Seeking Subsistence In The Market:Peasants’ Commodity Production In Ge Village

Modernization under capitalism is a process aiming to eliminate peasants and their mode of production. In the context of attack and challenge from capitalist modernization on one hand and peasants’struggle for subsistence on the other, this research tries to address the following questions:(1) Originated in pre-modern era and overwhelmed by capitalist market economy, how do peasant create their living space?(2) Can these peasants compete with capital, and what is their competitive advantage?(3) If some peasants at disadvantaged position in competition with capital, then what is the advantage of capital?(4) How is such competitive advantage determined and by which factors? By exploring the peasants’ commodity production in Ge Village in central Sichuan Province, and their interaction with local capitalist farms, this thesis tries to address the above questions.This thesis firstly provides an overvier of peasant economy in Ge Village. It shows that commodity production in everywhere and anytime is becoming a general characteristic of peasant economy in local community. Being embedded in commodity economy for a long time, there is a trend of rationalization, economization and secularization in villagers’ ideology and behavior, which cast off the traits of self-sufficiency and conservation of traditional peasants. Under influence of these new ideas, peasants in Ge Village begin to treat their agricultural production as a profitable business, which is different from the perspective of traditional peasants. Secondly, this thesis summarizes features of peasants’ commodity production through examining the producing subjects and way of production organizing, and also investigates peasants’ competitive advantage in market through the above two aspects. Peasants’ family farms are the producing subjects of peasants’ commodity production in Ge Village. Consequently the goal of their production is oriented to multiple demands of the family, and scale of production and degree of commercialization changes along with family demands. In a word, their scale of production is in appropriate level and can be flexibly adjusted. The production process of peasant family farm is the process of peasant’s commodity production. In short of capital, the peasant family farms show great incentive to reduce capital and cash expense and relief capital constraints. Such incentive is explicitly reflected in a series of activities and strategies, including substituting capital with labour, intensifying self-exploitation and appreciating the importance of human capital and social capital. In addition, peasant family farms can unite with each other through reciprocity, sharing and transaction, which make their commodity production a social co-production to strengthen themselves in market competition. Finally, this thesis investigates capital invasion in Ge Village in the case of Feng Ye Farm. It finds that Feng Ye Farm does not show better performance than peasant farms and does not have economic sustainability, yet it keeps expansion with external financial support.Through the above analysis, this thesis responds to former research questions in the conclusion chapter. The relationship between peasant and capitalist modernization is not mutually exclusive, while the peasants can make themselves an organic part in social production and maintain their living space by participating in commodity production. Peasant commodity production also promotes employment and cooperation in countryside, improves relationship between urban and rural areas, provides quality and safety products or service. Peasants have their unique advantages in market competition with capitalist farm, which derives from their unique features (peasantness) in production. The reason why some peasants’ failed to compete with capital is not because of their bad economic performance, but due to government’s favor to capitalist farms. It is precisely due to government’s discrimination on peasant family farm in policy making that capitalist farms are able to compete with and outweigh peasants in a unfair social setting.