Chapter 22 Chapter 13 1932: The Economy of Salvation

On June 22, 1931, the American "Time" magazine reported on the news that the Shenyang Arsenal had manufactured China's first heavy-duty truck with the title "On the Tires". Imported from the United States, Chinese workers can produce steel, frame and radiator.The person in charge of the factory told reporters, "This is the 100 model. It is planned to build a production line to produce 5 vehicles per month. Each vehicle has a tire load of 10,000 pounds (about 5 tons). We will also produce 10 vehicles per month." 75, with a capacity of 7,500 pounds per tire."

Just three months later, the largest arsenal in China and the truck production line under construction fell into the hands of the Japanese Kwantung Army, along with hundreds of self-made military aircraft. After entering 1930, the specter of war has been like a giant black bird with spread wings, covering the suffering land of China. One wing of the wing is Civil War. At the turn of the spring and summer of 1930, all the military forces opposing the Nanjing government gathered together. Yan Xishan, Zhang Xueliang, Feng Yuxiang, Li Zongren and Wuhan Wang Jingwei formed an alliance to fight Chiang Kai-shek. It was known as the "Central Plains War" in history.The war lasted from May to November, and the two sides invested more than one million troops. The battle line stretched for thousands of miles. It was the largest civil war since the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.The battle was stalemate several times, repeated strangely, and finally Chiang Kai-shek won. After that, no domestic warlord dared to confront him head-on.Just after the Great War in the Central Plains, Chiang Kai-shek quickly aimed his guns at the Communist troops in Jinggangshan, Jiangxi. From November to June of the following year, he mobilized 600,000 troops to launch three "encirclement and suppression" campaigns against the Soviet area. After a fiasco, he finally met Mao Zedong, the biggest opponent in his life.

The other wing of the wing is foreign aggression.As Lu Zuofu saw with his own eyes in the Northeast, Japan has already "moved its index finger" to the resource-rich three provinces in the Northeast. On the evening of September 18, 1931, the Japanese Kwantung Army blew up a small section of the railway on the Liutiao Hunan Manchurian Railway Section about 7.5 kilometers north of Shenyang and 800 meters away from the Northeast Army’s garrison, Beidaying. Then they blamed the Northeast Army and sent troops to attack Beida camp.Marshal Zhang Xueliang, who was dancing at a night banquet in Beijing, adopted a "non-resistance policy". In less than half a year, 1 million square kilometers in the three northeastern provinces fell. main power source. (Zhang Xueliang's father, Zhang Zuolin, entered the pass in June 1927 and became the Grand Marshal of the Beiyang Military Government and became the last ruler of the Beiyang regime. The disastrous Zhang Zuolin withdrew from Beijing. On the morning of June and April, Zhang’s special train was blown up by the Kwantung Army’s pre-planted bomb in Huanggutun. He died on the same day, and Zhang Xueliang, 27, inherited the mantle and became the leader of the Fengjun Army.) The army lobbied Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty who had abdicated, to go north to establish the puppet regime "Manchukuo".This is the "September 18th" incident that shocked the world.

On January 28, 1932, the Japanese army invaded Shanghai on the grounds of protecting Japanese overseas Chinese, and Japanese planes bombed Zhabei China.Chinese and Japanese troops fought fiercely in Zhabei, and more than 600 factories, 4,204 shops and 19,700 houses were destroyed. On May 5, China and Japan signed the "Songhu Armistice Agreement" under the mediation of European and American countries. The outbreak of the "September 18th" incident put China at a critical moment of life and death again. The song "On the Songhua River" mourned forty million people.Anti-Japanese sentiment was at an all-time high, students from all over the country marched and petitioned, and boycotts of Japanese goods broke out again.

On October 26, 1931, the American "Time" magazine featured Chiang Kai-shek on the cover for the second time. In the news, boycotting Japanese goods became an important report content—— "In Shanghai, those shopkeepers who dared to sneakily sell Japanese goods were severely punished last week by the Chinese 'police' appointed by the 'Anti-Japanese Association' themselves, and were imprisoned crying and imprisoned in a temporary prison." These unpatriotic businessmen were so frightened that they could not speak. They knelt in front of the judges of the "Anti-Japanese Association" and kowtowed for mercy. "Judges" imposed fines for their crimes of selling Japanese goods, "fines" amounting to 10,000 Mexican dollars ($2,500).Shopkeepers who were fined and said they could not pay were sent to the prison of the Anti-Japanese Society, where they were starved.This kind of weird trial appears in various ways, but the blatantly illegal behavior has the support of Chinese public opinion everywhere——the public opinion of 1/4 of human beings.Thousands of cities and towns, patriots gathered as a whole, made the following sacred oath (sworn by all the teachers and students in Nanjing, the capital of China): "To the blue sky, to our motherland, to our ancestors Mausoleum, all our faculty, staff and students make a solemn oath that as long as we live, we will never use Japanese products. If we violate the oath, God can punish us, and others can execute us!"

