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

ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL PROBLEMS IN THE ANTI-JAPONESE WAR
roughly equivalent to 6 tan of millet in return for an investment of
1,000 yuan per man.
There is also a papermaking factory and an oil-pressing shop
which use as raw materials the sesame seeds and straw coming from
the troops’ agriculture and malan grass cut by the soldier-workers,
for which the factories pay a cheap price. These enterprise employ
sixty people with an average net profit per head of 6 tan of millet.
(ii) Besides agriculture, effective operation of the system of soldier-workers
is a way of realizing self-sufficiency and solve both
commodity and financial problems. Commerce is definitely not as
reliable as agriculture and industry. Commerce relies on others, not
on oneself, so it is not suitable to do too much of it.
FROM MARX
TO MAO
(iii) Shortcomings are: in running a large factory there is a lot
⋆
of expenses and waste, and there is no fixed amount of capital. This
influences reproduction. Therefore in future we must strive to set
up a fixed amount of capital.
(iv) In the past we did not take the whole Border Region
economy into consideration. Nor did we make a unified plan for the
troops’ agricultural and industrial production. We could not interlock
agriculture, industry, transport and commerce. This was a great
failing. Henceforth, we should have unified plans and interrelated
management.
The above is a summary of our opinions.
NOT FOR
COMMERCIAL
(C) Commerce
Our commerce began with a co-operative and it took six years to
develop into large-scale commerce.
In 1937, the brigade DISTRIBUTION
was sent across the Yellow River to the area
around Guoxian to fight the enemy. After the loss on Taiyuan, commerce
was disrupted and city goods could not be moved into the
countryside. The common folk did not dare to travel to buy goods.
As a result there were great shortages of daily necessities. Oil and
salt were out of supply for a while. Both the army and the people
had to eat plain food. In these circumstances we set up a co-operative
at the request of the people. We allocated animals to go to
Ningwu and elsewhere for salt. The supply department put up 300
yuan to buy goods belonging to merchants which were stored in the
countryside. We contracted the merchant, Li Maolin[??], from
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