Why did the capitalist relations of production sprout in China in the late Ming Dynasty? What are the manifestations of the slow development of capitalism in the early Qing Dynasty?

1. Politically speaking, compared with history, the political situation in the Ming and Qing Dynasties was relatively stable, and there was no major turmoil for a long time. Moreover, centralization was further consolidated, and the rulers did not stand aside. Even from Hongwu, the post of prime minister was abolished, and only a cabinet university was established, which effectively consolidated the imperial power.

Historically, the system of enfeoffment of princes from the Western Zhou Dynasty eventually led to hundreds of years of war in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Since the Western Han Dynasty, the enfeoffment of hundred schools of thought (feudal system) led to the chaos of seven countries and eight kings in the Western Jin Dynasty. During the Tang Dynasty, the separatist regime of Pan Zhen was quite serious, which also led to the Anshi Rebellion.

Secondly, consorts, eunuchs and powerful ministers also seriously threatened the imperial power. For example, consorts Wang Mang, Sui Wendi and Wu Zetian all changed dynasties; But powerful ministers, such as Cao Cao, Sima Yi and Huan Wen, can take the emperor as a vassal or even directly threaten the imperial power. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the rapid change of dynasties led to political instability. So in history, consorts, eunuchs and women have always been in power.

Thirdly, another factor affecting the long-term stability of feudal society is the problem of farmers and the large-scale invasion of ethnic minorities. Many dynasty changes in history are related to this.

The gradual reduction of prime minister's power and local power since the Sui Dynasty is nothing more than increasing institutions and bureaucrats to disperse prime minister's power. For example, in the Sui Dynasty, the system of three provinces and six ministries was implemented, and in the Tang Dynasty, there were many temporary official posts, such as governor's envoy, peace envoy, custom envoy, deposit envoy, farmland envoy, propaganda envoy, transshipment history envoy, household registration envoy, rent envoy, accompanying envoy, tax envoy, vacancy envoy, etc ... Zhao Kuangyin deprived military commanders of their military power and made civil servants serve as local officials. The centralized construction from Song Dynasty to Ming and Qing Dynasties was relatively successful.

2. Economically, the economy in the early Ming and Qing Dynasties (14 ~19th century) was in the middle of this period.

The feudal economy in China adjusted the production structure and relations, and the productivity further developed. Specifically, there are the following achievements and favorable conditions.

(1) First of all, agriculture has made great progress. In agricultural society, the development of agriculture has a great relationship with the prosperity of feudal economy, and the "prosperous times" in history are all related to the development of agriculture. The development of agriculture is manifested in the following aspects.

The first is the application of new production tools and new technologies in agriculture. In particular, new textile technology and irrigation technology have made great breakthroughs. During this period, the works on farmland water conservancy were quite rich. In the Ming Dynasty, it was recorded in Xu Guangqi's Encyclopedia of Agricultural Administration.

