Chapter 17 5.2 Unified Purchase and Marketing Policy

The backward agriculture cannot bear the weight of industrialization, and the food panic tends to spread.Chen Yun willingly took political risks and chose the most drastic policy of unified purchase and marketing. The food problem is a major problem that China has been facing for a long time.Before liberation, there were constant famines, and no one cared about the lives of the people.After the founding of the People's Republic of China, agriculture has developed, but it is far from getting rid of the backwardness of relying on the weather. The increase in grain production is far behind the speed of demand growth, resulting in an imbalance between supply and demand, and the market is still tense.

Large-scale economic construction began in 1953, and the urban population increased by more than 6 million in that year, all of which depended on the state for food supply.The expansion of economic crop planting area not only squeezed out part of the grain planting area, but also increased the number of farmers who ate commercial grain to 100 million.In order to carry out construction, the country also needs to export some grain in exchange for machinery and foreign exchange.Farmers have had enough of the hard life of "half a year of bran and vegetables and half a year of grain". After the land reform, life is better, and they have to eat more grain.As a result, the contradiction between food supply and demand has become more prominent.

From the second half of 1952, there was a phenomenon of panic buying of grain in many areas. In the first half of 1953, the food tension intensified, and the panic buying quickly spread from local to all parts of the country.Supply points in Nanyang City, Henan Province often gather thousands of people to line up to buy. In Baipu Township, Rudong County, Jiangsu Province, thousands of people petitioned, demanding to sell cotton and live pigs to buy grain.The market price of grain is out of line with the market price. In the spring of this year, in Jiangsu, a major grain-producing province, the market price of miscellaneous grains was 15% higher than the market price, and in some areas it was 30% higher.Speculators took the opportunity to stir up trouble, buying and hoarding, and some farmers were reluctant to sell.

The economy has just recovered, large-scale construction is in full swing, and the country's financial resources are stretched. It is neither able to bid high prices for grain with speculators, nor to provide subsidies to urban residents.In this way, even countries in grain-producing areas cannot purchase grain.The grain sector bought less and sold more, and the deficit expanded sharply.Grain shortages in some cities have begun to become serious. For example, the flour in Beijing and Tianjin has reached the point where it has to be distributed.In the affected areas, small towns have already experienced chaos.

In September 1953, Chen Yun convened a meeting of relevant personnel of the Central Finance Committee for more than ten consecutive days to discuss solutions to the problem.The procurement method proposed by Chen Yun in the past was also brought up for discussion.Everyone originally considered that the mandatory nature of this plan may exceed the acceptance level of rural cadres and farmers, so the plan originally submitted by the Ministry of Food to the Central Committee and the Finance and Economics Conference for discussion did not mention requisition. After discussion, everyone came up with eight plans: First, only match but not levy.That is, it is only sold in cities and not purchased in rural areas.Second, only the levy is not worthy.That is, they are only purchased in rural areas and not rationed in cities.Third, stay put.It is to continue to adopt the method of free trading.Fourth, "dig well when thirsty".That is to buy freely first, and then engage in requisition when there is really no other way.Fifth, mobilize subscription.That is, the control figures are issued layer by layer, and then the village branch mobilizes farmers to subscribe. If the control figures are not reached, the meeting will not be dismissed.Sixth, contract pre-orders.That is, the state signs a pre-purchase contract with farmers every year before spring plowing, and sells according to the contract during autumn harvest.Seventh, go their own way.It is not to adopt a unified method, but to formulate methods according to the situation of each locality.Eighth, sign and match.It means expropriation in the countryside and rationing in the cities.

After extensive solicitation of opinions and repeated weighing, Chen Yun believes that there is no other choice, the only way is to carry out grain procurement and rationing. On October 1, 1953, the night of the National Day, in the meeting hall of the Tiananmen Gate Tower, Chen Yun reported to Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and other central leaders on the idea of ​​implementing grain procurement and distribution methods. Regarding this method, Chen Yun was not without concerns.At the financial and economic conference this summer, Bo Yibo, deputy director of the Central Finance Committee, was criticized for the new tax system, but that only involved the relationship between the state and large wholesalers, and the impact was limited.The food problem is related to everyone. If something goes wrong, the consequences will be much more serious than the new tax system.Chen Yun later said: "Requisition and distribution, rural requisition, city rationing. Hard guy. I am timid and a little bit afraid. I told Chairman Mao that I was afraid of being expelled from the party. For more than 20 years, if I fail, I will be expelled. It's messed up."

But there is no other way.Without unified purchase and sales of grain, the overall situation of the country's industrialization cannot be guaranteed.Chen Yun abandoned his concerns about personal gains and losses, and resolutely took on the dangerous burden of unified purchasing and marketing. Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and others agreed with Chen Yun's opinion.Mao Zedong asked Chen Yun to be in charge of drafting the "Notice on Convening a National Grain Emergency Conference", and Deng Xiaoping was in charge of drafting the resolution. During the discussion, Mao Zedong felt that the name of requisition and allotment was not pleasant, and hoped to change the name. Zhang Naiqi, then Minister of Grain, thought of a name and called the implementation of requisition in rural areas "planned purchase". Everyone thought this name was better. So the requisition was named "planned acquisition", and the placement was correspondingly called "planned supply".The two are referred to as "unified purchase and unified marketing".

After the meeting, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made the "Resolution on Implementing Planned Purchase and Supply of Grain" on October 16, and the Central People's Government Administration Council also issued a related order on November 23. The unified purchase and marketing of grain has played a very active role in the process of China's industrialization.Because Chen Yun fully considered several aspects of the relationship between the unified purchase and marketing of grain that need to be adjusted, it did not cause too much impact and impact on agricultural production and people's lives.

However, as a special policy implemented in a special period, the unified purchase and marketing of grain lasted for a long time, the scope was wide, the measures were strict, the impact on production and people's life was huge, and the time was far beyond Chen Yun's expectations. .The main reason is that the long-term "left" economic policy does not start from the basis of ensuring food and clothing, and rushes forward rashly.The contradiction between grain supply and demand has not been alleviated, and the unified purchase and marketing policy has not been adjusted for a long time, but has become increasingly strengthened.Although this basically guaranteed the needs of the country, it seriously affected the enthusiasm of farmers for production.This is contrary to Chen Yun's original intention of designing this policy.On the other hand, this policy has been implemented for 32 years. In the case of food shortage, it has guaranteed the supply of urban residents and maintained economic and social stability.After the reform and opening up, agricultural production has made great breakthroughs, and there is still a large amount of grain imported every year. The unified purchase of grain was gradually replaced by the contract order system for grain and cotton, and the unified grain sales system was gradually abolished. The most important commodity, and continue to explore effective production and management methods.

Together with the unified purchase and marketing of grain, stable prices, unified finance, and the three major reforms, they were called the "three major battles" on the financial front in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China.The formulation of this major decision fully embodies the decision-making thought of "exchange, comparison, and repetition" advocated by Chen Yun.