Agriculture and industry 1949-65
How and why did the system of land ownership change during 1949-57?
Attacks on landlordism and the redistribution of land
- The 1950 Agrarian reform law laid down the legal framework under which land reform took
place, claiming it would eradicate the exploitation of peasants
o This made it clear that land reform meant redistribution, not lower rent of low
interest rates
- The army played a crucial role in the land reform process by silencing those how may have
been hostile to new government and aiding local party officials organise work teams
o Work teams: first job was calculating how much land people owned so it could be
taxed accordingly
o They then organised meetings to decide how each villager should be labelled
‘landlords’ were public ally humiliated and accused of exploitation; when
found guilty, their land and possessions were divided among villages and
then beaten up an executed
o By the end of 1951, 10 million landlords had lost their land and 40% of land had
changed hands
Estimates of 3 million deaths
- Party led work teams put considerable time and effort into whipping up anti warlord
paranoia in villages and offering prospect of a share of the possessions of those found guilty
of landlords
o Putting the power in the hands of the peasants, who conducted the ‘speak
bitterness’ meetings, enabled the party to claim it was a peasant led revolution
Move towards agricultural co operation
- The party never wished the peasants to establish new class of landowners so there was a
rush towards collectivisation
- Mao hoped that a fast move to collectivisation, which would prevent the peasants from
getting used to owning more land, would prevent the situation that had occurred under
Stalin
- The moves towards collectivisation passed through several stages due to improvisations
o Depending of circumstances, Mao said it would take 15 years to complete
- From 1951, groups of ten families were encouraged to unite to form mutual aid teams
(MATs) in which they could pool all their equipment, resources and livestock
o It was formalised by the peasant association
- In 1952, successful MAT’s were encouraged to combine and form Agricultural producers co
operatives (APCs) of 40 -50 families
o Families with larger holdings were still allowed to keep some land back for their
personal use while renting rest back to APC, which maintained incentive for richer
families to join
The change from voluntary to enforced collectivisation
- Mao was frustrated at the slow pace at which the APC system was developing
o Only 14% of rural households in 1955 were in APCs
- In desire to respond to Mao’s wish of forming APCs, many local officials had created them in
a rush which had led to them falling into debt
o This led to Mao calling for a slowdown in 1953
- However, once things stabilised in 1954, peasants started buying and selling their land and
food, just as they would under capitalism
, o This rejection of communist values infuriated Mao, who condemned the slowdown
and renewed pressure on peasants to join APCs
o This led to greater pressure to join, however, many peasants slaughtered their
animals and ate them rather then handing them over
- When in 1954 harvest was poor, this prompted the government to requisition grain in order
to get enough to feed the cities
o This caused lots of rural protest which meant in January 1955, Mao did another U
tern and announced a policy of ‘Stop, Contract and Develop’
o This called for a halt to APC development for 18 months
- Then, only 6 months later, in July 1955, Mao announced to a conference of local party
secretaries that a full scale of collectivisation would begin
o From 17 million households in APC’s in July 1955, the figure grew to 75million in
January 1956
o By the end of the year, only 3% of peasants were still farming as individuals
- The official reason for collectivisation was that it was in response to demands from the
peasantry
o However, the real reason is likely to have been Mao’s fear that supplies to the cities
would continue to be unreliable as long as peasants still owned thee land
- Most of the new APCS were classed as higher (HPCs), and consisted of 200-300 households
o In an HPC, peasant families owned to land or equipments and the profits at the end
of the year were shared out according to work points
- Ideologically, collectivisation was a tremendous success for Mao because the state now
owned the means of production of food, the land, on which 90% of the population workers
- Politically, it was more mixed
o The fact that it had been carried out far more quickly then imagined was a tribute to
his authority
o The actual process of collectivisation increased the control the part exerted over
local people
o However, collectivisation also marked a distinct change in the relationship between
the peasantry and the CCP
Peasants now became servants of the party rather that loyal allies
o The speed at which the APCs were achieved made Mao dangerously over confident
which played a role in the catastrophic impact of the Great Leap Forward.
- In economic terms, the impact of collectivisation was disappointing
o Over the period of FFYP, food production had increased by 3.8% per annum, but this
was still insufficient to sustain growing industrial workforce
o Yields per hectare were quite high but labour productivity was low
o The situation was worsened by the lack of investment as well as the demotivating
effect as people no longer owned land and did not directly benefit from working
hard
What was the impact of the people’s communes after 1958
Reasons for launching the communes
- Mao had been delighted with the speed of collectivisation, and he continued to seek out
ways to maximise food production in order to accelerate industrial growth
o The idea of bigger collectives, in the form of communes, had obvious appeals as
resources were pooled even further
o This would release more workers to work on construction schemes
- The initial steps came from enthusiastic cadres in Henan, who claimed that local APC’s were
asking if they could merge to further share their resources and release more man power for
other projects
