One man works 10 mu

In the context of a particular technology, farm size plays a crucial role in determining farm labour productivity. Inappropriate farm size, whether too big or too small, will aggravate the imbalance between labour requirements and labour supply for the different farming tasks.

Finding the optimal farm size is crucial to an increase in farm labour productivity, but ‘optimal' does not necessarily mean ‘large' as is often thought. For a given circumstance (especially technological), an increase in labour productivity is not necessarily associated with an expansion of farm size. Though farm size is related closely to the man—land ratio, it is not only determined by that ratio.²³ In many cases, other factors may be more determinative. The old cliche that a falling man—land ratio results in the shrinking of farm size, and that the shrinking in turn drives farm labour productivity down is simplistic and superficial. From this perspective, the man—land ratio is considered to be the only relevant factor. All other factors are assumed to be non-existent. Yet, these factors do exist and play a significant role in the formation of farm size.

the period under discussion: cultivated land (crop area) per capita dropped 45% between the early seventeenth and mid­nineteenth centuries. But that provides only a superficial picture. If the urban population and non-agricultural families in the countryside are excluded, crop area worked by a peasant family still dropped, but only by 40%, from 15 to 9 mu.' If we take into account double-cropping with an index of 140% in the early seventeenth century and 170% in the mid-nineteenth century, we will find that farm size decreased by only 30%, from 21 to 15 mu. Moreover, if rural women are excluded, there was no drop, but rather, a rise, in terms of crop mu per worker.

Under the new double-cropping system, a farmer will use his labour most efficiently when he works about 10 mu of cultivated land (Bozhong Li 1986, 1998: 68—79). In fact, the pattern of ‘one man works 10 mu^, came to predominate in Jiangnan, not only because it saves labour, but also because it involves many major advances. These include more skilful management, greater use of fertilizer, rational land use, specialized or professional farming, and so on.²⁵ Moreover, in a farm of about 10 mu, a farmer can do almost all the farm work by himself and does not need to ask for his wife's help. This makes it possible for the female labour force to shift from farming to rural industry. With women employed elsewhere, the numbers of people working on the family farm were greatly reduced. Consequently, farms went from being a two-worker farm to a one-worker farm. The change had a great impact on farm labour productivity.

The pattern of ‘one man works 10 mu^, first appeared in the late sixteenth century and was widely adopted during the following centuries. By the mid-nineteenth century, it had become the norm determining farm size in Jiangnan. Even though Jiangnan lost half of its population during the Taiping Rebellion, and the man—land ratio improved significantly after 1850, farm size did not change much. While there are many reasons why peasants did not expand their farms, relatively high labour productivity from this ‘optimal’ size is unquestionably an important factor.

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