Evaluate the yeoman economy in ancient China.

The yeoman economy is also called the small-scale peasant economy.

The yeoman economy refers to the self-sufficient natural economy in which all the products produced are used for self-consumption or most of them are used for self-consumption rather than commodity exchange.

(1) Positive: owning part of the land, managing agriculture by family, and combining with cottage industry; Except for salt and iron, daily necessities are generally self-sufficient and have little contact with the market; Life is stable and farmers' enthusiasm for production is high. (2) Limitations: the production scale is small, the division of labor is simple, and it is difficult to expand reproduction; It hindered the development of society and exchange economy, and later became a factor hindering the development of production; Small farmers are the main undertakers of state tax corvee, and the excessive exploitation and squeezing of rulers is one of the reasons for the bankruptcy of yeomen.

One is characterized by dispersion, and the other is that the products produced are used for self-consumption or mostly for self-consumption, rather than for commodity exchange. This is a self-sufficient natural economy. For example, the social and economic situation of feudal society was dominated by small-scale peasant economy, and now this economic phenomenon also exists in remote rural areas. Now this kind of economy will lead to becoming the mainstream economy of the city, that is, urban agriculture and the realization of urban yeomen.

However, the small-scale peasant economy is not completely equivalent to the natural economy, which emphasizes the family as the production and living unit, while the natural economy is mainly opposite to the commodity economy. Small-scale peasant economy was born under the background of Tieli Niu Geng in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and natural economy was born as early as the primitive society.

China's feudal society evolved from a slave society without foreign aggression. China's slave society practiced state ownership of land, and all the land owned by the state was owned by the supreme ruler of the country. It was called "the land under heaven, the land of kings, the land of kings, the land of kings?" (The Book of Songs Xiaoya Beishan). After the Spring and Autumn Period, with the development of productive forces, the original land system was destroyed. After the emerging feudal forces seized power, they successively implemented political reforms, established private ownership of land, and allowed "people to buy and sell land." Since then, private land system has become the main form of land system in China feudal society.

On the one hand, private ownership of small land. At the same time, it will inevitably lead to the phenomenon of land merger, and there will be "rich fields and even buildings". A situation in which the poor have no place to stand. Formed the form of private ownership of large land. These big landlords were the landlord class in the feudal society of China. Since the Tang Dynasty, they exploited individual farmers who lost their land in the merger in the form of hidden family slavery and tenancy. Therefore, farmers in feudal society in China have always been composed of two kinds of characters: the yeoman who occupies a small amount of land and means of production and the tenant farmer who is attached to the landlord class (formerly known as the hidden farmer). But no matter what kind of farmers, they are self-sufficient small-scale peasant economies.

The private ownership of land in China feudal society, whether it is small land private ownership or large land private ownership, is not a pure form of private ownership, but a land private ownership dominated by the highest state ownership. This is not only because of the traditional influence of the state-owned land in the slave society of China, but also because all countries in the Warring States period confirmed the private ownership of land in the name of the state. Therefore, the sacred principle of "the world is the king's land" in slave society was inherited in feudal society and combined with private land system in a new form. In the feudal society of China, the highest ownership of land by the state was not only reflected in people's ideas, such as the declaration made by Qin Shihuang on Langya stone carvings: "Within Liuhe, the land of the son of heaven is omnipotent" ("Historical Records of Qin Shihuang"), and the land equalization system implemented in the name of the state in Wei, Jin and Tang Dynasties; Moreover, it is mainly manifested in the final disposal right of each mu of land in the national cadastre and the direct taxation right of each population in the household registration book owned by the supreme rulers of past dynasties.

On the one hand, this small-scale peasant economy based on private ownership of land dominated by the highest state ownership gives individual farmers more freedom, even tenant farmers. Apart from being exploited by the landlord class, they are not under their personal control; On the other hand, they have to be dominated by state power, which is very different from manor economy and serfdom in feudal society in western Europe.

This small-scale peasant economy dominated by the highest state ownership is the fundamental feature of China's feudal social and economic structure, and it is also the deep foundation on which all feudal political, cultural and other superstructures are built and exist for a long time.