The public land and land regime in the history of land reclamation in the six provinces of Cochinchina

The book is considered a profound and serious research work on the process of land reclamation and settlement and the public land system of the six provinces of Cochinchina from the end of the 16th century when Vietnamese immigrants began to reclaim land, until 1860 when French colonialists invaded this land. The author used many sources of materials in the research process: materials in Han Nom documents, survey materials of the French when they first occupied Cochinchina.

The book consists of 3 parts. In part 1, the author talks about the history of land reclamation and land ownership in Dong Nai - Gia Dinh (period 1698-1800). In this part, the author talks about the first Vietnamese people who came to reclaim Dong Nai - Gia Dinh (period 1594-1698), the government gradually established from 1698 to 1757 throughout the South and the way of land reclamation and land ownership, the land regime under the Nguyen Lords.

book on public works in the history of the 1st Dynasty — The book "The public land and land regime in the history of land reclamation in the six provinces of Southern Vietnam" by scholar Nguyen Dinh Dau. Photo: NVCC

Part 2 discusses the consolidation of the public land system in the six provinces of Cochinchina (period 1800-1860). In this part, the author delves into how the state at that time, the Nguyen Dynasty, participated in land reclamation, creating conditions for the emergence of the public land system (period 1800-1836), establishing the public land system (period 1836-1850), consolidating the public land system with plantations (period 1850-1860) and estimating the proportion of public land in Cochinchina before the French domination.

In the conclusion, author Nguyen Dinh Dau defines the public land system in the most concise and easy-to-understand way, the origins of public land in Cochinchina and helps readers better understand the nature of public land. The author also has an appendix with notes on plantation soldiers, notes on population, land and even ancient land registers.

Author Nguyen Dinh Dau has painstakingly researched and synthesized information from many valuable sources to write the book "The public land regime in the history of land reclamation and settlement in the six provinces of Southern Vietnam".

By writing in a simple, easy-to-understand way, with specific data and maps, the author has shown readers the whole picture of the public land system in the South during the time of land reclamation and settlement. Because the issue of public land in the South has not been systematically studied, only briefly, the purpose of this book is first of all to synthesize and provide readers with some additional documents, although not groundbreaking discoveries, but easily forgotten, about the public land situation in the South.

In addition, the book contains a lot of useful information for those who are studying the history of the South as well as learning about the old public land system. The book is also suitable for students and teachers to have more valuable resources in studying and researching the culture and history of the country.

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/ra-mat-sach-ve-che-do-cong-dien-cong-tho-trong-lich-su-khan-hoang-nam-ky-luc-tinh-post309440.html