农业是国民经济的基础,弄清近代农业生产状况,不仅对近代国民经济史的研究有其特殊重要意义,而且对当前经济改革的决策和农业发展战略的制定亦有参考价值。解放以来,不少学者在这方面作出了可贵的努力,但因史料的局限和方法上的出入,结论纷歧,远未达成一致意见。在一个较长的时期内的主流意见是,清代前期中国农业生产达到了高峰,而鸦片战争后,中国沦为半殖民地半封建的国家,于是出现了停滞和衰退的趋势。近些年 Agriculture is the foundation of the national economy. Understanding the status of modern agricultural production not only has special significance for the study of modern national economic history, but also has reference value for the current economic reform decision-making and agricultural development strategy formulation. Since the liberation, many scholars have made valuable efforts in this regard. However, due to the limitations of historical materials and their discrepancies in methods, they have far to reach an agreement. In a long period of time the mainstream opinion was that in the early Qing Dynasty, China’s agricultural production peaked. After the Opium War, China was reduced to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country, so there was a trend of stagnation and recession. In recent years