Chinatowns all over the world are boycotting Japanese products.White people in Windsor, Ontario, were amazed to see 400 Chinese Canadians do the same thing as the Boston Tea Party, bringing together $6,000 worth of Japanese tea, silk, and seafood, doused with gasoline, and sponsored by Windsor's respected Li Feng ( Fong Lee) delivered a disdainful speech about Japan before lighting the pyre.On the other side of the Pacific, American shipping companies are happy to see that Japanese companies have canceled flights between China and Japan, and they have more business opportunities. As described by Time, the intensification and comprehensiveness of the boycott of Japanese goods has surpassed any previous period, and new movements have emerged. Institutionalization of participation.

On the tenth day after "September 18th", an Anti-Japanese National Salvation Congress was held in Beijing with the participation of 200,000 people. People burned Japanese goods and demanded to declare war on Japan and regain lost ground.On the same day, more than 2,000 students from Nanjing and Shanghai took to the streets to petition and attacked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Nationalist Government. Foreign Minister Wang Zhengting was injured by students and was forced to resign.In the following month, more than 100 cities held gatherings of thousands of people to protest.In commerce and banking, a boycott of Japanese goods was strictly enforced. Banks in Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places cut off all ties with Japan. Porters and dock workers refused to load and unload Japanese goods. Employees of Japanese-owned enterprises were strongly encouraged to quit their jobs. Otherwise, you may be beaten.According to the "Shenbao" report at the time, "It is practically impossible to buy and sell Japanese products in Shanghai."

American journalist Edna Lee Booker, who witnessed the scene, recorded that the 1931 boycott was “unprecedented even for such a veteran of boycotting as China.” thrown into a wooden cage, "exposed to all eyes—like a strange beast that betrayed his country by selling Japanese goods." Considered a national hero, the man in Wuhan who was arrested for throwing a bomb into a shop believed to be selling Japanese clothes was released with only a suspended sentence.Japanese expatriates everywhere have been attacked to varying degrees. On January 18, 1931, radical patriotic workers at the Shanghai Sanyou Towel Factory beat several Japanese monks, resulting in one death. Two days later, Japanese expatriates set fire to the factory. This became the direct fuse of the "January 28th" Japanese attack on Shanghai.

During this boycott, the people displayed an unusually high moral standard.Japanese goods are named "Chouhuo", that is, goods produced by the enemy, which are things that one would rather starve to death than use.The boycott activities have reached the point of "every day must be opposed". The Shanghai Chamber of Commerce received a letter from a businessman in Xiamen asking for clarification on whether North Korean ginseng should be boycotted.The Chamber of Commerce immediately launched an investigation and found that Mitsui Trading Company of Japan had monopolized the trade of Korean ginseng. Therefore, it was determined that "Korean ginseng is a Japanese product."The Chamber of Commerce immediately sent a telegram to the merchant groups in Xiamen and various ports, and called on everyone at the town meeting not to buy Korean ginseng.In Tianjin, a businessman named Song Zejiu renamed his "Tianjin Industry Sales Office" as "Tianjin National Product Sales Office", vowing that the store only sold domestic products. Song Zejiu checked all the women's coats that night, but found no Japanese buttons. He ordered a thorough search the next day, and found a few used buttons in a branch office in the French Concession. Song immediately fired the director of the branch office and published an apology to the public in the newspaper.

People have also redefined the concept of "profiteer", which in the traditional sense means "despicable, scheming businessman", and in the context of national crisis, it has been upgraded to "traitorous businessman", all selling Japanese goods The merchants in the country have become traitors, and this is "everyone gets it and kills it".In Zhengzhou, a Chinese businessman selling Japanese cigarettes was forced to "parade a huge cigarette cardboard box on his head in a massive demonstration." In the article for "Domestic Products and Prostitutes", the author wrote in a female tone, "I think wearing domestic products is the most noble and honorable thing. On the contrary, if you wear imported products all over your body, you will not only be considered as inferior, but also It's an embarrassing thing."

