Historical Background and Economic Situation in Nam Dan District Before 1802

In short, in the 19th century, the transportation system in our country in general, Nghe An, Nam Dan in particular played an important role in creating the infrastructure link between Agriculture - Industry - Trade. Waterways played a key role in civil transportation, roads played an important role in connecting traffic serving administrative, military functions, regional communications and the travel and production needs of the people.

2.3. Historical background and economic situation in Nam Dan district before 1802

The war between the North and South dynasties that took place in the 16th century pushed the majority of villagers in Nghe An in general, and Nam Dan district in particular, into the vortex of civil war. Nghe An and Nam Dan became battlefields many times in fierce and prolonged conflicts. In the book Thanh Chuong Huyen Chi , Bui Duong Lich recorded that: Thai Pho Tan Quoc Cong Nguyen Canh Hoan (also known as Nguyen Canh Mo), Lai Quan Cong Phan Cong Tich, along with many other generals, gathered militia in Nghe An, in the war with Mac general Thach Quan Cong Nguyen Quyen (1575), took the land in Thanh Thuy, Nam Duong as a garrison, the left bank of Lam River passing through Nam Duong district along with the locations of Xao Gang and Ru Nguoc were the places of conflict between feudal groups [118, p.109]. The war between the forces loyal to the Mac dynasty and the forces loyal to the Le king - Trinh lord in Nghe An ended, but the consequences of that fratricidal war left for the villagers in Nghe An were extremely severe. Everywhere in Nghe An province in general, Nam Dan district in particular, villages were devastated, fields were abandoned, villagers were forced to abandon their homes and wander everywhere to avoid war, the economy fell into a state of stagnation. According to Ngo Si Lien in Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu : "Districts and fields were abandoned, people were starving. Epidemics broke out again, nearly half of the people died of starvation. People were scattered or scattered to the South, to the North. In Nghe An, it was desolate and deserted" [109, p.262].

Since the 17th century, the civil war between the Trinh - Nguyen forces directly affected the economic, cultural and social life of all residents of Dang Trong and Dang Ngoai. Nghe An and Ha Tinh became battlefields in seven fierce battles between the army of the Nguyen lords and the army of the Le - Trinh government. Village residents in Nghe An and Ha Tinh were scattered or captured and taken to Dang Trong (the case of

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The Tay Son brothers' clan union in Hung Dao (Hung Nguyen) has proven that). In that context, the economy in Nghe An and Nam Dan declined. Land management was beyond the capacity of the Le - Trinh government. The situation of abandoned land or floods and droughts often occurred. The local mandarin apparatus colluded with each other to seize and sell public land of the villages. Farmers in Nghe An and Nam Dan were pushed into dire situations, continuously rising up in revolt or supporting Nguyen Huu Cau, Le Duy Mat... against the Le - Trinh government. According to Dai Viet Su Ky Tuc Bien , in June 1705, at that time Thanh and Nghe were always suffering from crop failure and famine, most of the soldiers were in hiding and could not be replenished. Lord Trinh Can ordered his ministers to meet to discuss whether to treat him leniently or harshly. The Tham Tung Nguyen Quan Nho group believed that the people would avoid the heavy and seek the light, the scattered were stubborn, the rich were hidden. If all are reduced, it will only benefit the villages and hamlets. If all are postponed, they will compete to complain of poverty. Now, I would like to order that in places where soldiers have escaped, the responsibility be placed on the local chiefs in the capital to bring people to replace them. If they cannot replace them, I would assign the town officials to arrest them. I would like to immediately stop the practice of having soldiers arrest people to reduce expenses [29, p.57].

The book "Lich Trieu Tap Ky" recorded that: In the 3rd month of the year At Mui, the 11th year (Vinh Thinh) (1715), the Governor discussed that: Nghe An had an epidemic, most of the people were suffering. It was the time to visit, worry, and pray for the people. (Lord Trinh) then ordered the officials of the two departments of Thua Chinh and Hien Sat to choose a clean place, set up an altar, deduct public money, buy offerings... to worship the upper, middle, and lower gods in Nghe An to pray for the gods to bless the people [94, pp.199 - 200].

The economic decline and socio-political crisis created favorable conditions for mandarins and tyrants to seize land and exploit the poor. Private land was developing strongly. Many owners had dozens of hectares of land. Meanwhile, most farmers lost their land, fell into constant famine, had to sell their wives and children or become servants to survive. In addition, the book Nghe An Ky by Bui Duong Lich also said: Out of 9 hectares of land in a village, 7 were left fallow, and out of 118 hectares of rice fields, 112 were left fallow and rice fields. The situation of fallow land, desolate villages, hungry farmers, having to leave the village and wander everywhere became more and more common.

variation. “ Only the districts of Nam Duong, Thanh Chuong and Hung Nguyen in the riverside areas often grow corn to make up for that shortage. The districts of Thach Ha, Nghi Xuan, Chan Loc, with their rich soil, often reserve half of their land for growing sweet potatoes…” [106, p.220].

