民國38年（1949年）臺灣省主席陳誠接受「中國農村復興委員會」 的建議，在臺灣實施全面性的土地改革。 在中央政府的全力支持下，以「三七五減租」、「公地放領」及 「耕者有其田」等三階段，於1953年底辦理完成。當時為達成「耕者有 其田」的目標，政府規定任何地主只能保留水田3甲，3甲以上的耕地就 由政府徵購，再轉賣農民，因此一般咸認為土地改革乃是把地主所擁有 的田地強制分售給佃農，是「革地主的命」，地主們反對土改是必然 的。 鹿港辜家為臺灣三大地主家族之一，原擁有水田、旱田3,700甲，土 地改革之後，只能保留3甲，即是千分之一還不到，對辜家來說，這該 是多大的損失。但是辜振甫卻能從宏觀深遠的觀點，認為土改實為國家 從農業社會進而為工業化國家唯一可行的道路。中國數千年來，以農立 國，所有資金都凍結在土地上，主政者雖明知為順應世界潮流，必須儘 速發展工業，卻缺乏資金，自一籌莫展，因此必須將原先凍結在土地上 的資金釋出，使之轉而流向工業生產，始能突破了中國農業社會的「貧 窮循環」而成為一個新興工業化的國家，所以辜振甫對土地改革稱之為 和平的社會經濟革命，亟願全力配合。最後階段辜振甫甚至親自投入公 營的水泥公司移轉民營的工作，以作為其餘工礦、農林、紙業三家公營 公司移轉民營之示範，而使土改政策得以畢竟全功。

Taiwan launched its “Land Reform Program＂in 1949,which was largely completed by 1953. During that time. the Government prescribeb that each landowner could retain only nine jia,or kah（甲）of paddy field,each jia being equal to 9,699 square meters, just under ten thousand square meters. The remainder must be sold to the Government, which in turn would then resell them to those farmers who actually worked the land. The common concept was that the land reform program was actually aimed at the landlords, thus it was described as a revolution in which only the landowners were the“target of the revolution＂.It was only natural that the land-owning class were against the program. The Koo（辜）family of Lugang（鹿港）was at that time one of the three largest landowning families of Taiwan .It boasted of 3,700 jia of land, which meant that after the land reform program, the family’s holding would be reduced to less than one-tenth of one percent. It meant a tremendous loss to the Koo family. However, Mr. Chen-foo Koo was far-sighted enough to realize that land reform was the only route by which Taiwan could move from an agricultural society into an industrial one. For thousands of years, agriculture had been China’s only economic path. All available capital were spent on planting the land. The Government knew that for Taiwan to be transformed into a new industrial economy, it must first release all available capital from agriculture. Mr. Koo gave every conceivabie cooperation to the overnment’s land reform program, to the extent that he personally led other former landowners in joining the effort of transforming Taiwan’s economic structure. It was Mr. Koo whose personal participation in the founding of Taiwan Cement Corporation which, along with three other entities created during the transformation-the Taiwan Paper Corporation, the Taiwan Industrial & Mining Corporation, and the Taiwan Agricultural & Forestry Corporation-that Completed the task of transforming them from public to private enterprises, and successfully concluding the land reform program in Taiwan.

辜振甫；土地改革；三七五減租；公地放領；耕者有其田

C.S.Koo ；Land Reform；Rent Reduction to 37.5 Percent ,Sale of Public Land ,Land to the Tiller,