--- Notes

Comments on the Draft Trial Provisions of the CPC Central Committee Concerning the Improvement of Commercial Work [1] (August 27, 1962) Please have Shangkun [2] circulate this document to all comrades present at the meeting [3] for discussion. It need not be distributed further to the members of the Commercial Documents Drafting Committee. Mao Zedong, August 27. Printed from the manuscript. Notes [1] This draft trial provision, submitted to Mao Zedong by Chen Boda, Alternate Member of the CPC Central Political Bureau and Director of the Central Political Research Office, on August 26, 1962, consists of forty articles and sets out provisions on the following eight matters: (1) the guiding principles for commercial work; (2) adherence to the principle of equivalent exchange and the extension of the system of purchase contracts for agricultural products; (3) improvement of state-owned commercial enterprises; (4) restoration of supply-and-marketing cooperatives; (5) re-establishment of cooperative stores and cooperative groups; (6) opening up rural market trade to invigorate the exchange of goods between urban and rural areas; (7) resuming agricultural product processing workshops related to rural commerce; and (8) enhancing the management of commercial enterprises. In his letter to Mao Zedong accompanying the submission of this draft, Chen Boda wrote: “This document has been redistributed in Beidaihe to all members of the Commercial Documents Drafting Committee. I have heard that some comrades believe it proposes numerous solutions to issues concerning commercial work. At this meeting, we may, drawing on a year’s experience and the views recently expressed by everyone, make further additions and revisions.” The Central Committee intended, based on its investigations and studies,


to subsequently draw up a more comprehensive set of regulations governing commercial work; however, for various reasons, no formal document was ultimately issued. [2] Shangkun refers to Yang Shangkun, who at that time served as an Alternate Secretary of the CPC Central Secretariat and Director of the Central Office. [3] This refers to the comrades then attending in Beijing the preparatory meeting of the Tenth Plenary Session of the Eighth CPC Central Committee.