紀要論文

Rice Cultivation in Southern Vietnam (1880-1954) : A Re-evaluation of Land Productivity in Asian Perspective

eng

00229741

https://doi.org/10.15002/00001980

法政大学経済学部学会

73

4

3

38

2006-03-03

Version of Record

The conventional interpretation of Asia's agricultural transformation during the 20th century is that land productivity and land/labor ratios, which were both initially comparatively low, increased as a result of technological change. Data available for a number of Asian countries have usually been interpreted as showing as a land-replacing path described as the 'Ishikawa-curve' (Ishikawa 1981). However, as Van der Eng (2004) has shown, Ishikawa's interpretation is biased towards East Asia, providing an adequate description of the experience of Japan, Taiwan, and Korea but not of the mainland Southeast Asian countries. He produces evidence that the land/labor ratio was much lower in Japan than in Mainland Southeast Asia. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the yield series implied by late 19th century official sources and by micro-data collected by the French colonial administration, and to propose a re-evaluation of paddy output. The results show that, in southern Vietnam, initial conditions were not only characterized by high land/labor ratios but also by comparatively high land productivity, and therefore high level of labor productivity. It appears, therefore, that the path of southern Vietnam's transformation of rice cultivation differs markedly from the received wisdom expressed by the 'Ishikawa-curve'.

Article

AN00071028