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2 - The Institutions and Individuals behind Wartime Grain Management and Military Supply

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2025

Jennifer Yip
Affiliation:
National University of Singapore
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Summary

This chapter studies civilian grain management agencies and the logistical branch of Nationalist China’s armed forces, the Supply and Baggage troops. It highlights two key policy shifts: provisioning armies in kind, and centralizing and collecting land tax in kind. While these changes shielded army consumers from inflation to some degree, overlapping mandates among multiple agencies produced confusion throughout the war zones, and the Supply and Baggage troops were plagued by both inadequate training and a historical disdain for logistics. However, blanket accusations of ineptitude obscure the fact that, despite large variations in climate, infrastructure and politics across Free China, these institutions fulfilled their basic task: collecting and circulating enough grain to keep the Nationalists in the war. The chapter also uncovers details about the everyday endeavors of low-level grain management officials and military transport personnel, the individuals who implemented provisioning plans but who remain nameless and forgotten in the literature. Moreover, despite systemic weaknesses, a cadre of experts worked to elevate the status of logistics within Nationalist armies.

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Type
Chapter
Information
Grains of Conflict
The Struggle for Food in China's Total War, 1937–1945
, pp. 60 - 106
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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