Chapter 182: The Tiandihui Contracting System

The Hai family had also jointly invested in the development of the Jiazi Coal Mine with the Australians. Since the Australians occupied Qiongshan, he had also actually invested in and participated in the freight business on the Nandu River and at Haikou Port. Money was rolling in. In this situation, whether the Australians recruited workers or not had nothing to do with him.

However, since the Australians arrived in Qiongshan, because he had old ties with them, and the People’s Committee for Civil Affairs had always intended to win him over as a bridge between them and the gentry and large households, Hai Shuzu had gradually become the leader of the gentry and large households in Qiongshan. Many negotiations were handled by him with Liu Xiang.

Since the gentry and large households regarded him as their backbone, he could not refuse. He invited everyone to his home to discuss matters.

“Grain comes from rent. If all the people run away, how can we pay the summer and autumn taxes?” everyone cried. “We’ve suffered a disaster, and there’s no one to farm the land. What can we use to pay the grain tax…”

“I heard that the Australians are going to change the tax system and make the large households pay more grain. Do the Australians still want us, the foundation of the court? Are they going to share the world with the mud-legged people? The property owners are the foundation of the world. If they ruin us, who will pay their grain tax? You must have a good talk with them.”

The small flower hall of the Hai family was crowded with the large households and gentry of Qiongshan County, as well as some local xiucai (scholars who had passed the county-level imperial examination) and other scholars. Although they did not have much land at home, they were quite in tune with the large households. They had heard that the Australians had abolished the two shi of grain that xiucai were exempt from paying in Lingao. This was not only an economic issue but also a matter of face for the xiucai. Although the news had not been confirmed, the xiucai of Qiongshan County were in a state of constant anxiety.

“Master Hai, you can’t let the Australian chiefs mess around. We are all honest families. The court has always treated property owners and scholars favorably. Not to mention this dynasty, even the previous Yuan and Song dynasties were like this. Don’t they claim to be descendants of the Great Song? When did the Great Song ever do such a thing?”

Hai Shuzu listened to the clamor of the crowd with great composure. To be honest, he was not moved by these arguments. Since it had nothing to in with his own interests, he naturally had no personal feelings about it.

But since he wanted to “benefit the local community,” Hai Shuzu could not just refuse. He knew that what Liu Xiang was most concerned about right now was the grain issue. As long as the grain issue could be solved, “Director Liu” would be much easier to talk to.

The Hai family did not have much grain in stock. The Tiandihui had contracted his land, and according to the contract, the land rent paid to him was settled in grain circulation coupons. With these circulation coupons, he could buy various Australian goods at the “Wanyou” and cooperative stores in Qiongshan, and then sell them for more profit. So he was not opposed to the purchase of surplus grain.

When everyone had finished speaking, he said:

“Gentlemen, it is difficult for me to guess the chiefs’ thoughts, but in my humble opinion, the Australians’ first priority is grain…”

At this, everyone’s face turned ugly again.

Of course, there was grain. Traditional Chinese agricultural landlords all used hoarding grain as one of the means of preserving wealth. On the one hand, this was because it was not easy to convert grain into cash in an era of underdeveloped commodity economy. On the other hand, grain was also the main “hard currency” in the countryside. Especially in a place like Hainan Island, where the commodity economy was underdeveloped and the scale of circulation was small, grain was not only used as wages for long-term laborers but also played an important role in rural usury. In years of famine, grain became an important tool for seizing land and servants by force.

Asking the large households to hand over their grain was like cutting out their hearts. Moreover, after the land measurement, the various exemptions that the large households and gentry had enjoyed through their privileges and corruption had been written off. The originally very low burden was bound to increase greatly in the summer and autumn taxes. Many people were already dissatisfied with this, and now hearing that they wanted grain again, they found it even more difficult to accept.

Everyone began to hem and haw. Some started to cry poverty again, saying that they had already reluctantly handed over a lot of grain when they were raising funds for disaster relief, and now their families could only drink thin porridge.

For a time, the flower hall was so noisy that it was almost impossible to speak.

Hai Shuzu waved his hands and said with a wry smile, “Gentlemen, you can say these things to the chiefs. What’s the use of saying them to me? I don’t want a single grain from you…”

The flower hall suddenly fell silent. The Hai family was of course easy to talk to, but the Australians were not. And they had also witnessed their methods of suppressing bandits and clearing the countryside in Qiongshan. They were pervasive and decisive in killing. When it was time to kill, they never showed mercy, but they did not kill indiscriminately either.

Thinking of the scene when they were clearing the debts of the tenant farmers more than ten days ago, many people couldn’t help but shrink their necks. The originally angry crowd’s momentum immediately subsided a lot. Most people were still pragmatic: in the current situation, at least for the next ten years, there was no sign that the Ming Dynasty would return to Qiongzhou Prefecture. The Australians were the “emperors” on this island of Hainan.

