Chapter 32 32. Chiang Kai-shek's stock speculation

In the memoirs of Chen Jieru, the third wife of Chiang Kai-shek, there is such a paragraph: "After the introduction of Mr. Zhang Jingjiang, Jieshi bought 4 shares of "Shengtai" under the name of 'Jiang Wei'. He carefully read books about finance. , learning how to buy, sell and invest in stocks was very new to him, and soon the excitement of the ups and downs of various stocks, especially the profits he might get, occupied his whole mind. He studied which stocks were good, Which stock is bad, gradually forget the original hatred in my heart. It is very rare to occupy a seat in the Shanghai Stock Building, so Jieshi works actively and hard. Stock trading is an indispensable part of Shanghai finance, thousands of The speculators who make a living crowded the building to the brim every day, and Jieshi watched the market trend like an eagle, buying high and selling low, just like a veteran.”

When readers read the last sentence of this paragraph, I am afraid that they will all burst into laughter and complain, because friends who have a little experience in stock trading know that in order to make money in stock trading, there is no such thing as "buy high and sell low". What about veterans? Many years ago, "Chen Jieru's Memoirs" caused quite a stir when it was published, not only because the book revealed some of Chiang Kai-shek's private past, but also because the Chiang family in Taiwan tried their best to prevent the publication of this book, but in the end The result is that it makes the book even more mysterious.However, after the publication of this so-called memoir, novelty hunters may be satisfied, but historians probably do not think highly of it, because although this book is completed on the basis of Chen Jieru's diary, memories and dictation, the actual author Not Chen Jieru but her collaborator Li Yinsheng brothers.It is a pity that the author did not do in-depth research on this period of history, but he likes to add oil and vinegar, and play it arbitrarily, so there are a lot of mistakes in it. Except for the quite credible communication between Chen Jieru and Chiang Kai-shek, other historical materials are quite valuable. Low, such as the paragraph about Chiang Kai-shek's stock trading.

The real fact is that Chiang Kai-shek did not visit the Shanghai Stock Exchange until late August 1920, one and a half months after its opening.On the night he went back, he wrote in his diary that the dirty air and noisy voices in the exchange made him feel dizzy, and he couldn't help sighing that the broker couldn't help it.Judging from various records, Chiang Kai-shek has never personally operated such trivial matters as stock trading, but it is true that he is a shareholder. Stocks are imported from the West and appeared as early as the end of the Qing Dynasty, but the stock exchange was a thing after the Republic of China.Around the end of 1916, Sun Yat-sen, who returned from Japan, decided to manage an exchange in Shanghai, and at the same time raise funds for the revolution.Sun Yat-sen initially chose to cooperate with Japan's Kobe shipping giant and his old friend Toyoi Mikami. After a period of consultation and preparation, the Chinese side, Dai Jitao, signed a draft agreement with the Japanese side, which stipulated that the exchange The total capital is 5 million silver dollars, and the Japanese side provides 2.5 million yuan as an interest-free loan. The Japanese side gets 80% of the dividends, and the Chinese founders get 20%.As an additional condition, the exchange must hire Japanese personnel who are proficient in business as consultants to negotiate and handle exchange affairs.After the draft was negotiated, it was signed by Sun Wen, Yu Qiaqing, Zhang Jingjiang, Dai Jitao and others.

In January 1917, led by Sun Yat-sen and supported by 8 people including Yu Qiaqing, Zhang Jingjiang, and Dai Jitao, the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s application was formally submitted to the Beijing government (when Li Yuanhong was president and Duan Qirui was prime minister). One month later, the Beijing government first approved However, the transactions of the other six items, such as flower yarn, gold and silver, and cloth, had to wait for the approval of the governor of Jiangsu due to the objection of the industrialist Zhang Jian.When the preparatory work of the exchange was proceeding in an orderly manner, the sudden "restoration of Zhang Xun" in Beijing caused chaos in the market, and Sun Yat-sen then went south to "protect the law", so the preparatory work of the exchange had to be temporarily suspended.

