Global Crises of Oasis Capitalism, 1847–64
Global Crises of Oasis Capitalism, 1847–64
Through the career of Ahmad, a governor of Kashgar in 1850s, this chapter examines how Opium War (1839-1842) and the subsequent discontinuation of the silver transfer from China to the oasis created crisis in both the Qing military financing and oasis capitalism in Central Asia. The oasis capitalists adopted monetary solution to solve the crisis. They developed copper mining and minted local copper currency to compensate for the loss of the silver provision. Its inflationary affect aggravated the economic stratification long underway in the oasis, privileging wealthy merchants and landlords, while worsening the livelihood of the wage earners. In combination with the burden of the labor mobilization imposed on the oasis farmers to work the copper mines, this growing socio-economic tension resulted in increasing local violence and the out-migration of the people from Eastern Turkestan. The Qing empire fell in 1864, amid a new round of khwaja attacks.
Keywords: Opium War (1839-42), Ahmad, military financing, copper mining, silver transfer, Yarkand Tax Register
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