some portion of bean oil for the manufacture of soap.11 Table 2 shows a summary of beancake and bean oil exported from Hankow.
Table 2: Exports of Beancake and Bean Oil from Hankow, 1888-1914 Period Average Quantity
1,000 Piculs
Source: Imperial Maritime Customs, Reports and Returns of Trade, for each year, pt. 2, section on Hankow.
*In the original returns there are no figures for the years 1896 and 1897; therefore this period consists of only three years.
_________
9 J. Arnold, Commercial Handbook of China, II, 282.
10 Mizuno Kōkichi, Kankō, pp. 470-471.
11 J. Arnold, Commercial Handbook of China, II, 282
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From Table 1 it is obvious that the price of beans kept increasing while there were fluctuations in volume. Since high prices indicate that there was continued demand for beans, changes in volume were most likely linked to good or bad harvests.
On the other hand, in Table 2, in spite of a fall in the price of beancake during the period 1900-1904, there was an increase in volume. This implies that the processing branch of this industry was going on well. According to Mizuno Kōkichi 水野幸吉, the old style oil extraction workshops could be found everywhere. Normally, 100 catties (1 picule) of soybeans were required to make 7 or 8 catties of oil. The bean oil which arrived in Hankow was mainly from places along the Han River and from the Huang-chou area.12 In addition to the old style workshops, modern bean oil mills were also established in Hankow. According to the Maritime Customs reports, there were five bean oil mills in Hankow in 1907. These mills had a daily production capacity of 300 to 3,000 beancakes. It is said that 2 piculs of beans were needed to make five cakes and 20 catties of oil. The number of oil mills increased to seven during 1908. Of these mills, three made a profit and another one extended its plant. As for the others, the Japanese mill did badly and another mill lost money chiefly owing to a misjudgment of the money exchange rate. The new mills were erected with a daily capacity of 3,400 cakes each. In 1909, it was reported that all oil mills did better than in 1908 and that large profits were made.13
Although it is impossible to gauge the marketed beans at the percentage of output, it seems that from 1890 on, beans were marketed in larger amounts than before. In spite of the coming of the railway, the Han River was still an important trade route of beans in the first decade of the twentieth century.
Sesame Seed
While in Chinese, the sesame seed is used as a metaphor for something trivial or insignificant, people may not have been aware that in trade it played an important role at the end of the Ch’ing dynasty. In 1909, A. Sugden, acting commissioner of customs in Hankow said, “The port might become better known as a seed than as a tea port.”14
The sesame plant was grown extensively along the Han River valley in Hupeh and the T’ang-pai-ho valley in Honan. Chang Hsüeh-ch’eng listed sesame seed among grains gathered at Hankow.15 In local gazetteers of Chu-shan (1785 and 1876), __________
12 Mizuno Kōkichi, Kankō, p. 408.
13 Imperial Maritime Customs, Reports and Returns of Trade, for the year 1907, pt. 2, p. 197; for the year 1908, pt. 2, p. 213; and for the year 1909, pt. 2, p. 260. Also see Shinkoku jijō, I, 858-859, for the working conditions in a Japanese bean pol mill and two other mills set up by Chinese around 1905.
14 Imperial Maritime Customs Reports and Returns of Trade, for the year 1908, pt. 2, p. 211.
15 Chang Hsüeh-ch’eng, Chang Shih-chai hsien-sheng i-shu, 1: 16.
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Chu-hsi (1867), and Yün-hsien (1866), sesame seed was listed among the grains and sesame seed oil among the local commercial goods.16 In the I-ch’eng hsien hsiang-t’u-chih 宜城縣鄉土志 (1906), it was estimated that sesame seed exported to Hankow amounted to 20,000 shih per year and that sesame oil and seed cake together reached about 500,000 catties annually.17 The Han-ch’uan t’u-chi cheng-shih 漢川 圖記徵實 (1895) said that on lands protected by dikes along the Hsiang 襄 River (i.e., Han River) white sesame plants were abundantly grown.18 There is no estimate of the output of sesame seed in Hupeh during the Ch’ing dynasty. An estimate of 1932, however, shows that the cultivated acreage of sesame seed in Hupeh was about 1,366,000 mou with an annual output of 943,140 piculs. The Hsiang-yang area accounted for more than half of this amount.19 In 1957, the output of sesame seed in Hupeh was the largest in China.20 As Hsiang-yang remained the most productive area of sesame seed crops in the province, it may be safe to say that this achievement was due to some extent to its historical experience in land utilization.
As for production of sesame seed along the T’ang-pai-ho valley, little information about conditions during the nineteenth century is available because few local gazetteers were compiled during that period. The Nan-yang fu-chih 南陽府志 (1807) listed sesame oil among commercial goods but the chapter on local products is a duplication of that of the 1694 edition.21 Despite the scarcity of information during the nineteenth century, it seems likely that the cultivation of sesame seed was encouraged as a result of trade in Hankow. P’an Shou-lien 潘守廉 (1845-1939), magistrate of Nan-yang hsien, estimated in 1904 that the annual output of sesame seed was about 20,000 shih and it was one of the two major exports of the district (the other being soybeans).22 Before the coming of the railway, the sesame seed produced in Nan-yang prefecture found its outlet via the Han River to Hankow. The railway not only brought to Hankow a large amount of sesame seed from the eastern plain of Honan, but also began carrying part of the surplus from Nan-yang prefecture. For instance, in the Maritime customs report for the year 1903, it was mentioned that She hsien 葉縣 was a district largely gives over to the cultivation of the sesame plant. At that time sesame seed produced in She hsien was conveyed to Yüan-t’an 源潭, a mart on the T’ang-pai-ho, and from there shipped to Hankow. However, since the opening __________
16 Chu-shan hsien-chih (1785), 11: 1, 5; Chu-shan hsien-chih (1867), 6: 1b, 5; Chu-hsi hsien-chih (1867), 15: 1b, 3b; Yün-hsien-chih (1866), 4: 39b, 56b.
