... economic 'revolution'4 that had been occurring, but there was by no means a standstill. In fact, the Chinese economy continued the tradition of both quantitative and qualitative growth in production, distribution and the development of new industries. Mark Elvin argues that population growth and migration 'were the chief means whereby the Chinese economy grew in a quantitative terms but with almost no qualitative change'.5 Although varying figures exist, population increase between 1398 and 1850 is put at around 365 million.6 This expanded population led to migration, and a roughly fourfold increase in the total cultivated area.7 Not only was there now more land to cultivate, existing land was cultivated much more intensely. With the introduction of new crops in the fifteenth century (such as the peanut and the sweet potato) that grew in different areas to traditional crops, land that was previously unable to be cultivated became useable. Agriculture in the ...

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