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The four major families borrowed the name of the War of Resistance
Plunder the silk industry in Sichuan
Hu Plain
The four major families of old China refer to the feudal autocratic comprador ruling clique headed by Chiang Kai-shek. Their representatives are Chiang Kai-shek, Song Ziwen, Kong Xiangxi, Chen Guofu and Chen Lifu. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the four major families, under the pretext of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, vigorously strengthened the monopoly position of bureaucratic capital in the entire national economy, adopted monopolistic means against the silk industry in Sichuan, and exercised control and plunder in an attempt to achieve the goal of devouring the entire silk industry.
Representatives of the four major families: Chiang Kai-shek, Kong Xiangxi, Song Ziwen, Chen Guofu, Chen Lifu
The four major families monopolize the Sichuan silk industry
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1937, the four major families monopolized the silk industry in Sichuan and Chongqing. The appetite of the "money fan" Kong Xiangxi system is even greater, and he tries to swallow up all the silk industry in the province, including the Sichuan Silk Industry Company.
Lady Jiang's System of Song Meiling adopted the method of easing and encroaching on the division, devouring them one by one. In 1938, the Bank of China, to which Song Ziwen belonged, invested 399,600 yuan in the Sichuan Silk Industry Company in an attempt to slowly encroach on the Sichuan-Chongqing Silk Industry after taking a stake. From 1938 to 1942, Song Ziwen served as a permanent director of the company for 5 consecutive years, cultivating strength, Song installed his "confidants" Qian Xinzhi and Xu Guangchi as directors, and Ye Zhentang served as an inspector. In 1939, the Women's Steering Committee of the New Life Games to which Song Meiling belonged took advantage of its privilege to assign 7 counties such as Leshan to the Society as experimental areas for improving silk, thus seizing the cocoon source of Sichuan Silk Industry Company in 7 counties including Leshan and the sixth silk factory to which the company belonged.
The ambitions of the bureaucratic capital of the four major families have aroused the desperate opposition of the local powerful factions, and the two sides have engaged in a life-and-death struggle. This fierce struggle is actually a true portrayal of the contradictions between the Kuomintang Central Committee and the localities in the economic field. In 1940, Zhang Qun concurrently served as the chairman of the Sichuan Provincial Government, and through his mediation in many ways, he prompted the four major families to reach an "agreement and understanding" with the local powerful factions and implement the equalization of interests. The capital of the four major families of bureaucratic capital investment in the Sichuan Silk Industry Company has increased year by year. In 1941, the highest accounted for 38.98%, and from 1940 to 1944, Zhang Qun was re-elected as chairman of the Sichuan Silk Industry Company for five years, essentially to alleviate the sharp contradictions between bureaucratic capital and local power factions.
On the one hand, the bureaucratic capital of the four major families broke into the Sichuan Silk Industry Company to share the generous profits, and on the other hand, they began to control and plunder the Sichuan cocoon silk, so they then monopolized the cocoon silk market in the province and made huge profits from it.
In the early days of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, among the four major families, Chiang Kai-shek set up a central bank, Song Ziwen set up the Bank of China, Kong Xiangxi set up the Bank of Communications, Chen Guofu and Chen Lifu set up the Agricultural Bank, and the Joint Office of the Four Banks acted as a centralized financial institution of the National Government. Chiang Kai-shek served as chairman of the Council of the General Office and took charge of all affairs. Kong Xiangxi served as the Kuomintang minister of finance and vice president of the Executive Yuan, directly controlled the four major banks, and also set up the Central Trust Bureau and the Postal Savings and Remittance Bureau, forming a pattern of four banks and two bureaus, and successively founded and accepted the Industrial Bank of China, the China Domestic Goods Bank, the Siming Bank, the Shanxi Yuhua Bank, the Xiangji Commercial Bank, and the Qingji Commercial Bank under the banner of the Kong family. Although it is said that there are four major families, the bank is in the hands of the Ministry of Finance, the former chairman of the Bank of China is called Zhang Jiaao, and Kong Xiangxi is the president of the central bank. In July 1942, the Nationalist government also stipulated that the issuance of all the currency in the country should be centralized and unified at the central government. Thus, step by step, the monopoly position of the bureaucratic capital of the four major families in the national financial industry was strengthened.