The political situation changed, and the Japanese side saw that there was no hope for cooperation, and then in March of the following year, it set up a reference office (that is, an exchange) on Sanma Road (now Hankou Road) in the Shanghai Concession, and attempted to monopolize Shanghai's securities, cotton and other markets.Due to the economic coercion of the Japanese, the industrial and commercial circles in Shanghai, under the active activities of Yu Qiaqing, once again applied to the Beiyang government to open an exchange.This time, many Shanghai industrial and commercial giants such as Wen Zongyao, Wen Hanzhang, Li Yunshu and others also joined in one after another, while Zhang Jingjiang, Dai Jitao, Chiang Kai-shek and others secretly organized the Association to promote it.

After some quarrels and tribulations, the Shanghai Stock Exchange finally held its founding meeting at the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce on February 1, 1920.The exchange itself is in the form of a joint-stock company, with 572 shareholders and 100,000 shares.At the founding meeting, the shareholder representatives elected 17 directors and 3 supervisors, of which Yu Qiaqing was elected as the chairman, Zhang Jingjiang was elected as an alternate director, and Zhou Junyan, Chiang Kai-shek’s fellow countryman and comrade, was elected as the supervisor. On July 1 of the same year, the Shanghai Stock Exchange was officially opened, and no less than a hundred celebrities came to congratulate it. On the same day, a small advertisement appeared in the Shanghai "Shenzhen" with the content of "Shanghai Stock Exchange No. 54 Broker Mr. Chen Guofu, I buy and sell securities and cotton on behalf of customers. If you are entrusted, you are welcome." The address and phone number of the firm are left behind.

This firm was Maoxinhao, in which Chiang Kai-shek had a shareholding. The broker and manager at the time was Chen Guofu, and Chiang Kai-shek's fellow villager Zhu Shoumei was the assistant.The opening of Maoxin was not smooth, because everyone was inexperienced. For example, the stock of the stock exchange opened at 30 yuan, and it rose to 42 yuan on July 4. When Chiang Kai-shek entrusted Zhu Shoumei to buy the stock, he bought it at a low price. I didn't buy it, and waited for it to rise to 42 yuan before buying it in a hurry. As a result, the stock price fell back a few days later, and I lost thousands of yuan at once.Chiang Kai-shek complained in his diary: "Business career is not easy to do, but it was harmed by Guofu and Shoumei." Two days later, he said in his diary: "If you accept Guoxin, you know that he is timid and worrying, and he can't do business. .”

Among those people at that time, Chen Guofu was actually quite good at doing business.Chen Guofu is the nephew of Chiang Kai-shek's brother-in-law Chen Qimei, who is only five years younger than Chiang Kai-shek. When Chen, Jiang and others made a revolution in 1911, Chen Guofu had just graduated from the Army Middle School, and then joined their team and met Chiang Kai-shek.Because Chen Qimei joined the Shanghai gang, most of the people around her behaved disorderly, such as opium smokers, gambling money, and prostitutes.Except for Chiang Kai-shek, he has no other bad habits except lust, so Chen Guofu has a good impression of him and praised Chiang Kai-shek for his "resolute and stable life, serious life, and regular life".

After Chen Qimei was assassinated, most of the Shanghai Revolutionary Party dispersed, and Chen Guofu also lost support, so that he had nothing to do for a long time.Until the winter of 1917, the married Chen Guofu entered the Shanghai bank with the help of his father-in-law and began to learn how to do business.During this period, Chen Guofu once borrowed 1,000 taels of silver from Chiang Kai-shek as the capital, "made a foreign uranium business", and earned more than 600 taels of silver in less than three weeks, which shows that he still has a business sense. After a period of operation, Maoxin started to get on the right track, and its share capital also increased from 10,000 yuan to 15,000 yuan, and later increased to 30,000 yuan.According to Chen Guofu's self-report, the daily business expenses are less than 30 yuan, and the commission can earn more than 30 yuan on the worst day of business, and even 2,000 yuan on the highest day.

