This chapter and the next are concerned with the structure of economic and political relations in Ha Tsuen during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Unfortunately the century that followed the formation of the Teng lineage in 1751 is not well documented for Ha Tsuen. However, beginning in the 1860s and 1870s more and better information is available. Local histories, government records, architectural evidence, and informants' accounts combine to give a fairly detailed picture of Ha Tsuen from the 1860s to the Japanese occupation in 1941. Most of the following discussion will therefore relate to those decades, although where possible I will include information on the earlier period.

In the first section of this chapter the patterns of landownership and the livelihoods of Ha Tsuen's people are discussed. Until the 1960s, when the Teng began to take up factory jobs, most villagers made their living from the land. Rates of landownership and tenure arrangements therefore reveal a great deal about the nature of economic relations among the Teng. The second section is concerned with the development and eventual decline of Ha Tsuen's market. The history of this market is closely intertwined with the history of Ha Tsuen's landlord-merchant class during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the last part of this chapter the economic activities of one of the wealthiest landlord-merchant families in Ha Tsuen are explored in detail.

Land tenure during the nineteenth century

For most of Ha Tsuen's history, land has been an essential resource.