Dongying, a village in Linzhang County in north China's Hebei Province, has captured the attention of economics experts because it has kept records of the village's economics-related events for the 58 years.

"Through these accounts books, we can see changes of China's countryside in terms of economy, society and administrative systems over a period of more than half a century," said Zhu Shouyin, an expert on rural reform with the Ministry of Agriculture.

Dongying Village started its first accounts book in 1948 when the then Outline Land Law of China was issued.

There were only 213 households in the village with a population of 1,149 and cropland acreage of 4294 mu (286 hectare). Cropland occupation per capita was 3.7 mu (0.25 hectare) at the time, according to the books.

Over the years, income assignments, land reform and operation, collective asset increments, and social welfare developments became major subjects of the accounts books that have been kept intact.

In 1958, as China entered the "Great Leap Forward" period, a special time when all levels of governments were busy speeding up industrial and agricultural development, villages across the country provided inaccurate or inflated figures about crop output.

"We had two accounts books during that period. The false one which exaggerated the crop output was sent to the higher-level government, and we kept the true records," said Li Taihua, the village's accountant at the time.

The unfalsified books showed that the village harvested 4.5 tons of summer wheat, three tons of autumn grain and 37.5 tons of sweet potato per hectare, which was half the amount reported to higher-level government.

China was hit by a spate of, which resulted in severe famine over a period of three years from 1959 to1961. Thousands starved to death as a result.

Food supplies per person at Dongying was only 0.17 kg per day and some 53 villagers suffered the effects of starvation.

According to 1960 accounts, the village's crop output dropped greatly, with only 840 kilograms of summer wheat per hectare, and 2,300 kilograms of corn per hectare.

Then, land reform measures were introduced in the early 1980s. Based on the "contract responsibility system," a milestone in China's rural land reform plan, a piece of cropland was allocated to each farmer household.

Through this system, farmers gained the right to till the land in exchange for a tax payment. This was quite different from the prior collective system where output went directly to village or township committees who paid any tax payable to the government. 

The books indicate that per capita income was about 800 yuan (US$100) during this time.

By the mid 1990s, villagers were leaving their villages to work in towns and cities. This migration pushed per capita income in Dongying up to 2,000 yuan in 1995.

However, because most of the young people had left the village and were not contributing to the collective fund, Dongying soon fell into debt.  In 1996, they were 200,000 yuan (US$25,000) in debt, 600,000 yuan (US$75,000) in debt by the end of 2004.

Zhang Aiguo, a local agricultural official explained: "Large sums of money had been invested in public welfare, such as the construction of water supply facilities and the building of roads."

But things changed for the better in 2004 when the government announced a reduction in agriculture tax for the first time. Each villager only had to pay 29 yuan (US$3.63) per year compared with 150 yuan previously.

In 2005, agriculture tax was abolished. But paying off debts in arrears and increasing the income of its villagers remain two key concerns for Dongying.

Dongying’s accounts books run into 90 volumes, including 400 books of receipts and bills, and 120 contracts relating to investment and business activities. More than 350,000 bills have been included in the account books since 1948.

"These books document the changes that Dongying has seen over the past half century," said Zhu Shouyin. "A village-level accounts book with such great detail and in such good condition is rare."

"The books provide valuable clues and a good example for studying social development among the rural areas in China," Zhu said.

Zhu added that these documents will help greatly academic research into institutional evolution in  rural areas. Previous studies were dependent on the memories of elderly villagers.

Dongying Village was recently named a sample site by the Ministry of Agriculture for research projects on China's rural reform and development.

(Xinhua News Agency October 18, 2006)