358 Boundaries and Beyond
in smuggling, harboring bandits and its extremely tyrannical
behavior.^29The formation of lineages, or alliances in the guise of a traditional
lineage in the Confucian sense, provides evidence of a process of social
development among the rural population. The traits of adaptability and
βlexibility in the process of forming βictitious groups had been internalized
to become part and parcel of rural culture. These cultural traits provided
the rural emigrants with an invaluable social experience when they had
to adapt to the new environment of an outside world that was even more
complex and competitive than their own in the native village. Under
these circumstances, they would simply apply the social practice used
in the native village of forming social organizations to the challenges of
survival in strange countries.
Agricultural Innovations and Commercialization
As the rural economy was faced with the tremendous challenge of
a growing population, adjustments were duly made in traditional
agriculture to increase land productivity. New innovations included
using improved seeds, changing cropping patterns and planting new
crops, as well as applying advanced traditional farming techniques such
as investing in farm implements, water control and fertilizer. These
methods all contributed to raising farm output and yields per unit of
land.^30 The problem was that the labor-intensive techniques required the
input of even greater manpower, and in its turn this stimulated greater
population growth that consequently lowered per-capita income. To
raise the standard of livelihood, the rural population took up handicraft
production, converted to commercial agriculture or became peasant
peddlers^31 to supplement farm income. Such developments in the peasant
economy became more visible after the Ming period (1368‒1644).
Driven by the commercialized economy, the peasants increasingly moved
away from subsistence farming and involved themselves in some form of
market activity.
- Ibid., Vol. 14, p. 717. These surnames all have a meaning of encompassing.
- Dwight H. Perkins, Agricultural Development, Chs. III and IV; also Chao Kang,
Man and Land in Chinese History: An Economic Analysis (Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 1986), p. 228. - J.C. van Leur uses this conceptual term “peddlers”, when he mentions the two
groups of traders in the markets, namely “the peddlers” and “the merchant
gentlemen”. See, for example, J.C. van Leur, Indonesian Trade and Society,
pp. 197‒204.
http://www.ebook3000.com