Study On The Policy Of "Land Tax Paid In Kind" Of National Government During The Anti-Japanese War

The policy of "Land Tax Paid in Kind",existing in the crisis of Anti-Japanese War,was an important financial and economic system conducted by National Government.This paper,taking the evolution of this policy and its sub-systems as a main line,and Anti-Japanese War as a background,is to explore the function of this policy and the connection between it and Anti-Japanese War, meanwhile makes a footnote to explain the traditional subject of the victory of Anti-Japanese War.This paper includes 5 chapters in addition to the Introduction and Conclusion.The 1^stchapter is the background information serving for the Body part;the 2^ndis the process of starting up this policy; the 3^rdand 4^thare the evolution of this policy and its sub-systems;the 5^this the function of this policy. This paper concludes by analyzing the policy as a whole.The Anti-Japanese War was a large-scale life-and-death decisive battle.It was a Sino-Japanese struggle not only in military force,but also in financial strength.National government at that time was plagued with financial crises.What's worse,grain crisis,which originally did not exist at the beginning of the war,had become increasingly serious by 1940.There was a soaring grain price and the Provision of grain for military use got bogged down.Grain,as a necessity,is essential,and its fluctuation can make greater impact than other commodities on the people,country and society.In view of financial difficulty and grain crisis especially,National Government established National Grain Administrative Bureau,and a "Turning in Grain" period began,in which political and administrative intervention was used to solve grain crisis(a representative financial crisis).But it did not produce the expected result.After many difficult choices,National Government decided to take over provincial land tax under the possession of central government at the Eighth Session of the Fifth National Congress in April,1941,and passed a resolution to collect land tax in kind rather than currency at the Third National Financial Congress in June of the same year.Since then,the policy of "Land Tax Paid in Kind" had been implemented and put into effect until National Government withdrew from the mainland.This policy was a significant innovation in land tax system at the critical time in history.To carry it out in order,the National government established a set of relevant organizations,such as Central Department of Food and Finance,Land Tax Reorganization Preparatory Committee,and many local administrating departments.At the same time,a series of sub-systems of that policy were set up and got complete one after another,such as Collection and Payment System,Verification System,Storage and Transport System,Propaganda System,Direction System,Reward and Punishment System,the system "Cotton Field Tax Paid in Kind" in the main cotton-producing region,etc.The policy of "Land Tax Paid in Kind" achieved great success,under the support from National Government leaders,all levels of grain institutions,nongovernmental organizations and individuals, and millions of grain households.During the 5 years from 1941 to 1945,the average collections successfully reached 98%of the plans.This relieved the financial burden of National Government, and somewhat controlled the soaring grain price.Through The policy of "Land Tax Paid in Kind" and requisition of grain by lease,National Government to some extent successfully solved the shortage of military food supply,in part guaranteed the life of teaching staff,eased the burden of people's food supply,and thus laid the material foundation for the victory of Anti-Japanese War.The policy of "Land Tax Paid in Kind" was an inevitable choice in the specific social background.It became the backbone of National Government's financial income,and one of the most forceful safeguards for a successful war.In view of the relative consummation of its sub-systems,the significance of this practice,and the universality of people's support,this policy is an effective system. In the process of its implementation,from National Government to local departs,all levels of land-tax institutes,military institutes,relevant individuals,they all actually did not exert themselves in view of their own interests.Their effort in implementing this policy was made to support Anti-Japanese War, but they did not neglect their own interests.This virtually weakened the expected effect of this policy. Furthermore,during the course of its implementation,the Nanional government declared 4 priciples for this policy,justice,defect elimination,convenience for people and economy,but it was hard to reach these 4 priciples because of difficulties in eliminating the defects in land tax in the special war period,shortage of finance and staff,especially the cheats of the land tax staff and the resistance and breach of local interest groups.Meanwhile,the mistakes on cash grain certificate and incorrect dealing with correlative problems also,to some extent,weakened the effect of the land tax paid in kind.Examining the evolving of National Government's policy of "Land Tax Paid in Kind",we can get a conclusion:The policy of "Land Tax Paid in Kind" itself was correct,successful,and irreproachable,except that in its implementation,it failed to achieve the four princles,especially the principle of justice.Some progress cannot be achieved straightly and effectively considering the wartime background,yet there is also something left out for which National government should be responsible, however,we can never deny the significance of this wartime policy only because of this reason.