Chapter 10 3.2 Difficulties at home and abroad, stay calm

There are enemy blockades and bombings outside, and rampant challenges from speculative capital inside.Chen Yun stayed calm and methodically prepared to build the Financial and Economic Command, planning and deploying for the battle. Chen Yun took office amid the price turmoil caused by speculative capital. In April 1949, a large-scale price fluctuation swept across North China and Northwest China, affecting Shandong, North Jiangsu and other places, and Pingjin shook.Tianjin Composite Price Index rose 1.2 times in mid-May compared to March.This is the first price turmoil caused by speculative capital.

Chen Yun arrived in Beijing on May 10, and on May 11 he participated in the financial and economic conference held by the Central Military Commission in Xiangshan, discussing the institutional setup of the Central Financial and Economic Commission, as well as the production, finance, taxation and external affairs of Tianjin, Tangshan, and the soon-to-be liberated Shanghai. issues of trade. One of the most favorable conditions at that time was that the Communist Party of China controlled the vast countryside, which also controlled food and other major living and production materials.And by receiving bureaucratic capital, the state-run economy has mastered the necessary material power to intervene in the market.The people's government dredged up grain transportation, established specialized companies for grain, flower gauze, department stores, and mountain goods under the state-owned trading company, and established 40 grain and gauze business offices and retail stores in Pingjin to directly supply goods and stabilize prices.In addition, it also tried to attract hot money, set up "deposit savings" and absorb deposits.It was not until mid-May that the price hikes calmed down.

Chen Yun quickly figured out the job of "settlement of the site". After a period of intense preparations, on July 12, Chen Yun presided over the inaugural meeting of the Central Finance and Economics Committee. The Central Finance and Economics Committee, which was formed by the merger of the Ministry of Finance and Economics of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the North China Finance and Economics Committee, was formally established. On the 14th, at the first meeting of all cadres of the Central Finance Committee, he said humorously: I used to run "small stalls" in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, but now I am doing "big business" across the country.

The market situation is changing rapidly, and it is impossible to leave too much time for Chen Yun to deploy calmly.Chen Yun saw the seriousness of this problem.He knew that prices had to be stable, and they had to be stabilized early.The sooner prices stabilize, the less pain the people of the country will suffer.Rising prices and falling currency values ​​will suffer the most from wage-earner workers and military and government personnel in cities.The common people support the Communist Party, and they are in favor of overthrowing the Kuomintang reactionaries and implementing land reform.But ordinary people not only look at the Communist Party in terms of military affairs and politics, they also look at it through economics, to see whether prices can be stabilized, and whether people starve to death or not.

In this crisis-ridden moment, while "securing the territory", Chen Yun led the Financial and Economic Command and launched a fierce struggle with speculative capital for control of the market. On May 27, Shanghai was liberated.The powerful speculative capital in Jiangsu and Zhejiang immediately challenged the people's regime. Generally speaking, once the large-scale industrial and commercial cities are liberated, they should be able to accommodate more RMB than rural areas and small and medium-sized cities, and prices should be easier to stabilize.But a strange thing happened in Shanghai. After the People's Liberation Army occupied Shanghai, the RMB could not "enter" Shanghai.Almost all the RMB sent out in the morning returned to the People's Bank of China in the evening.

After investigation and analysis, the reason why the renminbi was pushed outside the gate of Shanghai was due to speculative forces.In the past, when inflation was severe, people snapped up foreign currencies such as gold, silver, and U.S. dollars (the so-called "yellow, white and green") to preserve their value.Now that a large number of renminbi is entering the market, speculators take advantage of people's fear of long-term inflation to drive up the prices of gold, silver and foreign currencies, preventing the renminbi from occupying the market and driving up animal prices.

After a careful analysis of the situation, on June 8, Chen Yun signed and issued a telegram from the Central Finance Committee to the East China Finance Committee, deciding to prohibit the free circulation of gold, silver and foreign currencies, agreeing to seal up the Shanghai Stock Exchange by strong means and severely punish speculators. The stronghold of speculative capital was copied, and its vitality was seriously injured. In order to fundamentally stabilize the status of the renminbi, in a telegram to the East China Finance Committee on June 8, the Central Finance Committee ordered to take tough measures to seal up the securities building and severely punish the silver dollar dealers. At the same time, it also prepared a series of economic measures. All transportation enterprises (including municipal public utilities) will receive Renminbi coupons; all taxes will be collected from Renminbi coupons; local governments will be the first to issue physical public bonds at their own discretion; capital verification, like Pingjin, will order all private banks to inspect funds; open up all liberated areas For exchange, use the relatively strong currency positions in the old areas to support the newly occupied currency positions in the south.

