<論説>清代華北の農業経営と社会構造

Abstract

開港の影響が本格化する以前に、中国の小経営生産様式は如何なる水準に達していたかを分析する作業の一環として、清代華北の農業経営を分析する。華北民農書等に見られる有力経営は、畜力牽引大型化による深耕精作化と、養畜部門と飼料栽培部門とを内蔵して肥料を自給する地力維持方式の改善を二つの技術的特色とする相対的に大規模な経営として現われ、農村は少数の大規模経営と、その対極に存在して雇傭労働を放出する多数の小規模所有＝経営によって特徴づけられる。同時に清代のいま一つの特色は、かかる大規模経営が、商業的農業の開始に伴う新しい集約的な技術体系の前に、華北内では相対的に高い生産力水準を持つ山東・河南などの二年三作地帯から、次第に解体を始めていたことである。間接的経営、或いは地主制の粗野な形である分種制が、漸く体制的に広まりつつあった。

This article analyses the farm management in North China in the C'ing Dynasty as a part of my attempt to examine what stage the mode of production of a small-scale operation had reached before the influence of opening the ports to foreign trade became serious. The predominant management, which was at that time mentioned in the books about agricultural operation, was there relatively large-scale one. It had two technical features. One was the deeper tillage by increasing cattle for truction. The other was the improvement of the method for maintaining the fertility of soil; it provided manure by raising livestock and cultivating feed. The rural community consisted of a small number of large-scale managements and small-scale estates, from which the former was supplied with labor. Another feature was that, in the face of a system of new intensive techniques brought about by the beginning of the commercial agriculture, these large-scale managements started to collapse first in the areas, such as Shantung 山東 and Honan 河南, where three crops were raised by two years. The indirect management or sharecropping, a rough form of landlordism, was just going to spread.