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the amount of deposits in the four banks increased sixfold in four years, the fastest growth among the banks. Of all bank deposits, the four banks accounted for 80 to 90 percent of the total, compared with 59 percent in pre-war 1936. Bureaucratic capital forms a formal and open monopoly in commerce. The establishment of the above-mentioned monopoly administration, trade commission, material bureau, and other institutions, as well as the implementation of the policy of monopoly and centralized purchasing and marketing, are major measures for bureaucratic capital to realize commercial monopoly. The four families were the largest usurers. According to a survey in 15 provinces, the proportion of banks, cooperatives and cooperative vaults directly and indirectly manipulated by the four major families shows that the proportion of banks, cooperatives and cooperative vaults directly or indirectly in the source of farmers' borrowing shows that it was 26% in 1938, 38% in 1940, 59% in 1942, and 25% in 1944.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, most of the raw silk sold at home and abroad came from Sichuan Province. At that time, the import and export of the Kuomintang-ruled areas were very unbalanced, and it was necessary to export a large amount of raw silk to alleviate the contradictions. Therefore, the four major families took advantage of the opportunity of the trade committee they controlled to make a windfall in the country, and supported the chairman of Sichuan Province, Wang Zhanxu, to establish the so-called "Soil Cocoon Soil Silk Management Committee" in the name of the Sichuan Provincial Government, and on March 15, 1939, issued the "Sichuan Provincial Soil Cocoon Soil Silk Management Outline" (draft), which stipulated that the provincial government and the Trade Commission would agree on the central price of the soil cocoon soil silk according to the common official price, and the provincial government would publish it. The silk production and marketing cooperatives of each county and district shall be organized by the silk cocoon silkworm farmers in each area and submitted to the soil cocoon soil silk management committee for approval to organize the following business: 1. In accordance with the cocoon soil silk management committee,Cocoon price, the soil cocoon is purchased and the soil silk is made; 2. The silk is sold to the soil cocoon silk management committee according to the prescribed silk price. It is strictly forbidden for cooperatives and silkworm farmers to sell silk to organizations and individuals outside the management committee, that is, those who prepare to process and weave silk from silkworm farmers must also register with the soil cocoon silk management committee. The Management Committee acquired the silk, A, and sold it to the Trade Commission of the Ministry of Finance for export. B. Supply to silk merchants inside and outside the province and silk factories in the mainland for raw materials. Those who transfer soil silk without a license may order it to be sold to the Soil Cocoon Soil Silk Management Committee and shall be disposed of separately.
It is not difficult to see from the above contents that the Trade Commission borrowed the signboard of "Soil Cocoon Soil Silk Management Committee" to monopolize the production, marketing and transportation of soil cocoon silk in the province through the production and marketing cooperatives of soil cocoon soil silk in various counties and districts through the "central price of soil cocoon soil silk" (that is, the official price set by the trade committee). This monopoly has had bad consequences.
First, the cocoon price set by the Commission on Trade is lower than the cost of production. On April 23, 1939, the price per kilogram of cocoon was announced, one cent of first-class octagon, one cent of second-class octagon, seven-pointer of third-class, seven-pointer of fourth class, and five-point hexagonal and five-pointer. In this way, all of them will earn silkworm cocoons at low prices, so that silkworm farmers will suffer losses.
Then, adverse events arose. In order to avoid losses, silkworm farmers mostly take the cocoon to the black market for sale. Qingshen and other counties are listed without cocoons, and package merchants have applied for return of contracts and release interest. The official price of the soil cocoon was unreasonable, and the Trade Commission refused to adjust it, which aroused the indignation of the vast number of silkworm farmers, so the incident of destroying the cocoon village occurred in Jingyan County.
Secondly, the silk car shops and silk cocoon traders who were excluded by the soil cocoon silk management committee were forced to close their businesses, and the soil silk workers were unemployed one after another, and there were many complaints. The opposition in Santai County, the production and marketing area, was the most fierce, and a petition group of three agricultural, industrial and commercial enterprises was formed, and 28 people, including Tang Wei, the recommended representative of the soil cocoon soil silk, went to all sides to appeal against the monopoly of the supply and marketing of the soil cocoon soil silk production. The petition group wrote in the appeal: "Since the silk company monopolized the improvement of the silk cocoon, the exclusive patent, everyone to the corner, half has been reduced to hungry grass." Last year, there was still a part of the soil cocoon soil silk, which can still be avoided from forced operation. Unfortunately, this year it has been managed by the government again, and the front-line vitality has been deprived, that is, the number of unemployed industrialists and merchants in the county has reached as many as 100,000, and the people's grievances are boiling..." Similar activities have been carried out in the industrial and commercial circles of the soil cocoon silk production areas in southern Sichuan.
