As the saying goes: "prosperous antiques, chaotic gold", paper money relies on the credibility of the country, and in the time of war, the national reputation often becomes the most useless thing, paper money is often easy to depreciate, and gold, no matter at any time is very valuable, especially in times of turmoil.
In many "exquisite" Republic of China dramas, whenever there is a war, none of the rich people with big doors flee with banknotes, but bring enough yellow and bright "yellow fish", "yellow fish" The meaning of "yellow fish" is understood by everyone, that is, gold bars! In ancient times, gold was mostly concentrated in the hands of dignitaries and dignitaries, and relatively speaking, the most vigorous time for gold circulation was during the Republic of China period.
During the Republic of China period, gold bars were divided into five coins, one two, two two, three two, five two, twelve, twelve, etc. according to weight, of which the most common two were: one or two gold bars, commonly known as "small yellow fish"; twelve gold bars, commonly known as "big yellow fish". From the perspective of modern people, how much is a "yellow fish" worth?
During the Republic of China period, it was still the old system of weighing and weighing, 1 pound = 500 grams = 16 two, one or two equals 31.25 grams. Therefore, a "big yellow croaker" is equivalent to today's weight of 312.5 grams, according to today's full gold price standard, it can be equivalent to about 130,000 yuan! It's just that the times are different, the value is also different, in the last few years of the Republic of China, the value of "yellow fish" is not so calculated!
In 1946, with the advancement of the War of Liberation, Chiang Kai-shek's military expenditure was huge, the deficit increased sharply, and the Nationalist government relied on the indiscriminate issuance of paper money to support the situation in order to save the financial crisis, resulting in hyperinflation, and the depreciation of the legal tender was spectacular. In different eras, 100 yuan of fiat can buy:
Two big cows in 1937, one big cow and one calf in 1938, one big cow in 1939, one calf in 1940, one pig in 1941, one ham in 1942, one hen in 1943, half a hen in 1944, one fish in 1945, one egg in 1946, one briquette or one-third fritter in 1947, 4 grains of rice in 1948.
The economic chaos in the areas of national unification has become a pot of porridge, prices have soared, the people have complained, and the status of the official currency legal tender is precarious. Song Ziwen, who controlled the economic power of the Nationalist government, tried to use the method of opening up the foreign exchange market and selling gold to return the flood of circulating currency to curb inflation. Unexpectedly, however, it triggered the largest financial fraud case in the history of the Republic of China.
On December 23, 1946, in accordance with Song Ziwen's policy, the Nationalist government began to sell gold on a large scale, and each "big yellow croaker" was priced at 4 million French dollars, and people no longer believed in legal tender, and rushed to buy gold to protect themselves. Buyers of all sizes flocked to buy gold, frantically snapping up gold, and the official sell-off of gold was robbed in an instant, and the price of gold also soared every day. By February 1947, the "yellow croaker" had soared to 9.6 million French tenders per stick.
Song Ziwen's policy of "selling gold, returning legal tender, and stabilizing the economy" has become a farce. Originally, prices were soaring, but as the price of gold soared, prices changed from "soaring" to "soaring". The financial policy of the National Government fell into a vicious circle of soaring prices, snapping up gold, depreciating the currency even more, and soaring prices, and the economic situation collapsed. The reason for this is that there are too many people who want to "take advantage of the fire".
Due to the official selling of gold, among the large cities in the country at that time, shanghai had the lowest gold price, and the difference in price of a gold bar could reach three or four million yuan, which led to the rush of floating funds from all over the country to Shanghai to buy and resell gold. The Kuomintang political dignitaries and bureaucrats and privileged forces from all sides have also all held their breath and wanted to grab a piece of meat from it and eat it. Even many senior officers withheld the salaried banknotes they received, and transported them to Shanghai in large quantities to snap up gold, and the trains transporting war readiness became special trains for transporting banknotes.
What is the future of the country's economic destiny? Throw it all aside. What is even more shameless is that the Kuomintang central bank cannot help but guard itself with theft, selling and eating at the same time, in an attempt to make huge profits. Bei Zuyi, governor of the Kuomintang Central Bank, even set up a special leather bag company to use his privileges to frantically sell gold and turn the clouds in the gold selling.
Shanghai's gold inventory soon bottomed out, Song Ziwen ordered the use of transport aircraft to transport the gold in Chongqing's inventory to sell, the market saw the "Yu Tiao" appear, knowing that the treasury gold had dried up, and even more frantically snapped up. Song Ziwen once sold 100,000 taels of gold one day, but it still did not help.
At the beginning of 1947, the Shanghai financial market was in chaos, prices were like a horse out of control, the maximum denomination of legal tender reached 6 billion yuan, but only one box of matches could be bought! How much is a "yellow fish" worth at this time? It's not even possible!
In mid-February 1947, there were only about 2.3 million taels of gold left, and lao Jiang realized at this time that his brother-in-law was almost about to empty the national treasury, so he was furious and asked Song Ziwen to stop selling gold, re-implement gold control, prohibit gold trading, and withdraw the "gold storm case".
However, clear-eyed people know that in the process of selling gold, the bureaucratic privileged forces took the opportunity to embezzle and enrich themselves, which was the root of the "gold storm case". When the middle and high levels were found, they could not figure out their responsibilities at all, and Old Jiang had no choice but to tell the supervision committee that the investigation was handled, "If this is the case, what is the way?" Therefore, Song Ziwen was deposed, which is an explanation for public opinion at home and abroad.
As a result of the soaring price of gold, shops hoarded and unwilling to sell goods, the cost of living of the people rose sharply, and the property of many families was seriously reduced, while the high-level politicians of the National Government were making a lot of money and going unpunished. Behind the exquisite "yellow fish" gold bars is the frenzied looting of the people's wealth before the defeat of the National Government, and it is an unforgettable disaster for countless ordinary people.
[Reference: "The Republic of China's Extraordinarily Large Selling Gold Trend", "The Largest Financial Case of the Republic of China", etc.]