At the end of the 18th century, the economic, political and social crisis in both Dang Trong and Dang Ngoai reached its peak. In 1771, the Tay Son peasant movement broke out, quickly overthrowing the Nguyen family's rule in Dang Trong. In 1786, Nguyen Hue sent troops to the North, overthrowing the Trinh family's rule, and forming a marriage alliance with the Le dynasty. In 1788 - 1789, the whole nation had to face the invasion war of the Manchu dynasty. From 1789 to 1792, Emperor Quang Trung implemented many policies to restore the economy and stabilize politics and society from Phu Xuan to the North. However, after Emperor Quang Trung died (1792), the Tay Son dynasty fell into deep crisis and collapsed (1801). In that context, the economy in Nghe An in general and Nam Dan in particular did not have significant changes. The situation of encroachment and sale of communal land or the situation of poor and scattered villagers became common. Officials, landlords and rich people in the villages colluded to occupy land, pushing the farmers of Nghe An and Nam Dan into a miserable situation. This was also one of the underlying causes leading to the collapse of the Tay Son dynasty.

Thus, before 1802, the outdated and backward agricultural economy still covered all villages in Nghe An in general and Nam Dan district in particular. Local officials and powerful people in the villages owned the land. Small-scale handicrafts were still only on a small scale in the villages, with products mainly serving the needs of agricultural production and the lives of local residents. Trading and exchanging goods mainly took place in the market system from the villages to the prefectures and districts.

2.4. The policies and measures implemented by the Nguyen Dynasty affected the economy of Nghe An, Nam Dan district during the period 1802 - 1884

2.4.1. For agriculture

In 1802, after winning the civil war with the Tay Son dynasty, Nguyen Anh set up an altar to worship heaven and earth to announce the establishment of the Gia Long era (May 1802), granting general amnesty to the people, and establishing the role of the Nguyen dynasty in the history of the nation.

[135; p.491]. The Nguyen Dynasty came to power in a situation where the country was unified territorially but our country's economy was seriously declining, especially agriculture.

Agriculture fell into a state of widespread land degradation, irrigation was not consolidated, from villages to towns/provinces people abandoned their homeland and wandered everywhere to seek a living. In the North, according to the mandarin's report: "The North experienced chaos, many people wandered. When the army lacked quotas, the mandarin often forced neighboring villages to give them land. Therefore, the land of the wanderers was taken by neighboring villages to compensate" [170, p.81]. The situation of litigation over land ownership arose, and society was unstable. In 1809, the mandarin of the North reported: "Recently, litigation has increased, financial resources have been increasingly depleted, and people have been restless and unable to work in peace... there are hundreds of problems, the people cannot bear it, the rich cannot keep their property, and most of the poor have gone into exile, causing discontented groups to rebel" [170, p.81].

In 1802, Gia Long ordered the Northern Citadel to go to Nghe An to re-register the land, then stipulated: "For all the land of the displaced people, the local authorities must establish clear boundaries, divide it into levels for the officers and soldiers to cultivate and collect taxes, the neighboring villages are not allowed to cultivate. Those who have already cultivated it will temporarily pay taxes according to the public and private land categories... When the displaced people return, those lands will be returned and taxes will be collected as usual". In 1805, the king issued an edict: From Nghe An to the North, the land of the displaced people from the year Nham Tuat (1802) onwards that had been cultivated by the officers and soldiers is now suspended, waiting for the displaced people to return to manage and do business, exempt taxes and soldiers for 3 years" [156, p.631].

In 1807, Gia Long said: “Recently, I heard that there were still people in the surrounding houses and hamlets who were occupying the land of the displaced people, hiding it from each other, causing the displaced people to be afraid, many people did not dare to return”. In that context, Nghe An town/province suffered many losses after the civil war, where the land was barren, the climate was harsh, natural disasters often occurred, so the situation of the displaced people and abandoned land became more serious. In 1819, Le Van Duyet submitted a memorial: “Nghe An people are suffering too much… Although bandits have been swept away in Nghe An, many people are still scattered” [135, p.984]. In 1820, the governor of Nghe An reported: “The scattered people in the district totaled 63 villages, recently some people have returned, one or two out of ten”. By the end of the 1830s under the Minh Mang dynasty, abandoned land had reached 1,314,927 hectares [171, p.445].

