TRANSFORMATION OF LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES: A BASIC ANALYSIS OF POPULATION REGISTRATIONS IN VÕNG TRÌ VILLAGE, THỪA THIÊN HUẾ PROVINCE

Abstract

In this article, given the current lack of empirical studies using population register due to the difficulty of obtaining it, we will introduce the population register of Võng Trì village of Thừa Thiên Huế province, and provides a basic analysis. The analysis then revealed the following: It can be said from the village documents of Võng Trì that the population register is not a historical record such as the current population census. Although the administrative regulations required villages to report the exact number of adult males and the village pledged that the contents of the population register were not false, in reality, both the government and the village acted on the implicit assumption that a certain number of the population was concealed for taxation evasion. The number of people registered in the population registers shows how the two were balanced in the struggle between state power and village community at that time. From this point of view, the Tây Sơn period, when the conscription was greatly strengthened by centralizing the separate control of the prefectural government and arsenal office in the population register, and the Minh Mạng era, when the registrants under the control of the government increased by the examination for conscription, were special periods when the state power was superior to the village community which tried to hide their villagers. Conversely, during the Gia Long era and after the Thiệu Trị era, there was no active attempt to take control of the human resources.