The Rice Economies

The contrast in the rate of growth between Western and Eastern societies since 1800 has caused Asian societies to be characterized as backward and resistant to change, though until 1600 or so certain Asian states were technologically far in advance of Europe. The Rice Economies, drawing on original source materials, examines patterns of technological and social evolution specific to East-Asian wet-rice economies in order to clarfiy some general historical trends in economic development.

Francesca Bray is Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Santa Barbara and author of Agriculture, Volume VI, part 2 in Joseph Needham's Science and Civilization in China (1984).

List of figures and tables
Chinese dynasties
Japanese eras
Preface
Acknowledgements
Maps

Introduction
   Eurocentric models of historical change
   An alternative model
   The significance of a model of development for rice economies
     
1 The rice-plant: diversity and intensification
  The origins of Asian rice
  Natural characteristics of rice
  Selection techniques
  
2 Paths of technical development
  Building new fields
  Raising yields
  Labour productivity and the mechanisation question
  
3 Water control
  Water control and institutions: the debate
  A technical classification of water control systems
    Gravity-fed irrigation networks 
    Ponds, tanks and reservoirs 
    Contour canals 
    'Creek' irrigation 
  Pump irrigation schemes 
Patterns of growth and change 

4 Rice and the wider economy 
  'Skill-oriented' and 'mechanical' technologies 
  The specificity of wet-rice agriculture 
    Uniformity and systemic change 
  Monoculture and markets 
  Economic diversification 
  Petty commodity production and rural industrialisation 

5 Development 
  Some basic issues 
  Labour and capital 
    The historical experience: the predominance of labour and the 'Japanese model'
    Choice of technological inputs 
    Capital investment 
    Productivity of labour and capital 
  Expertise and participation 

6 Peasant, landlord and state: changes in relations of production 
  Conflict, cooperation and control 
  Historical changes in relations of production 
   'Feudal' relations and frontier zones 
   Smallholder economies: expansion and stagnation 
Egalitarianism or differentiation: the impact of capitalism 
Land and landlessness 
  'Land to the tiller' 
  Group farming 
  Socialist land reform 
  
Appendix A: The Western model 
Appendix B: The historical experience of China 
Appendix C: The Japanese experience
Notes
References
Glossary
Index