Telling data: The accountancy record of a Chinese farmer ★

•This article argues that China's agriculture is very much peasant-like•Most resources used by Chinese peasants enter the farm as a non-commodity•Farmers’ accountancy records are an important source for studying peasant agriculture•Rural markets in China are strongly embedded in social networks

This paper presents and analyses the notebook of a Chinese farmer. The notebook contains a wealth of farm accountancy data. The data and the many interrelations contained in them, are used to describe the structure and dynamics of farming in NW China. The availability of former notebooks that played an important role in agrarian history of Europe, turns out to be helpful for the interpretation of this Chinese notebook. The analysis centers on the question whether Chinse agriculture might be considered as peasant agriculture.