In addition to encouraging people to reclaim abandoned land in villages, the Nguyen Dynasty also implemented many policies to encourage people to spontaneously organize land reclamation in many different ways to expand the cultivated area. According to the 1830 regulations, "abandoned public land will be reclaimed by the villagers together, abandoned private land will be reclaimed by the owners themselves" . People with the ability were allowed to requisition abandoned land. The court also stipulated more clearly: "If there is land that is hidden and not reclaimed, and someone else reclaims it, the person who reclaims it will get the land" or "abandoned land must be reclaimed by the villagers who are unable to reclaim it before it is allowed to be reclaimed by other villagers, if this population is scattered and another population cultivates it to pay taxes, the communes will make the registers instead" [158]. In addition, forces such as prisoners were used for land reclamation purposes, and forms such as plantations and enterprises were organized to reclaim new lands. However, in Nghe An, the plantations were only like defense posts, mainly to ensure security.

Under the Nguyen Dynasty, in order to facilitate land management and tax collection, the Nguyen Dynasty conducted land surveying, land classification, and tax rates of all kinds nationwide from 1802 under King Gia Long. For Nghe An and some provinces of the North Central Coast, in 1830, King Minh Mang decreed: "Land is based on land registers, to show the truth and eliminate lies" and then, following the advice of the Ministry of Finance, the three towns of Thanh, Nghe, and Ninh Binh were ordered to make land registers, to be implemented in Nghe An in particular the following year [158, pp. 74 - 75]. In Nam Dan District alone, we have collected 40 land registers belonging to 6 cantons, 65 villages, communes, pages, wards, wards, hamlets, and offices within the administrative boundary space defined by the topic. These land registers were mainly established under the Minh Mang Dynasty from 1832 to 1836 after the king's decree (1830).

For agriculture, water management and irrigation for agricultural production and flood prevention play a very important role. In Nghe An, according to Bui Duong Lich in Nghe An Ky , at the beginning of the Nguyen Dynasty, the policy of building dikes and preventing floods on both banks of Lam River and La River in coastal villages was not implemented to prevent rising tides. "Nghe An, near the mountains, bordering the sea, the land is gravelly and barren, and there are not many flat and spacious areas, so there has been no policy of building dikes since ancient times" [106, p.129]. Until the time of Tu Duc, for many different reasons, the policy of not building dikes was still maintained. Therefore, in Nghe An throughout the 19th century, many floods were recorded, many villages, fields, rice, crops... along the left and right banks of Lam River were often swept away by floodwaters, and the residents of Nam Dan village were also in that general context.

2.4.2. For handicrafts and commerce

Under the Nguyen Dynasty, the policy on handicrafts mainly focused on the public statue system and the special admission system. This was a large-scale organization with the strictest management regime to rebuild the country after the years of war. The large-scale statue bureaus with important workshops such as coin minting, gun casting and shipbuilding were mainly concentrated in the center under the management of the royal court. Initially, the state workshops were assigned to the military treasury (the agency that manages the state treasury). In the 10th year of Minh Mang (1829), the Ministry of Public Works directly managed them. To have a source of labor in the workshops, the Nguyen Dynasty recruited skilled craftsmen from localities across the country, gathered at construction sites in the capital, under the management of management units called the Statue Bureau, workers working in the Statue Bureau were called public statues. Workers summoned to the capital were given salaries and exempted from taxes. Depending on the work in the factory, every year in December, the number of workers needed is estimated, so that these people can be summoned in January. From July onwards, depending on how much work there is left, the managers (workers) reduce the number of workers and send them back to their hometowns [2, p.171].

In the 19th century, the state indirectly exploited the labor of free and semi-free craftsmen in provinces and villages through the excise tax system. This was a tax levied on local professional craftsmen and became an increasingly large source of state revenue. Each year, craftsmen had to pay the state a certain amount of products (sometimes in cash). Local excise tax was an organization of professional craftsmen in provinces, cities or craft villages. It was completely different from the excise tax established in state-owned factories. The excise tax system mainly imposed product taxes, the form of collection depended on each locality but was generally quite heavy and arbitrary. In addition, craftsmen also had to bear the burden of tribute and the state's purchase of products made by craftsmen at a cheaper price than the market price. This had a negative impact on the development of local handicrafts in the 19th century.

