However, the population growth in Jiangsu Province was rapid,
e.g., there were about 15 millions of people in 1630, but it increased
to about 30.2 millions in 1776, about 41.8 millions in 1851 and 32.4
millions in 1910 after the war (i.e., Taiping war, AD 1851e1864) in
the late Qing Dynasty (Ge and Cao, 2002). This, in turn, stimulated a
higher demand on land, and promoted the migration of agricultural
areas towards the sea, along with constant coast accretion and the
seaward migration of salt industry. However, the grass land was
still forbidden to reclaim, with the contradiction between the
increasing population and the shortage in cultivated land being
intensified.