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State versus Merchant: Commerce in the Countryside in the Early People's Republic of China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Dorothy J. Solinger
Dorothy J. Solinger
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
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Extract

There is an uncanny similarity between regulations on merchant activity in various medieval Western European countries, on the one hand, and, on the other, those in the People's Republic of China (PRC) just after its institution (see Appendix). My discovery of this resemblance informed the research on which this paper is based and directed my attention to some crucial relationships in the interaction between commerce and state at a certain level of economic development. The presence of similar regulations in these societies had to point to (1) like activities going on in them all, along with (2) governmental disapproval of these activities. Thus, a preliminary look at materials on Europe led to new insights into the Chinese situation.

Type
Business and Government in Preindustrial Economies
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , April 1979 , pp. 168 - 194
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1979

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References

I am very grateful to the following people for suggestions of useful references or for helping me to revise earlier versions of this paper: Joel Falk, Cho-yun Hsu, Robert Keohane, John Wilson Lewis, Evelyn S. Rawski, Thomas G. Rawski, Bruce Reynolds, Julius Rubin, Benedict Stavis, Donald Sutton and Charles Tilly. An earlier version was presented to the Workshop on the Pursuit of Political Interest in the People's Republic of China, August 1977, funded by the Joint Committee on Contemporary China of the Social Science Research Council and the American Council on Learned Societies.

1 I am indebted to Bruce Reynolds for calling my attention to this point.

2 Scott, James C., Comparative Political Corruption (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1972), pp. viii, 5–7.Google Scholar

3 Pirenne, Henri, Early Democracies in the Low Countries (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1963), p. 80Google Scholar on Flanders in the twelfth century and p. 82 on a law from Liege from 1317; on p. 82, Pirenne speaks of a ‘commonweal of burghers,’ an ideal to be realized through a ‘municipal socialism’; Gras, N. S. B., The Evolution of the English Corn Market from the 12th to the 18th Century (New York: Russell and Russell, 1967 [reissued]), p. 71;Google ScholarLopez, Robert S. and Raymond, Irving N., eds., Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1967), p. 130,Google Scholar on a document from Venice of 1358; and Cunningham, W., D.D., , The Growth of English Industry and Commerce During the Early and Middle Ages (New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1968), p. 247,Google Scholar on the burghers' economic policy as being ‘to promote communal prosperity,’ and p. 562, on self-interest being seen as immoral and evil.

4 A discussion with Charles Tilly was useful in bringing me to this formulation.

5 Commerce in the southwest nicely illustrates G. William Skinner's model of trade in the peripheral (as opposed to core) areas of a regional economic system. In such places a rugged topography, low population density, and high transport costs limit commercialization and thereby reduce or eliminate competition between markets and firms. See ‘Cities and the Hierarchy of Local Systems,’ in Skinner, G. William, ed., The City in Late Imperial China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1977) pp. 277–85.Google Scholar

6 In studies of China, the word ‘traditional’ is loosely used to refer to the China that existed under dynastic rule (before the revolution of 1911 that overthrew the Ch'ing dynasty), or even, at times, to pre-PRC China (pre-1949). The word ‘historical’ could be substituted for it.

7 On this point, see Lopez, Robert S. and Raymond, Irving N., eds., op. cit.,Google ScholarPirenne, Henri, op. cit.,Google ScholarCunningham, W., D.D., , op. cit.,Google ScholarGras, N. S. B., op. cit.,Google ScholarTilly, Charles, ‘Food Supply and Public Order in Modern Europe,’ in Tilly, Charles, ed., The Formation of National States in Western Europe (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975), pp. 380–455;Google ScholarUsher, Abott Payson, The History of The Grain Trade in France, 1400–1710 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1913);CrossRefGoogle ScholarGood, Charles M., Rural Markets and Trade in East Africa: Study of the Functions and Development of Exchange Institutions in Ankole, Uganda (Chicago: University of Chicago, Department of Geography, Research Paper No. 128, 1970);Google ScholarHodder, B. W. and Ukwu, U. I., Markets in West Africa (New York: Africana Publishing Corporation, 1969);Google ScholarMintz, Sidney W., ‘The Role of the Middleman in the Internal Distribution System of a Caribbean Peasant Economy,’ Human Organization, 15:2 (1956), 18–23;CrossRefGoogle ScholarDewey, Alice G., Peasant Marketing in Java (New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1962);Google ScholarDavis, William G., Social Relations in a Philippine Market (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973);Google ScholarGeertz, Clifford, Peddlers and Princes (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963);Google ScholarOrtiz, Sutti, ‘Colombia Rural Market Organization: An Exploratory Model,’ Man, n.s. 2 (1967), 393–414;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Beals, Ralph L., The Peasant Marketing System ofOaxaca, Mexico (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975).Google Scholar The two theoretical accounts are Belshaw, Cyril S., Traditional Exchange and Modern Markets (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1965)Google Scholar and Sjoberg, Gideon, The Preindustrial City: Past and Present (New York: The Free Press, 1960).Google Scholar

