Market system in the Mekong River delta from the XVIIth century to 1945

Abstract

The Mekong River delta (ĐBSCL) is the southernmost part of Vietnam, experienced socioeconomic, political, and cultural changes during the last 300 years. With the development of agriculture, forestry, and fishery, ĐBSCL faces demands of production exchanges that led to the emergence of local markets. In the early days, water transportation was prominent, resulting in a market system that was closely connected to rivers and waterways. The market system fostered exchanging activities and led to the development of the commodity economy in the region that involved the riverine trading network and rising urbanization. Under the French rule, structure, scales and methods of economic exchanges in ĐBSCL were greatly shifted. Between the XVIIth century and 1945, the market system in Chin Rong was set up, resulting in demographic growth and socioeconomic evolutions. In this paper, we like to inestgate the roles of the market system in ĐBSCL which nowadays includes 13 provinces: Long An, Tiền Giang, Bến Tre, Đồng Tháp, Trà Vinh, Vĩnh Long, An Giang, Sóc Trăng, Hậu Giang, Bạc Liêu, Kiên Giang, Cà Mau, and Cần Thơ City. It is the departure point for us to reconstruct the picture of the market system there between the XVIIth century and 1945.