K. This is the 1st working draft of vol. VI. It still ... - From Marx to Mao

310 MAO TSE-TUNG
profit of 30 per cent. It encouraged the original households to
lend grain and the government guaranteed repayment. Another
method was to urge the original households to hire help [diao
fenzi], to take on share-cropping tenants [an zhuangjia] and to
contract short-term labour [lan gong] from among the refugees.
Conditions were decided voluntarily by both sides. Allowing
the original households to exploit a little was not a problem because
when the refugees first came they did not have a thing.
Although they were exploited, we could not let them starve.
FROM MARX
TO Table MAO 1.4
Statistics for this year (1942) [are shown in Table 1.4].
⋆
Households reliant upon employers
for food grain in 1942
Hired help [diao fenzi] 359 households
Share-cropping tenants [an zhuangjia] 466 households
Short-term contract labour [lan gong] 184 households
NOT FOR
COMMERCIAL
Total 1,009 households
These households relied on their employers for food grain.
However, the hired helpers [diao fenzi] could only get supplies
for themselves. Hired farmhands and short-term contract labourers
were able to get food grain for their family members as well.
There were 650 DISTRIBUTION
households of the latter kind. At a rate of three
people per household, this was altogether 1,950 persons. If we
add on the 359 hired helpers, the full total was 2,309 people relaying
on their employers for grain. If they had asked for aid
from the government, at a rate of 5 tou per man per year the
amount of grain needed would have been 1,154.5 tou. What a
large amount this would have been! Therefore on the basis of
mutual agreement between employer and employee, the hiring
of farmhands, helpers, and short-term contract labourers solved
many great problems. It not only solved the problem of food
grains. It also enlarged production and increased the supply of