Chapter 48 48. Life in Shanghai in the Silver Dollar Era

Mr. Chen Cunren was a well-known Chinese medicine doctor in the period of the Republic of China. He once wrote two historical essays about life in Shanghai, one is "Life History in the Silver Dollar Era" and the other is "Life History in the Anti-Japanese War Era". The life and history of Shanghai from the 1920s to the 1940s.Although Mr. Chen is not a professional historian, his descriptions are true to the nuances and highly readable. Combined with other people's memoirs and statistics, we can get a glimpse of life in Shanghai during the Republic of China. Chen Cunren was born in 1908. He was originally an authentic Shanghainese who had been studying and doing business in the old city of Shanghai for generations.When he was six years old, Chen Cunren went to his aunt's house to pay New Year's greetings. His aunt's family was very rich and gave him a silver dollar as lucky money.In the early years of the Republic of China, children rarely had the opportunity to see a silver dollar, and they had the most contact with copper dollars.

According to Mr. Chen's recollection, one copper dollar was very useful at that time. It could buy ten or eight candies, one flatbread fried dough stick, or one or two raw pears.When I went to Chenghuang Temple, one copper dollar could buy a piece of Baicao pear cream candy, two copper dollars a bowl of fermented glutinous rice balls, four copper dollars a bowl of meat noodles, the meat was big and thick, there was Dutch water (foreign soda) at that time, A bottle of two copper coins.At that time, one silver dollar could buy more than 150 eggs, which was more than the exchanged copper dollars.Hu Die, a famous movie star during the Republic of China, was born in the same year as Mr. Chen Cunren. She once said in her memoirs that when she was eight years old (1916), a copper plate could buy a meat bun or a lot of sugar-fried chestnuts.

In the 1920s and 1930s, various currencies circulated in the market, including silver taels of silver dollars, various copper coins and depreciated banknotes (banknotes issued by Bank of China, Bank of Communications, etc. are generally used at a 30% discount).Silver dollar was the main currency in circulation at that time, including Yuan Shikai Yuan, Long Yuan, Sun Yat-sen Yuan, and foreign silver dollars that flowed in from foreign countries due to foreign trade, such as Spanish Carlos silver dollars, Austrian-Hungarian silver dollars, Peruvian silver dollars, Britain, the United States, Japan and other countries. Incoming trade silver dollars.According to statistics in 1929, there were as many as 15 kinds of silver dollars flowing into China from foreign countries.As for silver taels, there are no definite rules. When using them, you need to check their fineness and weigh them, such as ingots, silver ingots, silver nuggets, and silver flakes. Many of them need to be exchanged by banks.The auxiliary coins, silver dice and copper coins, are often minted by the provinces themselves, and they come in a variety of varieties.

People of the older generation generally do not trust banknotes (banknotes, even bank notes, checks, etc.), especially banknotes from foreign banks.At that time, there were two kinds of foreign banknotes that made the Chinese suffer greatly. One was the Deutsche Mark that collapsed after the end of World War I, and the other was the ruble that became worthless after the Russian Revolution.Even if it was US dollar bills, people were not very interested at that time. They were most interested in and considered the most reliable silver taels and silver dollars, which were the real wealth in their minds.

Therefore, most of the big families and even ordinary families at that time had the habit of hiding silver cellars (even if there is a fire, it doesn’t matter, the house goes to the house and the cellar is stored), there are tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, and the few will hide hundreds of thousands of dollars. .When old houses are demolished or renovated, it is common to dig out the silver cellars.What's even more ridiculous is that when Shanghainese wished others a fortune during the Chinese New Year, they didn't say "I hope you win the betting ticket", but "I hope you can find the treasure".

When he was eight years old, Chen Cunren experienced the scene of "digging Tibet" with his own eyes.At that time, his uncle died, and his aunt invited his fourth uncle (that is, uncle) to distribute the family property (it is a long-standing tradition in the Jiangnan area to invite uncle to preside over the division of the family, and the uncle should also be respected as the chief at the wedding banquet of the niece's marriage). His uncle brought him together to testify.Before going, the fourth uncle took him to the City God Temple and asked him to swear a curse to the City God Bodhisattva, promising that he would never tell others what he saw when the family was separated.After arriving at the aunt's house, all the family members were present, waiting for the uncle and witnesses to dig out and separate the family.In the middle of the night, when all the servants in the family were sent to the temple to keep watch, the excavation officially began.