Due to the good business, Chiang Kai-shek established Hengtai with 17 people including Zhang Jingjiang, Dai Jitao, Chen Guofu, and Zhu Shoumei at the end of the year. The total capital of the new company was 35,000 yuan, and each share was 1,000 yuan. There were 35 shares in total.On the establishment agreement, there were 17 signatures of shareholders, among which "Jiang Weiji" was Chiang Kai-shek's code name, and Chiang Kai-shek also signed the name "Zhongzheng" below.However, it seems that Chiang Kai-shek did not pay his own share capital, but was recognized by Zhang Jingjiang on his behalf, and there is a letter to prove it: "I have been living at home for a long time, often entertaining myself with ink, ashamed of making no progress, and cannot be regarded as elegant. Seven days of teaching, I learned one thing. I am very grateful for the recognition of Hengtai’s shares. Please sign for it.” Later, Hengtai expanded its business scope, increased the business of buying and selling gold and silver on behalf of customers, and its capital also increased to 46,000 100 yuan per share, of which 44 shares belonged to Chiang Kai-shek and 55 shares belonged to Zhang Jingjiang. It is unknown who paid the money this time.

At the end of May 1921, Chiang Kai-shek, Zhang Jingjiang, Dai Jitao and others established Liyuan, with a total capital of 30,000 yuan and 1,000 yuan per share, of which Chiang Kai-shek had 3 shares, Zhang Jingjiang and Dai Jitao each had 1 share.Two months later, Liyuanhao expanded its business scope and decided to increase its share capital by 200 yuan per share. At this time, the stock market in Shanghai was at its peak, and the wealth on the books of each firm continued to soar. Among them, Maoxin The account has already made a net profit of 18,400 yuan since its opening. Chen Guofu also asked Chiang Kai-shek whether to increase the number of shares? From the records, Chiang Kai-shek not only participated in Maoxin, Hengtai and Liyuan No. 3, but also Xinfeng and Dingxin No. 2, all of which had a capital of at least 10,000 yuan.During this period of time, Chiang Kai-shek was not only busy with investment business in Shanghai, but also stayed in Guangdong for a long time due to changes in the situation in Guangdong. After 1920, because of frequent wars in the Cantonese army of Xu Chongzhi, Chen Jiongming and others, Sun Yat-sen called Chiang to serve in the army several times urgently; in addition, in June 1921, Chiang Kai-shek’s biological mother Wang Caiyu passed away, and he returned to his hometown Fenghua, Zhejiang Even if Chiang Kai-shek had three heads and six arms, he would have been too busy to deal with the funeral and keep watch for a period of time. There are many paradoxes in Chiang Kai-shek's so-called "investment" in these firms.First of all, where did the money for Chiang Kai-shek's investment come from?From a historical point of view, Chiang Kai-shek did not engage in any serious business during the period from studying to joining the revolution, and his family was not rich. When he separated from his elder brother, he had only three buildings in the old house and a shop in Xikou Town. Coupled with the meager land rent, it seems impossible for him to invest tens of thousands of silver dollars in various companies as shares, and it is too difficult. Secondly, among these companies, most of them are Jiang Jieshi, Zhang Jingjiang, Dai Jitao, Chen Guofu, Zhu Shoumei, etc., and Zhang Jingjiang plays a particularly prominent role, especially in terms of capital investment. For example, in Hengtai, Chiang Kai-shek’s share capital is It was replaced by Zhang Jingjiang; Chen Guofu was generally a trader, and Chiang Kai-shek was a supervisor; as for Dai Jitao, he was more of a scholar. He shouldn't have so much money, and he didn't seem to be involved in the specific business of these investments. Judging from the known operations of these firms, Zhang Jingjiang seems to have played a central role, and he himself was an important financier for Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary cause. When Mr. Sun needed money in Guangzhou, he always came through Zhang Jingjiang. Zhou Xuan even transferred the adjustment directly from the accounts of Chen Guofu and Chiang Kai-shek.According to insiders of the Kuomintang, at that time the party funds were