8 On the importance of transportation and storage to marketing, see Belshaw, , op. cit., p. 57;Google ScholarSjoberg, , op. cit., pp. 103, 207–08;Google ScholarDavis, , op. cit., 1A, 137;Google ScholarBeals, , op. cit., p.57;Google ScholarGood, , op. cit., p. 81;Google ScholarHodder, and Ukwu, , op. cit., p. 74;Google Scholar and Mintz, , op. cit., p. 21. Thomas Rawski has drawn my attention to the fact that the impact of limited transport and storage facilities is different for different products.Google Scholar

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10 Gras, , op. cit., p. 55;Google ScholarDavis, , op. cit., p. 79;Google ScholarBeals, , op. cit., 202, 211;Google Scholar and Hodder, and Ukwu, , op. cit., pp. 90–91.Google Scholar

11 See, for example, Usher, , op. cit., p. 355;Google ScholarSjoberg, , op. cit., pp. 206, 209, 211–12, 214;Google ScholarLopez, and Raymond, , op. cit., p. 152.Google Scholar

12 See Gras, , op. cit., p. 208;Google ScholarBeals, , op. cit., p. 210;Google ScholarBelshaw, , op. cit., p. 73.Google Scholar

13 Julius Rubin and Tom Rawski stressed the importance here of the risk factor. As Rubin noted, in a preindustrial economy, the very conditions that make high profits possible also increase the risks. Much illicit merchant activity can be seen as attempts to reduce risks. (This is true of efforts to ally with officials and to accumulate fortunes.)

14 Sjoberg, , op. cit., pp. 187–96; 207.Google Scholar

15 Ibid., p. 140; Good, , op. cit., pp. v, 119;Google ScholarUsher, , op. cit., p. 125;Google Scholar and Tilly, , op. cit., p. 437.Google Scholar

16 Elvin, Mark, The Pattern of the Chinese Past (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1973), p. 164.Google Scholar

17 Feuerwerker, Albert, ‘Economic Conditions in the Late Ch'ing Period,’ in Feuerwerker, Albert, ed., Modern China (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1964), p. 118.Google Scholar

18 On this theme, see Twitchett, Denis, ‘The T'ang Market System,’ Asia Major n.s., Vol. XII, Part 2, p. 217;Google ScholarYoshinobu, Shiba, Commerce and Society in Sung China, translated by Elvin, Mark (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, Michigan Abstracts of Chinese and Japanese Works on Chinese History No. 2, 1970), pp. 74–75, 154–55, 165–68, 171, 203;Google ScholarElvin, , op. cit., pp. 169, 172;Google ScholarP'ing-ti, Ho, The Ladder of Success in Imperial China (New York: Columbia University Press, 1964), pp. 77, 81–83;Google ScholarWakeman, Frederic Jr., The Fall of Imperial China (New York: The Free Press, 1975), pp. 44–45;Google ScholarBalazs, Etienne, Chinese Civilization and Bureaucracy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974), pp. 40–42;Google ScholarSkinner, G. William, ‘Marketing and Social Structure in Rural China,’ Part I, Journal of Asian Studies 24:1 (1964), 42;CrossRefGoogle ScholarFeuerwerker, , op. cit., p. 119;Google Scholar and Huang, Ray, Taxation and Governmental Finance in 16th Century Ming China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974), p. 232.Google Scholar

19 Skinner, , ‘Marketing and Social Structure,’ p. 37.Google Scholar

20 Elvin, , op. cit., p. 166;Google Scholar see also Twitchett, , op. cit., pp. 205, 240.Google Scholar

21 Skinner, , ‘Marketing and Social Structure,’ p. 31;Google ScholarMorse, H. B., The Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire (Taipei: Ch'eng-wen Publishing Co., 1966), p. 170.Google Scholar

