“Ever-normal Granary in Broad Sense”: Policy Expansion and Governance for Nourishing the People

In this chapter, the concept of the Ever-normal Granary is expanded into a broad-scope buffer reserve system, which includes the following three: (1) the Ever-normal Granary itself, and various types of granaries that supplement and assist it, which collectively form the “Ever-normal Granary system”; (2) the “equalization policy” (pingzhunfa) that incorporates a variety of commodities and even currency into the buffer regulation; (3) a special “Ever-normal Granary of labor force” – the “labor relief” system. These aspects are collectively referred to as the “Ever-normal Granary in broad sense” in this chapter for the following reasons: the classic work Guanzi firstly narrated the theoretical implications and policy value of the grain buffer reserve; compared to the “equalization policy” (pingzhunfa) and the “labor relief” system, the Ever-normal Granary was implemented most extensively and had the greatest impact in Chinese history; the term “ever-normal” more intuitively expresses the goal of seeking macro stability for economic policies. From using granaries to buffer grain reserves to using public projects to buffer labor reserves, from tangible granaries to intangible granaries, ancient Chinese continuously explored flexible applications of basic economic principles. Among these, the “Ever-normal Granary of labor force”, or the labor relief system, was an important institutional invention. In the Song dynasty governments began to consciously implement the labor relief policy, which illustrates that under the conditions of population increase and the absence of a system for land allocation and administration, the state was actively exploring the possibilities of adaptive transformation of economic regulation policies. The reason why China was able to foster macroeconomic stability policies and develop the Ever-normal Granary tradition over a long history can be attributed to at least the following three conditions: the instability of agricultural production caused by unpredictable climate changes; the widespread and fragile small-scale peasant economy; the unified national governance structure, and the economic ethics and macro welfare demands rooted in the traditions of “people-orientation” (minben) and “benevolent governance” (renzheng).