Suchergebnisse

Studies of the role of land tenure in the economic and social history of China are flawed by the unexamined assumption that the sale of land by impoverished farmers was the only process that generated high rates of tenancy and concentration of ownership of land. Debt-sales are assumed to occur as part of a cycle of immiserization in which a peasant population outgrows its landed resources and owner-farmers are forced to sell their lands and become the tenants or hired laborers of wealthy landlords. This essay demonstrates the improbability of such a scenario and establishes its opposite: that rates of tenancy and concentration of landownership rise, not in periods of economic decline but in periods of prosperity, and not through debt-sales but through the alternate processes of reclamation, migration, and changes in the mode of landlord farm management.

This department is devoted to shorter reports on research in the communications field. Readers are invited to submit summaries of investigative studies interesting for content, method or implications for further research. Contributions of 500 to 1,200 words are preferred.

Historical demographers since Malthus have characterized the West-European and Chinese demographic regimes as systems under low and high pressure, respectively. This volume examines the operation of the positive check at the two ends of the Eurasian continent by taking the Netherlands and Taiwan as representatives of the West-European and Chinese mortality regimes. Are these cases as different as the low and high pressure contrast implies? The volume opens with a cluster of chapters dealing with long term trends in mortality and the accompanying changes in causes of death (Chapters 1 through 4 ). Both Taiwan and the Netherlands witnessed steady improvements in public health, disease prevention, medical care, and living conditions in the periods described; these trends are discussed in Chapters 5 though 8. The third cluster of chapters analyzes the factors affecting maternal and infant mortality (Chapters 9 through 12). Finally, in Chapter 13, the accuracy of Taiwan's censuses and death reporting is assessed. - In dit boek beschrijven auteurs uit de VS, Nederland en Taiwan de historische ontwikkeling van de sterfte in Taiwan en Nederland. De auteurs gebruiken die twee landen als representatief voor de demografische regimes in West Europa en Azië. Volgens de beroemde econoom en demograaf Thomas Malthus is het hoge sterftecijfer in China te verklaren door een structurele overbevolking; de dood als 'positieve check' om de bevolkingsgroei af te remmen. Deze bundel tracht antwoord te geven op deze stelling . Aan bod komen de lange termijn ontwikkeling van sterfte en sterfteoorzaken. Speciale aandacht is er voor de verbetering van de gezondheidszorg in de twee landen en voor de moeder- en kindersterfte. De empirische bijdragen laten de verwachte verschillen zien, maar stuiten ook op opvallende overeenkomsten.