The fourth uncle said, "When my sister-in-law was seriously ill, he only said one sentence, 'Put the things under the painting box in the study'. When he said this, he was already dying, and he stretched out two fingers and said 'twenty'. What does the word 'twenty' mean?" At that time, everyone in my aunt's family thought it was twenty clay pots.So everyone worked together, moved the painting box in the study room, and started digging down. After digging for a long time, eight jars were dug out, which were full of silver dollars, one thousand yuan each, and a pair of silver ingots (each ingot) were on it. weighs twelve taels).Because the number dug out was wrong with "twenty", everyone continued to dig down, and finally dug out the remaining twelve cylinders of silver dollars, a total of 20,000 silver dollars and twenty pairs of silver ingots.

At the beginning of the opening of Shanghai, some rich merchants also made silver cakes by themselves, and each cake was five yuan, and then entered the market.At that time, the official silver dollar was seven cents and three cents of silver, and the scale of the library was seven cents and two cents. Among the silver coins in circulation at that time, the most standard silver was the Mexican silver dollar. Because there was an eagle on the front, it was called "Eagle Dollar". Shanghainese also call it "foreign uranium".At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing court introduced machines from foreign countries to cast silver coins. Because there was a dragon on it, it was also called "Dragon Yuan". , which is commonly known as "Yuan Datou", this silver coin was the most widely used before the reform of legal currency.

Folks also make counterfeit silver dollars, so the first priority of bankers is to know how to identify the authenticity of silver dollars.The most traditional method is to listen to the sound, and throw silver dollars on the big counter. If the sound is clear and pleasant, it is true, and if the sound is muddy, it is suspected of being fake.Or just pick up the silver dollar with two fingers and blow it to the edge. The real silver dollar will make a slight but long silver flute sound, such as the sound of "Yin", and there will be no fake ones (when the author was young, there were several at home. The surviving "Yuan Datou" is indeed tried and tested).

Generally speaking, silver dollars were mostly used for transactions below ten yuan at that time, and it was inconvenient to use silver dollars for transactions above ten yuan, because one silver dollar was seven cents and three cents, and one hundred was seventy-three taels. It is very troublesome, so at this time, it is necessary to use silver taels or bank notes (that is, equivalent to bank notes, payable at sight).Under the silver dollar, there are two kinds of auxiliary coins, one is silver dime and the other is copper dollar.These two coins are not decimal, but change according to changes in the price of silver.In the bank at that time, the exchange rate was listed every day, but the fluctuation would not be too large. One silver dollar was usually exchanged for about 128 copper dollars.

