Abstract:

The investigation focuses on some features of traditional rural economy, especiall land-holding and land-tenure systems in the Songjiang district of Shanghai before liberation (1949). In East China, the capitalist form of land ownership, coupled with population increase, fostered a development of a large class of tenants, and their livelihood was contingent on their arrangements with a landowner. Their subsistence insecurity was derived from the system of land tenure and casual wage labor.

Key words: landholding, share-cropping practice, deal in real estate