"Fresh betel nuts and salt betel nuts all come out of Hainan." "Quanguang collects tens of thousands of min of taxes from merchants and traders, but Hainan is the largest." - Zhao Rushi of Song Dynasty
"Qiong people live by betel nuts. Those who are over the age of Fujian and Guangdong don't know how many millions of betel nuts are." - Wang Xiangzhi of the Song Dynasty, "Yu Di Ji Sheng"
"Betel nut was born in Lidong, Hainan Province,... It was sold by sea merchants and collected by Qiong Guan, who was five years old. Guangzhou tax collected tens of thousands of betel nut taxes. But if it was right, it would be impossible to collect what people took from everywhere." - Zhou Qufei, Song Dynasty
"Three out of ten are sold in eastern and western Guangdong, and seven out of ten are sold in Jiaozhi and Funan." - Qu Dajun's Guangdong New Words in the early Qing Dynasty
Tall trees bear betel nuts
Who climbs first, who tastes first
Who climbs first? I install it first
Young man picks betel nut
Little sister looks up with the basket
……
The popular folk song "Picking Betel Nuts" has been sung since the 1940s, especially the sweet interpretation of Teresa Teng, a generation after the song, which depicts a beautiful picture of southern China.
Walking into Binglang Village, Fenghuang Town, Sanya City, Hainan Province, the picturesque scene suddenly appeared. On both sides of the winding Binglang River, clusters of beautiful and straight areca trees are planted on the bank. The fan like green leaves cover the white walls and tiles. The people are beautiful, and the birds and dogs know each other. It is a beautiful view of the countryside.
Chen Guangliang, a professor of Guangdong Normal University of Technology (University of Nationalities) and an expert on Hainan economic history, said that such a place name named after betel nut is not unique, but widely exists in southern China. For example, there is a betel nut river in Yunnan, a betel nut village in Guangdong and Taiwan, a betel nut road in Xiamen, and even a betel nut middle school. There are still many places in Hainan now or in history named after betel nut. So many agricultural products are used as place names, which subtly reflects that betel nut has played an important role in people's life in history or at least in a certain period, especially in economy.
What are the characteristics of Hainan's ancient economy and what kind of products had an important impact on the whole country? " Chen Guangliang came to the conclusion that betel nut is the fist product of ancient Hainan. It used to supply a large number of southern ports and cities. One third of Hainan's taxes came from betel nut trade
Areca Trade Port
"It's impossible for people to take advantage of the various places."
Ai'ai Binglang Village, Youyou Binglang River. Along the Binglang River, it flows downstream to the southeast and joins Sanya River not far away, leading directly to Sanya Port, also known as Linchuan Port in ancient times. If you cross the Dehe River, follow the path outside the village to the west, and walk tens of miles to reach Yazhou Ancient City and Yazhou Port.
It is not hard to imagine that in the past years, a load of betel nuts in the village came down to Linchuan by boat, or rode to Yazhou by car and horse, and then transported to Fujian, Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces by the masts in the ancient harbor, even all over the Nanyang. The ancient Sanya area, as well as Tengqiao Port and Yulin Port, is also the main export area of betel nut.
Looking around Qiongzhou, there are many prosperous ports since ancient times, such as Tanmen, Qinglan, Haikou, Baimajing, and Basuo. At one time, there were also many boats of betel nuts. It is these ancient ports that connect Hainan with the world that bear the hub of Hainan betel nut economy.
In his monograph "Research on Hainan Economic History", Chen Guangliang devoted a chapter of "betel nut economy" to give a detailed textual research and description of this prosperity.
Zhao Rushi of the Song Dynasty said in his "Records of Various Fan" that "fresh betel nuts and salt betel nuts all come from Hainan.". It also said: "Spring ships ship wine, rice, flour, yarn, lacquer, porcelain, and ship back in May and June at the end of the year or the first month; if they carry fresh betel nuts first, they will arrive in April." That is to say, if Quanzhou merchant ships ship fresh betel nuts, they will return ahead of time. It can be seen that betel nut trade has accounted for a considerable proportion.
In particular, Quanzhou was a world-class port at that time, and the betel nut economy had a considerable share in the tax revenue of Quanzhou Port, which showed that the betel nut economy had an important impact on the economy of Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian, the main import places. Wang Xiangzhi, also of the Song Dynasty, wrote in his "Records of Victory in the Territory" that "the people of Hainan live by betel nuts, and those who are over the age of Fujian and Guangdong do not know how many millions of them."
"Shipping was the only way to sell betel nuts outside the island at that time." Chen Guangliang said that after the Song Dynasty, with the increasingly mature shipbuilding and navigation technology, ports such as Beihai, Hai'an, Leizhou, Chikan, Jiangmen, Guangzhou, Chaozhou, Quanzhou and so on have become the main distribution centers of betel nuts in Hainan.
In Leizhou Port, one of the main distribution centers, there even appeared a guild "Langhang" that specializes in Hainan betel nut wholesale, and betel nut businesses gathered in Nanting Street of the port. Langhang merchants had a thriving business and abundant financial resources. During the reign of Qianlong alone, they donated three times (in the eighth, twenty fourth and twenty ninth years of Qianlong's reign) to build the Tianhou Palace in Hong Kong, with a total of more than 1500 taels of grain silver.
The prosperity of betel nut trade lasted until the Qing Dynasty. Wu Zheren, a native of the Qing Dynasty, also vividly described the distribution of Hainan betel nuts across the Lingnan region by water and land after packaging and crossing the sea.