completely controlled by Zhang Jingjiang, and many people who were scattered in various places and did not follow Sun Yat-sen to Guangdong to take up posts could receive allowances and activity fees from Zhang Jingjiang after Sun Yat-sen's approval.It can be seen from this that a large part of Zhang Jingjiang, Chiang Kai-shek, and Chen Guofu's operating income in the exchange is used for public funds, and the source of their capital is also very likely to be public funds. Mr. Sun Yat-sen has been a revolution all his life, and he has also raised money for his whole life, but before the Republic of China, there has been little effect.It is said that after Yuan Shikai's death, Mr. Sun got a huge sum of money. Some people say that he received 2 million marks from the German government to use his influence to prevent the Beijing government from declaring war on Germany. This is probably the so-called "secret" in diplomacy. Donate."After the Second World War, the German national archives were all made public. Dr. Li Guoqi, a Taiwanese historian who studied in Germany, believed after research that the original gift from Germany to Mr. Sun was 200 marks, but Mr. Sun actually only received 1 million; The other 1 million is suspected to be pocketed by someone else or given away by Germany (Li Guoqi: "Several Records in German Archives Concerning China's Participation in World War I", published in "Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the Founding of the Chinese Kuomintang"). Regarding this matter, it was also said that Hartung, a wealthy Jewish businessman in Shanghai at that time, donated five sacks of banknotes to Sun Yat-sen, and was able to lead the naval fleet to the south.This kind of romantic statement seems unbelievable.According to other historical data, Huntsman, the U.S. Consul General in Guangzhou at the time, stated in a report submitted to the State Council: “According to the report of Chen Bingkun, the governor of Guangdong, Sun Yat-sen secretly received 1.5 million silver dollars from Germany in Shanghai. Send the navy's first fleet to the south, and another 300,000 will be given to the members of the extraordinary congress going south, and the balance will be remitted to Guangzhou by ABN Amro and Nissho Taiwan Bank." (Report USDS893.00 submitted to the State Department by the U.S. National Archives and Consulates Abroad / No. 2707, contained in Wei Muting's "Sun Yat-sen: The Unpaid Patriot", translated by Yang Shenzhi, Sun Yat-sen University Press, 1986 edition).From this point of view, this matter is not groundless and speculative. If the money is true, Cheng Biguang’s naval fleet went south to announce the uprising and some members of the Senate and the House of Representatives went south to Guangzhou in 1917. It may be related to it, because the status of the navy after the Republic of China was quite embarrassing. It was only because of the relief from the local warlords that the local warlords were able to maintain it, and the economy was very embarrassing; and Duan Qirui's refusal to restore the Congress even ruined the jobs of those congressmen in Beijing; without a large amount of funds, it is hard to imagine that these people would go south because of morality , because later historical facts have proved that most of these people are snobbish people who are facing Qin Muchu and who have milk or mother. Whether Zhang Jingjiang and others speculated on the Shanghai Stock Exchange came from this money is not yet known, but it is indeed coincident in terms of time.From 1920 to 1922, the bubble in the Shanghai stock market was astonishingly large. Take the stock of the stock exchange as an example, the initial price was 30 yuan.Later, it rose to 80 yuan, and at the end of 1920, it reached 120 yuan; at the beginning of 1921, it was raised to 160 yuan, and at the end of the year, it reached 200 yuan. In less than two years, it has doubled nearly 7 times. The speculation and bubbles in it can be described as very frightening. Liang Qichao believes that the reasons why China's joint-stock companies cannot develop are that firstly, there are few laws and regulations, and even if there are laws, they are not followed. The right of supervision cannot be exercised; the third is the lack of supporting agencies outside the joint-stock company; the fourth is the