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The Reform of Agricultural Marketing in China Since 1978*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Andrew Watson
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Extract

With the proclamation of Document 1, 1983, reform of marketing became one of the major targets of agricultural policy in China. This official emphasis on the need to liberalize the marketing system was, however, little more than a confirmation of a process which was already taking place. The initial reforms of labour management and prices in 1978 had led to a decentralization of economic authority to the household level. The commune system was in decline and the number of small-scale free markets was increasing rapidly as peasants took advantage of their new-found freedom to trade their surplus production as they wished. Responding to the economic stimulus offered by the new structure of prices and to the organizational flexibility offered by the decentralization of management, some households began to plan at least part of their production for sale on the market, there by initiating a process of specialization and commercialization. Once begun, this process fed backwards into production by encouraging further specialization and diversification and forwards into marketing by stimulating the emergence of longdistance trade carried out by specialist merchants and traders. In effect, the free market began to act as an engine of economic change, shaping both the structure of agricultural production and employment and the network of new economic linkages through the emerging hierarchy of market centres.

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 113 , March 1988 , pp. 1 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1988

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References

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18. Survey notes.

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35. SWB FE/7831/BII/11–12, 20 12 1984.Google Scholar

36. The following description is based on Zhaoyi, Zuo, “A survey of agricultural markets in Chongqing” and Rural Development Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (ed.), Nong chanpin pifa shichang yanjiu (Studies of Wholesale Markets for Agricultural Products) (Beijing: Rural Development Research Institute, 1985), pp. 103–122.Google Scholar

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38. In an obvious error, the value is given in the source as 116.12 million yuan, the same as the volume. The more likely figure of 52.20 million yuan is calculated from Zuo's note that the per capita transaction value was 116 yuan. Ibid.

39. Ibid.

40. Rural Development Research Institute, Studies of Wholesale Markets, p. 106.Google Scholar

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42. Ibid. pp. 150 and 111.

43. See Xiandao, Liu, “It is necessary to establish rural product wholesale markets”.Google Scholar

44. Quanxin, Zhang, “A survey of wholesale markets for agricultural products in Shenyang,”Google Scholar and Jinxing, Lu and Moqing, Hua, “Run wholesale markets well, enliven urban vegetable trade.”Google Scholar

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46. Xincui, Mao, “Enliven wholesale markets for agricultural products and run them well.”Google Scholar

47. Interview, 29 April 1987.

48. Yufei, Mao, “Guanyu nongchanpin de xubei wenti” (“On the question of stocks of agricultural products”), Caimao jingji, No. 8 (1986), pp. 58–60.Google Scholar

49. Renmin ribao, 25 11 1986, p. 2.Google Scholar

50. Xinhua ribao (New China Daily), 2 01 1987, p. 1.Google Scholar

51. State Council, “Regulations governing the management of peasant market trade,” 5 02 1983Google Scholar, SWB FE/77270/BII/4.Google Scholar

52. Jingji ribao, 11 07 1984, p. 2.Google Scholar

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55. For a discussion of that system see Qingwu, Zhang, Hukou dengji changshi (General Facts about the Household Registration System) (Beijing: Falu chubanshe, 1983).Google Scholar

56. Renmin ribao, 22 10 1984, p. 1Google Scholar. For a discussion of early changes in local regulations see Solinger, Dorothy, “Temporary residence certificate regulations in Wuhan, May 1983,” CQ, No. 101 (03 1985), pp. 98–103.Google Scholar

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