The Land Administration Of Zhejiang Province During The Republic Of China (1927-1949)

Land administration has been an important part in the process of nation-building under the governance of Nanjing National Government. As one of the pioneers during the land administration reform, Zhejiang was nationally representative at that time for its relatively early effort in carrying out the restoring and innovation work. Based on the historical archives and literatures, this thesis will deal with the history of the land administration in Zhejiang which went through the reconstruction, reform, development and frustration in the Republic of China, under the theoretical framework of Modern-state-building Theory.Besides the introduction and the epilogue, this thesis is composed of five chapters according to the time clues. The first chapter gives an overview of the main conditions of Zhejiang’s modern land administration in its initial stage from three aspects, which are the history background, the institution evolution and early practices. Chapter Two focuses on the land arrangement at the early period under the rule of Nanjing National Government, and summarizes the achievements and lessons drawn from Zhejiang’s land report, land survey and the trial to levy land value tax. Taking the two experimental counties of Lanxi and Pinghu as study cases, the third chapter discusses the relationship between the land administration reform and the county administration construction in the mid 1930s. Chapter Four reviews the cadastral arrangement and the reform of grassroots land administration of Zhejiang in the wartime, against the historical background of Anti-Japanese War. Taking Zhejiang’s Land Reform Program after the war as the breakthrough point, the last chapter analyses the evolution track of the land administration reform which was carried out by Nanjing National Government and points out that the failure of the social integration is the main difficulty the reform was confronted with. In closing, this thesis ultimately deems that such reforms reveal the direction of modern land administration in the process of social transformation.