Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T07:14:56.634Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Local Granaries and Central Government Disaster Relief: Moral Hazard and Intergovernmental Finance in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2004

CAROL H. SHIUE
CAROL H. SHIUE
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712-1173. E-mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Chinese state attempted to administer famine relief partly through a nationwide institution of local granaries. This article explores regional variations in the performance of this institution to understand the reasons for its ultimate breakdown. The evidence suggests granary storage levels were systematically lower in provinces that received more frequent central government disaster relief; and an unintended consequence of disaster relief was that it modified local incentives for self-insurance and led to an incompletely resolved moral-hazard problem. China's experience provides an instructive example of the long-term dynamics present in intergovernmental policies.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 64 , Issue 1 , March 2004 , pp. 100 - 124
Copyright
© 2004 The Economic History Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arrow Kenneth J. 1965 Aspects of the Theory of Risk-Bearing. Helsinki: Yrjö Jahnssonin Säätiö.
Chen Zen-Yi, Wang Yeh-Chien, and Hu T. H. (1999) “A Time Series Analysis of Rice Prices in Suzhou during the Eighteenth Century.” Academia Economic Papers 27, no. 3: 311– 34.Google Scholar
Chen Zhenhan, Xiong Zhengwen, Li Chen, and Yin Hanzhang. 1989 Qing shilu jingjishi ziliao [Economic history materials from the Veritable Records], 4 volumes. Beijing: Beijing Daxue,
Chi Ch'ao-tin. 1963 Key Economic Areas in Chinese History. New York: Paragon Book Reprint Corp.
Ch'ü T'ung-Tsu. 1962 Local Government in China under the Ch'ing. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Chuan Han-sheng and Richard A. Kraus. 1975 Mid-Ch'ing Rice Markets and Trade: An Essay in Price History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Da Qing huidian shili [Precedents and regulations supplementing the collected statutes of the great Qing dynasty]. 1899 edition.
1986–1987 Da Qing lichao shilu [Veritable Records of the Qing]. Zhonghua,
Dunstan Helen. 1996 Conflicting Counsels to Confuse the Age: a Documentary Study of Political Economy in Qing China, 1644–1840. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
Durand John D. (1960) “The Population Statistics of China, A.D. 2–1953.” Population Studies 3, no. 2: 209– 56.Google Scholar
Esherick Joseph W., and Mary Backus Rankin, eds. 1993 Chinese Local Elites and Patterns of Dominance. Los Angeles: University of California Press
Feng Liutang. 1993 Zhongguo lidai minshi zhengceshi [Civilian Food Policy in China's Historical Period]. Beijing: Shangwu Yingshuguan
Gongzhong liangjiadan [Grain price reports in the palace archives]. Beijing: Number One Historical Archives.
Hickey Paul C. (1991) “Fee-Taking, Salary Reform, and the Structure of State Power in Late Qing China, 1909–1911”. Modern China 17, no. 3: 389– 417.Google Scholar
Hinton Harold. 1956 The Grain Tribute System in China (1845–1911). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Ho Ping-ti. 1967 Studies on the Population of China, 1368–1953, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Hsiao Kung-chuan. 1960 Rural China: Imperial Control in the Nineteenth Century, Seattle: University of Washington Press
Li Lillian M. (2000) “Integration and Disintegration in North China's Grain Markets, 1738– 1911.” This JOURNAL 60, no. 3 665– 99.Google Scholar
Liu Ts'ui-jung. 1985 “A Reappraisal of the Functions of the Granary System in Ch'ing China (1644–1911).” Les techniques de conservation des grains à long term 3 fasc.1, Éditions du CNRS, ParisGoogle Scholar
Mann Susan. 1987 Local Merchants and the Chinese Bureaucracy, 1750–1950. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press
Marks Robert B. (1991) “Rice Prices, Food Supply, and Market Structure in Eighteenth-Century South China.” Late Imperial China 12, no. 2 64– 116.Google Scholar
Mirrlees James A. (1976) “The Optimal Structure of Incentives and Authority within an Organization.” Bell Journal of Economics 7, no. 1 105– 31.Google Scholar
Needham Joseph. 1971 Science and Civilization in China, Vol. 4, pt 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Nishijima Sadao, Feng Zuozhe, Qiu Mao, and Li Chao. 1984 Zhongguo jingji shi yanjiu [Research on the economic history of China], Beijing: Nongye chuban she
Park Nancy. (1997) “Corruption in Eighteenth-Century China.” Journal of Asian Studies 56, no. 4 967– 1005.Google Scholar
Perdue Peter C. 1992 “The Qing State and the Gansu Grain Market, 1739–1864.” In Chinese History in Economic Perspective, edited by Thomas G. Rawski and Lillian M. Li, 100– 125. Los Angeles: University of California Press
Perkins Dwight H. (1967) “Government as an Obstacle to Industrialization: The Case of Nineteenth-Century China.” This JOURNAL 27, no. 4: 478– 92.Google Scholar
Perkins Dwight H. 1969 Agricultural Development in China 1368–1968. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company
Quanguo fensheng minshu gushu qingce [National registers of population and granary holdings arranged by province]. Beijing: Number One Historical Archives.
