The End of the Peasantry in Southeast Asia: A Social and Economic History of Peasant Livelihood, 1800-1990s (A Modern Economic History of Southeast Asia)

This book analyses the changing context and conditions of production and livelihood amongst Southeast Asia's peasants since the beginning of the nineteenth century. It argues that with demographic growth and the nineteenth century development of great global markets based on small-scale production, the size and economic significance of peasantries throughout the region was magnified. However, such changes brought with them new forces - stronger states, more regular legal systems, a revolution in communications, intensive commercialisation - which themselves worked to undermine the foundations of peasant society and, eventually, to transform peasants into farmers, workers and citizens. This book analyzes the changing context and conditions of peasant production and livelihood in Southeast Asia since the beginning of the nineteenth century. It argues that, with demographic growth and the nineteenth-century development of great global markets, the size and economic significance of peasantries throughout the region was magnified. The later nineteenth century, indeed, can be described as an 'age of peasantry' in Southeast Asia. However, such changes gave rise to new forces - stronger states, more regular legal systems, a revolution in communications, intensive commercialization - which themselves worked to undermine the foundations of peasant society as it had existed during this period, and to set peasants upon a trajectory of change which has already effectively consigned the peasantry as a social category, to the past. Peasants, whose existence had long been defined by subsistence production and local identity, have now become farmers, workers and citizens. Front Matter....Pages i-xxvi An Embryonic Peasantry....Pages 1-33 The Context of Change: Politics, Economics and Demography....Pages 35-79 The Changing Varieties of Peasant Production....Pages 81-121 Land and Landholding....Pages 123-157 A Revolution in Labour....Pages 159-184 Commerce and Credit....Pages 185-212 Power and Prosperity....Pages 213-238 Conclusion....Pages 239-241 Back Matter....Pages 242-335 R.e. Elson. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 266-326) And Index.