Zhejiang 25% Reduction Of Rent Study (1927-1949)

The study of the policy of "25% off the land rent" adopted in Zhejiang province during the 1920s and 1940s is significant. On the one hand, this policy was connected not only with the land distributions of the rural society in China at that time, but also with the political and social problems. The exploration of this policy helps us to get an overall and stereoscopic understanding of the modern rustic society of China, and helps to let the past events that took place in China reappear before our eyes. . On the other hand, a probe of its position and role and a disclose of the conditions and mechanism in which it operates in the development of modern China would be of a certain significance to us in giving a fresh impetus to the modernization of China's agriculture in the age when we have all along placed great stress upon the reformation of the rural economy ever since the 1970s, when our economic reformation began to be carried on.However, we have to admit that the study of this topic is not an easy job. First, the data available are not enough. The studies in this aspect were carried on mainly during the 1920s and the 1930s. We can find few data achieved on this subject ever since 1949. Therefore, it is certainly difficult for us to get an exact understanding of it, and make an overall analysis of it and make an appropriate evaluation about it. Secondly, the current research is involved with all kinds of knowledge, such as history, economics, sociology, ect. so I have to admit that it is indeed a hard task for me to do it just because of my not being erudite enough in this field.The logic of the current research: On the basis of the basic principles of history, rural sociology and policy, and by means of description, quantitative analysis , microscopic and macroscopic perspectives, the dissertation, based on the clue of the development of the policy of" 25% off the land rent" in Zhejiang province, makes an analysis of the relationship between the policy and the land distribution in the countryside, an examination of the affection the change of the social relationship, and an exploration of the interaction between the policy and the social changes of modern China. We attempt to make clear the status and the role of this policy in the process ofchina's modernization. Finally, by analyzing the relationship between the change of the social forces who advocated this policy and the rise and decline of the reduction of land rent, we are aimed to disclose the conditions in which the policy of the rural rebuilding-up operated during the period of the Republic of China (1912-1949) as well as the basic law of the rebuilding-up of the rural society.The article consists of five chapters:Chapter One is a narration of the history of policy of " 25% off the land rent ". This policy originated in the period of the Great Revolution in China (1924-1927). It was characteristic not only of economical problem, but also had the content of political and social problem. During the period under Kuomintang's domination , it actually had evolved the means of relieving the peasant's incubus and rebuilding the countryside by reducing the land rent. The activity of "25% off the land rent "in Zhejiang province can be divided into three periods: the rising period between 1927 and 1934; "the reappearing of the spirit" between 1937 and 1945; and the applying period between 1945 and 1949 .Chapter Two deals with the policy of " 25% off the land rent" in Zhejiang province and the land distribution in the countryside. Theoretically, the policy was regarded as an ideal transitional policy in resolving the land problem. In practice, during the 1927-1934, it brought forth a positive effect in lowering the land's price and improving the peasant's purchasing power . However, seen from the conditions of the moment, it exerted a too limited influence upon the land problem in the rural area of Zhejiang province. Yet we should not deem the policy a failure or even deny its role in resolving the land problem just because of its limited influe...