For quite a long time thereafter, the boycott of Japanese products has become a national sentiment, which to some extent has exceeded the scope of reason.In a novella published in 1932, the writer Mao Dun vividly described a certain reality of boycotting foreign goods at that time: the boys scolded "Oriental turtles!" in the middle of the noise, and some people yelled in the street: "If you buy more oriental goods, it will be a waste of time." Forget it!"...Everyone sells Japanese goods, and after spending hundreds of dollars, they have already given a license: "Just tear off the Toyo trademark." Now the goods in his store are all called "" Domestic products", the buyers also said "domestic products, domestic products" and took them away. Exactly similar to previous movements, the entrepreneurial class is an active participant and beneficiary of the boycott of Japanese goods. Under the wave of resolute boycott, Japanese-funded factories in China suffered a devastating blow.Japan's largest industrial investment in China was in the cotton textile industry. At that time, there were 43 Japanese factories with a total investment of 149 million US dollars, while there were 81 important Chinese-funded factories with a total investment of 130 million US dollars. Yarn accounted for 38% of the total production volume, accounting for 56% of the total production volume of weaving. After the "September 18th", these factories have come to a standstill one after another. As an important city in the textile industry, the scene is like this: in the first few months before the boycott movement began, some Chinese-funded factories were in serious trouble due to the shortage of raw materials. Only 20 factories are still operating, and one-third of the knitting industry has been forced to close.Tens of thousands of workers who voluntarily resigned or were dismissed from Japanese textile factories have become a dangerous group of unemployed.But soon, the situation was brought under control, and the market share lost by Japanese factories was snatched away by Chinese-funded enterprises. In Tianjin, an entrepreneur named Zhao Zizhen founded Dongya Wool Textile Co., Ltd. to produce fabrics made of wool. At that time, the best-selling similar products in the market were Japanese products. It is a homonym for "boycott foreign goods" or "boycott foreign goods". The graphics of the trademark are Shanhaiguan, the Great Wall and two fighting rams. One can tell that the fabric is made by the Chinese.In Shanghai, there is also a Zhanghua wool spinning factory that simply named its woolen products the "Jiu 18" brand. In Sichuan, Lu Zuofu was one of the core members of the Chongqing Branch of the National Salvation Association.He printed the words "Never Don't forget the national catastrophe in your dreams" on the sleeper sheets of Minsheng Company's ships and the sheets in the staff dormitory, so as to inspire the patriotism of the Chinese people.In addition, he also specially formulated a set of service standards for Japanese-funded ships-"the spirit of entertaining passengers with kindness and thoughtfulness should exceed that of Japanese ships; the way of protecting passengers and cargo should exceed Japanese ships; the spirit of protecting the hull and saving costs should exceed Japanese ships; the spirit of cleanliness, order, and order surpasses Japanese ships; passengers must always mention their spirit of resisting Japan and saving the country.”Relying on such spirit and service quality, the ships of Minsheng Company are very popular, and many people would rather wait for a few more days than take a Japanese ship. Wu Yunchu (1891-1953) was one of the most famous patriotic entrepreneurs emerging during this period. At the beginning of the 20th century, Japanese scientists extracted monosodium glutamate from seaweed plants and invented the "Ajinomoto" condiment that can make dishes more delicious.In the 1920s, China's MSG market was completely monopolized by Japanese "Ajinomoto". In 1922, Wu Yunchu, a chemical expert, successfully developed monosodium glutamate and built a Shanghai Tianchu monosodium glutamate factory. He competed with Japan's "Ajinomoto" with the slogan of "pure domestic product".His appearance aroused the vigilance of Japanese businessmen. Suzuki Trading Co., Ltd., which produces "Ajinomoto", protested to the Chinese Patent Office, believing that the word "MSG" was transformed from the "seasoning boutique" in the "Ajinomoto" advertisement. Yes, he demanded to cancel the trademark of "Tianchu MSG". Wu Yunchu turned this incident into a national industry defense war. He launched a joint petition of domestic food companies, and the media strongly supported it. In the end, the Japanese businessmen had no choice but to let it go.Wu Yunchu actively participated in the work of the China Domestic Product Maintenance Association, and he was a major contributor to many anti-Japanese organizations and boycott activities. In 1926, Tianchu MSG won the gold medal at the Philadelphia International Exhibition. The outbreak of the "September 18th" incident gave Wu Yunchu another opportunity to attack Japanese companies. In the raging boycott of Japanese products, Tianchu MSG and other domestic MSG factories that emerged became market leaders. , "Ajinomoto" withdrew from most of the Chinese market, and finally sold only in the three eastern provinces controlled by the Japanese army.The success of Tianchu MSG has greatly boosted the morale of the Chinese people, and is considered a classic case of the victory of domestic products. In March 1934, Wu Yunchu donated a bomber to the national government. 