Page 105 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol III

924 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

A physicist is the atom’s way of thinking about atoms.
Anonymous

mutual understanding.The Chinese government did not millet, and yams in Africa; yams and taro in New Guinea;
recognize foreign trading as a private citizen’s right. gourds, squash, beans, and maize along with managed
According to normative Confucian values, trading with crops such as maguey and sunflower in Central America;
foreigners was an element of diplomacy and therefore manioc (cassava) and sweet potatoes in lowland South
ought to be highly controlled and limited in scope. Nev- America; and in highland South America the same culti-
ertheless, it was not a matter of sufficient importance to gens as in Central America plus potatoes, quinoa, chili
involve the state directly, and hence, any communication peppers, and coca. In North America the main food
between Chinese officials and foreign merchants was crops were a suite of local starchy and oily seeded plants
channeled through hong merchants. On the other hand, including marsh elder/sumpweed, chenopods, squashes,
both the Chinese and the foreign merchants worked suc- and sunflowers. Over the millennia more than three
cessfully together, for they shared a similar set of values hundred different plants were domesticated, of which
about private enterprise and profit motives. After 1842, about twenty-five are considered staples today.
many of the hong merchants, joined by newcomers, con- So significant was this worldwide transition to farming
tinued to engage in foreign trade in the form of com- that it came to be viewed by most anthropologists as the
pradors (Chinese agents in the employ of foreign firms). foundation of civilization. However, the revolution in the
The Chinese worldview itself remained fractured, and it way people fed themselves did not happen quickly, and
would take another generation or two before the Chinese centuries passed before the transition from foraging to
state gave proper recognition to international trade and farming was complete. This transitional period is the
the critical role played by the hong merchants. nexus in which horticultural societies first emerged.
Wellington K. K. Chan
Horticulture and
See also Trading Patterns, China Seas Agriculture
The term “horticulture” comes from the Latin hortus,
Further Reading which puts emphasis on the plants, while the term “agri-
culture,” from the Latin ager, places emphasis on the
Fairbank, J. K. (Ed.). (1978). The Cambridge history of China:Vol 10. Late
Ch’ing, 1800–1911 (Part 1). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University land. This may appear to be only a semantic difference.
Press.
Chan,W. K. K. (1998). Comprador. In W. Ke-wen (Ed.), Modern China: However, in horticultural systems the land is cultivated
An encyclopedia of history, culture and nationalism. New York: Gar- for fewer years than it is allowed to lie fallow.The most
land Publishing. common method of land clearance involves slash-and-
Hao,Y. (1986). The commercial revolution in nineteenth century China:
The rise of Sino-Western mercantile capitalism. Berkeley and Los burn techniques in which a plot of land is cleared and
Angeles: University of California. the cut vegetation is allowed to dry. At the beginning of
Liang, J. (1960). Guangdong shi’san hang kao [A study of the Guang- the rainy season the dried vegetation is burned to release
dong thirteen hong] (Rev. ed).Taizhong,Taiwan: Commercial Press.
nutrients into the soil. Next, a wide variety of cultigens
are planted, and these are harvested according to their
Horticultural different rates of growth. The garden is replanted and
reused for four or five years and is then abandoned and
Societies allowed to lie fallow for up to twenty years during which

secondary forest growth covers the plot.The result is an
etween six and twelve thousand years ago, societies “extensive” form of cultivation in which new lands are
Bscattered around the world began to manage and brought under cultivation while other areas remain fal-
cultivate local plants for food, containers, fibers, and low for a long time. In effect, little effort is expended in
medicines. The main food crops were wheat and barley preparing the land and more effort is focused on the
in the Near East; rice in Thailand and China; sorghum, plants.