试论内战后美国南部棉花生产扩张问题

Study on the Cotton Overproduction in the Postbellum Southern United States

内战后美国南部的棉花生产扩张实际上是黑人租佃农延续并扩大内战前的植棉传统,以及大批白人小农放弃自给自足的粮食作物生产转向单一的棉花生产造成的。这种大规模生产棉花的单一种植结构对于黑人租佃农和白人小农极为不利,而对于种植园主和商人则是极为有利的。借贷制度是种植园主和商人控制黑人租佃农和白人小农作物选择的重要机制。

The cotton overproduction in the Postbellum Southern United States had two reasons.One was that the black tenants in the plantations continued and enlarged the Antebellum cotton production,and the other was that the white yeomen gave up the self-sufficient foodstuff production existing in the antebellum times and shifted to the market-oriented and one-crop cotton production.The kind of one-crop system was disadvantageous to the black tenants and white yeomen but beneficial to the planters and merchants.The credit system was a kind of important means used by planters and merchants to control the crop choice of the black tenants and white yeomen.