Grain And Border Security

"Hong Fan’s eight policies,food as the first policy",all the rulers of the past dynasties put the food problem in the important position of governing the country and stabilizing the country.How to spin off many ancient Chinese discussions and practices on food security,and how to serve the historical experience and lessons in China’s food security construction is the main purpose of this study.In order to fully understand the situation of food supply and demand,the Qing Dynasty established a nationwide system of reporting rain,snow,harvest and grain prices,which left a lot of data and provided us with a pair of "eyes" to observe the face of food security in the Qing Dynasty.Based on these data,this paper studies the grain supply and demand of Yunnan in Qing Dynasty.First of all,from the perspective of supply and demand,this paper analyzes the geographical environment and agricultural production of Yunnan in Qing Dynasty,the general situation of the cultivation of main grain crops and the situation of supply and demand of grain.On the supply side,the total grain output of 8 time points from Shunzhi to Guangxu was re estimated,and the grain output of Qianlong and Daoguang administrative regions was rebuilt.On the demand side,the grain demand of Yunnan in Qing Dynasty was mainly composed of three parts: civilian food,military food and industrial food.In addition to trying to restore the picture of how to supply their own,on the basis of population research,we also estimated the more specific demand.Under the support of supply and demand,we got the distribution of surplus grain shortage areas: in Qianlong Dynasty,Yunnan,Guangnan,Kaihua,Pu’er,shunning,Yongchang,Jingdong Zhili hall were the grain shortage areas;in Daoguang Dynasty,Shujiang,Lin’an and Yuanjiang Zhili prefecture were added on the original basis.What’s more,it analyzes the relationship between the surplus and shortage areas and the price of grain by using the definition of "expensive,middle and even" in the "price list" which has not been widely used in the current academic circles.Secondly,starting from the construction of Yunnan storage system in Qing Dynasty,this paper analyzes the system design of the state in ensuring food security.The practice of warehouse construction shows that the quota of regular closing in the13 th year of Qianlong’s reign was not only a "target data",but also a "target data" in the text writing and circulation after Jiadao.Because of the habit of copying provincial records and new records from old ones,the storage data of Daoguang’s draft of Yunnan general records lost the practical meaning of measuring the construction of granary in one place,so we must be careful when we use it for research.The analysis of the digital reliability in the granary lays the foundation for the following to play the storage utility.Thirdly,from the factors of seasonality,climate,harvest,natural disaster and war,the change of grain price in Yunnan in Qing Dynasty was analyzed.The seasonal change of rice price is mainly affected by farming system,and the relationship between surplus and shortage areas and seasonal change range is both corresponding and opposite.The investigation of the rate of withdrawal from the warehouse shows that the function of stabilizing grain price in the warehouse is not so "ideal" as stipulated by the policy,which is in a low selling rate and fails to reach the "seven selling three" stipulated by the state.The study on the relationship between climate,harvest and rice price in the three-level division of province,government and county(Kunming county)shows that the early and late rainy season,the limited influence of precipitation level on harvest and rice price in the period of Qianjia,should be related to the perennial harvest fertility and the implementation of the government’s safeguard measures.At the same time,natural disasters will cause sharp fluctuations of rice price in a short period of time,and the impact of natural disasters on the fluctuation of rice price in 1880-1911 is greater than that in 1780-1820,which is closely related to the weakening of the government’s disaster relief ability.In addition,the war is also an important factor causing short-term fluctuations in food prices.Fourth,through the correlation,regression,cointegration and other mathematical statistical analysis methods,the paper analyzes the integration of Yunnan’s grain market in Qing Dynasty,at the same time,through the mutual evidence with the literature records.In the Qing Dynasty,there was no integrated market of rice and grain in Yunnan Province,and only Kunming,the capital of Yunnan Province,which was the surrounding area,Weixi and Zhongdian area,and the mining area in the northeast of Yunnan Province,had a significant circulation of grain.Finally,the paper makes a comprehensive analysis of how the supply and demand of grain in Qing Dynasty affected the security of frontier areas.Yunnan is located in the southwest border of the motherland.The location of the border makes its food security not only a livelihood issue,but also a national defense construction.First of all,although the construction of the military food system has effectively maintained the supply of military food for a long period of time,the country cannot strengthen the construction of the border garrison because the remote areas in Yunnan mostly belong to the area with more soldiers and less meters,the operation and maintenance of military food is difficult,and the supply of military food is limited.Even after the Qing Burmese war,the Qing government intended to send Manchu troops to Yongchang area or Kunming area to strengthen the post-war border defense construction.At last,because of the difficulties in military grain supply,it failed.Secondly,the period of Qianjia was the period of stable operation of Yunnan’s grain system in Qing Dynasty.After Jiadao,with the large number of immigrants entering,the disadvantages of the decline of the storage system under the pressure of population appeared rapidly.The continuous imbalance between the supply and demand of grain ran counter to the government’s ability of regulation and control,which made the government not only powerless in disaster relief,but also the early hard-working grain system quickly collapsed.