Research On The Northeast Farmers’ Economic In The Early Period Of Pseudo-Manchuria

Based on the rural investigation report published by the Temporary Industrial Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Industry of Manchuria,the paper analyzes the economic situation of farmers in Northeast China in the early period of Pseudo-Manchuria(short for EPPM),that is,cash income,cash expenditure and loan transactions.On this basis,the paper further studies the differences of economic behavior choice among different groups of farmers.From the point of view of the cash income,the farmers still rely on the income from the agricultural production.It can be seen that there is a large income gap among the farmers,the villages and the peasant groups.However,no matter what scale of agricultural production,the recurrent cash income of the agricultural operating income is the most important part of the farmers’ cash income,while the temporary cash income is an important supplement to the farmers’ cash income.In this period,the land area is still the most important factor to determine the amount of cash income of farmers,that is,the more the farmers own the land,the more the cash income is,and vice versa.For this reason,“ small farmers” have to get more cash income by employment to make up for the shortage of funds.From the point of view of cash expenditure,the cost of living and production of farmers is equally important.As the cash income,the regular expenditure is also the main component of the cash expenditure of the farmer,while the amount of the temporary cash expenditure is a useful supplement to the production and the life of the farmer.However,there is a clear gap between the cash expenditure of the farmers of different groups,and the cash expenditure of the large landlords,the rich peasants and the middle peasants is significantly higher than that of other groups.In this period,the rich peasants and the middle peasants can coordinate the balance between the production expenditure and the living expenditure,and the “ small farmers” will have to devote most of the funds to the living consumption.The government and market have directly affected the amount of cash expenditure of the farmers.From the point of view of loan,the “ big farmers” had more advantages than the “small farmers”.It is very common for farmers in Northeast China to hardly make ends meet and the demand of financing is very urgent.Therefore,farmers have to choose to loan to alleviate the demand for funds.Different regions and groups have a direct impact on farmers’ loan transactions.When farmers loan,they usually consider the interest rate,the value of collateral,the social network,the ability to repay debt and the object of loaning,and so on.In terms of the expenditure of funds,although the living expenses are the common choice of farmers,the farmers of rich peasants and middle peasants also invest most of them in agricultural production and commercial and industrial production,and so on.Based on the above analysis of the cash income,cash expenditure and debit and credit of the farmers in EPPM,the economic situation of the farmers in different groups can be seen to be different.The difference in the economic situation has affected the choice of the economic behavior of the peasant household.In this period,when the agricultural production is organized,the food crop is planted as the first choice,and the planting area of the economic crops to obtain the economic benefit is atrophied.At the same time,large farmers in the management of other production activities show the pursuit of economic interests.When cash is spent,the living expenses of “ small farmers” are much higher than those of production,and the ratio of production expenditure and living expenses can be balanced by large farmers.When borrowing money,farmers will reduce the risk and pressure of borrowing according to their economic conditions.As a result,it can be seen that the "survival" or "profit-seeking" economic behavior of farmers in Northeast China in EPPM was influenced by their economic situation,that is,” big farmers” can pursue economic interests while "striving for survival" at the same time.However,“small farmers” have to "survival" as their first choice.