lack of standardized management personnel in the joint-stock company. Because of this, the early stock exchange in Shanghai became a paradise for speculators. Business tycoons in various industries saw that the exchange could bring in fast and large amounts of money, so they all came to the exchange. By October 1921, Shanghai had already More than 140 exchanges.The so-called prosperity and decline, things must be reversed, the number of exchanges is increasing, the quality is uneven, and the risks are gradually accumulating. By November 1921, 38 exchanges went out of business; after December, at least one exchange was closed every day. The stock exchange is closed, and those who fail to speculate can be found everywhere. It can be said that "yesterday Tao Zhu is today a beggar". Wealth on paper is nothing but nothing in the end. After the market credit collapsed, the atmosphere of securities trading deteriorated day by day, and the earliest and largest Shanghai Stock Exchange was not immune, and this was precisely the target of Zhang Jingjiang, Chiang Kai-shek and others betting on the banker.According to Chen Guofu, the operation of the Shanghai Stock Exchange was originally good. From its opening to its closure, the turnover was hundreds of millions of yuan, and the commission income alone was more than 200,000 yuan. In the end, the exchange stopped delivery and led to a long-term suspension of business, and the stock almost became waste paper. This incident has a lot to do with the association organized by Zhang Jingjiang, Chiang Kai-shek, Dai Jitao, etc., because the association owns 30,000 shares of the exchange. When the stock price was fired to 120 yuan, some exchanges were established Investors began to withdraw their capital, but Zhang Jingjiang, Chiang Kai-shek and others thought they had the strength, and continued to do stock trading in this exchange. At the end of 1921, the stock price of our firm rose to more than 200 yuan per share, and the price difference between spot and futures became wider and wider. Instead of paying the transaction deposit in full, Chiang Kai-shek and others forced executive directors Guo Waifeng and Wen Lanting to accept bad checks. The buyer defaulted due to insufficient funds and stopped the delivery, which eventually led to a catastrophe. During this turmoil, Chiang Kai-shek’s fellow countryman, that is, Zhou Junyan, the supervisor of the exchange, owed 200,000 yuan in debt at that time because of arbitrage failure, and jumped into the Huangpu River twice because he was pressed for debts everywhere; What a reputation, but Chen Guofu is still calm, staying to clean up the mess.After the wave of exchanges, Shanghai giants such as Yu Qiaqing finally came forward to merge the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Shanghai Global Currency and Securities Exchange, and introduced foreign capital and foreigners to manage them, and finally overcame the difficulties. As for Chiang Kai-shek, because Chen Jiongming launched a mutiny in June 1922, Sun Yat-sen was trapped on the Zhongshan ship, so he was eager to go to Guangdong.Before leaving Shanghai, Chiang Kai-shek approached Yu Qiaqing, former chairman of the exchange, to ask for funding (or a final solution for them to hold stocks in the exchange). Make trouble and refuse to give money at first.Until later, after the Green Gang leader Huang Jinrong intervened, the two sides negotiated, and Yu Qiaqing agreed to give Chiang Kai-shek 60,000 yuan, but it must be paid on the day he left Shanghai (for fear that they would take the money and make trouble again).As a result, the bad debts that Zhang Jingjiang and Chiang Kai-shek fiddled with the exchange have been written off. It is difficult to clarify what is going on in it. Fortunately, the revolutionary situation at this time has undergone a turning point. Soviet Russia extended a helping hand to Sun Yat-sen. Chiang Kai-shek also visited the Soviet Union in September of the following year. After returning to China, he served as the principal of the Whampoa Military Academy and trained the army. It is impossible to deal with it; and those revolutionaries who originally engaged in stock speculation business in Shanghai have also gone south to Guangdong to start new businesses. As for everything before, it has long been a thing of the past!