22 Shiba, , op. cit., pp. 197–98.Google Scholar

23 Tawney, R. H., Land and Labor in China (Boston: Beacon Press, 1966), p. 56.Google Scholar

24 Twitchett, , op. cit., pp. 229–230.Google Scholar

25 Shiba, , op. cit., pp. 68–69, 71–72.Google Scholar

26 Fried, Morton H., The Fabric of Chinese Society (New York: Praeger 1953), p. 126;Google ScholarSkinner, , op. cit., p. 30;Google ScholarYang, Ching-kun, A North China Local Market Economy (New York: Institute of Pacific Relations, International Secretariat, 1944), p. 18;Google ScholarT'ai-ch'u, Liao, ‘The Rape Markets on the Chengtu Plain,’ Journal of Farm Economics 28:4 (1946), pp. 1017, 1019;Google ScholarTawney, , op. cit., p. 57.Google Scholar

27 Yang, , op. cit., pp. 18, 29;Google ScholarLiao, , op. cit., pp. 1016–17;Google ScholarTawney, , op. cit., p. 55;Google ScholarFitzgerald, C. P., The Tower of the Five Glories (London: Cresset Press, 1941), pp. 12, 191;Google ScholarHsiao-mei, Chang, Kuei-chou ching-chi [The Economy of Kweichow]Google Scholar (n.p.: Chung-kuo kuo-min ching-chi yen-chiu so. 1939), p. K35;Google ScholarYun-lin, Lou, ed., Ssu-ch'uan fen-sheng ti-chih [Szechwan's geography] Kunming: Chung-hua Shu-chü, 1942, p. 174.Google Scholar

28 Tawney, , op. cit., p. 57.Google Scholar

29 Fitzgerald, , op. cit., p. 55;Google ScholarYang, , op. cit., p. 21;Google ScholarSkinner, , op. cit., p. 31;Google Scholar and Tawney, , op. cit., p. 56 discuss the localized nature of trade;Google ScholarTawney, , op. cit., pp. 56–57Google Scholar and Chang, , op. cit., p. K35 talk about seasonal fluctuations in supply;Google Scholar and Skinner, , op. cit., p. 30Google Scholar and Tawney, , op. cit., pp. 56–57 describe the differentials in pricing among markets.Google Scholar

30 See Skinner, , op. cit., pp. 39–40;Google ScholarYang, , op.cit., pp. 18, 20–21;Google ScholarLiao, , op.cit., pp. 1016–1017.Google Scholar

31 Lopez, and Raymond, , op. cit., p. 126;Google Scholar and Cunningham, , op. cit., p. 249.Google Scholar

32 Lopez, and Raymond, , op. cit., p. 127;Google ScholarPirenne, Henri, Medieval Cities (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), pp. 118, 120;Google ScholarGras, , op. cit., p. 161;Google Scholar and Usher, , op. cit., pp. 93, 302.Google Scholar

33 Lopez, and Raymond, , op. cit., pp. 152, 266;Google Scholar and Gras, , op. cit., pp. 69, 132.Google Scholar

34 Pirenne, , Early Democracies, p. 81;Google ScholarCunningham, , op. cit., p. 249;Google Scholar and Usher, , op. cit., p. 141.Google Scholar

35 Gras, , op. cit., pp. 66–67, 131Google Scholar (he notes that the injunctions against forestalling go back to the Anglo-Saxon period, and that it is the first commercial act to be termed illegal); and Cunningham, , op. cit., pp. 254, 320–21.Google Scholar

36 Tilly, , op. cit., p. 437Google Scholar and Pirenne, , Medieval Cities, pp. 127–28.Google Scholar

37 Pirenne, , Early Democracies, p. 81Google Scholar and Medieval Cities, p. 209.Google Scholar

38 See Gras, , op. cit., pp. 68, 71, 131;Google Scholar and Pirenne, , Medieval Cities, pp. 208–09, for medieval governments' goals in commerce.Google Scholar

