This edited volume analyzes land utilization data from farm surveys taken in China between 1929 and 1933. This data, which was the foundation for John Lossing Buck's seminal work Land Utilization in China (1937), was thought lost to history until rediscovered in 2000. The book presents the first modern analyses of agricultural economics in Republican China using Buck's micro-data, covering important topics such as tenancy issues, land productivity, surplus labor, workers' incomes, credit supply, and regional differences. Using modern analytical methods, this book presents a more accurate picture of the agricultural economy in the Republican Era and will be of particular interest to agricultural economists, economic historians, and Chinese studies scholars.

Autorentext

Hao Hu is Professor in the College of Economics and Management at Nanjing Agricultural University, China. He was the principal investigator on the project Electronic and Database Construction of Buck's Data from 2012 to 2015. He specializes in animal husbandry economics and agricultural economic history,

  Funing Zhong is a Distinguished Professor and Vice Chairman of Academic Committee of Nanjing Agricultural University. His research interests cover agricultural production and trade, as well as rural development. The restoroation work of Buck' data was started under his lead as the Dean of the College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Agricultural University.

Calum Turvey is the W.I. Myers Professor of Agricultural Finance in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management,  S.C. Johnson College of Business,  and College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at Cornell University, USA. He is the editor of Agricultural Finance Review and conducts research in the area of agricultural finance, risk management and agricultural policy with regional interests in the United States, China, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Inhalt

1.China's Agriculture in the 1930s: An Overview

2.John Lossing Buck and Land Utilization in China3.Calamities and Conflict Affecting Rural China 1929-19334.The Discovery and Restoration of Buck's Original Data5.Reliability of John Lossing Buck's Land Utilization Survey Data: A preliminary test of grain yields6.Tenancy Issues in Northwest China during the Republican Era7.Regional Differences in Surplus Agricultural Labor during China's Republican Era, Based on Buck's Rural Survey Data8.Agricultural Poverty and Inequality in 1930s China: Estimates of Gini and Engel Coefficients from Buck's Data9.An Analysis on the Inverse Relationship between Yield and Farm Size in Rural China in the 1930s10.The relationship between farm size and land productivity in early 20th Century China11.Estimating the Demand for Farm  Credit in the Republican Era12.The Change in China's Cropland Utilization and Productivity over nearly a century in China: a comparison study based on Buck's survey13.A Comparison of Certain Changes in Chinese Agricultural Operations between Buck's Republican Era and Modern China14.Concluding Thoughts