A Study of Landownership in Some Early Nineteenth

Abstract

In this article, the author analyses the dia ba, or land of twenty-seven villages in Nam Dinh province, which were drawn up between 1804 and 1889. Here he gives some insights into the fundamental structure of landownership in Vietnamese villages before the French occupation.First, he explains the form of the land rolls in detail.Secondly, regarding the percentage relationship of công diên, or communal land, to the total land area of each village, he distinguishes various types. For example, while four villages had no communal land, in two other villages, 70-80 percent of the land was communal. Therefore, the role of communal land in the Vietnamese village system differed according to village. Furthermore, according to the land rolls of three villages which had a high percentage communal land, it may be seen that these were often concentrated in certain areas which usually faced a big river. And that tù'diên, or private land, was located behind these. There one postulates that the location of communal land might be related to the land policy of Lê dynasty.Thirdly, the size of a given plot of the private land differed widely from villages where one plot was smaller, the peasants who collected many small plots became big owners. In others, where one plot was larger, the big owners had only one or two large plots. He considers these differences might be related to the particular origins of each village.Fourthly, he discovered in these rolls the fact that many detached plots of the communal and private land were dispersed in other villages, concluding that in Vietnamese village of the nineteenth century landownership was open to members of other villages.In conclusion, he found it difficult to classify the Vietnamese village under only one type. His task at hand, therefore, it to collect and analyse data from many other land rolls. Upon closing he acknowledged his indebtedness to l'Ecole Francaise d'Extrême-Orient for permission to consult its invaluable manuscrpts preserved on microfilm in the Toyo Bunko.