明代中葉太湖以東地區的市鎮發展與地區開發

Market Towns and Regional Development to the East of Lake Tai during the mid-Ming Dynasty

市鎮的出現與擴張，代表一個地區的開發和社會經濟發展水平。為瞭解明中葉（1550年為止）江南地區的情況，本文選擇以其核心所在的蘇州府、松江府、太倉州，也就是太湖以來的蘇南地區為研究範圍，以市鎮數量的增減、分佈及個別鎮的規模作為分析的對象，藉以蠡測當地社會經濟發展的概況。綜合市鎮的各種特質，顯現直到明中葉為止的蘇南地區，仍富有濃厚的拓殖性色彩。將蘇南分成鹽鐵塘主幹區、南浦東區和大運河與湖群低地區三大塊，這種特性在鹽鐵塘主幹區最為明顯。當地主要是古海岸線構成的岡身及其以東地區，不適稻作，地利澆薄。但宋元之際傳入棉種及棉織技術以後，地得以盡其利，轉而從蘇州地區吸引移民東向拓墾，一直到明中葉而不止。此可視為推進明清江南社會經濟發展的一股重要的動力。

The appearance and expansion of market towns are important benchmarks for measuring socio-economic aspects of Chinese regional development during the Ming-Qing era. This paper focuses on the prefectures of Suzhou, Songjiang and Taicang (all of which belonged to Jiangnan's Sunan region), and is based on a statistical analysis of the distribution and expansion of market towns in order to determine this area's socio-economic conditions during the mid-Ming dynasty. Up to the mid-Ming, the development of the Sunan region featured the opening up of uncultivated lands. If we sub-divide the Sunan region into three parts, it becomes clear that this feature was most obvious in the Yantie River basin, which was situated in the east of the Sunan region. Traditionally, the marginal utility of land utilization in that area was low. Only after cotton was successfully transplanted, and the cotton industry began to flourish, did the Yantie River basin begin to attract immigrants from the west of the Sunan region. This proved to be one of the major driving forces that advanced the socio-economic development of the Sunan region during the mid-Ming.