The water supply business and 'waterways' in Beijing, 1644〜1949

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  • 清代民国時期における北京の水売買業と「水道路」
  • シンダイミンコク ジキ ニ オケル ペキン ノ ミズ バイバイギョウ ト スイドウロ

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Abstract

This article uses documents from the Niida Collection on contracts for water supplies in Beijing to focus on groups of water carriers from Shandong. For centuries these people migrated to Beijing and engaged in the sale of water for domestic use. Information on them is scarce, but their numbers are calculated to have amounted to around ten thousand men in the late Qing and early Republican eras. The paper also considers the urbanization process from the Ming and Qing dynasties onwards, and the migration of village farmers into the city. Beijing suffered from a serious water shortage. From the late Ming and early Qing, migrants from Shandong supplied water to residents and eventually competition led to the formation of different territories, the development of exclusive monopolies, and the formation of 'waterways', an order and rights concerning the handling of users' capital to pay for water supplies. The negative social image of water carriers was a result of the gap between their self-imposed order and the more liberated economic and social order of the city. While they made an important contribution to the everyday life of the city, they remained of marginal status and were never accepted as full inhabitants.

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