Going Against the Grain: Why Do Canada and the United States Market Wheat So Differently?

At the turn of the twentieth century, private grain exchanges settled the daily prices for North American wheat. By the end of the Second World War, the Canadian and US governments had intervened significantly in these markets. The Canadian government required farmers in its western provinces to deliver their product to the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB), a single-selling-desk agency that, by then, had supplanted private wheat marketing in western Canada. Meanwhile, the United States government subsidized farm incomes with domestic-use taxes and import tariffs, but otherwise preserved private wheat marketing. In this article, I demonstrate that these disparate agricultural policies were broadly defined by immutable economic realities imposed on each country by global wheat-trade patterns and triggered by unprecedentedly severe agricultural crises. That is, amidst the precipitous fall in wheat prices in the early 1930s, each government crafted farm-support policies that reflected its domestic-consumption share of wheat production and the importance of wheat to its overall economy.     

Agricultural Development and Household Incomes in Central Asia: A Survey of Tajikistan, 2003-2008

Two noted specialists on the agricultural economies of the former Soviet Union examine the effects of land reform on agricultural production and the income of rural house-holds in Tajikistan. The authors utilize official government statistics to discern trends of agricultural output at the national level, and the results of three extensive surveys conducted in 2007-2008 (N > 2,000) and one in 2003 (N = 4,000 respondents) by international organizations (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Asian Development Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, World Bank) to identify household-level changes. They also review the legislative framework for agrarian reform in the country; examine national-level trends in farm structure and organization, livestock production, farm productivity, and cropping patterns; and analyze shifts in size of land holdings and rural family incomes at the household level. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: D130, O130, P320, Q150. 11 figures, 10 tables, 42 references.     

Food Security and Russia's 2010 Drought

An American specialist on Russia's agricultural sector examines the progression and impact of that country's 2010 drought (the worst in a half-century), leading to a grain harvest one-third smaller than originally forecast. A particular focus is on the country's grain reserves and the government's response to drought in such areas as grain export policy and maintaining the size of the domestic livestock herd, responses which the author argues are conditioned by the drive for food security, a concept that has dominated the political discourse in tandem with resurgent economic nationalism during the post-Soviet period.     

17-19世纪中叶暹罗对外贸易中的华人

选择17至19世纪中叶暹罗对外贸易中的华人作为研究对象,分不同阶段,对其在暹罗的对外贸易活动进行了描述,对暹罗华人在暹罗对外贸易中的角色和作用进行了探讨。由此得出结论,华人在暹罗对外贸易中,利用其自身优势,逐渐成为主要参与者和经营者。他们通过对外贸易活动,发展了自己的商业,积累了财富,同时满足了暹罗王室对海外贸易的需求,享受到国王赐与的特权,为其在暹罗事业的发展打下基础。     

周恩来与“文化大革命”时期的粮食问题

"文化大革命"使国民经济遭受了严重损失。周恩来殚精竭虑,采取种种措施,稳定粮食局势。他劝说红卫兵和造反派不能冲击农业生产,坚持抓南粮北调局面的改变,用"以出养进"的办法开展粮食外贸,努力解决"三个突破"中的粮食"窟窿"问题,认真贯彻藏粮于民的思想,常抓节约粮食。周恩来高度重视粮食问题的思想和为民谋利的风范至今仍有现实意义。     

山东省人均粮食变化的时空差异研究

人均粮食占有量是反映粮食供给水平的重要指标。本文分析了山东省人均粮食占有量变化的时空差异研究,并探讨了其与粮食增产的关系,对因地制宜调控人粮关系有一定的参考价值。     

Indigenous migrants negotiating belonging: Peticiones de cambio de fuero in Cajamarca,Peru, 17th–18th centuries

Prehispanic corporate social units in northern Peru, the pachacas or ayllus and the guarangas, continued to structure social life in Cajamarca throughout the Spanish colonial period. They were restructured by Spanish rule, as they had been by the Inca conquest before. Spanish rule also reshaped indigenous migration and the social categorization of the migrants, which was closely intertwined with the regime of land tenure. This article takes a look at the integration of new and old migrants and their descendants into the local social structure and examines how they negotiated their belonging in petitions to change or defend their fuero. The petitioners successfully argued on the basis of their ancestry, whether legitimate or not, and activated personal networks on their behalf. In that, they paralleled mestizo and mulatto petitioners who, like migrants, benefited from fiscal prerogatives, which were however challenged during the course of the 18^th century, leading to a partial re-categorization. The redistribution of land was an important motive in these late colonial re-categorizations, but also earlier in the colonial period the absence of bonds to the land was an essential characteristic of being categorized as a ‘migrant.’     

新中国区际粮食流通的三次变化及其原因分析

新中国50多年间,粮食流通经历了计划调拨到市场调节的变化过程。在这一变化过程中,粮食流向流量发生了由南粮北调到北粮南运到北出南进乃至南北同出三次历史性变化。通过对这一过程和相关因素的分析可以看出,这三次重大的历史变化既是中国区域经济在市场化主导下非均衡发展的结果,同时,它又将对区域经济和国民经济、世界经济的进一步发展和调整产生重大的影响。     

粮食安全与中国耕地关系的动态调整——基于1980～2004年中国虚拟耕地及其贸易的研究

虚拟耕地是指从具体农产品实物中抽象出来的耕地资源消耗,有了这样一个概念,作为一种不可移易的资源的耕地就可以虚拟地依存于具体农产品的贸易中,并成为一种可以在地区或国际间进行流动和贸易的虚拟资源。对1980～2004年中国虚拟耕地及其贸易量的分析表明,新时期以来,中国粮食虚拟进口耕地和出口耕地对国际市场的依存度都较小;目前中国虚拟耕地贸易最重要的主体已经由粮食让位于油料,影响虚拟耕地数量的主要因素已经不是粮食安全而是生活质量,这是一种更高层次的粮食安全。粮食安全的政治性决定了粮食的战略产品性质,因此任何时候都不能放松粮食生产,但中国应该动态把握耕地的有机调整。     

中国港口粮食运输格局演变及其动力机制

粮食运输关乎中国民生大计,而港口是其网络中的重要节点。本文以中国港口为研究对象,着眼于1982-2013年,从进出港、进出口等角度,深入考察中国港口在国内外贸易中的职能分工与变化,归纳其空间模式。同时,从粮食生产分布、产需差异、需求结构、政策等方面探讨其格局演变的动力机制。研究发现,中国港口粮食运输能力不断增强,出港格局先是“向环渤海地区集聚”再“轻度分散”,进港格局则从“以北方港口为主”向“较为分散”演化,环渤海港口一直承担着中国粮食的出口职能,粮食进口则由“北进”向“南北同进”模式演变。