Food Supply and Population Growth in Southwest China, 1250-1850

Abstract

Between 1250 and 1850 the population of southwest China increased from three to twenty million people. In this paper, I delineate two periods of population growth--a small one from 1250 to 1600 and a boom one from 1700 to 1850--and relate their spatial and temporal characteristics to agricultural production. My conclusions challenge the popular assumption that in China frontier populations grew because of improved agricultural techniques or increased arable land. In the southwest, between 1250 and 1600, population did double because of government investment in agriculture. But between 1700 and 1850, population quadrupled because of the development of local mining industry. In Qing China, as elsewhere in the early modern world, major increases in population were often a consequence of early industrialization.