Chapter 38 The world's smallest central bank - the Chinese Soviet State Bank

In November 1931, at the First National Congress of the Chinese Soviet, Mao Zemin was ordered to establish the National Bank of the Chinese Soviet.Here are the 5 founders of the National Bank: Mao Zemin, Governor of the National Bank.Born as a farmer, he studied in a private school for 4 years.Work experience: primary school general affairs (management of daily funds and meals), head of the economic section of Anyuan Coal Mine Workers Club, general manager of Anyuan Road and Mine Workers Consumer Cooperative, manager of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (Shanghai) Publishing Department, general manager of "Hankou Republic of China Daily", Minister of Economy of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi Military Region.

Cao Juru, Chief of the Accounting Section of the National Bank.Born in a clerk family, elementary school education.Work experience: Worked as a clerk in Nanyang, the chief of the accounting department of Minxi Industrial and Agricultural Bank. Lai Yonglie, Chief of the Business Section of the National Bank.Work experience: Clerk, Red Army soldier, founder of Yongding County Farmer Bank. Mo Juntao, Chief of the General Affairs Section of the State Bank of China.Born as a shop assistant, he dropped out of school at the age of 12 to work as a child laborer.Work experience: sand worker in Hankou foundry, letter carrier of British bank, Red Army soldier.

Qian Xijun, accountant of the National Bank.Born as a farmer, she studied at Shanghai Common Girls School.Work experience: Chief of the Publishing Section of the Publishing Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and a traffic officer. These people are those who have been "connected" with the bank selected by thousands of people in the Soviet area. Among them, Cao Juru's dealings with the bank are only deposits and withdrawals for the boss, and Mo Juntao has worked as a blue-collar worker in a bank in Hankou, and has never even had a job. Ordered money.If these five resumes were presented to a Rothschild or a Morgan, telling them that these people can run the central bank well, their best reaction would be to sneer.These 5 people have neither "Ivy League" university education nor Wall Street work experience, and they may not even be the security guards of Shanghai Bund Bank at that time.

If it is said that they can run rural cooperatives well, some people may believe it.Running a central bank on an equal footing with Rothschild or Morgan?That's a big joke!Whether it is manpower, material resources or financial resources, it is far from the central bank imagined by ordinary people! At that time, the task before these five people was to establish an independent central bank system, which was as difficult as reaching the sky! Consider the number of problems before them: How is the bank's start-up capital obtained? What is the currency based on? What is the reserve for banknote issuance?

How to build monetary credit? How to unify the currency in the Soviet area? Where is the bank's vault built and how is it kept secret? How are treasury accounts recorded? How are banknotes issued?Who will design the pattern?Where do printing paper and ink come from?How to prevent counterfeiting of banknotes? How are silver dollars issued?Is it an independent design or imitation? How to carry out loans, bill discounting and other businesses? Endless problems are overwhelming, and I feel worried just thinking about it! But it was the "five tiger generals" who, with a few tables and a few abacus in an ordinary farmhouse in Yeping Village, 6 miles outside Ruijin City, started the difficult business of the National Bank from scratch. Laid the foundation of today's Chinese banking system!

At the beginning of the establishment of the bank, the biggest problem faced by the National Bank was that there was no start-up capital, and its financial source was mainly the materials seized in the war.Whenever the Red Army has a major combat operation, the National Bank will organize a confiscation and collection committee to go to the front with the troops to raise food and funds. In 1932, after the victory of the Zhangzhou Battle commanded by Mao Zedong, Mao Zemin also came to Zhangzhou with the army.He walked around the streets, talked to businessmen, publicized the policies of the Red Army, and hoped that the businessmen would maintain regular trade contacts with the Red Army to exchange information.At the same time, the National Bank issued a notice about confiscation and collection in Zhangzhou City. The Red Army did not confiscate shops, but they could accept donations from shop owners.This policy was supported by large and small businesses in Zhangzhou, who made donations one after another.In this expedition, the Red Army not only received a large amount of military supplies, but also raised 1.05 million oceans, and the funds of the National Bank have been secured!

In order to store part of the funds raised in Zhangzhou, the National Bank decided to build a secret vault. They found a house on the mountain in Lannilong Village, Shicheng County, near Ruijin. There was a cellar on the hillside behind the house. The cellar space is not too large, but it is very dry.Moreover, the house in front of the cellar can be used as a cover and guarded.The National Bank chose the secret vault here. For reasons of confidentiality, Bank Negara staff were not used that day for the depository.The gold (gold bars, gold utensils, gold ornaments, etc.) to be put into the secret vault is wrapped in sackcloth by the soldiers of the army in advance and placed in five loaders.Another 20 tons of silver dollars and silver ingots were also wrapped in advance.There are also 3 burdens of jewelry and 2 burdens of banknotes (foreign currency and legal currency of the Kuomintang).The 30 loads of "treasures" were picked up by a platoon of soldiers in turn, stopped at the foot of the mountain one mile away from the house, and then issued a warning.At night, another platoon of soldiers would carry the 30 burdens into the house in the dark, and store them in the cellar behind the house.In order to prevent fire, the 30 burdens were covered with stone slabs prepared in advance.When these "treasures" were counted and packaged, Mao Zemin personally looked at them.After placing it in the cellar, Mao Zemin also personally inspected it.They made an inventory of the 30 burdens. There were two copies in total, one of which was kept by Mao Zemin himself.For the sake of confidentiality, the inventory lists the amount of rice wine and the amount of white wine.Rice wine represents gold, and baijiu represents silver.After the burdens were placed, the soldiers blocked the entrance of the cellar with stones and camouflaged the outside.The next day, all the Red Army soldiers involved in the storage were evacuated, and some soldiers were replaced to guard the room in front of the cellar. 【8】In the secrecy work, Mao Zemin first kept people from the National Bank out of touch, and then organized 4 batches of soldiers to transport them, and each batch of people only had a part of the information.Those who wrapped the gold and silver had no idea where it was stored, those who were in charge of the transportation didn't know where the destination was, those who stored the package didn't know what was inside, and those who guarded the package had no clue at all.Not only that, Mao Zemin also used rice wine and white wine to cover up in the inventory, which can be described as thoughtful. "Later practice proved that this decision was very clever. When the Red Army was forced to withdraw from the Central Soviet Area to carry out the Long March, the funds reserved at the beginning played a great role." [9] When starting the bank agency treasury business, everyone I don't know how to start the bookkeeping.Once, the front-line troops sent a batch of seized foreign currency, and the personnel who handled it discovered that the packaging paper of the foreign currency turned out to be a quadruple form from the Kuomintang tax agency.After careful inspection, Mao Zemin and Cao Juru were ecstatic, as if they had found a treasure.They carefully analyzed and studied the quadruple slips, got inspiration from it, improved the system and process of the treasury, and finally formulated the bank treasury management method.In this way, the recipients, managers (national treasury), users, and dominators of treasury funds have corresponding records, ensuring a rigorous financial system and effectively eliminating corruption and waste in governments at all levels and in the military.

Inspired by the quadruple form, the National Bank immediately issued a notice requesting the political departments and supply departments of the Red Army at all levels to pay attention to collecting books, documents, account books, receipts, reports and other physical objects related to financial, bank, and enterprise management knowledge for use as For reference, don't throw away even a piece of paper or words. With the establishment and improvement of various systems, the National Bank gradually began to operate.