Class Notes, Thursday

• Big Trends of the 18th Century
• 150 mil. -> 300 mil.: population doubled.
• What about the Qing empire allowed this level of population growth?
• Little Ice Age in Decline: good weather, more crops, etc.
• Rural Industry: Merchants, Tile Makers, Military, Household-sized enterprises. Sideline ("proto-industrial employments") occupations that allowed greater income per capita. More commercialization.
• Expansion & Land Reclamation
  
• North-West: subsidized farming in new areas. encouraged spread of population
• South-East: taking over Taiwan and farming intensively, at the expense of the natives.
• Lowland Reclamation: poulders. taking over lakes, rivers and other wetlands. Problems stemmed from the lack of water; people competed for a resource that had become more scarce because of their occupation of its space.
  
• Highland Reclamation: learned how to use steep mountains and hills to grow crops. Rice was not an option. Potatoes & Corn were grown on the hillsides. They were the "miracle crops". However, potatoes especially, depleted the minerals in the land rapidly, and erosion occurred.
  
• In the mid 18th century, people became so desperate for land that they reclaimed land that should not have been claimed for agriculture. Problems grew.
• Who recognized and attempted to deal with the mounting environmental issues from the mid 18th century levels of land reclamation?
• Qing Officials and other educated members of society attempted to deal with the issues that were overwhelming the people.
• Dunstan's viewpoint seems to be that there was potential for the officials to get things done and protect the environment. However, it fell upon the shoulders of the farmers to actually get things done.
• Crop Cycling, Natural Fertilizers (manure)
• Official's main goal was to prevent social unrest rather than trying to protect the environment. Some officials pushed for environmentalism, but most did not. Their jobs were not about helping the people, rather, it was about ensuring proper tax collection for the government, etc.
• Do we believe that the officials of 17th and 18th century China had an awareness of conservation?
• No. They worried about what they were forced to worry about due to social issues, but the environmental issues were so long-term in nature that it would not effect them during their lifetimes, so it was not their issue.
• The environment was seen as something to be exploited.
• Does Dunstan seem to believe that Chen actually cared about the environment? No.
• Dunstan is very cynical about the intentions of the Qing officials as far as the environment. She makes fun of them, and doesn't think that any of them have environmental issues in mind. It's disorganized, simplistic, unsystematic, etc. She implies that occasionally there was some environmental awareness, but it was usually an accidental sidenote.
• What does Dunstan seem to believe the officials worried about, if not the environment?
• Money, Order, Stability, Taxability, etc. Social problems. Human problems.
• Confucian trained officials were worried about human society, not the environment. The environment only mattered when it impinged upon or related to human concerns. On its own it was unimportant.
• Schoppa is of the mindset that the 18th century officials pushed for environmentally sound policies. Dunstan, by contrast, believes that any environmental care came as an accidental sidenote to other policies.
  
• Dunstan's sources are essays and things on state-craft. She reads them very carefully and looks for the concerns that motivated those writings.
• Were officials aware? What could they have done about it? If they weren't aware, why weren't they? Is there something between the idealistic and cynical viewpoints?
  

Source:
Dunstan, Helen. "Critical Thinking on Environmental Issues ant the State's Environmental Roles in Eighteenth-Century China." Sediments of Time: Environment And Society in Chinese History. Ed. Mark Elvin. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.