Half a month ago, after letting the legitimate sons of the various households go to Lingao for a “study tour,” they had learned more about the true strength of the Australians from them, which also had a subtle “calming” effect on the large households and gentry.

Seeing that the crowd was no longer speaking, Hai Shuzu conveyed the message that Liu Xiang had asked him to convey during their conversation. A few days ago, Liu Xiang had met with him alone and had a deep conversation with him about the land and grain issues for several hours. Hai Shuzu had fully understood the chief’s intentions.

The policy formulated by Liu Xiang was relatively moderate. He knew that if he blindly resisted the Executive Committee’s policies, he would not have a good end. After all, “the great cause” and “the national policy” were two very big hats, and he definitely couldn’t bear them.

Fortunately, State Secretary Ma’s main goals were two: grain and land consolidation. As long as this goal was achieved to a certain extent, he would have enough room for maneuver. After all, many people also opposed the radical rural policies of Ma Qianzhu and Ye Yuming.

After thinking for many days, he came up with a new method. Of course, this depended on whether the local large households were “sensible.” Liu Xiang felt that after the previous security war and the land measurement work, they should know that the world was different.

“The chiefs have already transported the people to Lingao. It’s absolutely impossible for them to come back. Besides, the tenant farmers are not your family’s slaves. If you can recruit tenants, you can also let them go. Even the Ming court’s law is like this, isn’t it?” Hai Shuzu first used a few words to dispel everyone’s thoughts.

A sigh of regret came from the crowd. What he said was not wrong at all. On this matter, the Australians were not unreasonable—although they were a bit overbearing when clearing the debts, everyone knew in their hearts that the Australians were not unfair in this matter.

An old man interjected in fear, “Then, what about this land… a large part of my family’s land is fallow!”

For a time, many people began to clamor again. Hai Shuzu calmly waved his hand and said, “Since everyone is short of people to farm the land, you can contract it to the Tiandihui…”

These words were like a piece of ice thrown into a hot oil pan. There was a moment of silence, followed by many people scrambling to speak: some questioned, some inquired, and some were in a state of constant anxiety, just crying out to heaven and earth, unable to say anything coherent.

The Tiandihui’s activities in Qiongshan had been carried out for a period of time. In addition to directly contracting land, the Tiandihui also supported small and medium-sized landlords and rich and middle peasants in the countryside, using “Australian farming methods” to guide them in farming. This had indeed aroused the interest of the large households and gentry—especially Hai Shuzu, who was present. He had contracted all his land to the “Tiandihui.” Although there was no harvest yet, the growth of the crops was indeed much better than that of ordinary fields. If it weren’t for the typhoon, there would definitely have been a very good harvest.

But the matter of completely contracting the land to the Australians was too bold. They were not like the small and medium-sized landlords and self-cultivating farmers, who only had a hundred or so mu of land. The Hai family was actually only at the level of a small landlord. Most of the large households gathered here owned more than five hundred mu of land, and a dozen or so had as much as several thousand mu. Many people were worried, what if the Tiandihui cheated them after they contracted the land? One had to know that the Tiandihui was not a tenant farmer who could be bullied, but a genuine “Australian government.”

Hai Shuzu waited for the chaos to subside a little before saying, “This is the only way I have. As for the credibility of the Australians, they have always done what they said they would do, and they have never broken their promises. They are open and aboveboard in their dealings. In my humble opinion, they would never do something like seizing people’s land.” He then glanced at everyone, and the faces of a few gentry immediately turned ugly—they were not strangers to the practice of using “surrender” to dishonestly seize the land of small landlords and self-cultivating farmers.

“Besides, contracting to the Tiandihui is not selling the land. You can contract it for one year if you want, or for three or five years, or even ten or eight years,” Hai Shuzu said with a smile. “In my opinion, since the land measurement, the Australians are going to implement new taxes. It’s better to just contract it to the Tiandihui to save trouble.”

These words, a mix of threats and inducements, moved the hearts of the crowd. A few people began to inquire about the specific practices of the Tiandihui’s land contracting and the regulations on profit sharing.

The Tiandihui’s land services were divided into two parts. One was similar to what the Wan brothers did in Lingao, which was mainly to provide improved seeds and technical services, and did not directly participate in the production and management activities of the landlords. The harvest belonged entirely to the landowner, who only had to pay a technical service fee and material fee to the Tiandihui. The land tax was also paid by the landowner.

The second was the contracting system, which was generally for large areas of contiguous land, such as the school fields in various counties and landlords like Hai Shuzu who were not interested in personally managing their land. The profit sharing was different. Ye Yuming had different sharing standards based on the fertility of the land, the water conservancy facilities, and the number of attached tenant farmers and long-term laborers. The fees charged by the Tiandihui ranged from a low of 50-50 to a high of 70-30.