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this century, followed in very much the same way as their fathers though many men stayed on as sailors. The old men in this village are well-travelled. They stayed away from the village for twenty to forty years, remitting money home for their families. External income became increasingly important as a complement to agricultural production, then as now largely in the hands of the village women.
In Plum Grove Village there was no specialised skilled labour trade like masonry in Grass Field Village, nor was there specialisation in going abroad to seek employment. Emigration was an important factor in the economic life of this settlement also, but it started later than in Big Stream Village.
It seems to the present author unreasonable to dismiss the problem by merely referring to accidental choice. Some points call for brief discussion. There is reason to consider the market situation. Grass Field Village had its traditional economic ties with Sai Kung, about one hour's walk away over hill paths. Today it is a market town of some importance with about 1,500 inhabitants. An item of information from 1899 tells us that there were 800 people living there at that time, although the 1911 Census, reckoned as very reliable, gives the figure 512. A very knowledgeable man in Grass Field Village recalls from his childhood in the beginning of this century that Sai Kung was then a small place with only about 300 people, a few shops, and a tea-house. He was also of the opinion that little business was done there, and that villagers went fairly seldom to the market town. Life in the village was self-contained. Nevertheless, Sai Kung would have been important in the economic life of the village as the principal market for its products, at least before the establishment of the urban community at Yau Ma Tei on the Kowloon Peninsula. Tea, dye, charcoal, fire-wood, and pigs will have been sold in Sai Kung in traditional times.
As mentioned earlier, Big Stream villagers had their traditional connections with the important market at Tai Po. However, the situation in this town was entirely different from that in Sai Kung:
In the 1880's the Tai Po market was controlled by a localized lineage of the Tang people who, as masters of