绝对与相对人口压力：20世纪20—30年代无锡农户生存发展的突破与限制-《中国农史》

文章信息/Info

Title:: Absolute Population Pressure and "Relative Population Pressure": the Breakout and Limits of Wuxi Peasants’ Living Strategy

Author(s):: YU Wen-jun1 SUI Fu-min2; （1. Department of Economics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093;2. Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Science, Beijing 100732）

Keywords:: population pressure; livelihood pressure; Wuxi rural household survey; land allocation; living standards of peasant households

摘要:: 本文以“无锡、保定农村调查”数据为基础，结合亚当·斯密的“生存价格”分析发现：20世纪初无锡农户绝对人口压力较大，相对人口压力通过本地工商业和村外非农就业得以缓解。人口压力间接加强斯密型劳动分工和非农经济的发展，但地租和高利贷却限制了贫困农户非农就业的生计路径，占地少且人力资本低的农户面临持久的生计问题。农户间的贫富差距可加剧土地买卖兼并的问题，并进一步固化贫富差异，使人地压力呈现两极化趋势。与有限的土地资源相比，地权分配不均以及由此形成的剥削制度是无锡农户人口压力和生存危机的症结所在。

Abstract:: Based on the "Wuxi-Baoding Rural Household Survey" and Adam Smith’s "subsistence price", this paper finds that between the 1920s and 1930s Wuxi peasants were under the absolute population pressure, but the relative population pressure was alleviated through local industrial- commercial development and urban non-agricultural employment. The absolute population pressure to some extent enhanced Smithian division of labor and non-agricultural economic development. However, land rent and usury limited poor households to improve their standards of living through the way of non-agricultural employment. Households with little arable land and low human capital face persistent livelihood problems. Moreover, wealth inequality aggravated land annexation and in a further way solidifies such inequality, which also results in a polarization trend of population pressure. Compared to the limited land resource, the allocation system of land rights and the exploitation system were the crux of the population pressure and living crisis of Wuxi peasants.