page_title: Economic history of China before 1912
section_title: Ming agriculture
hierarchical_section_title: Economic history of China before 1912 / Late imperial era / Ming dynasty (1368–1644) / Ming agriculture
context_page_description: The economic history of China covers thousands of years and the region has undergone alternating cycles of prosperity and decline. China, for last two millennia, was one of the world's largest and most advanced economies. Economic historians usually divide China's history into three periods: the pre-imperial era before the rise of Qin; the early imperial era from Qin to the rise of the Song; and the late imperial era, from Song to the fall of the Qing.
  Neolithic agriculture had developed in China by roughly 8,000 BCE. Stratified Bronze Age cultures, such as Erlitou, emerged by the third millennium BCE. Under the Shang and Western Zhou, a dependent labor force worked in large-scale foundries and workshops to produce bronzes and silk for the elite. The agricultural surpluses produced by the manorial economy supported these early handicraft industries as well as urban centers and considerable armies. This system began to disintegrate after the collapse of the Western Zhou in 771 BCE, leaving China fragmented during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States eras.
  As the feudal system collapsed, most legislative power transferred from the nobility to local kings.
context_section_description: Under the Ming, some rural areas were reserved exclusively for the production of cash crops. Agricultural tools and carts, some water-powered, allowed the production of a sizable agricultural surplus, which formed the basis of the rural economy. Alongside other crops, rice was grown on a large scale. The population growth and the decrease in fertile land made it necessary that farmers produce cash crops to earn a living. Landed, managed estates grew substantially; while in 1379 only 14,241 households had over 700 mou, by the end of the Ming some large landowners had over 70,000 mou. Increasing commercialisation caused huge advances in productivity during the Ming dynasty, allowing a greater population.
  Many markets, with three main types, were established in the countryside. In the simplest markets, goods were exchanged or bartered.  In 'urban-rural' markets, rural goods were sold to urban dwellers; landlords residing in cities used income from rural landholdings to facilitate exchange in the cities. Merchants bought rural goods in large quantities and sold them in these markets. The 'national market' developed during the Song dynasty became more important during the Ming. In addition to the merchants and barter, this type of market involved products produced directly for the market. Many Ming peasants no longer relied upon subsistence farming; they produced products for the market, which they sold for a profit. The Cambridge history states about the Ming that:
  "The commercialisation of Ming society within the context of expanding communications may be regarded as a distinguishing aspect of the history of this dynasty. In the matter of commodity production and circulation, the Ming marked a turning point in Chinese history, both in the scale at which goods were being produced for the market, and in the nature of the economic
  relations that governed commercial exchange."
caption: Spring morning in a Han palace, by Qiu Ying (1494–1552); excessive luxury and decadence were hallmarks of the late Ming period, spurred by the enormous state bullion of incoming silver and private transactions involving silver.
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