Chapter 40 People's currency, for the people

60% of China's land is above 2,000 meters above sea level, which is not suitable for crop cultivation. At the same time, most of the land receives little rainfall.To make matters worse, floods caused by irregular monsoons often caused severe crop failures, leading to mass starvation. If you compare it with the United States, in 1945 in the United States, 6.5 million farmers supported 140 million people, and the arable area was as high as 365 million acres.At that time, China had 65 million peasant households supporting 400 million people, and the arable area was equivalent to only 217 million acres.

Such land pressure and increasingly heavy taxes made it difficult for farmers in old China to maintain food and clothing levels in normal years.Farmers have to make full use of all available resources to maintain the increasingly depleted land.They picked up every fallen leaf, every dead grass, and every dropped ear of wheat to serve as fuel.Animal and human waste is carefully collected to restore the fertility of the land. In China, the goals of agriculture were fundamentally different from those of the neocolonial countries such as the United States, Australia, and New Zealand.In these countries, there is generally a surplus of land and a shortage of labor, while the situation in China is just the opposite.Therefore, the goal pursued by China's agriculture is the maximum output per unit of land, while the United States pursues the maximum output per unit of population.Chinese farmers can use intensive labor to cultivate intensively on small land, while American farmers give top priority to labor-saving measures such as agricultural mechanization and chemical fertilizers. After these inputs are shared by the huge per capita farmland, the cost becomes relatively cheap .However, in the case of scarce land per capita in China, this investment becomes unaffordable.

The large surplus of agricultural labor in old China and the agricultural economy oriented towards maximizing land output will inevitably lead to large-scale poverty and semi-employment.During the off-peak hours, the agricultural population has to engage in various handicrafts to supplement their meager agricultural income.From the point of view of the old China’s agricultural economic system, it can be said that it is in a rather fragile state of balance. Its wealth buffer layer against natural and man-made disasters is as thin as cicada’s wings. valve. At this time, the economic forces of the West came up with a thunderous momentum.

The large-scale and low-cost machine-made commodities created in the era of the industrial revolution flooded into China like a tide. Local handmade textile products, wood products, ceramic products, clothing, shoes and hats, etc. are becoming more and more difficult to compete with Western products in the local market.After the loss of handicraft income, the rural economic system was on the verge of collapse.China could have used high tariffs to slow down the destructive impact of Western economic forces, but Western powers will never allow backward countries to adopt self-protection policies, and they will not hesitate to use force when necessary.China had to accept an ultra-low tariff of 5%, and the customs affairs and financial system were controlled by Western powers.

From 1900 to 1940, China's rural economic situation worsened. 10% of the rich owned 53% of the arable land, and land was highly monopolized.The vast majority of farmers became tenant farmers and had to pay 1/3 to 1/2 of the agricultural products as rent every year. The resulting insufficient income forced more than half of the farmers to borrow money every year to survive.At that time, the annual interest rate for crop loans in China was 85%, and the annual interest rate for currency loans was as high as 20% to 50%! 【11】In this situation of high land monopoly, extreme rent exploitation, and high interest squeeze, the agricultural economic system has been completely subverted, farmers have lost any hope of surviving, and revolution has become inevitable.

Where there is oppression, there is resistance!The strange thing is not why revolution broke out in rural China, but why it happened so late! Mao Zedong looked around the entire map of China's rural economy and found that the rural economy in many places was on the verge of collapse. He saw that it was a fertile revolutionary land where "a single spark can start a prairie fire" and had the potential to establish an "armed separatist regime between workers and peasants". "During the course of the bourgeois democratic revolution of 1926-1927, the masses of workers, peasants, and soldiers rose up in a big way, such as Hunan, Guangdong, Hubei, Jiangxi and other provinces. In many places in these provinces, there were very large trade unions and peasants. There have been many economic and political struggles between the workers and peasants against the landlord and gentry class and the bourgeoisie in the organization of associations.”The idea of ​​the red separatist regime he put forward was by no means a theoretical fantasy, but based on life practice, and he started his practice in the Soviet area in Hunan and Jiangxi, where the rural economic system was the weakest.

The base area first carried out the land reform movement of "dividing the local tyrants and dividing the land", and the land rights changed from centralized to roughly equal.In the past, 80% to 90% of the land was in the hands of the landlords. Now, apart from a portion of the land according to the population, the landlords have distributed the rest to the farmers who are directly engaged in production. At the same time, the government is also actively carrying out debt cancellation campaigns to abolish all kinds of debts imposed on farmers.The first is the usury exploitation system, "The debts owed by workers and peasants to Tian Dong shall be abolished and not repaid."In addition, the abolition of pawn shops is also an important part of the debt cancellation campaign.In the past, pawn shops mainly used the clothing collected from farmers as collateral to issue loans with extremely high interest rates, and the loan amount was less than half of the value of the collateral. The exploitation of farmers was very heavy.The Soviet government confiscated the pawnshops, and the pawned items did not need to be redeemed by the farmers, and they should be returned to the farmers for free as much as possible.