"In order to purchase, process, store, transport and distribute betel nuts that are 'over the age of hundreds of millions in Fujian and Guangdong', I don't know how many peddlers, brokers and marine caravans have been traveling in Qiongdao counties all the year round to transport betel nuts to Guangdong, Hainan and Fujian. At the same time, how many ships are needed to transport betel nuts." Chen Guangliang said with emotion: "A commodity can stimulate producers to expand production and attract many traders to invest and operate through its demand effect. It can not only make profits in the market, but also become an important source of local fiscal taxes. Moreover, its market life cycle has lasted for thousands of years, which is unique in the history of economic development in the south of the sea."
Betel nut benefits Qiongzhou
"Qiong Guanshou collects the tax, and he is the fifth of his age"
The hot spring village in Zhongyuan Town, Qionghai City is another "betel nut village" famous for processing. Recently, a reporter from Hainan Daily saw in this "betel nut village" in Qionghai that the green betel nut has been boiled, smoked and roasted, and turned into a dry fruit with black and bright skin, which is sent to Hunan after graded packaging. The reporter of Hainan Daily saw a betel nut processing factory in the village. The couple baked green fruit into dry fruit alone, earning 30000 to 40000 yuan in peak season. The busy and orderly processing process can vaguely see the shadow of the economic prosperity of ancient Hainan betel nut.
"In fact, the betel nut industry in ancient Hainan was more mature and the industry chain was longer.
Today, only Hunan, Taiwan and Hainan still have a common habit of eating areca. Among them, Taiwan's areca is the most popular. Areca is the "green gold" with the second largest output value in agricultural products, and has both planting and processing capabilities; The eating habits of areca nuts in Hunan are different from those in Qiongtai. They are dried areca nuts pickled with spices and need more sophisticated processing. However, they are not suitable for planting in Hunan, and quite a few raw materials are purchased from Hainan; Hainan is accustomed to eating fresh areca, but most of the raw materials are sold to Hunan. The island does more primary processing, and the areca industry has only accounted for a small proportion in Hainan's economy.
However, in the boom years of Hainan's betel nut economy, the betel nut industry is an important pillar of Hainan's economy. Some states and counties almost rely on betel nut production to maintain local fiscal revenue. As early as the Song Dynasty, betel nut economy played an important role in Hainan's economy as soon as it developed. Wang Xiangzhi, a native of the Song Dynasty, wrote in the section of Qiongzhou in the book "The Land Records of Victory" that "it is not for the benefit of betel nuts that we can't live in this state". Zhou Qufei wrote in his "Answers from Outside the Ridge" that "betel nut was born in Lidong, Hainan,... a merchant from the sea, and Qiong Guan collected it. He was five years old, and Guangzhou tax collected tens of thousands of min of betel nut tax (an ancient unit of measurement, one min is ten thousand copper coins). However, if it was true, it would be impossible to win the competition if all places collected what people took." By the Qing Dynasty, when the betel nut economy was mature, Lingshui, Huitong There are many records in the annals of Lehui and other counties, such as "betel nut is ripe but expensive, and less is the help of poor grain", "heavy service, loss by betel nut", and "planting betel nut for food tax".
Qing Dynasty Wanke Areca Orchard
Production and management have begun to sprout capitalism
Chen Guangliang introduced that most of the taxes in Hainan prefecture and county during the Ming and Qing dynasties were "tax on betel nuts and coconuts". According to the statistics of the tax revenue of the states and counties of the island listed in the Records of Qiongzhou Prefecture by Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty, the "palm tax" accounts for 37% of the tax revenue of the island, which is the largest; However, Wanzhou's "palm tax" is the highest among the counties and states of the island, accounting for 26%; Next are Huitong, Ding'an, Lehui, Wenchang, Qiongshan, Lingshui, Yazhou, Chengmai, Danxian, Lingao and Changhua. This statistical data basically reflects the cultivation and production of areca in Hainan in the Qing Dynasty.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, due to market stimulation, the planting area of areca in Hainan continued to expand, and even the situation of competing with grain for land occurred. Some farmers give up grain production and specialize in areca orchards. Chen Guangliang said that in the Yuan and Ming dynasties, Hainan had a "thousand areca orchards", and in the Qing Dynasty, there was a "ten thousand areca orchards". The owners of the orchards employed agricultural workers from management to harvest, relying on long-term operation to earn investment profits, and their production mode had begun to sprout into a capitalist production mode.
A large number of businessmen who poured into Hainan because of betel nuts formed betel nut wholesale markets and merchant guilds in Hainan. In the Qing Dynasty, Gaozhou Guild Hall in Haikou and Wuyi Guild Hall in Yazhou were built by betel nut merchants in Gaozhou and Wuyi, respectively, to facilitate their residence and trade and maintain commercial channels. It can be seen that the areca industry had formed a stable operation and circulation channel at that time.
Hainan areca is even quite exported. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Qu Dajun mentioned in Guangdong New Language that Hainan betel nuts "sold in the east and west of Guangdong at the age of three out of ten, and in Jiaozhi and Funan at the age of seven out of ten." If this data is true, it means that Hainan betel nuts are sold to Jiaozhi (Vietnam) and Funan (Cambodia) instead. This is also the effort of Hainan areca industry to find a new market in the face of the situation of prosperity and decline.