17 I-ch’eng-hsien hsiang-t’u-chih (1906), 4: 21b-22. The sesame oil consumed in the district city and other market towns amounted to 1 million catties, and the seed cake amounts to 300,000 catties.
18 Han-ch’uan t’u-chi cheng-shih (1895), 4: 42.
19 Shih-yeh-pu kuo-chi-mao-i-chü ed., Chih-ma (Ch’ang-sha, 1940), pp. 18-19.
20 Sun Ching-shih, Hua-chung ti-ch’ü ching-chi ti-li (Peking, 1958), pp. 26-27.
21 Nan-yang fu-chih (1807), 1: 59b-60; cf. Nan-yang fu-chih (1694), 1: 59b-60.
22 P’an Shou-lien, Nan-yang-hsien hu-k’ou ti-t’u wu-ch’an hsü-mu piao-t’u-shuo, p. 65.
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of the railway, the trade was gradually diverted to Yen-ch’eng 郾城.23 In the Maritime Customs annual returns, prior to 1885, export of sesame seed from Hankow was recorded only for 1868, 1880, and 1884 with 352 piculs, 1,370 piculs, and 453 piculs respectively. Table 3 summarizes the export of sesame seed from Hankow from 1885 to 1914.
Table 3: Sesame Seed Exported from Hankow, 1885-1914 (not including re-export) Period Average Quantity
1,000 Piculs
Source: Imperial Maritime Customs, Reports and Returns of Trade, for each year, pt. 2, section on Hankow.
Despite the decline of price during the period 1890-1894, the quantity and total value of the sesame seed trade increased by leaps and bounds. The impact of railway transportation on the sesame seed trade can also be easily seen from this table, as the quantity of 1905-1909 was more than double that of the previous period. Because the trade brought large profits to growers, the cultivated acreage of sesame plants increased in Honan.24 In 1909, sesame seed was even received for the first time from Pa-tung 巴東, a district in western Hupeh near Szechwan, where poppy-cultivated lands were being converted to grow sesame plants.25
By the same token, there was a large foreign demand for sesame seed. The increasing trade was partly due to shortage of crops in India and partly due to newly erected factories for extracting oil in Germany and Italy.26 In 1909, it was reported that these new factories had “stimulated demand to such an extent that Chinese importers find it difficult to fill their orders.”27 Great as the demand was, the trade was hampered by the inadequacy of shipping space in steamers and by malpractices in trade. A great factor which encouraged malpractices was to “buy forward.”28 Buyers abroad often wanted to secure stocks of raw material for several months ahead and they offered forward contracts which foreign exporters found impossible to decline.
However, it was difficult to predict the yield of each crop, as the sesame seed was bought in advance when the plants were still in flower. There was always a risk of
__________
23 Imperial Maritime Customs, Reports and Returns of Trade, for the year 1903, pt. 2, p. 246.
24 Imperial Maritime Customs, Reports and Returns of Trade, for the year 1909, pt. 2, pp. 262-263.
25 Ibid.
26 Ibid., for the year 1907, pt. 2, p. 199; for the year 1909, pt. 2, p. 263.
27 Ibid., for the year 1909, pt. 2, p. 263.
28 Ibid., for the year 1910, pt. 2, pp. 289-290.
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being unable to fulfill the contracts due to crop failures. In order to make up the quantity, quality was sacrificed. This in turn would play against the trade, and the final sufferers were the growers. At the same time, speculation was unavoidable. For instance, in 1907 some Chinese dealers held on to the crop in order to force prices up.
They were successful in doing so, but other dealers who had to fulfill their contracts lost heavily.29
In spite of these uncertainties and malpractices, the sesame seed trade flourished during the first decade of the twentieth century. In 1911 a report stated,
“The actual producers are said to have a large amount of sycee buried in their houses as the result of trade of the last two years, and to be indifferent to business save on their own terms.”30 What else could the peasants do? From the discussion above, it is clear that more land was devoted to the cultivation of sesame plants in response to the increasing demand. However, the economic framework of that time had not prepared the peasants to invest their accumulated wealth. Hoarding was a more traditional means of keeping money and seemed to be a secure method.
As with the soybean, the sesame seed was used as a raw material for extracting oil. However, little information is on record about the sesame oil extraction industry along the Han River. In Hankow, there were newly erected bean oil mills during the 1900’s but no sesame oil mills. Meanwhile it cannot be ascertained whether there were old style oil pressing workshops that specialized in the producing of sesame oil or not. As for the yield of oil per unit of sesame seed, a reference was found in the T’ien-kung k’ai-wu which stated that one shih (approximately one picul in terms of the Ming measurement31) of sesame seed could yield 40 catties of oil.32 According to the Maritime Customs annual returns of trade, prior to 1886, there was only a small amount of sesame oil exported from Hankow and there were many gaps in the records.
From 1886 on, however, the annual export of sesame oil rarely exceeded 40,000 piculs and normally ranged between 10,000 and 20,000 piculs.33 If the oil pressing
From 1886 on, however, the annual export of sesame oil rarely exceeded 40,000 piculs and normally ranged between 10,000 and 20,000 piculs.33 If the oil pressing