Four families control the raw silk market
At the beginning of 1942, the price of silk in the domestic market was better than that of foreign silk, and a large number of raw silk was sold domestically. The profit of the silk company in that year was 7.3 million yuan, more than 4 times the profit of more than 1.5 million yuan in 1941. In this year, the British Embassy in China purchased Chinese silk for the Allies, and the Bureaucratic capital of the Confucius system took the opportunity to monopolize the raw silk market, and under the guise of purchasing foreign silk, seized a large number of raw silk and transferred it to domestic sales, making huge profits.
On August 17, 1942, Minister of Finance Kong Xiangxi submitted to the Executive Yuan for approval, "In the case of the provisions of Articles 5, 6, 7 and 8 of the General Mobilization Law of the People's Republic of China, the Executive Yuan shall issue a general order to the whole country that all raw silk deemed to be suitable for export by the Trade Committee of the Ministry of Finance shall be requisitioned by the Fuxing Commercial Company (affiliated to the Commission of Trade) in accordance with the cost of raw silk and appropriate profits, and shall prohibit the free trading of such raw silk in the market." Thus began the prelude to the monopoly of the raw silk market.
On March 23, 1943, the Ministry of Finance submitted to the Quasi-Executive Yuan to officially promulgate the "Interim Measures for the Unified Purchase and Marketing of Raw Silk in the Whole Country", the main content of which is Article 1, raw silk is the government's unified purchase and sale of goods, and the purchase, transportation and sales of improved silk and soil silk produced and sold at home and abroad throughout the country shall be handled by the Ministry of Finance and the Revival Commercial Company affiliated to the Trade Commission. Article 3, the Commission on Trade shall set up a raw silk evaluation committee to specifically handle the assessment of the purchase price of export and improved silk and earth silk. Article 4 Anyone who exports more than one quintal of improved silk or earthen silk for domestic and foreign sales from the self-controlled area (the national unification area) shall be subject to the CBTC Mainland Transit Certificate. Regardless of the controlled area or the non-controlled area, its shipment to the coastline must request the Ministry of Commerce for a domestic sales concession certificate from the Ministry of Trade, and its export export shall be reported by the Revival Commercial Company with the Ministry of Finance's quasi-waybill.
Since this stipulation, the traders who operate the raw silk trade in the international market, the car mills and private silk factories, the silk weaving machine households and the machine room, the silk industry company and the Leshan Silk Experimental Zone have all been seriously affected. "Oil and water" in the domestic market, so the four major families and local power factions launched a struggle for the privilege of domestic production of raw silk. The Sichuan Silk Industry Company sought the support of Zhang Qun, general manager, and Hu Ziang, director of the Sichuan Provincial Construction Department, and Luo Chenglie, a well-known figure, also came forward to make remarks with Zhang Lisheng, secretary general of the Executive Yuan, pointing out that in the rural areas of southern Sichuan and northern Sichuan, there are many people who take silkworm weaving silk as their important source of work, and if the interests are deprived too much, it will lead to incident riots. In addition, the people of Sichuan in the 1919 years fought for the right of way of the Sichuan-Han Railway, and the revolt of comrades in various places dealt a heavy blow to the rule of the Qing Dynasty, and should be used as a lesson for the past, warning the Kuomintang authorities and forcing concessions.
At this time, the Song Meiling system also opposed the Monopoly of the Confucius Trade Committee. As a result of the fierce struggle, the Trade Commission, in consultation with the Sichuan Provincial Government, decided that the domestically sold silk produced by the Sichuan Silk Industry Company would be supplied by the company to five woven users (Chengdu), Chongqing (Chongqing), Lang (Langzhong), Taiwan (Santai), and Shun (Nanchong), and the silk used by the weavers in Leshan District would be supplied by the silk experimental area.
In 1943, when the Trade Commission monopolized the export power of raw silk, it encountered a downturn in the European and American markets, and Jardine Matheson & Co., Ltd., which had always handled Huasi, bid too low and the transaction was not large. Kong Zou Yulin (deputy director of the Trade Commission) and Xi Deshan (general manager of Fuxing Commercial Company) secretly colluded with the owner of the Yunnan exporter "Mao Hengyi Sichuan Qilian Tengchuan Silk Factory" to organize the "Taiji Trading Bank" to purchase the Fuxing Commercial Company's export silk for sale in Southeast Asia at official prices in the name of "authorized export sales". Export raw silk is settled according to the kuomintang central bank's legal foreign exchange rate (us dollars one dollar legal currency twenty yuan), Taiji Trading Bank due to the depreciation of the legal currency, the cost of loss of about one-third, but the foreign exchange repurchased with raw silk sales, profit is thirty or forty times the cost, oil and water is huge, secret transactions, Sichuan local power faction through various channels, such as the law also won a huge amount of extra money. The exclusive monopoly of the four major families' bureaucratic capital has sucked up the blood and sweat of the vast number of silkworm farmers in Sichuan and shared the "oil and water" of Sichuan's silk industry.