The Chen family began to decline in the early years of the Republic of China. At first, the family business went bankrupt, and later because of the sudden death of their father from dysentery, they could only change their life of simple food and drink.According to Mr. Chen's records, when he was eight or nine years old, the price of rice was three yuan and six cents per load, and his daily food was limited to four copper yuan, one copper yuan for a plate of boiled vegetables, one copper yuan for tofu and bean sprouts, and two copper yuan for "Toyo "fish" (dried salmon salted fish sold in Japan), and it is rare to eat shredded pork once a month.When he was graduating from elementary school, he clamored to buy a pair of children's leather shoes, but the asking price was one silver dollar, so he could only reluctantly give up. After Mr. Chen graduated from middle school and began to study Chinese medicine, the price of goods changed at this time.At that time, one copper dollar could buy two pieces of dried stinky tofu and five zongzi candies; Pinhai cigarettes and Bandit cigarettes cost three copper dollars; the price of rice had risen to four yuan and six cents per load.Once, Mr. Chen and his cousin went to visit Bansong Garden. When talking about their future wishes, the cousin said that he hoped to work in a foreign company, and he could get 30 yuan a month. 40 yuan.At that time, I earned 30 to 40 yuan a month, which was enough to support my family. Bao Tianxiao, a well-known reporter in the Republic of China, said in his autobiography "Memoirs of Chuanyinglou" that he rented a house in Shanghai in 1906 and began to look for it on Pike Road and Baike Road (now Nanjing West Road and Fengyang Road). The days were fruitless, and later he found a lease, saying that there was a vacancy in a Shikumen building in Shengye, Aiwenyi Road (now Beijing West Road), a little north.The landlord who posted the rent is also from Suzhou. At that time, he explained that he lived in a wing room and the monthly rent was 7 yuan.At that time, workers in a large flour mill in Shanghai earned no more than 7 to 10 yuan a month, while Bao Tianxiao was an editor at The Times at the time, earning 80 yuan a month.Bao Tianxiao's salary was not meager at the time, because a fellow of his had entered the "Shenzhen" office as an editor two years earlier than him, with a salary of only 28 yuan. The rent mainly depends on the location and period. In areas outside the public concession, the rent around 1906 was not expensive. For example, the monthly rent of a house in Hongkou District may only be 3 to 4 yuan.But in the 1930s, especially after the "January 28th Incident", the situation was quite different. The monthly rent of the pavilions had risen to 20 yuan (usually 7 to 8 yuan before), and the rental advertisements had just been posted, and often Before the paste is dry, the house has already been rented out.This situation was even more so after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War. The pavilion room in Shanghai can be said to be the worst room in the Shikumen house.It is located in the space above the stove draped room and under the balcony, with a height of about two meters and an area of ​​6 to 7 square meters. It faces north and is mostly used for storing sundries or living servants.In the 1920s and 1930s, when many young writers came to Shanghai to make a living, they often found this kind of house to live in first, so that a new term was coined later, called "literati in the pavilion". The income of literati in the pavilion is actually not low. At that time, a prolific writer of popular novels (such as the mandarin ducks and butterflies who wrote serials) could earn 300 yuan a month. In 1921, when Mao Dun was an editor for a commercial magazine, his monthly salary was 100 yuan; according to Huang Tianpeng’s "Chinese Journalism" published in 1930, the monthly salary of a chief editor at that time was 150 to 350 yuan. Directors are paid 120 to 200 yuan, ordinary editors are paid 60 to 100 yuan, foreign reporters are about 100 yuan plus business expenses, local journalists are paid about 50 yuan, and scribes only earn 20 yuan a month. Some writers and literati who specialize in writing can generally earn a decent income. For example, in the late 1920s, Yu Dafu earned 100 to 200 yuan a month in royalties, while a skilled worker’s monthly income was about 30 to 40 yuan. Enough to feed a family of five.The left-wing writer Rou Shi who was killed later earned about 100 yuan a month, plus 800 yuan in royalties every year. The young female writer Ding Ling also earned 70 yuan a month.As for ordinary writers who are not well-known and have just arrived, their monthly income is only 20 to 30 yuan, which is only enough to live in Shanghai for one month. According to the statistics of Mr. Chen Mingchuan in his book "Cultural People and Money", Lu Xun's average monthly income is about 420 yuan, and the income of cultural people at the same time or earlier is not lower than Lu Xun, such as Peking University liberal arts Senior Chen Duxiu’s monthly salary is 400 yuan, and the editor-in-chief of "New Youth" magazine also has an editing fee of 200 yuan per month. Calculated in this way, Chen Duxiu’s monthly income is 600 yuan; Cai Yuanpei is the president of Peking University, and his monthly salary is 600 yuan. The translation fee (7 yuan per 1,000 words) and the royalties in the publication are not cheap.In terms of royalties, Lin Qinnan may be the highest. He earned 220,000 yuan in royalties through translation in his lifetime (much higher than Lu Xun and others). In addition, he also earned 550 yuan a month as a teacher at Peking University. The income of lawyers in the Republic of China was even more staggering. For example, lawyer Wu Kaisheng, who graduated from the University of Lyon in France in 1926, opened a firm with three other lawyers. Ten thousand yuan.Therefore, Wu Kaisheng