54 SOCIAL SCIENTIST Communist Party Central Committee, said that, though the gains from the advanced cooperatives on the Soviet model, in which all farm land and other major means of production came under public ownership, could not be ignored, yet, on an overall appraisal, it would be "hard to say that the people's commune campaign from 1958-59 was a success". One reason he cites was that too much concentration of labour force, egalitarianism and pooling of vast areas of land under uniform management stifled the peasants* enthusiasm. The situation was aggravated by the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976. During that revolution, commune members' private plots, family side lines and free markets were cut off as "capitalist tails". According to Mr. Du, Agriculture met a dead end due to these factors. It appears that after the Cultural Revolution and after the destruction of what the Chinese call "the counter-revolutionary Jiang Qmg clique", the Chinese leaders began to think about the means to develop and modernize Chinese agriculture. In 1978, the Chinese Communist Party convened the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee and mapped out a new road of development of Chinese agriculture. The oudine of the programme as mapped out through numerous documents issued by the Communist Party is in the words of Mr. Du, as follows : "(1) To map out a socialist road suited to Chinese society and search for an economic pattern, which helps fully develop the productive forces and is acceptable to the local people. (2) To encourage mutual aid between the city and country-side for joint development. Industrial development should consider what agriculture needs and what the peasants can afford. Industry should serve agriculture. Township industries should also be properly developed to absorb surplus labour and narrow the undue gap between the city and the countryside. (3) To secure a well-rounded development of the rural economy. The development of the rural economy should be co-ordinated with the development of society. Some areas and some people should be allowed to get rich first while other places and other people should be given help to prosper together. The countryside should develop not only agriculture but industry, trade and other undertakings to a degree* At the same time, education, health services and scientific undertakings should be developed. (4) To co-ordinate the development of production with the protection of the ecological environment so that agricultural resources could be used rationally to avoid exhausting them." The main emphasis was on the development of commodity production. It is well-kn6wn that the development of commodity production begins the development of capitalism. But the Chinese social scientists refused to concede that the development of commodity production is only a concomitant of capitalist development According to them, commodity production can