The Imposition of Foreign-rice Tariff and Its Social Repercussions in the Republic of China

In 1933, the imposition of foreign-rice tariff in the coastal provinces was an important policy adjustment which was related to many aspects of the domestic and the abroad.  Through the appeals from the rice-producing provinces’ governments and the merchants, the central government of Nanjing gestated and discussed on it for 3 years. Under the circumstances of the common view between the high level of KMT, the relating central ministries and courts, and the local governments and merchant groups of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Guangdong and Fujian imposed the foreign-rice tax before the other provinces. Thus the central authority quickened the steps for imposing the foreign-rice tariff. Later the rate of foreign-rice tariff and the tariff management had changed constantly. The rate of foreign-rice tariff and the tariff management of Guangdong and Fujian were unified by the central government finally. There had many social repercussions of the imposition of foreign-rice tariff not only in Guangdong and Fujian, but also in the relating countries in the world. And it had influenced the foreign relations between China and these countries.