30,000 people attended the donation ceremony held at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport. Two large characters were printed on the fuselage of the plane: "Heavenly Chef". In the past few years, the national government has held a very ambiguous attitude towards the boycott of Japanese goods.On the one hand, it very much hopes to use this to form a cohesive national force and ease the numerous domestic conflicts.In addition, decision makers also regard the boycott of foreign goods as a strategy to encourage national industry and trade protection. In 1928, Chiang Kai-shek declared at the opening ceremony of an exhibition of domestic products, "The national government wants to promote domestic products and To revitalize industry, we must restore the rights and interests, so that foreign goods have no market in China, and everyone uses domestic products to defeat imperialism.” On the other hand, in order to maintain diplomatic relations with Japan, the government has forcibly disbanded anti-Japanese groups many times. After "September 18th", although China and Japan had not formally declared war, they had become enemies of each other. The government began to come to the fore, and all local party departments of the Kuomintang openly participated in the organization of protests and boycotts.Boycott activities began to be institutionalized. "May 9th" and "September 18th" related to the hatred of Japan became fixed days for boycotting Japanese products. At the end of 1932, the Nationalist government announced that the next year would be the "Year of Domestic Products". 1934 was the Year of Women's Domestic Products, 1935 was the Year of Students' Domestic Products, and 1936 was the Year of Citizens' Domestic Products. One of the most important themes in advocating domestic products was to call on the public to resolutely oppose Japanese products. For the government, another result of "September 18th" is that the discussion on the economic growth model has no choice. In the past few years, the debate between the free economic model and the nationalist model has been heard endlessly.After Japan occupied the three eastern provinces, almost everyone understood that there must be a war between China and Japan. Therefore, the survival of the country has become a proposition above everything else, and the strategy of nationalism has become a political and business consensus.Chiang Kai-shek emphasized many times in his speech this year that "China's industrial development should focus on national defense", "China's economic construction can only be realized on the basis of military construction", and the most urgent task for China at present is to "establish a Although the scale is not large, it has unified equipment, first-class, and highly mobile armed forces." "China's Economy in the Past Ten Years" (published in 1948) edited by Tan Xihong recorded that at that time "building a national defense economy, developing The voice of the state-owned industrial and mining enterprises is heard throughout the whole country."In such a general environment, a new term "controlled economy" emerged, which emphasized the intervention of state power in the economy, gave priority to the development of military industry and heavy industry, and greatly accelerated the expansion and integration of state-owned enterprises. In November 1932, one of the only remaining achievements of the Westernization Movement, China Merchants Steamship, the largest shipping company in China, was once again state-owned.Vice President of the Executive Yuan and Minister of Finance Song Ziwen said in a report submitted to the Executive Yuan, "We have discussed with leaders from all walks of life in Shanghai. It is said that it is not enough to restore credit without the help of the public, and it is not enough to fundamentally plan without the recovery of state operations." The Nanjing government has been spying on the privatized China Merchants since its establishment. In November 1927, the government established the China Merchants Supervision Office, which was personally supervised by Minister of Communications Wang Boqun. The chairman of the board is Li Guojie, the grandson of Li Hongzhang, who is known as "the richest man in Anhui Province". Because of his special status, Song Ziwen and others are quite afraid of attacking him.In order to protect his own interests, Li Guojie invited Zhao Tieqiao, an old member of the Tongmenghui, to serve as the general office of the company. Zhao joined the Tongmenghui in 1907 and was appointed by Sun Yat-sen as the head of the Sichuan Branch of the Chinese Revolutionary Party. He is a veteran revolutionary. On the morning of July 24, 1930, Zhao Tieqiao was shot by an assassin at the gate of the headquarters of China Merchants in Shanghai. He was shot several times on the spot and died. This bloody incident caused a great sensation in China.It is said that the person who carried out the assassination was the "Assassination King" Wang Yaqiao, who was discolored by everyone at the time and even Du Yuesheng wanted to spend money to "respect". However, who entrusted him and why he carried out the assassination has always been unclear.Three months later, the executive meeting of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang made a resolution, "China Merchants should be owned by the state. Regarding the handling of equity and debts, the bureau's organization committee will formulate measures and submit them to the National Government for approval and implementation." In 1932, the national affairs were urgent, and the acquisition of China Merchants was accelerated. In the view of many people, during the war, the shipping industry involved military transportation and other national defense tasks, and nationalization was already the meaning of the topic.After China Merchants was nationalized, it officially changed its name to the State-owned China Merchants Bureau, which was affiliated to the Ministry of Communications. The board of directors system was banned, and the board of directors, board of supervisors, and general manager system were established, and all operations returned to the state-owned system. In the "Decree on Returning to the State", the government clearly stated that the existing private shares will be "taken back by the state in cash, in order to show the preference for shareholders." The fact is that the central bank spent a total of 2,126,300 taels of silver for the purchase of shares. The book capital of China Merchants at that time was 8.4 million taels, and the actual assets were much higher than this number.According to the "History of China Merchants Bureau", at that time, the value of the five properties mortgaged by the company to HSBC Bank was 1.96 million taels, the value of the properties in Hankou and other places was 3.67 million taels, and the total assets of Shanghai and Wuhan were 23.36 million taels, plus Jianghai steamship and other assets, the total assets of China Merchants are more than 50 million taels, after deducting more than 17 million taels of debts, the actual assets are 33 million taels. In other words, the national government took away the country's largest shipping company at less than one-tenth of the price.In the past 60 years, China Merchants has changed hands several times between public and private companies. Its property rights have been reincarnated and the fate of its operators has been ups and downs. It can be called a "textbook" for the evolution of Chinese enterprises. It is impossible for a country's economy to prosper in an era when powerful enemies look down upon it. China after "September 18th" is like this.With the loss of the three northeastern provinces, shrinking trade with Japan, panic among the people, sluggish consumption, and a large amount of money spent on military industries, the Chinese economy experienced panic turmoil. The panic first manifested itself as a plunge in the bond market.Within a week of the Japanese army’s invasion of Northeast China on September 18, the average market price of the five major bonds in Shanghai plummeted below 60% of the face value. By December, all public bonds could only be traded if they were below 40% of the face value. Their value has halved from what it was on September 1 before the war.Bankers in Shanghai lost hundreds of millions of yuan in the panic, and two banks failed as a result. At the beginning of January 1932, the financially strained national government suddenly announced that it would stop paying the principal and interest of all government bonds.At that time, 60% of the bank's reserves were cash, 40% were guaranteed bonds, and the vast majority were government bonds that were previously considered to be a huge profit, but have now shrunk greatly.Once the run becomes a trend, China's finances will collapse instantly.Therefore, on February 18, the government started negotiations with the banking sector. Song Ziwen put forward three proposals: "half the repayment, lower the interest rate of the public debt, and extend the repayment period". These three proposals are equivalent to cutting the repayment of the public debt by more than half. That alluring bond investment now looks like a gigantic, ludicrous scam.The bankers wanted to cry without tears. If they accepted Song Ziwen's conditions, the losses could be imagined. However, if they did not accept them, they might be drowned by the run.In desperation, the bankers agreed to these three conditions, but they also hoped that the government would make a promise that from now on, this condition must not be changed again, and at the same time, no new public bonds would be issued within four years.Song Ziwen readily agreed.It turned out that, just a year later, his promise died with the wind. This financial panic was finally relieved by the heavy losses of the bankers. This was a new disaster for the Shanghai banking industry.According to the revised agreement, Song Ziwen can reduce the repayment of public debts by 80 million to 100 million yuan per year. In 1932, the total annual government revenue was 683 million yuan. expenditure.Then the most dramatic thing happened. At the end of the year, Song Ziwen announced very proudly, "For the first time in the 21 years since the founding of the Republic of China, the government was able to balance its budget." While he was speaking, the bankers were only It's just a wry smile, one ups and downs, they have completely lost the