露浓麦肥、草长豆稀:清代台湾的春花与粮食供给

“Spring Flowers”(Wheat-Barley-Beans)and the Food Supply of Taiwan in the Qing Dynasty

清代台湾每年例须陈报夏、秋粮食收成,秋收指稻作,夏收即春花和双季稻的早稻。春花是次要粮食,栽植普遍的番薯亦是。但政府规定春花须列入夏收报告,番薯则不必。番薯是馈贫之粮,植于园或畸零地。春花植于稻田,与稻形成轮作,被喻为接绝续乏之谷,可见其地位。以往研究清代台湾粮食者,次要粮食必议番薯,忽略春花。本文旨在阐明清代台湾春花的种植及其与主要粮食的关系,并检验清人视春花有平抑米价作用的认知是否合理。

Most of scholars prefer to mention only the primary grain, rice and the secondary grain, sweet potatoes when discussing food production and distribution in Taiwan during the Qing Dynasty while they ignore another important component of the grain market, the cultivation and price of ＂spring flowers＂ （wheat, barley, and beans）. Local officials at the county level were required to report annual summer and autumn harvests. The autumn harvest meant rice and the summer harvest referred to the spring flowers and the early ripening rice. Both spring flowers and sweet potatoes were considered to be important secondary foods, however, according to government regulations, the summer harvest report included spring flowers but there was no mention of sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes fed the poor and were cultivated on marginal land but spring flowers were grown on paddy land and rotated with the rice crop. Previous research has overlooked the important position of spring flowers. This article aims to provide a detailed account of the cultivation of spring flowers, and the association of its prices, chiefly wheat prices, with rice prices during the eighteenth century.