20
Therefore, this permanent tenure system contained many functional aspects which enabled the rural order to expand, but it was not an arrangement which facilitated a political elite's efforts to modernize society by extracting more tax revenue from agriculture to finance those efforts. The KMT bitterly learned this lesson in the early 1930s, and they should not be unfairly blamed for failing to carry through with land reform in the thirties and forties, especially under the conditions of war and civil disorder that existed,
Furthermore, when we factor out the number of likely permanent tenants from other tenants in the data reflecting land tenancy in these decades, we immediately note that the prevalence of tenancy drops considerably. I have already made a quantitative study of land tenancy for the provinces of Shantung, Chekiang, and Kwangtung. I found that when I first correlated population density, crop yields, and irrigated land with cropping intensity these variables showed a high correlation to rise in value with cropping intensity, but that land tenancy did not follow the same pattern. Obviously, other very complex factors influenced tenancy, and I am not sure, given the paucity of historical information on the subject that we will really be able to explain to everyone's satisfaction why land tenancy prevailed in the forms that it did.
To conclude my argument, for certain large areas of China a unique form of land tenure existed which had contributed greatly to the under-taxation of agriculture and yet had greatly facilitated the development of this rural society and economy. It was not a land tenure system that could easily be altered overnight as the KMT learned to its grief in the early 1930s. Therefore, we can say that land tenure was not a serious dysfunction during the twenties and thirties, but this system certainly made it extremely difficult for a new government to raise more revenue from agriculture if it intended to introduce modernization.
The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution & Peace
20
Therefore, this permanent tenure system contained many functional aspects which enabled the rural order to expand, but it was not an arrangement which facilitated a political elite's efforts to modernize society by extracting more tax revenue from agriculture to finance those efforts. The KMT bitterly learned this lesson in the early 1930s, and they should not be unfairly blamed for failing to carry through with land reform in the thirties and forties, especially under the conditions of war and civil disorder that existed,
Furthermore, when we factor out the number of likely permanent tenants from other tenants in the data reflecting land tenancy in these decades, we immediately note that the prevalence of tenancy drops considerably. I have already made a quantitative study of land tenancy for the provinces of Shantung, Chekiang, and Kwangtung. I found that when I first correlated population density, crop yields, and irrigated land with cropping intensity these variables showed a high correlation to rise in value with cropping intensity, but that land tenancy did not follow the same
same pattern. Obviously, other very complex factors influenced tenancy, and I am not sure, given the paucity of historical information on the subject that we will really be able to explain to everyone's satisfaction why land tenancy prevailed in the forms that it did.
To conclude my argument, for certain large areas of China a unique form of land tenure existed which had contributed greatly to the under-taxation of agriculture and yet had greatly facilitated the development of this rural society and economy. was not a land tenure system that could easily be altered over-night as the KMT learned to its grief in the early 1930s. Therefore, we can say that land tenure was not a serious disfunction during the twenties and thirties, but this system certainly made it extremely difficult for a new government to raise more revenue from agriculture if it intended to introduce modernization.
The Hoover Institution on War,
Revolution & Peace
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