made a fortune within two years and bought a big house and a car. At the end of 1927, he bought a piece of land for 3,000 taels of silver, and sold it at ten times the price in just over three years.Of course, this is the income of a lawyer. The monthly income of an ordinary lawyer is about one or two hundred yuan. Professors were high-income earners during the Republic of China period. During the Beiyang period, the monthly salary was between 180 and 280 yuan, and during the National Government period, it was between 100 and 600 yuan. In the 1930s, the monthly salary of middle school teachers was 100 to 260 yuan, and that of primary school teachers was 60 to 100 yuan.Of course, the records of these salaries are nominal. During the period of the Republic of China, due to the unstable situation, it happened frequently that primary and secondary school teachers were owed salaries.According to the 1934 "Shen Bao" report, the monthly salaries of professors at various universities in Shanghai are as follows: Sino-French Institute of Technology is the highest, 1,500 yuan; Tongji University, 775 yuan; Jiaotong University: 600 yuan; Fudan University, 530 yuan; College, 400 yuan; Aurora University, Hujiang University, 300 yuan; Daxia University, 290 yuan; Shanghai Law School, 210 yuan.At Yenching University, which was under the administration of Leighton Stuart at the same time, the monthly salary of the professor was 360 yuan, and the principal was 500 yuan. As for officials and civil servants, their salaries are not high. As announced in the 1927 Government Gazette, the monthly salary of ministers is 800 yuan, that of deputy ministers is 675 yuan, that of bureau chiefs (or directors, division chiefs) is 450 to 600 yuan, and that of secretaries is 800 yuan. 300 to 450 yuan, 250 to 400 yuan for the section chief, and 60 to 180 yuan for the staff.The judges of the court have a high income, with a monthly salary of 1,000 yuan, while ordinary judges earn up to 400 yuan and the lowest 160 yuan, but they have no additional income. According to Mr. Chen Cunren's records, at that time the Shanghai Health Bureau had no more than eight staff members, the section chief's salary was 30 yuan per month, and the junior clerk's salary was only 8 yuan per month.Of course, this is a nominal income. For example, the Health Bureau collected a large sum of money after reviewing the doctor's license, and all the staff immediately raised their salaries. In the 1920s and 1930s, the monthly salary of workers in Shanghai was generally around 20 yuan. If the monthly family income exceeded 50 yuan, they were basically well-off;Zhang Zhizhong said in his memoirs that he fled to Shanghai in 1921 because he lost his military post. He rented a floor in the French Concession for 16 yuan. The monthly living expenses with his wife and one child is 50 yuan, which is still relatively tight. In 1928, Hu Die, who was already a little famous, transferred to the Star Film Company, and received a monthly salary of 2,000 yuan (1,000 in actual expenses, 1,000 owed by the company). In 1931, Star Company took her as the heroine and filmed China's first sound film "Song Girl Red Peony". The film lasted 6 months and cost a total of 120,000 yuan.However, the income of this film is very good. In addition to the domestic box office, the sales of the screening rights to the Philippine film studios alone earned 18,000 yuan, and 16,000 yuan from the sales to Indonesia. Compared with Hu Die, Zhou Xuan who just debuted is much worse. The monthly salary she signed with the film company was 200 yuan at first.The salary of male actors is generally lower than that of female actors. For example, Zhao Dan's monthly salary is 200 yuan, and Xie Tian's monthly salary is 250 yuan.The salaries of actresses who are not well-known are also very low. For example, when Lan Ping (Jiang Qing) was in the film industry, her salary was 60 yuan per month, and Qin Yi was also 60 yuan. During the period of the Republic of China, the living standard of Shanghai people was still good. Ordinary people generally ate meat dishes (meat, fish, eggs, seafood, etc.) four times a month, usually on the second day, eighth day, sixteenth day and twenty-third day of each month. These days are called "dang meat", and other days are served with vegetables and soy products.Earlier, Mr. Chen Cunren said that when he was eight or nine years old, he could only eat meat once a month, which shows that his family's life was relatively difficult at that time. According to the customs of Shanghai, if there are guests at home, meat dishes must be the main dish, "no meal without meat", and vegetables are the side dishes.As for the coolies pulling rickshaws, they generally could only eat vegetables, tofu, salted fish, etc., which were considered "extremely cheap and poor" food at the time.Just like a song sang at that time: "When we are hungry, we immediately pick up the chopsticks and rush to the kitchen to see what side dishes there are, and it is stir-fried tofu with green vegetables. How can I come to eat?" After the 1920s, the price of rice in Shanghai usually fluctuated around 8 yuan to 13 yuan per 100 catties. Like rent, it was the main expenditure of low-income families, and the province could not save it. You have to shake your head and sigh, saying that life is hard to go on, but for people with high salaries, this little fluctuation is nothing at all. At that time, transportation in Shanghai was mainly based on rickshaws. The starting price was mostly ten copper coins, and the price was negotiated according to the mileage. However, due to the fierce competition and lack of technical content, the income of rickshaw drivers was very low, and most of them were more than ten yuan a month. Only able to sustain one person's survival.Shanghai had trams in the early years of the Republic of China. At that time, it was a copper dollar to go from the French Concession to the