At the same time, the government paid more attention to rewarding farming and weaving, and the heavy tax was once reduced to 30 tax. Both Ming and Qing dynasties attached great importance to land reclamation. When the People's Republic of China was founded in two generations, the policy of listening to the people to open up wasteland for business was implemented, and the number of yeomen increased greatly, reaching about half of that of farmers. In addition to focusing on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the Pearl River basin, it will develop in the hilly areas of the central and western regions; Since Hongwu, there has been a saying that "Huguang fills Sichuan and Jiangxi fills Huguang", and a large number of immigrants poured into the central and western regions to develop Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou. During this period, dike fields in Jianghan Plain and Dongting Lake Plain, polder fields in Taihu Plain, dikes in the Pearl River Delta and seawall construction in the southeast have made great progress. From the early Ming Dynasty to the middle Qing Dynasty, the cultivated land in China increased by about 50%, which is estimated to reach about 65.438+0.2 billion mu. Production tools, two generations are less creative. Water conservancy is mostly run by landlords and farmers, not on the scale of the Tang and Song Dynasties. However, agronomy has made great progress, such as seed selection, deep ploughing, early sowing, close planting and field management. , especially the production of fertilizer, fertilization technology and the promotion of multiple cropping. This has reached the height of intensive cultivation in traditional agriculture. The double cropping system in the south has developed from Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and the triple cropping system has been seen in Lingnan. In the north, from the late Tang Dynasty to the late Ming and early Qing Dynasty, farming declined and well irrigation became popular. Three seasons and two years of triple cropping are becoming more and more common. Compared with the Song Dynasty, the yield per mu in Jiangnan area increased in both seasons.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, wheat was popularized, while rice planting areas tended to extend northward. Sorghum developed between Song and Yuan Dynasties had partially replaced millet in the north by Qing Dynasty. In the late Ming Dynasty, corn and sweet potato were introduced and popularized in large quantities. These three crops are all high-yield crops, which have the characteristics of cold resistance, drought resistance and adaptability to windy and sandy mountainous areas. At the same time, cash crops increased rapidly. Planting cotton, tea, fruit, mulberry, hemp and hemp, especially popularizing cotton, was an important agricultural event in the Ming Dynasty, which developed continuously and the annual output of Daoguang was nearly100000 tons. Sugarcane was first planted in Fujian and Guangxi, and was widely planted in Sichuan and Taiwan Province Province in Qing Dynasty. Tobacco was introduced from Luzon in the late Ming Dynasty and spread in various provinces in the Qing Dynasty. Although the economic benefit of cotton planting is not very high, it has great use value; Sugarcane and tobacco have the highest income among all kinds of crops. Peanut was introduced in the late Ming Dynasty and popularized in the north in Qing Dynasty. Northeast soybeans have also begun to develop and are sold in Jiangnan. The rest, such as indigo, safflower, medicinal materials and fruit trees, have all developed. This has adjusted the agricultural structure in China to varying degrees, expanded people's grain, increased farmers' income, and effectively promoted the commercialization of agricultural products. Only animal husbandry and forestry have made little progress.

With the development of agriculture, land annexation is becoming more and more serious, and large land ownership is becoming more and more common. Due to a large number of land mergers, some farmers separated from the land and became employees or businessmen, which also created certain conditions for the germination of capitalism. 2009-07-09 17:28 (2) With the improvement of agricultural effect, the population in Ming and Qing Dynasties surged, reaching 200 million in the early Qianlong period, over 300 million in the late Qianlong period and 400 million in Daoguang period, forming the third peak in history. With the increase of population, the market naturally expands, and four rice markets (Hankou, Jiujiang, Wuxi and Fuzhou) rise.

The urban economy has developed rapidly. The development of towns in the south of the Yangtze River is still thriving. According to the research of people close to you, there were 329 towns in eight states and one state in the south of the Yangtze River in the late Ming Dynasty, which increased to 5 17 in the Qing Dynasty, and about 20 of them were large towns with more than 1,000 households. Most of these towns are still developed from rural markets, but some of them are new. For example, xin jing, Suzhou Prefecture, was still a wilderness in the early Ming Dynasty, and was built between Jiajing and Jiajing years. Tangqi Town in Hangzhou was unknown in Song Dynasty. In the early Ming Dynasty, a canal was dug, and then the pond bank was built into a canal, which became a north-south tunnel. In the Qing dynasty, Kangxi was called the city, and Qianlong was called the town. Shengze town, Wujiang County, was still a village in the early Ming Dynasty, and it became a market between Jiajing and Jiajing, with about 100 residents. It became a big town in the early Qing dynasty, with more than 100 when it was dry. Zhenze Town was a village in the Yuan Dynasty, with dozens of people. The number of people in Chenghua increased to three or four hundred, Jiajing doubled, and Yongzheng County was established in Qing Dynasty.

