ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the impact of the Sino-Japanese War and the ways in which this crisis pushed the National Government to a set of extreme measures to guarantee a stable source of grain to its armies and urban population. The government attempted to implement compulsory grain sales to the state at prices well below the market rate in the summer of 1942. The goals of establishing social order and ensuring basic subsistence for cities were unquestioned, and the role of adequate grain supply and stable prices in ensuring this goal was so self-evident on both sides of the Taiwan Straits that leaders used virtually identical rhetoric in addressing this set of issues. A significant part of the Liangshi Jus annual stocks of grain were held in reserve for exactly these kinds of circumstances: the Taiwan Liangshi Ju spent anywhere from 7.2 per cent to over a third of the grain it collected for market stabilization measures.