In 1943, due to the low price of cocoons stipulated by the Trade Commission, sericulture farmers refused to sell them at the official price to the Sichuan Silk Industry Company and the Leshan Silk Experimental Zone, which were authorized to purchase cocoons. Therefore, the domestic raw silk market is strong, cocoon silk vendors have been purchased at high prices in the free market, and two markets have appeared in the cocoon market. The gap between the official price of silkworm cocoons and the free market price is very large, the official price is too low, and a large number of silkworm cocoons flow into the free market, and the Trade Commission hastily promulgated the "Rules for the Issuance of Permits for the Purchase of Soil Cocoons by the Sichuan Provincial Government" through the Sichuan Provincial Government on June 25, 1943. It is stipulated that the silk merchants who operate the soil cocoon silk shall first request the purchase of the soil cocoon license; 2. all the silk merchants who have obtained the license must export the silk with the soil cocoon system received; 3. The price introduction of the export silk shall be assessed by the Provincial Capital Yisheng Silk Evaluation Committee and the Revival Commercial Company affiliated to the Trade Commission. Subsequently, it was issued a circular order that "it is strictly forbidden for silkworm farmers to self-tapestry."
The above rules and circular orders have aroused the opposition of the entire industry of soil cocoon soil silk, so that silkworm farmers have cut down mulberry trees and vowed not to raise silkworms again, or they have beaten up thugs who are tigers and overthrown the policy of privately running silkworm farms. Suining and other places made the most noise, forcing the Trade Commission to make concessions. On October 10, 1945, the Council of Executives was forced to pass the decree abolishing the wartime system and promulgating regulations abolishing the Interim Measures for the Unified And Unified Marketing of Raw Silk throughout the Country.
The four major families use loans to control the production and marketing of raw silk
In addition to using the regime to formulate laws and regulations to control and plunder cocoon silk and monopolize the market, the four major families also used the banks under them to control the production and marketing of silk with payment.
Sichuan silk enterprises generally have limited funds, and most of them need to borrow money to purchase raw material cocoons and wages. At that time, the lending units were almost all financial institutions of four major families: the four banks of the central government, China, communications and peasants (and later formed the joint office of the four banks), the Central Trust Bureau, the Postal Savings and Remittance Bureau, etc., that is, the so-called "National Bureau". The State Administration uses the interest rate of lending industrial and mining enterprises to be lower than that of private banks as bait, controls the production, supply and marketing of loan enterprises, extracts special profits from them, and accepts loans from state banks. In addition to prepayments of a number of "heads", periodic interest payments and in-kind mortgages, harsh additional conditions are also subject to. The satin silk industry has audited the resident supervision of the factory, and the raw silk is purchased in proportion to the loan and the grade of the raw silk is stipulated, and the export is settled at the statutory foreign exchange rate. Auditing and supervising the factory is an important means for the four families to directly control the enterprise.
According to the regulations of the State Administration, all satin enterprises that lend money must accept the conditions for the inspection of the bureau. The power of the resident audit is so great that it is almost like "the emperor of Taishang". The auditor "exercises his or her powers beyond the scope of his/her powers and is not interfered with by the organ (unit) where he is stationed", and the enterprise "and its subordinate organs (units) have summonses, account books, tables, and archives, and the auditors may read them at any time, and in case of inquiries, the responsible personnel shall reply in detail". This kind of supervision is obviously a "hand and foot" that binds the enterprise, not only the general private silk factory cannot stand this kind of shackles, but even the Sichuan Silk Industry Company has tried its best to get rid of this constraint. In 1944, He Beiheng of the Construction Department wrote a letter to Pan Changxian, chairman of the Provincial Bank, on behalf of the Sichuan Silk Industry Company, to lend funds for the production of domestic silk, and in the letter he expressed the original commission. The letter reads: "Regarding the business of Sichuan Silk Industry Company, it is subject to its audit system. In the future, whether the business will be changed to the bank of this province to receive assistance..."