Rankin Mary Backus. (1994) “Managed by the People: Officials, Gentry, and the Foshan Charitable Granary, 1795–1845.” Late Imperial China 15, no. 2 1– 52.Google Scholar
Rawski Thomas G. and Lillian M. Li, eds. 1992 Chinese History in Economic Perspective. Los Angeles: University of California Press
Reischauer Edwin O., and John K. Fairbank. 1958 East Asia: The Great Tradition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Rowe William. (1993) “State and Market in Mid-Qing Economic Thought: The Case of Chen Hongmou.” Études Chinoises 7, no. 1 7– 39.Google Scholar
Ross Stephen. (1973) “The Economic Theory of Agency: The Principal's Problem.” American Economic Review 63, no. 2 134– 39.Google Scholar
Shiue Carol H. (2002) “Transport Costs and the Geography of Arbitrage in Eighteenth Century China.” American Economic Review 92, no. 5 1406– 19.Google Scholar
Skinner G. William, ed. 1977 The City in Late Imperial China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press
State Meteorological Society. 1981 Zhongguo jin wubai nian hanlao fenbu tuji [Collected maps of droughts and floods in China in the past five hundred years]. Beijing: Ditu chuban she
Wang Yeh-chien. (1972) “The Secular Trend of Prices during the Ch'ing Period (1644–1911).” Journal of the Institute of Chinese Studies of the Chinese University of Hong Kong 5, no. 2 347– 68.Google Scholar
Wang Yeh-chien. 1973 Land Taxation in Imperial China, 1750–1911. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Wang Yeh-chien. (1986) “Food Supply in Eighteenth-Century Fukien.” Late Imperial China 7, no. 2 80– 117.Google Scholar
Watson Andrew. 1972 Transport in Transition: The Evolution of Traditional Shipping in China. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Will Pierre-Etienne. 1990 Bureaucracy and Famine in Eighteenth Century China, transl. by Elborg Forster. Stanford,CA: Stanford University Press
Will Pierre-Etienne, R. Bin Wong, James Lee, Jean Oi, and Peter Perdue. 1991 Nourish the People. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press
Williams Jeffrey C., and Brian D. Wright. 1991 Storage and Commodity Markets, New York: Cambridge University Press
Wu Chengming. (1983) “Lun Qingdai qianqi woguo de guonei shichang [A discourse on the national markets of our country in the first half of the Qing Dynasty].” Lishi yanjiu 1 96– 106.Google Scholar
Yao Shan-Yu. (1942) “The Chronological and Seasonal Distribution of Floods and Droughts in Chinese History.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 6, 273– 312.Google Scholar
Zelin Madeleine. 1984 The Magistrate's Tael, Rationalizing Fiscal Reform in Eighteenth-Century China. Berkeley: University of California Press
Zhang Peiyuan. (1993) “Extraction of Climate Information from Chinese Historical Writings.” Late Imperial China 14, no. 2 96– 104.Google Scholar