Register of Population and Grain by Province During the Daoguang Era

Daoguang-Era Provincial Registers of Population and Grain is a valuable compilation of historical sources from the Qing dynasty. Compiled during the Daoguang reign, it survives in versions assembled by the Ministry of Revenue around 1835 and 1858. The author is unknown. Drawn from official statistical records, the book primarily documents basic figures for provincial populations and grain supplies during the Daoguang era. It is the product of the Qing Ministry of Revenue's systematic nationwide survey of population and food supplies. As a key resource for studying the social and economic history of the Qing, it offers an authentic picture of provincial populations, grain production, and tax collection, while also helping us understand how state finances, taxation, and grain distribution operated at the time.

These kinds of registers played an important role in the Qing fiscal and administrative system. Population figures were tied to household registration, taxation, and labor recruitment; grain figures were closely linked to food reserves, tax collection, disaster relief, and military supplies. By compiling provincial population and grain figures for the Daoguang era, the Qing court established a detailed baseline of local social and economic conditions. This provided a reliable basis for central government decisions, budget planning, grain distribution, and responses to natural disasters. For historians today, the register is a primary source for studying social structure in the middle and late Qing, population changes, regional economic differences, natural disasters, and migration.

If you're interested in governance, household registration, grain statistics, and public finance in traditional Chinese society, this book offers a direct look at the basic data through which an agricultural empire maintained its vast administrative system. For historians and enthusiasts of history and literature, the figures and categories in this register are more than cold statistics: they offer vivid clues to life in Qing society.