public concession, and it was also a copper dollar to go around the public concession; more than ten years later, there was a business trip car (today's "taxi"). ”), the toll is expensive. From Dashijie (today’s People’s Square) to Nanshi (to the south of Yuyuan Garden and Town God’s Temple), the fare is more than one silver dollar, which is beyond the reach of ordinary people.In fact, the price of a small car at that time was only about 1,000 silver dollars. In Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s, primary school generally had a four-year system, with tuition fees ranging from 2 to 4 yuan per semester, and middle school also had a four-year system, with tuition fees ranging from 16 to 36 yuan per semester. The lowest tuition fee for universities was 40 yuan, and the highest was St. John’s. University, the tuition fee is as high as 150 yuan.Mr. Chen Cunren studied in Yucai Primary School, with a tuition fee of 3 yuan per semester. Later, because of family difficulties, he changed to Pudong Primary School, which was cheaper. After graduating from primary school, he entered Mingli Middle School with the support of his fourth uncle, with a tuition fee of 16 yuan per semester. ;After graduating from middle school, he entered Nanyang Medical University (the predecessor of Southeast Medical College), with a tuition fee of 40 yuan per semester, which was already very expensive at that time; The tuition fee is 24 yuan, and the burden on his fourth uncle is much lighter.Of course, there are those who are not afraid of spending money. For example, Zhang Xiaolin’s son, Zhang Fayao, his rogue father thought that studying abroad is a very beautiful thing, and then sent Zhang Fayao to France for a few years. It is said that he spent more than 300,000 yuan. Incredible astronomical figures. When children from aristocratic families in Shanghai get married, the gift money is also very high. According to Mr. Chen, it is about 2,000 to 3,000 silver dollars.Compared with the prices in Shanghai, Beijing is much cheaper.Mr. Chen went to Beijing with his wife for their honeymoon after they were newly married. They stayed at the Liuguo Hotel for one night on the first night.Donghua Inn, whose facilities are no worse than Liuguo Hotel, rented at one yuan and sixty cents per night at that time, and the people who lived there were either officials or expensive.At that time, the rent in Beijing was not expensive. A large courtyard house was rented to four families, and the monthly rent for each family was only 8 yuan. Of course, if you want to spend money, you have to be able to make money.After Mr. Chen Cunren finished his teacher, he rented a house on the second floor of "Xinxin Photo Studio" on Nanjing Road to start business. The monthly rent is 50 yuan.Since Mr. Chen was taught by a famous doctor, the outpatient fee was very high from the beginning (1 yuan and 20 cents, which is close to the charging standard of a famous doctor), but he ate a duck egg on the first day of opening and even after more than ten days, and his classmates came to see him. , They all shook their heads and said that the fees were too high. Fortunately, the boss of Sanyou Industrial Co., Ltd. thought highly of him and asked him to be a perennial doctor for more than 500 employees in their company. He paid 50 yuan a month to help him get through the initial crisis. Later, as the number of patients gradually increased and business increased, Mr. Chen hired a registered clerk with a monthly salary of 6 yuan, and spent 8 yuan on a rickshaw for making outpatient visits. At that time, the cost of outpatient visits was 5 yuan.A year later, there were about 10 outpatients per day (Ding Zhongying, a famous doctor in Shanghai, was also Chen Cunren's teacher, he could see hundreds of people a day, and his monthly income was at least 3,000 yuan).Later, Sanyou Industrial Co., Ltd. expanded to 3,000 employees, and the fixed monthly consultation fee was increased to 300 yuan.Later, Mr. Chen served as the perennial doctor of the rich Jewish businessman Harton, who received 200 yuan a month.With these two fixed incomes alone, Dr. Chen has already ranked among the high-paid people at that time. In addition, Mr. Chen also ran a newspaper (namely "Kang Jian Bao"), each with two copper dollars, and the annual subscription fee plus postage was two dollars. When it reaches 8,000 copies, there will be more than 10,000 yuan in cash at once. In addition to the 1,600 yuan a year of advertising revenue that has been received in advance, this income alone is enough to cover the cost of the newspaper for the past five years.A friend who helped him copy, Deng Duntie, also worked as a copyist in Huaan Hequn Insurance Company at that time, and his monthly salary was only 35 yuan. It reached eight or nine thousand yuan. However, the most powerful thing is not to make money, but to make money with money, that is to buy land.Under the guidance of an expert, Mr. Chen once bought a piece of land with an area of ​​3 mu and 70 cents for 5,200 yuan on Yuyuan Road, Jing'an Temple Road (now Changde Road). The local people only believe in silver dollars, and don't accept other banker's checks.For this piece of land, in less than three years, Chen Cunren sold it for 30,000 yuan, and a few years later, the price rose to 100,000 yuan. It can be seen that investing in real estate is such a lucrative business.Of course, it is also good to buy some artworks, precious jewelry and even leather goods appropriately. For example, Mrs. Chen bought two black fox leather boxes for 60 yuan in Beijing, which were later bought for 600 yuan; After 20 or 30 years, the Chen family went to Hong Kong and sold them at a price of 1,000 times the original price, and later increased to 5,000 times the price. It may be seen from this that prices in the silver dollar era were relatively stable.In the age of paper money, it all depends on the credit of the government.