地方性对地理标识性产品垄断利润形成的影响——以苏州洞庭碧螺春为例

The Impact of Place on the Monopoly profit of a Geographical Indication Product : A Case of Dongting Biluochun Tea in Suzhou

以地方性理论为切入点,提出历史事件为地方性的来源。在洞庭碧螺春原产地苏州吴中区东山镇和金庭镇(原西山镇)进行访谈调查,了解地方性在洞庭碧螺春生产销售方面的作用。运用级差地租理论和垄断市场理论说明了当地通过占据历史事件发生地的"地方性"而获得了级差地租和垄断利润。研究结论为:1历史事件和传说具有空间不可移动性,可以成为形成级差地租的因素。2历史传说赋予地理标识产品的质量无法通过理化手段测量,因此会出现原产地之外的茶叶假冒当地茶叶销售获利。派生的建议是当地政府需要加强对地理标识产品的宣传及法律保护。

Place is one of the core concepts of geography. A place is a unique geographical unit created by humans on the earth＇s surface. Based on the theory of place, we carry out the interviews survey in the original production area of Dongting Biluochun Tea which is located in Dongshan Town and Jinting Town（formerly Xishan Town）, Wuzhong District, Suzhou. We analyze the role of place in the production and sale of Dongting Biluochun Tea. Using theories of differential rent and monopoly market, this article explains how this place obtained differential rent and monopoly profits by being the site an important historical event. The conclusions are the following. First, a historical event happened in a specific place which cannot be moved to other place.This site became a factor that results in a differential rent. The legend of Biluochun Tea is considered equal to the investment by people of the land itself, which associates the local Biluochun Tea with culture quality which other Biluochun Tea does not have. The culture quality attracts some consumers and then forms the market demand which results in higher prices. Second, it is difficult to identify the specific features of a geographical indication product using a physical or chemical test, a feature which is associated with a specific historical event.The local tea producers are unable to obtain monopoly profits and thus it is difficult to execute a policy to protecting specific geographically indigenous products. Many tea makers and sellers in the past came to Dongshan and Xishan to sell fake Dongting Biluochun Tea for profit. To understand this practice, this study provides some assumptions or conditions. First, when calculating the differential rent, we make two assumptions： 1）there are no regional differences in the labor force and 2） the purchasing price of tea-leaves is equal to cost of planting the original tea. These two assumptions could affect the accuracy of the estimation of differential rent in this study. Second, when analyzing the structure of the monopoly profits, we assume that Dongshan Town and Jinting Town can be seen as a tea production group. However, there are so many producers and sellers in the production and sales market. Because of the many producers or sellers, it is obvious that competition exists in the market. The result is that the Dongting Biluochun Tea＇s market price is formed based on a＂price game＂between the many merchants, not determined by the rules in the monopoly market where the monopoly enterprise controls the output and sets the price. If the underlying assumptions or conditions described above change, the results of any analysis would likely be discounted. Further analysis needs to be done and any new conditions that might develop. Finally, based on the analysis above, our study provides two specific suggestions to local government shopping to successfully market Dongting Biluochun Tea： 1） to strengthen the brand value of Dongting Biluochun Tea and 2） to protect geographically indigenous products through specific laws and regulations.