ability to play games with the government. Song Ziwen's financial victories by squeezing his former friends in the financial world did not last long.Chiang Kai-shek stubbornly adhered to the strategy of "to fight against the outside world, we must first secure the inside". Even when the Japanese army was aggressively suppressing the border, he still insisted on destroying the Communist forces in Jiangxi first, and military expenditures continued to grow like a bottomless pit. In the autumn of 1932, he mobilized more than 50 divisions to carry out the fourth large-scale siege against the Communist bases in Jiangxi, Hunan, and Guangdong. The only hidden pain in my life." In May 1933, he gathered 1 million troops to make a comeback and launched the fifth large-scale encirclement and suppression campaign. This time, the Communist Party leader Bo Gu gave up the very effective strategy of mobile warfare and launched a face-to-face positional warfare with the Kuomintang army. The Red Army suffered heavy losses and lost most of the Central Soviet Area, and was forced to carry out the "Long March" westward in October 1934.Chiang Kai-shek mobilized troops to chase and intercept them along the way, and he wanted to wipe them all out and then quickly.The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China replaced Bo Gu at the Zunyi Conference in January 1935, and Mao Zedong, who had been neglected before, regained leadership.Under the command of Mao Zedong, the Red Army moved to eleven provinces. After an extremely difficult 25,000-mile long march, it finally got out of Chiang Kai-shek's encirclement and reached the border of Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia in October 1936, establishing a new base in Yan'an. During the three-and-a-half-year-long siege of the Communist Party, the Chiang Kai-shek regime was strongly opposed by domestic public opinion, and calls for an end to the civil war were heard endlessly. As early as August 1932, the business circles across the country formed a "Great Alliance to Abolish the Civil War." ", and held the first national conference in Shanghai, nearly 500 people participated, representing 72 chambers of commerce, 10 bank associations, 9 money industry associations, 104 trade associations, and 11 women associations. Federations, 11 fellow countrymen's associations, 50 scientific societies and 42 trade unions.The meeting was chaired by Shanghai entrepreneur Wang Xiaolai, who proposed that "opposing civil war is the way for the Chinese people to save themselves." For Song Ziwen, he had to raise more military expenses for Chiang Kai-shek. From the beginning of the fourth siege, the monthly military expenditure reached 26.7 million yuan, which was a lot more than the 15 million yuan in the budget.Because he has promised not to issue public debt within four years, the money has to be obtained from other channels.The only way is loans. On the one hand, he expressed support for the bankers' anti-civil war, and on the other hand, he tried every means to force them to take out the money. In 1933, he loaned 87.8 million yuan, which was equivalent to the previous four years. In the sum of the fiscal year, the fiscal balance that had just been flat suddenly tilted again. During this year, the business community still showed the consciousness of helping the nation in adversity. In January 1933, the Japanese army attacked Shanhaiguan from the northeast, and then occupied Rehe Province, opening the door to North China.At that time, it was Zhang Xueliang's Northeast Army that was fighting against the enemy in the north. Because it was not Chiang Kai-shek's direct line of troops, it was concentrating on suppressing the Communist Party and he had no intention of supporting it. In mid-February, bankers from Beijing and Shanghai held a meeting to negotiate and decided to temporarily abandon their decision not to buy government bonds and subscribe to 20 million yuan of "patriotic treasury bonds" from the Nationalist government, without the government needing any tariffs as a guarantee.However, the only thing they asked Song Ziwen was that the money must be "dedicated" to the defense of North China. Song Ziwen also behaved like a true patriot during this period.He opposed Chiang Kai-shek's civil war policy and weak attitude towards Japan. After the Japanese army invaded Jehol, he flew to the north with a check to persuade Zhang Xueliang to resist resolutely. In May 1933, he proposed two targeted economic policies. One was to substantially increase the tax rate on imported goods from Japan. Among them, the tax rate on cotton and silk products was increased by 800%, woolen products by 200%, and paper products by 8%. 