39 For discussion of these points, see Yün, Ch'en, ‘The Financial and Economic Situation in the PRC During the Past Year,’ (1 Oct. 1950)Google Scholar in New China's Economic Achievements 1949–1952 [hereafter NCEA],Google Scholar compiled by the China Committee for Promotion of International Trade (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1952), pp. 96, 100;Google ScholarYün, Ch'en, ‘The Problem of Commodity Prices and the Issuance of Government Bonds’ (2 Dec. 1949), in NCEA, p. 34;Google ScholarYün, Ch'en, ‘The Economic Situation and Problems in the Readjustment of Industry, Commerce and Taxation’ (15 June 1950), in NCEA, p. 64;Google ScholarMu-chiao, Hsüeh, ‘China's Great Victories on the Economic Front in the Past Three Years,’ (1 Oct. 1952), in NCEA pp. 270–71;Google ScholarHughes, T. J. and Luard, D. E. T., The Economic Development of Communist China 1949–1958 (London: Oxford University Press, 1959), p. 27;Google Scholar and Perkins, Dwight H., Market Control and Planning in Communist China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966), pp. 1–2.Google Scholar

40 Mu-chiao, Hsüeh, op. cit., p. 271;Google ScholarI-po, Po, ‘Three Years of Achievements in the PRC,’ in NCEA, p. 159;Google ScholarYi-lin, Yao, ‘The Readjustment and Development of China's Commerce Since 1949,' (3 Oct. 1952), in NCEA, p. 223;Google ScholarHsin-Hua yüeh-pao [New China Monthly] (Peking) [hereafter HHYP], No. 22 (1951), p. 868;Google Scholar and Jen-min jih-pao [People's Daily] (Peking) [hereafter JMJP], 13 March 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

41 Yün, Ch'en, in NCEA, pp. 69–70;Google Scholar and Yi-lin, Yao, op. cit., p. 221.Google Scholar

42 Yi-lin, Yao, op. cit., p. 225.Google Scholar

43 Lippit, Victor D., Land Reform and Economic Development in China (White Plains, N.Y.: International Arts and Sciences Press, 1974), pp. 113–20 and 139.Google Scholar

44 See, for example, Lippit, Victor D., op. cit., pp. 98–99;Google Scholar and Gardner, John, ‘The Wu-fan Campaign in Shanghai: A Study in the Consolidation of Urban Control,’ in Barnett, A. Doalc, ed., Chinese Communist Politics in Action (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1969), pp. 479, 485–86. I have been unable to find any clear guidelines or criteria that would specify how to distinguish between these two types of merchants.Google Scholar

45 Tse-tung, Mao, ‘On the Policy Concerning Industry and Commerce’ (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1968);Google Scholar‘Common Program of the CPPCC,’ translated in Blaustein, Albert P., Fundamental Legal Documents of Communist China (South Hackensack, N.J.: Fred B. Rothman and Co., 1962), p. 48;Google ScholarYün, Ch'en, in NCEA, pp. 105–06 and pp. 69–70.Google Scholar See also HHYP 3, No. 2 (1950), p. 346.Google Scholar

46 Yün, Ch'en, in NCEA, pp. 105–06.Google Scholar

47 See articles by Mu-chiao, Hsüeh, Yi-lin, Yao, I-po, Po, Tse-hua, Cheng, and Tai-yüan, Teng in NCEA.Google Scholar

48 Hsin-Hua jih-pao [New China Daily] (Chungking) [hereafter HHJP], 29 Nov. 1951, p. 1. This was the press organ for the southwest region from 1949 to 1954. Specialized state-operated trade companies were set up first for a limited number of essential goods (e.g., grain, cotton, salt) in early 1950. Later, more companies to handle other goods were also established.Google Scholar

49 HHJP, 6 Jan. 1952, p. 2; 22 Dec. 1951, p. 1.Google Scholar

50 For example, HHJP, 13 Oct. 1951, p. 2; 2 Nov. 1951, p. 2; 22 Nov. 1951, p. 2; 11 March 1952, 17 April 1952, p. 2;Google ScholarSurvey of China Mainland Press [hereafter SCMP], No. 202 (1951), p. 21. This problem with private merchants has cropped up in China whenever the state control falters.Google Scholar

51 HHJP, 13 Oct. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

52 For example, HHJP, 14 Nov. 1951, p. 2. Benedict Stavis has pointed out to me the importance of the availability of adequate consumer goods in trying to enliven and reorient local marketing.Google Scholar

