ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to explain the reasons for the high degree of interdependence between urbanization and the grain market. The construction of railroads and the creation of a strong central government fundamentally altered the nature of famine relief in China. Industrialization and the railroad altered the pattern of Chinese urbanization in the twentieth century, but only partially changed the city-farm relationship. The influence of the factors on the location on China's major urban centers and the way in which these urban centers in turn determined the nature of the grain marketing system can be seen most clearly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In analyzing the impact of urbanization on grain marketing and output, it is desirable to start with a full description of the system as it existed before 1900. Industrialization and the coming of the railroad in the twentieth century may have stimulated productivity in the south and brought some of the benefits of specialization to the north.
