ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the Nationalist efforts in agrarian reform, as implemented in the province of Chekiang. The program consisted of a rent reduction campaign, which constituted the Kuomintang's principal attempt at basic structural change in the socio-economic relationships of the countryside. The chapter focuses on the Nanking decade from 1927 to 1937. By focusing on the rent reduction campaign, it examines the degree to which Nationalist policies affected the rural tenants and part-tenants. Interest in the rent reduction campaign began in 1927 when Shen Ting-yi, a respected local politician and a member of the Chekiang branch of the Central Political Council, began to draft a series of rent reduction laws with the help of other provincial party leaders. According to the provisions of the 1927 law, the rent ceiling on a main crop was to be 50 percent of the total annual production. All rents were to be reduced additionally by 25 percent, leaving 37.5 percent as highest annual rent.