53 HHJP, 28 Nov. 1951, p. 2 and 17 Dec 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

54 HHJP, 28 Nov. 1951, p. 2 and 27 Dec. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

55 HHJP, 22 Dec. 1951, p. 1.Google Scholar

56 HHJP, 13 Jan. 1952, p. 6.Google Scholar

57 HHJP, 20 Oct. 1951, p. 2. See also 22 Dec. 1951, p. 1 on cadres ‘blindly adjusting prices.’Google Scholar

58 HHJP, 2 Nov. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

59 HHJP, 4 Nov. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

60 HHJP, 3 Dec. 1951, p. 2. These cooperatives were meant to act as state-sponsored intermediaries between the companies and the peasantry for both sales and purchases.Google Scholar

61 HHJP, 6 Nov. 1951, p. p.Google Scholar

62 HHJP, 6 Dec. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

63 HHJP, 16 April 1952, p. 1. Another, and probably more serious, sort of problem must have derived from the fact that many of those who were private, noncommunist merchants before 1949 must have been employed as state trade cadres. There was a shortage of cadres of all types in the southwest at that time, and it must have been natural to rely on those who knew the local trade customs and networks.Google Scholar

64 See especially HHJP, 6 Oct. 1951, p. 2, which discusses the intended positive functions for this type of organ.Google Scholar

65 HHJP, 9 Oct. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

66 HHJP, 11 Oct. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

67 HHJP, 12 Nov. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

68 HHJP, 12 Dec. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

69 For example, HHJP, 13 Jan. 1952, p. 1. Also see 1 Jan. 1951, p. 2, and 11 Dec. 1951, p. 1, and 4 Feb. 1952.Google Scholar

70 See HHJP, 6 Feb. 1952, p. 2; 13 April 1952, p. 1.Google Scholar

71 HHJP, 11 March 1952, p. 2.Google Scholar

72 HHJP, 17 April 1952, p. 2, 10 Feb. 1952, p. 1.Google Scholar

73 See note 63 above.

74 See HHJP, 4 Oct. 1951, p. 2; 9 Oct. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

75 HHJP, 7 Oct. 1951, p. 2; 2 Nov. 1951, p. 2, 28 Oct. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

76 HHJP, 20 Jan. 1951, p. 6; 6 Nov. 1951, p. 2; 11 March 1952, p. 2; 12 April 1952, p. 2.Google Scholar

77 HHJP, 28 Oct. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

78 HHJP, 1 March 1952, p. 2.Google Scholar

79 HHJP, 6 Oct. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

80 HHJP, 7 Oct. 1951, p. 2; 27 Oct. 1951, p. 2; 28 Oct. 1951, p. 2; 14 Nov. 1951, p. 2; 15 Dec. 1951, p. 2; 17 April 1952, p. 2.Google Scholar

81 HHJP. 23 Dec. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

82 HHJP, 10 Feb. 1952, p. 1.Google Scholar

83 HHJP. 7 Oct. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

84 HHJP, 12 April 1952, p. 2.Google Scholar

85 HHJP, 17 Oct. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

86 HHJP, 23 Dec. 1951, p. 2; 11 March 1952, p. 2.Google Scholar

87 HHJP, 20 April 1952, p. 2.Google Scholar

88 HHJP, 15 Oct. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

89 HHJP, 20 Oct. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

90 HHJP, 20 March 1952, p. 2.Google Scholar

91 HHJP, 17 April 1952, p. 2. The Business Federation and the all-circles' people's representative conference were mass organizations instituted by the communists to give concerned people some chance to participate in politics.Google Scholar

92 HHJP, 3, No. 2 (1950), p. 341;Google ScholarHHJP, 7 Oct. 1951, p. 2; 9 Oct. 1951, p. 2, 13 Oct. 1951, p. 2, 31 Oct. 1951, p. 2, 10 Nov. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

93 HHJP, 4 Oct. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

94 HHJP, 6 Oct. 1951, p. 2. See also 8 Nov. 1951, p. 2 on a public-private jointly operated investment company set up in Kweichow ‘to guide idle capital and develop production.’Google Scholar

95 HHJP, 10 Oct. 1951, p. 1. Peasants supposedly invested shares in these state-run cooperatives.Google Scholar

96 HHJP, 16 Oct. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

97 See HHJP, 13 Oct. and 16 Oct. 1951, p. 2 in both issues.Google Scholar

98 See HHJP, 1 Jan. 1952, p. 3 for a map of the railroad.Google Scholar

99 HHJP, 22 Oct. 1951, p. 2, 7 Nov. 1951, p. 2, 8 Nov. 1951, p. 2, 24 Oct. 1951, p. 2, 31 Oct. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

