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The Jiangnan region (south of the Yangzi, and including the cities of [[Hangzhou]], [[Suzhou]], and [[Shanghai]]) continued to grow increasingly densely populated and urbanized over the course of the period. The vast majority of the agricultural land in the region was used for growing cash crops such as silk and cotton, and by the beginning of the 19th century, the region needed to import food in considerable quantities in order to support itself.<ref name=craig101/>
The Jiangnan region (south of the Yangzi, and including the cities of [[Hangzhou]], [[Suzhou]], and [[Shanghai]]) continued to grow increasingly densely populated and urbanized over the course of the period. The vast majority of the agricultural land in the region was used for growing cash crops such as silk and cotton, and by the beginning of the 19th century, the region needed to import food in considerable quantities in order to support itself.<ref name=craig101/>
Population pressure within the southeastern coastal regions, along with other factors, spurred many people to move elsewhere, and much of western China became significantly more densely settled, and developed, in this period. For some, the Qing Court provided official incentives and rewards; regardless, in many areas, local landlords provided aid to new settlers, helping them obtain land, providing them with seed and livestock, and so on. In many of these areas, slash-and-burn agriculture initially led to the devastation of much otherwise fertile soil, but as settlement became more well-established, these frontier areas came to reliably supply a variety of products, including [[tea]], ramie, timber, grain, [[copper]], wool, leather, gypsum, and furs, to other parts of the country (especially to the urban areas of the southeastern coast). In many areas, settlers had to band together not only for success in developing the land, but also in defending their settlements from indigenous or minority ethnic peoples who reacted negatively, even violently, to the influx of outsiders into their lands.<ref>Eastman, 12-14.</ref>
Throughout much of the Qing Dynasty, Chinese tea, silk, and [[porcelain]] were in high demand both within East Asia and among European markets. Europeans did not discover the techniques for producing porcelain themselves until the 18th century. Tea + silk constituted at least 50% of Chinese exports throughout the 19th century, peaking as high as 92% in 1842 and 93.5% in 1868, though this figure fell to 64.5% in 1890, just before the turn of the century. At least 40% of tea production in China was for export, and 50-70% of silk production, all the way to the 1920s. Jumping ahead to the 20th century, the loss of foreign markets in the 1930s through 1940s (and into the PRC era) thus deprived "countless thousands of Chinese peasants" of their livelihoods.<ref name=esherick>Joseph Esherick, "Harvard on China: The Apologetics of Imperialism." ''Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars'' 4:4 (1972), 10.</ref>
Throughout much of the Qing Dynasty, Chinese tea, silk, and [[porcelain]] were in high demand both within East Asia and among European markets. Europeans did not discover the techniques for producing porcelain themselves until the 18th century. Tea + silk constituted at least 50% of Chinese exports throughout the 19th century, peaking as high as 92% in 1842 and 93.5% in 1868, though this figure fell to 64.5% in 1890, just before the turn of the century. At least 40% of tea production in China was for export, and 50-70% of silk production, all the way to the 1920s. Jumping ahead to the 20th century, the loss of foreign markets in the 1930s through 1940s (and into the PRC era) thus deprived "countless thousands of Chinese peasants" of their livelihoods.<ref name=esherick>Joseph Esherick, "Harvard on China: The Apologetics of Imperialism." ''Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars'' 4:4 (1972), 10.</ref>