20%, and the tax rates on rayon, fish, tobacco and coal have also been greatly increased. Under the influence of this policy, the sales of related Japanese products in China have been reduced by half or two-thirds in just six months.This is of course greatly beneficial to domestic national enterprises.The second is to propose the establishment of an international consultative committee with the participation of Britain, the United States, France and other countries to provide more favorable policies for these countries' investment in China. China's international resistance.These two proposals of Song Ziwen have been widely welcomed by the domestic business community. Although in the past few years, bankers have repeatedly been fooled by Song Ziwen and suffered enough from his reneging, but in the decision-making level of the entire national government, he Still the only "friend".By October, they once again gave up their decision not to buy government bonds, subscribed for 60 million yuan in customs treasury bonds, and lent another 15 million yuan to the government. However, Soong Ziwen's anti-Japanese, pro-British and American strategy is obviously incompatible with Chiang Kai-shek's established ideas, and the Japanese hate Soong Ziwen even more.According to the "Shenbao" report, in August 1933, when Song Ziwen visited the United States and returned to China, the ship transited in Yokohama. The Japanese government publicly declared that he was persona non grata and refused to let him go ashore.They also tried their best to put pressure on the national government to drive Song Ziwen out of power. On October 25, just over half a month after the business community had subscribed for the tariff bond, Song Ziwen was forced to announce his resignation from the posts of Vice President of the Executive Yuan and Minister of Finance, citing "poor health".According to Hu Hanmin’s later recollection, Song Zai told him in private, “Being the Minister of Finance is like being Chiang Kai-shek’s dog. From now on, I will be a man and no longer a dog.” It was described as a "vertical plunge" in the report of "Jijixinbao" at the time. In this corporate history, Song Ziwen is a very swinging and hard-to-define person. It is interesting to compare him with Sheng Xuanhuai of the previous dynasty. They are the models of officials and businessmen in the two eras.He is very proficient in the Western economic system, sometimes he is very enlightened, and he has a great understanding and sympathy for the entrepreneurial class. Some Western observers even think that he is the "capitalist soul" of Kuomintang China. (This is the term used in the "Dictionary of People's Names of the Republic of China" edited by Boorman) But at the same time, he is also the executor of the autocratic economic system, and his superb financial skills are actually more lethal than robbers.He opposes violence and refuses to manage finances in a terrorist way, but at the same time, he is often the most efficient partner of violent groups.He is an undoubted patriot, but at the same time he can't help but put self-interest first in any rational choice.He is good at making order, but he himself is often outside the order.These personalities of his will continue to emerge clearly in the future. It was his brother-in-law Kong Xiangxi (1880-1967) from Shanxi that Chiang Kai-shek used to succeed his uncle Song Ziwen.If it is said that Song Ziwen became Chiang Kai-shek's "dog" because of his cowardly character, then this descendant of a ticket dealer known as "Haha Kong" was born a "haha dog". Kong Xiangxi's English name is H·H·CONG, so people called him "Haha Kong".He often shows people with a smile, looks mediocre, and hums, but in fact, he grasps power with one hand and money with the other, wandering among various factions, he is actually shrewd to the bone.His ability to collect money is so high that he can be called the first person in the Republic of China, so he has the "reputation" of "pervasive".He was born in a small ticket merchant family in Taigu County, Shanxi Province. He claimed to be the 75th generation descendant of Confucius. He went to the United States to study with the support of the Christian Church in his early years. He studied in Oberlin University and the famous Yale University successively. master's degree. (He later received an honorary doctorate from Oberlin University, so he was also called "Dr. Kong".) In 1914, he followed Sun Yat-sen in revolutionary activities and married Soong Ailing, the eldest sister of the three Song sisters. .He has a natural talent for doing business. The Xiangji Company registered under his name has been the general agent of Mobil Oil in North China for a long time. During the First World War, he exported the iron ore produced in his hometown of Shanxi to the United States and made great profits.Adhering to the tradition of Shanxi ticket dealers, he also founded Yuhua Bank and invested in Chen Guangfu's Shanghai Commercial Savings Bank. In March 1928, he was appointed Minister of Commerce and Industry.Unlike Song Ziwen and Chiang Kai-shek's close relationship, he was determined to die with Chiang Kai-shek.At the beginning, Jiang asked Soong Meiling to marry him, Song Ziwen and Soong Ching Ling once expressed their opposition, and he tried his best to match.When Chiang Kai-shek was kicked out by Sun Ke and others, he resigned from his position as a minister and went forward and retreated with him, which won Jiang's favor. In April 1933, he was appointed Governor of the Central Bank.After Song Ziwen resigned, he immediately took over the positions of vice president of the Executive Yuan and minister of finance, while still serving as the governor of the central bank.Since then, he has held China's financial and financial power for 11 years, and during this period, he also made himself one of the richest people in China. Kong Xiangxi can be said to follow Chiang Kai-shek's footsteps.After becoming the Minister of Finance, he immediately changed the anti-Japanese policy left by Song