100 SCMP, No. 202 (1951), p. 22Google Scholar and HHJP, 4 Jan. 1952, p. 2.Google Scholar

101 HHJP, 11 Oct. 1951, p. 2, 27 Nov. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

102 HHJP, 11 Oct. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

103 HHJP, 16 Oct. 1951, p. 2 contains one of the many articles of this period on this topic.Google Scholar

104 HHJP, 7 Nov. 1951, p. 2, 8 Nov. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

105 HHJP, 11 Oct. 1951, p. 2, 12 Oct. 1951 p. 2.Google Scholar

106 HHJP, 1 Dec. 1951, p. 2, 29 Dec. 1951, p. 2, 8 April 1952, p. 2.Google Scholar

107 HHJP, 16 Oct. 1951, p. 2, 14 Dec. 1951, p. 2, 12 April 1951, p. 2, 16 April 1951, p. 1.Google Scholar

108 HHJP, 19 Oct. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

109 HHJP, 12 April 1952, p. 2.Google Scholar

110 HHJP, 16 April 1952, p. 1.Google Scholar

111 HHJP, 22 Nov. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

112 See HHJP, 1 Dec. 1951, p. 1, 14 Dec. 1951, p. 2, and 9 April 1952, p. 2.Google Scholar

113 The ‘three-’ and ‘five-anti’ movements were campaigns directed against the bureaucracy and bourgeois businessmen, respectively. The first attacked corruption, waste, and bureaucracy; the second aimed to eliminate bribery, tax evasion, stealing state property, cheating on government contracts, and stealing secret government economic data.

114 4 See HHYP, 3, No. 2 (1950), pp. 346–47;Google ScholarHHJP, 1 Jan. 1952, p. 2; 11 Oct. 1951, p. 2, 28 Nov. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

115 HHJP, 11 Oct. 1951, p. 2, 7 Dec. 1951, p. 1, 6 Nov. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

116 HHJP, 15 Oct. 1951, p. 2 and 27 Oct. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

117 HHJP, 16 Oct. 1951, p. 2, 11 Dec. 1951, p. 1, 29 Dec. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

118 HHJP, 17 Oct. 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar

119 HHJP, 16 and 17 April, p. 1 of both issues.Google Scholar

120 HHJP, 9 Oct. 1951, p. 2, 14 Oct. 1951, p. 2, 12 Oct. 1951, p. 2, 13 Oct. 1951, p. 2, 17 Oct. 1951, p. 1, 7 Dec. 1951, p. 1.Google Scholar

121 HHJP, 16 April, p. 1, 17 April, p. 1, 20 April, p. 1.Google Scholar

122 Shue, Vivienne, ‘Reorganizing Rural Trade: Unified Purchase and Socialist Transformation,’ Modern China 2, No: 1 (1976), 105–06.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

123 See, for example, Hong Qi [Red Flag] (Peking), No. 2 (1977), p. 57. Both John Lewis and Julius Rubin pointed out to me the insoluble bond between commerce and commercialmindedness.

124 Richman found old-time capitalists still at work in state-operated economic organs as late as 1965, who ‘at times regress’ and behave as they used to. See Richman, Barry M., ‘Capitalists and Managers in Communist China,’ Harvard Business Review Jan.-Feb. 1967, 57–78.Google Scholar

125 Weiss, Udo, ‘China's Rural Marketing Structure,’ prepared for Conference on Chinese Rural Institutions: ‘Lessons for Other Developing Countries,’Institute on Development Studies, University of Sussex,April 1977, pp. 16–18.Google Scholar

126 HHJP,9 Oct. 1951, p.2, 20 Nov. 1951, p.2, 3 Dec 1951, p.2, 22 Dec. 1951, p. 1, 30 April 1952, p. 2. Many of these people were private merchants before 1949, according to Gordon Bennett's interviews.Google Scholar

127 David M. Lampton and David S. G. Goodman have both attested to the continuing presence of small-scale vendors and hawkers on the streets in urban areas today. Goodman relates that different vendors within the same city charge different prices for the same product.

128 Weiss states that by 1959 private pedlars and traders handled only 2 percent of the total retail sales in China. Weiss, , op. cit., p. 19.Google Scholar

* Source: N.S.B. Gras, , op. cit., pp. 71–72.Google Scholar

† HHYP, 3, No. 2 (1950), p. 346.Google Scholar

• HHJP, 10 November, 1951, p. 2.Google Scholar