Land Ownership in Tùy Hối Village in the 18th and Early 19th Centuries: Insights from Land Registers

Abstract

Tùy Hối, an early established village, is closely associated with prominent Trần-dynasty figures such as Queen Mother Nguyên Từ and Trần Quốc Tảng. Prevailing scholarship, drawing chiefly on compilations like the Sĩ hoạn tu tri lục, has maintained that communal landholdings contracted sharply in the early nineteenth century. By contrast, village-level archival materials, particularly land registers (địa bạ), disclose a far more intricate pattern of tenure. Focusing on Tùy Hối as a representative case, this study employs quantitative analysis of land registers from the reigns of Quang Trung and Minh Mạng to assess three variables: total land area, land quality, and the proportion of communal (public) versus private ownership between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Comparative data from neighbouring localities serve to contextualise the findings. Results indicate that the communal-to-private land ratio remained largely stable from Quang Trung, year 3 (1790), to Minh Mạng, year 12 (1831). The most salient change was a pronounced decline in abandoned land. Communal holdings continued to predominate over private plots, and the bulk of arable land was cultivated by self-sufficient peasant households. These findings offer preliminary insight into patterns of rural economic development in Tùy Hối and shed light on the persistence of communal tenure in a predominantly agrarian village during the early Nguyễn period.