Ziwen. On July 3, 1934, the Nationalist Government suddenly announced a new tax that was greatly beneficial to Japan. The tariff rates on commodities such as these have all been lowered, and some are even lower than previous levels.In addition, the tax rates on commodities necessary for many Chinese industries and mainly provided by European and American countries were raised, among which, raw cotton increased by 43%, metal products increased by 20-25%, ores increased by 4-55%, and kerosene increased by 28%. This is simply a policy of love and hate, stinking shit.The Research Department of the Bank of China stated bluntly in its report that year that "the fundamental purpose of this new tax rate is not to develop or protect China's industry, but to go back to the policy of discriminating against Chinese capital and hindering its development before 1933." Among the industries involved, the cotton textile industry, which has the most concentrated national capital, suffers the most. The increase in raw cotton tariffs has caused a large increase in the procurement costs of Chinese factories, while the tariffs on cotton products imported from Japan have been greatly reduced. China's textile industry has encountered great difficulties.From the data point of view, after the "September 18th", under the turbulent boycott of Japanese goods, the proportion of Japanese imports in China's total imports decreased year by year, and it had dropped to 9.9% in 1933. However, after the implementation of the new tax rate, It rebounded to 16.6% three years later. (This data does not include "Manchukuo" in the Northeast. The data comes from "Selected Journals of Statistics on Modern Chinese Economic History" compiled by Yan Zhongping.) Different from Song Ziwen's vigorous advocacy of reducing military expenditures, which is what annoyed Chiang Kai-shek the most, Kong Xiangxi unconditionally supported any budget proposed by Chiang Kai-shek, and the funds originally planned to be invested in economic projects were embezzled in large quantities. Wang Yejian’s observation is that “the plan has been adjusted, and military objectives are considered first, and economic factors are emphasized to a large extent just for propaganda.” Another very different approach is that Kong Xiangxi completely excluded the entrepreneurial class from the decision-making circle.During the Song Ziwen period, a 40-member China Economic Commission was established, and more than 10 business leaders including Zhang Gongquan and Yu Qiaqing were invited to serve as members.After Kong Xiangxi took office, the decision-making mechanism of this committee was completely deformed. 《国闻周报》曾经做过一个统计，从1933年10月到1934年3月的半年里，委员会没有开过一次会，而由孔祥熙等五个政府官员组成的常务委员会则开了八次会，企业家阶层被完全遗忘。 从1934年开始，中国经济陷入了一场空前的大萧条。 一切大的危机都是内外交困的结果，此次也不例外。内因是已经描述过的种种乱世景象，外因却非常的奇特，竟然是受了“罗斯福新政”的影响。当时的中国人中知道罗斯福这个美国总统的大概不会超过500人，他却影响了至少5000万人的生计。 美国经济从1929年的“黑色星期四”开始崩塌，其后四年惨不忍睹，1933年4月，富兰克林·D·罗斯福接替焦头烂额的胡佛担任美国总统，他以“看得见的手”推出了众多强势的国家干预政策，包括禁止私人储存黄金和黄金证券、使美元贬值40.94%以及加大重工业和基础设施的投资等等，把美国经济拉出了泥潭，这就是著名的“罗斯福新政”。新政中很重要的一项是暂时放弃金本位，这直接导致了世界白银市场的价格大涨，白银每盎司价格从1932年的0.27美元上涨到1933年4月的0.45美元，到1935年更升至0.67美元。罗斯福的政策刺激了美国经济的复苏，却“意外”地伤害到了大洋另一端脆弱的中国经济。白银涨价让中国的银元快速增值，直接导致中国商品在国际市场上的价格优势顿失，商品出口大幅减少，而在国内则诱发了金融和工商业动荡，大量白银外泄、原材料价格跌落、消费市场陷入低迷。 民国经济学家刘大钧提供的数据反映了当时的景象：中国商品的净出口从1931年的14.17亿元猛降到1934年的5.35亿元，棉纱出口从1929年的34万担降到1935年的24万担，生丝从42万担降到18万担，茶叶从94万担降到63万担。出口萎缩首先影响到农产品价格，从1931年到1934年，全国国民生产总值中的农业产值竟下降了47％，农村一片哀鸿萧条。 白银危机在中国的金融业和工商业两个领域造成了不同的后果。 白银的增值和外流，在短期内竟带来银行业的表面繁荣，特别是占据金融中心地位的上海，全国的白银全部汹汹流向这里，在此交易并通过走私出境，因公债暴跌而十分低迷的投机生意突然又活跃了起来，上海几家主要银行的利润在1934年达到了3120万元的历史记录，还冒出来了11家新银行。当然，这是短期内的、因投机而造成的虚假繁荣景象，当时就有一个叫漠湮的人在《东方杂志》上撰文评论，“一方面是内地的国民经济不断的衰落，另一方面在城市却出现了人为的繁荣假象。” 危机在工业界则呈现得更为直接和惨烈。 在过去的几年里，东北沦丧、华北紧迫、长江中上游又是国共内战不止，对于做企业的人来说，大半个中国市场已是无可作为，而如今，白银外流造成信贷的空前紧张，外贸萎缩和国内消费市场的委靡更使得生产能力大量放空，在两面夹击之下，全国工厂顿时风声鹤唳。 在生丝业，由于需求减少和丝价降低，上海的丝厂从1931年的107家减少到33家。在面粉业，到1933年10月，上海所有面粉厂全部停止营业，企业主们紧急上书南京政府，要求提高进口面粉的关税，因为政府对日本面粉的低关税造成了民族工业的绝境。在橡胶业，由于价格猛跌，全国30家橡胶厂中有五分之三倒闭关门。在商业领域，倒闭风象瘟疫一样地延烧，仅上海一地，在1934年有254家商业企业倒闭，下一年又有469家。 纺织业是当时中国最大、最重要的制造产业，纺织业资产占全国工业总资本的36％，纺织工人占全国全部工人总数的56％，长三角又是纺织业的中心，全国127家纺织厂中有80家开在这一带。危机到来的时候，它受到的冲击也最为巨大。 1934年7月4日，就在孔祥熙宣布对日有利的新税则的第二天，中国最大的民族纺织企业上海申新总公司公开登报，宣告“搁浅”。荣家兄弟陷入创业以来的最大危机，当时的凶险景象竟与12年前发生在南通张謇身上的那一幕惊人相似。 就在两年前，荣家事业还处在巅峰时刻，当时申新纱厂约占全国民族资本棉纱厂纱锭数的20％，布机数占28％，茂新和福新的面粉厂规模占全国行业的三分之一左右，占上海市的二分之一，其旗下企业总数达21家，赫然是当时国内规模第一的民营实业集团。荣宗敬曾很得意地对友人说，“当今中国人，有一半是穿我的、吃我的。”1933年是他的六十岁大寿，在贺寿堂会上，他很兴奋地对济济一堂的宾客说，“烈士暮年，壮心不已，吾今已届六十，纱锭数达到六十万，我还要活到七十岁、八十岁，纱锭要达到七十万、八十万……”堂下，一片欢腾喝彩声。 荣家事业的迅猛发展靠的是疯狂的举债扩张战略，就在荣宗敬讲那番豪言的时候，申新资产共值6898万银元，而负债达6375万银元，处在一个十分紧绷的状态中。转眼间，市场突变，荣家首当其冲。到1934年初，荣家面粉工厂全面停产，申新各厂也风雨飘摇，荣宗敬在信中说，“花贵纱贱，不敷成本，织纱成布，布价仅及纱价，销路不畅，存货山积。”到1934年3月，上海所有银行已无一家肯对荣家放款，连荣氏参股的16家钱庄也关上了大门。荣宗敬一度急得要自杀，陈光甫和宋汉章两人在荣宅陪他一宿，温言相劝，才算是没有走上绝路。在申新宣告“搁浅”前几天，陈光甫天天要在申新总公司等到深夜一、二点。客观而言。荣家之所以会陷入如此大的危机，与荣宗敬的激进做法有很大关系，很多年后，陈光甫评论说：“荣宗敬的申新企业是全国纺织企业中最大的，为了增加银行存款，巩固我们的地位，我们乐意与他合作；而他当时急需资金来更新扩大，自然也希望与我们合作。结果，没有充分调查他的实际需要和个人性格，我们就提供了大笔贷款给他，导致我们资金周转困难，甚至影响了活期存款的运行。” 好在荣家还有一个稍稍保守的荣德生存在。6月28日，荣宗敬派人到无锡向弟弟求救，族内有人担心，去救上海申新会把无锡的产业也拖进泥潭。荣德生执一茶壶在手说，“我与哥哥好比这个壶，一经破裂，虽持半壶在手，亦复何用。”他当夜把家中所有的地契和有价证券全部收罗起来，第二天清晨就赶到上海，在陈光甫、宋汉章的斡旋下，中国银行和上海银行联合借款220万元，这才稍解燃眉之急。 但是，区区200多万元仅够荣家多吸几天的氧气，当时申新总公司每年的通税和利息支出就在1000万元以上。一周后，申新不得不登报宣告“搁浅”。 荣家若垮，中国民族纺织业和面粉业的半壁江山就塌掉了，这是人人皆知的事实。而且，与华商在这两个市场上竞争最激烈的就是日本企业，它们在棉纺织业拥有三分之一左右的市场份额，几年来的抵制日货运动和宋子文的反日政策曾经让它们元气大伤，但是现在的孔祥熙新税则及经济危机却给了反扑的大好机遇。很显然，这里正进行着一场没有硝烟的“抗日战争”。 这时候，惟一能救荣家的，只有国民政府了。