Cocoon
The specific method of the four major family financial systems to control and plunder the production and marketing of raw silk through loans is to purchase raw silk according to the loan value and limit the settlement of foreign exchange. The purchase of raw silk by the State Administration is the purchase of export silk from the lending enterprise at the official price (lower than the market price, or even lower than the cost). When the export silk sales channel is good, the oil and water are large, and all the acquisitions are strictly according to the number of loans, and they are not purchased when the international market drops. At that time, the legal tender continued to depreciate, but the foreign exchange rate of the original US dollar 1 yuan into legal currency 20 yuan remained unchanged for a long time. The foreign exchange obtained by the enterprise from the export of silk is sold at the statutory foreign exchange rate, which is actually equivalent to bearing the loss of the depreciation of the legal tender for the state bureau, and providing convenience for the four major families to purchase raw silk at a low price in the financial system, so the four major families use loans to control the production and marketing of raw silk.
The influence of the four major families on the silk industry in Sichuan
On the eve of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, in the 20 years before and after the Xinhai Revolution, the highest annual output of silk fabrics in Sichuan Province was about 700,000 horses, which was known as the "Golden Age" of Sichuan Silk Fabrics. In the early 1930s, the province's silk fabrics rose from a steep decline to an annual output of about 500,000 horses. Originally, during the War of Resistance Against Japan, it was very beneficial to the development of Sichuan's silk industry, but due to the monopoly and plunder of the bureaucratic capital of the four major families, the highest annual output of silk fabrics in the province was only 200,000-300,000 horses, which was not only beyond the reach of the "golden age", but also did not reach the level of the early 30 years. The annual output of raw silk in the province was close to 30,000 quintals at the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and in the later period of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, it was reduced to 18,900 quintals, and after the cocoon, silk and silk industries in Sichuan Province were plundered by the four major families, almost all of them were in a state of dying.
One of Kong Xiangxi's mansions
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, bureaucratic capital formed a formal and open monopoly in commerce. The establishment of the above-mentioned monopoly administration, trade commission, material bureau, and other institutions, as well as the implementation of the policy of monopoly and centralized purchasing and marketing, are major steps for bureaucratic capital to realize commercial monopoly. In addition, Fushengzhuang, the Agricultural Bureau of the Confucius family system, was later reorganized into the Flower Gauze Control Bureau, which controlled the trade of flower gauze. As an integral part of the Kuomintang's reactionary regime, these official-style institutions, under the pretext of the War of Resistance, completely monopolized domestic and foreign trade in the Kuomintang areas. During this period, the four major families set up a number of commercial companies in private names. For example, the famous ones are: Kong Jia's Qingji Yarn, Qianghua Company, and Dayuan Company; for example, the Song family's are: China Cotton Trading Company, Chongqing China Domestic Goods Company, Xining Xingye Company; chen family's are: Huahua Silk Company, Cotton Transportation Company, etc. Such companies have both political privileges and great financial power, and have a monopoly position in manipulating the market, thus achieving the purpose of devouring the silk industry. The four major families plundered the silk industry in Sichuan Province in the name of the War of Resistance, exploited the fruits of the labor of the vast number of sericulture farmers in Sichuan Province, and enabled the sericulture farmers to live a life of hunger and cold, they themselves fattened up "oil", squandered the plundered wealth, built a number of mansions, and deposited huge sums of money in the Bank of America.
In the countryside of old China, the four families were the largest usurers. According to a survey in 15 provinces in China, banks, cooperatives and cooperative coffers directly and indirectly manipulated by the four major families accounted for a significant proportion of the sources of peasant borrowing, 26% in 1938, 38% in 1940, 59% in 1942 and 25% in 1944. In September 1937, the Nationalist government set up the Agricultural Production Adjustment Committee as an institution to control and monopolize agricultural production. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, silk, tea, bristles, tung oil, etc. were purchased and sold by the National Government, and under the measures of requisitioning and requisitioning, a large amount of grain was directly controlled by the four major families. The four major families also directly occupy a large amount of rural land, and the Chen family's West China Reclamation Company and Chiang Ching-kuo's New Gannan National Economic Construction Company are such institutions.
The state monopoly capitalism of the four major families of old China was the greatest exploiter of the working people, which seriously hindered the development of the social productive forces and was a great obstacle to social progress. The sharpening of the class contradictions provoked by the brutal exploitation of bureaucratic capital is one of the fundamental reasons for the development of the Chinese revolution.
(Reference: Chongqing Party History Materials, Vol. 34)
Author series of articles
Source: Sichuan Provincial Local History Work Office
Text/Photo: Hu Pingyuan (Special Researcher of the Research Museum of Literature and History of chongqing Municipal People's Government, member of Chongqing Communist Party History Society, member of Chongqing Writers Association, member of Chongqing Documentary Literature Society, editor of Oral Banan Party History, Party History Research Office of Chongqing Banan District Committee)
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