The development of urbanization and the rise of four famous towns are good examples. In the Qing dynasty, it was known as "the four major towns in the world". Among them, Jingdezhen was originally named Xinping Town, and Song Jingdezhen changed its name when it was famous for making royal porcelain, but it was only a porcelain distribution center at that time. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were many kilns and furnaces, and it developed into the largest producer of porcelain with more than 100,000 fireworks. Zhuxian Town, when Yue Fei pursued the nomads from the Southern Song Dynasty, was still a deserted village. It opened in Jia Luhe, became a land and water transfer point to Kaifeng, and gradually developed into a commercial town in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Foshan Town, as a market in the Song Dynasty, was known as the township and fort in Ming Daizong. However, due to "wonderful workmanship, merchants from four places always look at the wind", there are more than 10 thousand families, and towns were set up in the early Qing Dynasty. Hankou Town was a suburb outside Hanyang City in the early Ming Dynasty, and the Hanshui River was divided between Chenghua and Minghua. Because it is located at the intersection of Jianghan, merchants are prosperous and Jiajing Cheng Zhen. The Qing dynasty continued to develop greatly. In the thirty-seventh year of Qianlong (1772), there were 32,209 households, and in the eighteenth year of Jiaqing (18 13), it increased to 36,929 households, known as the "thoroughfare of nine provinces" and became the largest port in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. These four towns are actually ethnic commercial cities or handicraft cities.

It is worth noting that there was a trend of market specialization in the trade of towns in the south of the Yangtze River in Ming and Qing Dynasties, which was manifested in the emergence and great development of specialized towns. Qing Qianlong's "Jiading County Records" notes: "Cloth merchants are prosperous in Nanxiang, and flower merchants are prosperous in Luodian. Sandals in Xinjing Town, indigo in Anting and merchants in Huang Du Town also collect them. Especially with the development of farmers' handicraft industry and the separation of some handicraft professional households from agriculture, handicraft professional towns appeared. According to statistics, in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were 25 towns in the south of the Yangtze River specializing in sericulture and silk weaving, such as Tangqi, Nanxun, Linghu, Wangwang, Puyuan, Shengze and Zhenze. There are 52 specialized cotton and cotton textile towns, including Sanlintang, Zhujiajiao, Jiangwan, Luodian, Nanxiang, xin jing and Fengjing. There are 13 specialized rice towns, including Qiao Feng, Hushuguan and Lili. In addition, there are Jiaxing Furnace Town and Wujiang Village Town, which are famous for smelting iron, Yixing in Tao Dou, Qianyao in Jiaxing and Pingyao in Hangzhou, which are famous for making ceramics. At the same time, a large number of commercial towns have emerged in various provinces and regions, especially in the south. Some households are bigger than the state capital. Qing Wu, Linghu, Puyuan and Xincheng in Suzhou and Hangzhou, Baipu in Yangzhou, Hekou and Zhangshu in Jiangxi, and Foshan in Guangdong are all filled with fireworks and become grain, cotton, silk, hemp, paper and medicinal materials.

The development of urban economy and the expansion of market will inevitably make transportation develop greatly during this period. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal plays a great role in the north-south water transport. In addition, the postal system has also made great progress and made great breakthroughs in ocean transportation and navigation. Some cities with geographical advantages have made great progress: in Ming and Qing Dynasties, Hankou was called Ship Wharf, Wuxi was called Cloth Wharf, and Yangzhou was called Silver Wharf. The Yangtze River, Pearl River, Songhua River and other water systems have been greatly developed. By the Ming Dynasty, two land and water transportation routes from the Yangtze River through Ganjiang River in Jiangxi, Xiangjiang River in Hunan, Nantong and Guangzhou were also increasingly developed. By the time of the Opium War, the inland waterway had exceeded 50,000 kilometers, and the maritime traffic between the north and south seas had reached about 1 10,000 kilometers. The development of commercial roads has provided conditions for the development of commercial cities, and towns along the canals, the Yangtze River and the post roads have risen rapidly. For example, Yibin, Luzhou, Chongqing, Yueyang, Changsha, Xiangtan, Yingkou, Jilin, Fuyu, Nenjiang and other commercial cities all rose during this period; Hankou is also the trade center of Central China, which has become the thoroughfare of nine provinces in the past 500 years.