抗租と阻米 : 明末淸初期の福建を中心として

Abstract

This article examines the characteristics of rent revolts (the refusal of tenant farmers to deliver their crop rents to landlords) in the light of the relationship between two issues: 1) the question of commercial production by tenant farmers, and 2) the question of production and circulation of rice in Fujian. From the end of the Ming, commercial production by tenant farmers began actively to develop, especially with the introduction of commercial crops like sugarcane and tobacco. But at the same time, the farmers could not produce enough grain for their own consumption and for their farm rents, and they inevitably became more and more dependant on commerce and high interest borrowing. At that time in Fujian rural society, the relationship between landlords and tenants was weakening considerably on the one hand, while a close economic relationship was developing between tenant farmers and commercial capital on the other. Meanwhile, the unusual local conditions in Fuiian and the development of cash cropping brought about a state of constant grain shortages. But for Fujian rural society, with its developing commercial production, the problem of grain was not so much its rising price but rather its actual shortage. That is to say, for the tenant farmers, keeping rice in the local area became an urgent problem. Thus we can properly say that the resistance of tenant farmers to paying rents to landlords was an aspect of the struggle to, prevent rice from leaving the local area (i.e. grain transport obstruction).