Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to study the establishment and collapse of a system for rice production in the western Mekong Delta during the French colonial period. The first half of this paper examines the process of settlement of one village located on the flood plain, based on field research done by Takada in 1997-98. The village contains a vast area along three canals dug in colonial times.
It is an area where the system of agriculture for export-oriented rice production flourished and hence where absentee landlordism was prominent. Analyzing the results of interviews with 37 farmers who were the children or grandchildren of landless immigrants who settled in the village to clear land in colonial days, the writer reports on when and from where they came to work, how they grew rice and other crops, local subsystems serving for landlordism, the typical mobile society characterizing a frontier village, and what happened to farmers during and just after the Indochina war.
In the latter half of this paper, Brocheux focuses on the exploitation of rice fields that belonged to Europeans in the Transbassac. Although there were a few French colons who cultivated and managed them directly, the writer evaluates their contributions to open the estates, introduce agricultural modernization, rationalize rice circulation, and overcome financial difficulties during the world economic depression. During the Indochina War, the colons organized a private army to protect their estates from Viet Minh guerrillas and tried to continue production by pursuing compromise. The writer discusses the politically interested agreement between the Republic of Vietnam and the French government that obliged the withdrawal and end of the French estates in the Mekong Delta.