While ensuring that farmers have land to grow, agricultural taxes are also exempted so that farmers can fully enjoy the fruits of their labor.These measures promoted and ensured the smooth development of the Agrarian Revolution. The enthusiasm of farmers to engage in agricultural production was high, and they also supported the government very much.The peasants did not understand the advanced Marxism-Leninism, but they knew very well that the Soviet government had brought them huge real benefits.Any government must bring tangible benefits to the people in order to be able to govern stably. On the other hand, the economic situation in the countryside was very chaotic at that time.One is the outflow of cash, and the rural market is very short of trading chips.The main holders of cash, wealthy businessmen, gentry and landlords, fled with cash because they were afraid of the revolution, resulting in a shortage of cash chips in the market, making it difficult to carry out large and small transactions.Some landlords were afraid that Lu Fu would hide the cash and not lend it to the peasants.In this way, the agricultural and sideline products produced by farmers cannot be sold for cash, and they cannot borrow money. Sometimes they even have no cash to buy daily necessities. Production and life are very difficult.Second, the lack of handicraft and commercial funds made it difficult to carry out normal reproduction and purchase and sale activities.Many large industrialists and merchants withdrew their funds, causing the suspension of cottage industries and the unemployment of workers and shop assistants.The third is that the financial market is seriously chaotic. There are no less than ten kinds of coins in circulation. Metal coins include various silver dollars and copper coins. Miscellaneous coins issued by warlords and local tyrants.Among them, metal coins tend to reduce their fineness and weight in circulation. There are many names and different values ​​of banknotes. The price comparison between coins is changeable.Coupled with the fact that profiteers profit from various currency exchanges, farmers are often deceived and suffer losses. After several times of discounting and exploitation, there is very little left over from their labor income. [12] Farmers are desperate to have their own banks and fair currency!

The National Bank of the Soviet Area, by issuing a unified currency, completely changed the chaotic situation of coins, freed farmers from being exploited by money changers, and provided sufficient trading chips for rural market trade, which greatly promoted economic development. In order to restore and develop industrial and agricultural production, the National Bank has provided strong support to farmers and handicraftsmen, mainly to solve the capital needs of various production and operations, and to issue low-interest or interest-free loans, such as seed loans, cattle loans, fertilizers Farmers get loans to buy fertilizers and farm tools, and cultivate intensively on their own land, greatly increasing agricultural output.

In order to prevent the impact of grain price fluctuations on farmers' enthusiasm for production, the State Bank cooperates with the Grain Adjustment Bureau to actively regulate grain prices. "In order to stabilize the market and prevent sharp fluctuations in grain prices, the State Bank also grants loans to the Grain Adjustment Bureau. During the autumn harvest, they buy them at a reasonable price; when farmers are short of grain, they sell it at a reasonable price, which protects the rural areas. The economic development also guarantees the interests of the peasants.”【13】These financial measures solved the difficulties of farmers in terms of land, debt and grain sales, and allowed agricultural production to recover in a short period of time. has been greatly improved.

Xie Rendi, a farmer, has six members in his family. Before the revolution, he had no land and only a few farm tools.Xie Rendi borrowed 100 dan of grain from the landlord. Due to heavy exploitation, he could only get 10 dan of grain a year. The whole family was not enough to eat. Every year, he had to borrow grain from the landlord, cut the grain, paid the rent, and paid off the debt. After the revolution, he was given the landlord's millet, clothes, plows and other agricultural tools. When the fields were divided, the whole family got 57 dans of grain fields and a vegetable garden of 7 feet and 8 feet.In the first year after the division of the fields, he harvested 72 tans of grain, as well as sweet potatoes, beans, etc. In addition to 40 tans of rations and 3 tans of land tax, he still had 29 tans of millet left.The vegetables grown in the vegetable garden can be sold in addition to what they eat, and life has fundamentally improved.At that time, although the price of cloth was very expensive, he had to buy two pieces every year.In addition, some farm tools must be purchased. 【14】Even in the later period of the Soviet area, due to the increase in military and government expenditures, "although the burden on the peasants (including agricultural taxes, public debts and grain loans, etc.) has continued to increase, on the basis of production development, the livelihood of the peasants is still very important. In 1933, the life of the peasants was at least double that of the Kuomintang era. Most of the peasants used to not have enough to eat, and some even had to eat bark and bran when they were in trouble. Hunger, and life has become more abundant every year. In the past, most peasants wore rotten clothes, but now they generally improve, some are twice as good, and some are even twice as good.” [15]. The establishment and stability of the political power and the victory of the revolutionary war are inseparable from the base areas.Mao Zedong once humorously said: "A revolution must have a base, just like a person must have a butt. If a person does not have a butt, he cannot sit down. If he keeps walking and standing, it will not last long. The legs are sore and the standing is weak. If the revolution has a base, it will have a place to rest, regain strength, replenish strength, continue to fight, expand and develop, and move towards final victory." The existence of the base areas is inseparable from the economic development of the base areas, the support of farmers and workers in the base areas, and at the same time, the guarantee of money and finance. As Mao Zedong said: "Only when the Soviet exhausts all its efforts to solve the problems of the masses, effectively improves the lives of the masses, and wins the masses' belief in the Soviet, can the broad masses be mobilized to join the Red Army and help in the war."【16】" Do you want to gain the support of the masses? Do you want the masses to use their full strength to go to the front? Then, you have to be with the masses, you have to mobilize their enthusiasm, you have to care about the pain and sorrows of the masses, and you have to sincerely serve the people. Seek the interests of the masses, solve the problems of production and life of the masses, the problems of salt, rice, housing, clothing, and childbirth, and solve all the problems of the masses." [17] Guided by the idea of ​​the Soviet Union, the establishment of the financial system in the Soviet Area is always for the sake of farmers. Starting from solving the reality of the rural economy, the measures of the National Bank have greatly facilitated the lives of farmers, established the credit of the currency in the Soviet Area, and the government has won the support of the majority of farmers. Sincerely support and love.It is precisely because of winning the hearts of the people that when the Red Army was expanded on a large scale in order to fight against "encirclement and suppression", touching scenes of parents giving off their children, wives giving off their husbands, and brothers vying to become the Red Army can be seen everywhere in the Soviet area.