A Study On The Unified Purchase And Sale Of Rural Grain In Huguan County(1953-1957)

Grain is not only a necessity for people’s daily life,but also an important material related to national security.Since 1949,the CPC Central Committee has always attached great importance to grain work.Therefore,the grain supply crisis from 1952 to 1953 provided an opportunity for the unified purchase and sale of grain.The implementation of this policy not only provided a suitable way to realize the scissor difference between industry and agriculture and to develop heavy industry,but also provided another way for the socialist transformation of agriculture.1955 saw the emergence of the "three definitions" of grain policy,which institutionalized the policy of unified purchase and marketing and stabilized the peasants to a certain extent.As a grass-roots county with a good revolutionary foundation,Huguan County gradually developed a relatively sound method of unified purchase and sale of grain from1953 to 1957.This method was embodied in the following: the acquisition plan was formulated on the basis of the burdened mu according to the tasks assigned by the superiors,supplemented by democratic deliberation;and the supply was made at regular intervals according to the specific grain shortage of farmers.Based on this approach,the CPC Huguan County Committee relied on the strength of grassroots party groups to successfully complete the task of collective purchase and sale of grain as explained by the superiors in three steps:survey and mapping and assigning tasks,holding meetings,and warehousing grain.In this process,agricultural cooperatives and supply and marketing cooperatives played an active role in promoting.However,the unified purchase and sale of grain was not actively accepted by farmers at the beginning.They showed a series of negative resistance behaviors either for self-preservation purposes or because they did not understand or trust the new policy.In response to this situation,the grassroots elites,with the Party and League organizations as the core,inspired the peasants’ gratitude to the CPC by reminding them of their hardships;they also proved with practical examples that selling grain and supporting industrialization were beneficial to the country and the people;and they combined it with the general line of the transition period to strengthen the peasants’ belief in following the CPC in the transition to socialist society.At the same time,the grassroots elite also created an atmosphere of honorable grain sales through the leading role of Party members and cadres and model grain sellers and the patriotic grain sales competition,attracting farmers to take the initiative to sell grain.The system of unified purchase and sale of grain had a profound impact on rural society.Firstly,it promoted the collectivization of agriculture at the time and to some extent promoted agricultural development.Secondly,it restricted the peasants’ freedom of consumption by controlling their consumption channels and changing their consumption patterns,and strengthened the Communist Party’s control over the peasants and rural areas.More importantly,the system of unified purchase and sale and the household registration system created a dualistic system of urban and rural areas,which had a profound and long-term impact on the development of rural society.