Chapter 29 recombine

In general, the transformation is not unsuccessful, but when the country concentrates the city's commercial profits to the central government, local blood loss is also an unavoidable objective reality. Since January 1955, the trading volume of commodities in Guangzhou City has declined, and many commodities have a backlog of inventory, and some have even rotted.The government monopoly of import and export trade has squeezed the survival space of a large number of private businesses, and some businessmen have given up business or reduced their business scale under the requirements of price ceilings and government purchase price ceilings.

In Kuang Zheng’s memory, “Although many stores in Guangzhou were closed or merged during 1955 and 1956, there were still 3.8 stores per 100 people in Guangzhou in 1957, and by the 1960s, it had dropped to 0.3 per 100 people.” Question It is already clear that after a series of government reorganizations, local businesses are losing their old vitality. After commercial channels are monopolized and controlled, it is difficult for private capital to expand as quickly in this system as in the past. "Mass consolidation of commercial enterprises, shortening of store opening hours, shortage of household products, independent traders have all but disappeared in cities, making shopping more inconvenient. Before 1955, when supplies were scarce and prices were high, private commerce would be condemned ; When the socialist transformation is completed, the citizens will think it is the responsibility of the government." Kuang Zheng said.

Ye Jianying noticed this problem earlier, and Yang Yingbin recalled, "Ye Shuai had a formulation called 'opening up a bamboo'. After he arrived in Guangzhou, he noticed the particularity of the urban-rural connection in this city, and advocated that the government should try its best to promote urban-rural mutual assistance. , he compared urban and rural areas to the joints of a bamboo. If the bamboo joints are not connected, the prosperity of the city will be greatly affected.” “But when businesses cannot flow freely, urban businesses will lose their vitality, and towns will be left out even more. However, this idea of ​​Ye Shuai has not been fully realized. By the 1960s, there were only three things in the towns around Guangzhou: Xinhua Bookstore, Post Office, and Supply and Marketing Cooperatives.”

What makes Guangzhou people complain is that in the first five-year plan of the central government, Guangzhou, which has always wanted to squeeze into the road of industrialization, was excluded. "When Guangzhou itself was discussing the first five-year plan, it was full of expectations for industrialization. At the party congress, the slogan "Build Guangzhou into an industrial base in South China" was hung. The city was given priority for development as an industrial center, Guangzhou was excluded because it was a 'coastal city on the front line of national defense'. At the meeting, Tao Zhu did not emphasize Guangzhou's long commercial history and the importance of Guangzhou as a commercial center, he pointed out, During the first five-year plan period, Guangdong must focus on agriculture.” Li Zhensun recalled that when Guangzhou’s business was unable to drive the city, Guangzhou’s industrialization path was denied, which was indeed a big deal for local officials hit.A year later, when Wang De, then the first secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee, made a statement to the central government, he spoke on behalf of Guangzhou. He said that the central government not only failed to help Guangzhou, but also took the electrical equipment to the north. Those who disagree, the central government allocated only 6 million yuan for urban construction in Guangdong Province in 1955, which was not even enough for Guangzhou City.

After the first five-year plan, some Guangzhou cadres have begun to rethink the issue of reorganizing Guangzhou's urban commerce.Ou Chu and Yang Yingbin are both members. In 1956, Ou Chu organized a team to investigate the situation of the free market in Zhaoqing, Guangdong. "According to the information obtained from the investigation, I wrote a report and sent it to the provincial party committee, summarizing the benefits of opening up the free market." Ou Chu recalled.At that time, the Secretariat of the Provincial Party Committee had two offices. The second office headed by Ou Chu was in charge of industry, and the first office headed by Yang Yingbin was in charge of agriculture.

During the exchange, the two discussed the serious hindrance brought by the shrinking business to the trade of agricultural products and light industrial products. In the 1960s, high and middle-level cadres all over the country set off a wave of learning political economics. "In the early 1960s, I once again led a team to complete a survey report on commodity circulation, pointing out some ills in the operation of the planned economy in Guangzhou. For example, all the materials allocated by Beijing to Guangdong were transported to Guangzhou along the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway. Therefore, the materials distributed to Shaoguan, an important industrial city in northern Guangdong, have to be transported back to Shaoguan along the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway. This is especially true for water transportation. Cargo ships have to go through 19 procedures when entering and leaving the port, and they stay at the port for more than 18 hours. These wastes of transportation resources cannot happen in the era of normal commodity circulation. Yang Yingbin’s team also came to a similar conclusion when investigating another project.” Ou Chu said, “The two investigation reports were submitted together, which caused a lot of trouble. The Guangdong Provincial Party Committee attached great importance to it, and the Provincial Party Committee decided that I would conduct a pilot project in Shaoguan to improve commerce, transportation, and business management activities." "Later, Commander-in-Chief Zhu De listened to my report and instructed us to 'eliminate some unnecessary intermediate links so that Commercial circulation and foreign trade work are compatible', and Guangzhou's commercial restructuring has begun to have a breakthrough."