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

ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL PROBLEMS IN THE ANTI-JAPANESE WAR
rience the following eight policies must be implemented: (1) the reduction
of rent and the reduction of interest rates; (2) an increase
in the opening up of uncultivated land, (3) an increase in the planting
of cotton; (4) not violating the agricultural seasons; (5) better
adjustment in the use of labour power; (6) an increase in agricultural
credit; (7) improvement in technical skill; (8) implementing
progressive taxation. In what follows I shall deal with each of these
eight points separately.
Our first agricultural policy is the reduction of rent and the reduction
of interest rates. Approximately one-half of the 1,400,000
people of the Border Region have received a share of land. The
remainder have not yet done so, such as those in the Suide-Mizhi
FROM MARX
TO MAO
special military area, Longdong sub-region, Fuxian County and many
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places in Sanbian sub-region and so forth. In these regions we should
carry out the reduction of rent and interest rates in accordance with
government decrees. This is an extremely important policy for increasing
the peasants’ enthusiasm for production. After rent and
interest rates have been reduced, the peasants’ burdens from the landlords
are less and the amount they can keep themselves is increased.
Thus their enthusiasm for production is greatly raised and they can
produce more. The Northwest Bureau [Xibei Ju] has already made
concrete arrangements with the Border Region Government over this
policy and I will not speak NOT more of FOR it here.
Our second agricultural policy is to increase the amount of uncultivated
land opened up. Peasants in areas where there is a lot of
uncultivated land COMMERCIAL
consider that deep ploughing is not as good as
opening up new land. We should therefore organize the peasants in
the counties, districts, and townships where such land exists to develop
it as a means of increasing the production of grain. Besides
land freshly cultivated DISTRIBUTION
by the original households, we must mainly
rely on encouraging immigrants to come and develop unused land.
At present the conditions are right for getting immigrants. The various
counties should do a large amount of organizational work. According
to circumstances they should determine specific tasks for
the new and old households separately. Like Yanan County they
should make specific sowing and planting plans for each household.
Such plans should include both the opening up of new land and the
planting of cultivated land. For 1943 the planned increase in production
of grain for the entire Border Region has been fixed as
80,000 tan of hulled grain. This should be achieved through the
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