37.5% Arable Rent Reduction Act | |
---|---|
Legislative Yuan | |
Territorial extent | Republic of China (Taiwan) |
Enacted | 25 May 1951 |
Commenced | 9 June 1951 |
Amended by | |
| |
Status: In force |
The 37.5% Arable Rent Reduction Act is a law enacted by the Republic of China (Taiwan) on 25 May 1951. The act was proposed by Jiang Menglin of the JCRR on Apr 14 1949 to Chen Cheng, the Provincial Governor of Taiwan. The act was eventually passed by the Legislative Yuan on 25 May 1951. [1]
The act is among a series of land reform policies enacted by Republic of China aimed at reducing poverty among tenant farmers. Prior to the Taiwanese land reformation, huge wealth disparities existed in rural Taiwan, with rich land-owners collecting hefty rents from tenant farmers; these rents on average amounted to around 50% of crop yield. The 37.5% Arable Rent Reduction Act capped the maximum arable land rent to 37.5% of crop yield. [2] [3] Aside from that, the act provided further protection to farmers, such as pardoning all rent during natural disasters, promoting farmer's associations, and limiting landlord's ability to evict tenants as they please. [4]
The 37.5% Arable Rent Reduction Act and associating land reformation policy stems from Republic of China's official ideology of Three Principles of the People, which includes Georgist doctrine of Equalization of Land Rights. [2] The policy yielded strong results in the improvement of life quality in rural Taiwan and facilitated Taiwan's transition from sharecropping based agriculture to landowner-farmer based agriculture. [2] [3]
Enclosure or inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or "common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land could be either through a formal or informal process. The process could normally be accomplished in three ways. First there was the creation of "closes", taken out of larger common fields by their owners. Secondly, there was enclosure by proprietors, owners who acted together, usually small farmers or squires, leading to the enclosure of whole parishes. Finally there were enclosures by Acts of Parliament.
A tenant farmer is a person who resides on land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management, while tenant farmers contribute their labor along with at times varying amounts of capital and management. Depending on the contract, tenants can make payments to the owner either of a fixed portion of the product, in cash or in a combination. The rights the tenant has over the land, the form, and measures of payment vary across systems. In some systems, the tenant could be evicted at whim ; in others, the landowner and tenant sign a contract for a fixed number of years. In most developed countries today, at least some restrictions are placed on the rights of landlords to evict tenants under normal circumstances.
Chen Cheng was a Chinese political and military leader, and one of the main commanders of the National Revolutionary Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War.
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