According to Bui Duong Lich's records in Nghe An Ky , Nghi Xuan Phong Tho Ky; National History Institute of Nguyen Dynasty in Dai Nam Nhat Thong Chi ; Nguyen Dien in Thanh Chuong Huyen Chi ... throughout the 19th century in Nghe An and Ha Tinh, traditional handicrafts were

The system is small-scale, family-based, and the workers are not hired, but are family labor [2, p.159]. Each family is a production unit, and the products made such as: fabrics, mats, agricultural tools, tools, bricks, tiles, pottery, rattan and bamboo woven products... are mainly exchanged at village, commune, prefecture, and district markets; there are no valuable products to exchange with the outside. This reality shows that, in the natural economy in the first half of the 19th century, the majority of farmers in villages in general, and in Nghe An in particular, still operate mainly in the agricultural sector, and handicraft activities are secondary activities, supplementing agricultural production.

The Nguyen Dynasty implemented a policy of prioritizing agriculture, not focusing on developing commerce, especially trade with merchants from Western countries. Repressing commerce was not only a common concept, but also a consistent policy of the State. Minh Mang believed that "the imposition of new tariffs was to prioritize agriculture and suppress commerce, it could not be abandoned" . Thieu Tri analyzed: "The reason for the establishment of pure customs or ferry ports was because the common people often abandoned the main work for the short-term work, so the imposition of tariffs was to tell the people to limit trade and focus on farming" [8, p.54]. Therefore, in Nghe An, although there was Hoi Thong port (Cua Hoi), river mouths, and sea mouths such as: Lach Quen (Con), Cua Hien, Cua Sot, Cua Nhuong, throughout the 19th century, trade and commerce activities did not develop much. The market system of towns/provinces, prefectures, districts, villages and communes is only a place for exchanging and trading agricultural and forestry products, some products of traditional handicrafts to meet the essential needs in the material and spiritual cultural life of village residents. Commercial activities in Nam Dan district are also in that general context.

2.4.3. Some other policies

In 1803, Gia Long made his first trip to the North to receive the Qing Dynasty's royal decree and stabilize the situation in Bac Ha. During this trip, the king stayed at the headquarters of Nghe An town. In May 1804, Gia Long issued an edict to move Nghe An town to another place (the old Nghe An town was in Dung Quyet commune, Chan Loc district). He then surveyed the terrain and decided to take An Truong (the name of a commune, in Chan Loc district) as the town capital of Nghe An, forcing the people to build it [156, p.601].

In May 1804, the relocation of Nghe An capital was carried out. Nghe An citadel was built with earth and stone, and houses in the citadel were temporary.

made of bamboo, reeds, and leaves and surrounded by a moat. Gia Long ordered the dismantling of unfinished constructions in Trung Do Phuong Hoang Thanh to get materials to build Nghe An citadel. The relocation of the capital and the construction of Nghe An citadel caused the people of Nghe An to fall into a difficult situation.

In addition, Gia Long also ordered to search for people from Nghe An and Ha Tinh who had participated in and supported the Tay Son dynasty (1786 - 1801) to eliminate them. The Sung Chinh Library established under the Tay Son dynasty by La Son Phu Tu Nguyen Thiep as the Director was also destroyed. By the end of King Gia Long's reign, all the achievements of the Tay Son dynasty in Nghe An were gone. This is one of the underlying reasons explaining why in the three Huong examinations held under Gia Long's reign (1807, 1813, 1819), the number of students taking the exam was small and only 34 candidates passed the Huong Cong exam [204, p.95].

In 1830 - 1832, to serve his administrative reform, Emperor Minh Mang (1820 - 1840) mobilized soldiers and tens of thousands of laborers in Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Thanh Hoa to build Nghe An citadel with a perimeter of 630 truong using laterite (Nam Dan), shell stone (Phu Dien) and bricks and tiles produced in Nghe An. The houses and mansions in the citadel were solidly built to serve as a place for the mandarins appointed by the Nguyen Dynasty to enforce the royal law and royal power in Nghe An province (including Ha Tinh) [85, pp. 22 - 25].

Along with the construction of the citadel, the transfer of the headquarters, Minh Mang appointed trusted officials to be the governors of An Tinh, including the Governor and the Judge, the Commander, the Deputy Commander, and the Inspector of Education. During the reign of Tu Duc (1848 - 1883), the Commander of Nghe An took command of 19 guards, a marine force of 8,179 people [85, p.45]. Some of the most meritorious officials sent by the Nguyen Dynasty to Nghe An to take on important responsibilities can be listed below:

- Ngo Nhan Tinh, appointed as Nghe An Governor in the 10th year of Gia Long (1811).

- Nguyen Van Soan, Governor of Nghe An in the 5th year of Minh Mang (1824).

- Ta Quang Cu, governor of An Tinh in the 14th year of Minh Mang (1833).

- Nguyen Tri Phuong, governor of An Tinh in the 16th year of Minh Mang (1835).

- Hoang Ke Viem (Hoang Ta Viem) governor of An Tinh in the 16th year of Tu Duc (1863)...