Land and Economy in Traditional Vietnam

Abstract

When the French assumed effective political control of Vietnam in the late nineteenth century they were confronted with the dual problem of raising revenues and securing administrative control of the countryside. In seeking a solution they were forced to consider Vietnamese land tenures and the distribution of agricultural output prevailing at that time. Their early moves reflected a sharp bias in favour of French law and almost total ignorance of the wide divergence between their system of property and taxation and Vietnamese custom and procedure. On a broad scale what was involved was an attempt to reinterpret indigenous practices to achieve compatibility with the French conception of private and public property categories and the legitimate rights and claims inherent in each. Le Code Annamite was translated by P.L.F. Philastre and gradually Vietnamese property laws were drawn towards conformity with French practices.