The Study On The Rice Shortage In Shanghai (1927-1937)

The grain problem of modern China has been being the focus of attention in the area of Chinese economic and social history for a long time. Many large and medium-sized cities are facing the crisis of food supply in modern China. The problem of urban grain safety becomes the constraint of the stability and development of modern Chinese citie.Therefore, this paper will focus the grain problem in Shanghai under the background of China's total situation, be on the micro-unit of Shanghai to explore the the causes and solutions of it and mainly on traditional historical methods with the studies by types of commoditities, regions and functions as a supplement.The situation of modern Shanghai is with great anxieties. The rocketing rice prices and rice shortage in Shanghai happened one after another in 1920s-1930s, throating the safety of the city. And this problem is closely linked to the urban system of rice supply and marketing.Modern Shanghai is a city with great characteristics in the grain problem. As modern China's largest industrial and commercial city, Shanghai's capacity of rice production was low and it depended on import of external rice supply essentially. As China's largest food consumer market, the adequacy of external rice supply, the accessibility of rice transport and the fluctuation of rice prices always affected the nerves of Shanghai's grain safety. And the fluctuation of rice seasonal supply as well as the manipulation of rice sales in the time gap from rice traders made the regular rise of price of rice normally.At the same time, Shanghai as China's largest re-export trade area of grain shouldered the responsibility of secrurity of other cities and regions' rice supply. And rice production can not be self-sufficient with consumption and re-exportation simultaneously. In view of these complex factors, the grain problem in modern Shanghai is particularly complicated.The Shanghai people, business organizations and government agencies these three different social parts, in order to achieve their desired goals, responded to crisis in different ways respectively under the grain crisis. People's self-help movements, rice traders' adjustment of operation, government's changes of rice policies made a certain contribution to solve the urban rice crisis. However, the grain problem in Shanghai is a miniature of the national grain problem. In spite of the suspended grain policies during the period of Nationalist Government of Nanjing, the efforts to grain problem in Shanghai is negligible.