Ming-Qing Studies in Japan: 1988

Abstract

MING-QING STUDIES IN JAPAN: 1988* Iwai Shigeki Translated by Mark Elliott Among the nearly sixty items which need to be introduced here, progress can be seen in research aimed at explaining the actual conditions of product flows and market structure and in research which tries to move closer to an understanding of the special nature of the judiciary in Chinese society, as well as in other areas. In addition, notable results of research using socialhistorical approaches and methods are also pointed out. Work by Mori Masao A J^, on the Ming "official lands" (guantian) system and on reforms in the land tax system is brought together in Studies in the Jiangnan Land System During the Ming r »y} ?\" ?-? if} * ·*&$) J^ ¿> -*ff ipi (Tôyôshi kenkyû sôkan 42, Dôbôsha). Although at first glance this might appear to be nothing more than a hastily-done supplemental monograph, when one takes a second look at Mori's research style, there is in fact exceptionally great significance in the completion of this book. Réévaluations of Mori's work on official lands (done in the first half of the 1960s) began around 1980. Just at that time issues such as tax systems and land systems came to be more actively debated in China, possibly on impetus received from Japanese research. Scholars began to expand their research into the questions of official lands, foremost among the many being Wu Dange. Taking note of this situation, Mori supplied Chinese translations of his work to Wu, Fan Shuzhi, and other Chinese researchers on numerous occasions during his time abroad, engaging them in direct exchange of opinions. On both sides there resulted a deepened familiarity with the subject and a new harvest of information from historical sources. It was through Mori's cooperative project—enterprising, ambitious, and "international" in the true sense of the word—that this major book came together. It stands as the product of the widening mutual interplay of Ming-Qing research in both Japan and China and, from another angle, is its best result. This book shows a path to heightened research exchange that international conferences and short-term workshops alone cannot achieve. *Shigaku Zasshi 98.5 (May 1989):239-45. Late Imperial China, Vol. 12, No. 1 (June 1991): 100-114© by the Society for Qing Studies 100 Ming-Qing Studies in Japan: 1988101 Production, Product Flows, and Economic Systems On issues relating to production, Christian Daniels' study, "The Adoption and Transfer of New Sugar-making Technology within South China During the Late Ming/Early Qing Period" r ^ J^ S^ ?« /s ^ £r T3 pf ty. j% 4^ #f 4£ £ % ? (Shirinll.o) and KurodaAkinobu *- ¿> ^ -if in "Qing Rice Reserves" r H^ X \'% % % * (Shirin 71.6) address two sides of the same issue. Yamamoto focuses on the economic effects and goals of policy, while Kuroda tries to explain market structure through the results of policy. Though both acknowledge the connection between rice storage policies and the rapidly-increasing price of rice from the middle of the eighteenth century and after, Yamamoto sides with those who emphasize that the roots of inflation were in monetary policy rather than with those who find the major cause in supply distortions owing to investment of silver withdrawn from the national treasury. Kuroda, on the other hand, cannot explain the problem of rice pricing by this currency supply theory. He concludes that "a structure was created by the grain reserves system and the additional supply of currency whereby regional capital, which enjoyed mutual substitutability of money and grain, came to be overvalued with respect to silver (supraregional capital)." This finding surely will contribute to enhanced discussions of pre-modern pricing problems, economic structure, and the economic relations of the state, as well as aid historical explanations of long-term social 102Iwai Shigeki and economic change. From this standpoint one might well note Kuroda's bold interpretation that in the mid-Qing the development of the market economy , accompanied by the twin phenomena of expensive rice and expensive money, helped induce the formation of closed regional capital. In another article, Yamamoto has found that an influx of rice and merchandise from Anhui was one external condition affecting...