In this way, both political and economic means were used together, and within a month, the rampant silver dollar turmoil was quelled.The renminbi is beginning to gain a firm foothold in Shanghai.In this round of contest with speculative capital, the people's regime has won with the help of political and military means.This battle is known as the "Battle of Silver Dollars". But the speculative capital is powerful, and this time it didn't hurt the fundamentals. They quickly shifted their speculative activities from the financial field to the commodity circulation field, setting off a new wave of sharp rise in prices.

The price surge caused a sharp turmoil in the market, panicked the people, and seriously affected military operations.Deng Xiaoping, who was nervously preparing to march to the southwest, had to go to Peiping in person to ask the central government for help.He reported that the shortage of coal and grain in Shanghai is serious. Because there are too many schools and 150,000 old people are recruited, the expenditure is huge, there is a lack of factories, the transportation costs are expensive, and it is difficult to start work.Request the evacuation of Shanghai factories, schools and personnel to other places, and ask the liberated areas to support food and other materials.

On July 16, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued a notice to hold financial and trade conferences in various districts in Shanghai. It was decided that in early August, Chen Yun would host a meeting in Shanghai with the participation of leading cadres from financial and economic departments in the five regions of East China, North China, Central China, Northeast China, and Northwest China. Research issues such as autumn levy, taxation, and fiscal expenditures, and make deployment centered on stabilizing financial prices to overcome financial difficulties in major cities such as Shanghai and Wuhan.

The East China Bureau, which was at the center of the price trend, impatiently asked Chen Yun to come to Shanghai in advance to prepare and chair the meeting in a telegram to the Central Finance Commission.In view of the tense situation in Shanghai, on July 12, Chen Yun presided over the founding meeting of the Central Finance Committee, and left Beijing on July 19 for Shanghai. After arriving in Shanghai, Chen Yun took the time to conduct in-depth investigation and research on the situation in Shanghai regardless of the dust along the way, and mastered a lot of first-hand materials.And sitting in Shanghai, directing the struggle against speculative capital on the spot. After many efforts, until the beginning of August, the national prices gradually stabilized.The rate of rise in comprehensive prices was doubled in Tianjin and 1.5 times in Shanghai, basically reflecting the actual level of inflation. From July 27 to August 15, Chen Yun presided over a meeting (also known as the Shanghai Finance and Economics Conference) in Shanghai with the participation of leading cadres from the financial and economic departments of the five regions of East China, North China, Central China, Northeast China, and Northwest China to discuss solutions to the problems faced by Shanghai and the whole country. severe economic situation and countermeasures. After the meeting started, Chen Yun, with his consistent democratic style, listened carefully to everyone's opinions, understood the situation in all aspects, and nervously thought about the countermeasures to solve the problem. On August 8, he gave a speech at the meeting, explaining the ways to overcome serious financial and economic difficulties. On August 15, Chen Yun made a summary of the issues discussed at the meeting.Facing the arduous struggle of financial work and the new situation that the country is about to be liberated, Chen Yun made two demands on the local financial committees and financial workers: One is to ask everyone to "focus on economic development."Chen Yun suggested that attention should be paid to saving expenses, but more attention should be paid to increasing income.Throttle is very important, open source is more important.The so-called open source is to develop the economy.Chen Yun also asked everyone to pay attention to the flexible use of materials.He said that in the past, most cadres were unwilling to throw away the materials when they got them, which was caused by the unstable prices over the years.Now pay attention to when to sell what is favorable.If what should be thrown away is not thrown away, prices have risen and more bills have to be issued, which may be beneficial from a local perspective, but it is not good for the overall situation.Be prepared to sell based on the overall situation of price stability. The second is to require that "the financial committees of all regions should be organized into a headquarters."Chen Yun said that there are only a few people in the financial committees of each region, so this will not work.The Finance Committee should set up organizations that specialize in all aspects of work, such as finance, finance and trade, etc.Some may have secretaries or committee members, such as industrial secretaries and planning committee members, who are responsible for reading relevant materials, using their brains, and considering problems.This cannot be done solely by the business departments below.Now the scope of work is very wide and the tasks are very heavy, and there is no specialized research institution that cannot handle it.Where do people come from?It is impossible to send from above, but to draw from the business organization.It is not acceptable to draw the second and third ranks, but to draw the first ranks.The previous institutions are completely unable to meet today's needs, and the set of past experiences cannot cope with the current situation.Now we not only have to deal with domestic affairs, but also deal with the international economy.In this way, it is necessary to unite people inside and outside the party, those who are based in the base areas, those who do underground work, those who come from abroad, and those who are local, and it is not enough if there is no one aspect.In short, what we are facing today is the situation of managing a large country with a population of hundreds of millions, and we must recruit knowledgeable people from all walks of life inside and outside the party to work together.