20世纪前期豫北农民生活状况考察

The Peasants’ Living Conditions in Northern Henan in the Early 20^(th) Century

20世纪前期,豫北是河南相对"发展"的地区,但农民生活水平与经济发展并非单一线性关系。整体来看,豫北农民的生存状况没有得到普遍改善。农民的谋生方式并未出离于传统的形式,主要方式是种地、手工、做商贩、做苦力等,土地仍是农民生存的主要支柱。20世纪二三十年代,农民因生计困难离村谋生的人数增多,游民乞丐的数量也有增加。农民的家庭财产非常薄弱,一般农户鲜有积蓄,购买力低下,仅足糊口;农民负债的情况非常普遍。农民的衣、食、住、医疗等条件没有改观,新的食物、衣着种类仅出现在少数富有之家。

In the early 20^(th) century, although northern Henan became relatively developed, the peasants’ living conditions were not necessarily improved in general. Their ways of making livings were traditional, like cultivating land, engaging in handicraft, becoming small retailer, doing hard work and so on. Land was still the main pillar of farmers’ survival. In the 1920 s and 1930 s, the number of peasants leaving their villages for a living increased, and the number of vagrants increased. Peasants had very little household property, ordinary peasants seldom have savings, and the purchasing power of them is low enough to survive;many peasants were heavily in debt. In addition, the peasants’ living conditions of clothing, food, housing and medical care hadn’t been changed. The new type of food, clothing only appeared in a few wealthy families.