Introduction: The Central Revolutionary Base Area has a large population and weak productive forces, and it is difficult to gain a foothold in life in the face of the total blockade imposed by the Kuomintang. Therefore, in addition to vigorously developing its own economy, it is not necessary to carry out trade in different white areas to solve the shortage of industrial products, medicines, salt and other items, and when carrying out "foreign trade", it is necessary to use white area coins, such as the representative Yuan Shikai head pattern silver dollar, Sun Yat-sen head pattern founding commemorative silver dollar, Mexican eagle picture silver dollar. The mint in the base area solved the problem of scarce materials by producing silver dollars in the white zone, which was undoubtedly a special financial war.
In the 30 s of the 20 th century, the prices of commodities inside and outside the central revolutionary base areas were relatively serious due to the enemy's blockade, and the prices of internal specialties fell, while the prices of external commodities rose in price, some of which were even more expensive than those of big cities like Shanghai. In addition, the surrounding gentry and landlords transferred a large amount of cash, and it became more and more difficult to raise funds against local tyrants; Replenishment of cash captured through combat is also unstable; The market is also full of all kinds of miscellaneous white area money and paper money with low purity and floating credit, which consumes internal wealth; Banknotes and metal coins issued in the base area cannot be circulated in the white zone. Mao Zedong believed that the enemy was carrying out an economic blockade, that profiteers and reactionaries were sabotaging finance and commerce, that foreign trade in the red zone was greatly hampered, and that if these difficulties were not overcome, the revolutionary war would be greatly affected. In the face of many unfavorable factors, it is necessary to fight a financial war to create white zone silver dollars and use them as cash supplements in foreign transactions, which is one of the important means to carry out self-help, break the blockade, ensure the existence of the red separatist regime, and coordinate the orderly development of the local commodity economy.
Manufacture of white zone silver dollars
Before the central revolutionary base areas were connected, the small red regimes in southern Jiangxi and western Fujian had begun to manually manufacture silver dollars for foreign trade. In 1929, a silversmith named Chen Zhimei in Xingguo East Village, using the silver jewelry that was useless after the liberation of women, privately minted "Yingguang" silver dollars, and exchanged them in the capital market, and later his master Chen Yizhen also joined them, after the mobilization of the East Village Soviet Government, their small workshop was handed over to the public office, and the East Village Mint was established in August. At the beginning of 1930, under the Soviet Government of Xingguo County, Xie Liren carved a steel mold, made a "Tiandi" stamping pattern with stones, and made "Da Yuan Tou" by hand-chiseling the side teeth, producing an average of more than 200 yuan per day, and successfully used it to buy salt. In October of that year, it was changed to the Mint of the Jiangxi Provincial Soviet Government, and began to manufacture three kinds of silver dollars: "Da Yuan Tou", "Xiao Tou Yang" and "Diao Zi Bian", with an average daily production of more than 500 yuan. For example, in September 1930, the Western Fujian Soviet Government decided to establish the Minxi Workers' and Peasants' Bank in Longyan, which withdrew from Longyan City at the end of 1930 and moved to Tingzhou in September 1931.
From 1930 to 1931, after smashing the enemy's three "encirclement and suppression," the base areas in southern Jiangxi and western Fujian were connected into patches, and their areas continued to expand and consolidate. On November 7, 1931, the first National Congress of Soviets was held in Ruijin, and the Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic was established. The Central Mint used silver ornaments and silver taels[2] to manufacture metal coins issued by the National Bank and white area silver dollars such as "Da Yuan Tou", "Xiao Tou Yang" and "Diao Zi Bian", and the production began to be large-scale, and the means gradually changed to mechanization. Xie Liren recalled that this change occurred in the winter of 1931, when the Red Army seized a set of minting machines and steel molds in the Shanghang area of Fujian Province, and the factory began to mint coins by machines, producing an average of more than 10,000 yuan a day. The Red Army conquered Shanghang several times during the Agrarian Revolution, and the closest thing Xie Liren recalls was the capture of Shanghang by the Red Twelfth Army on February 26, 1932, so the Central Mint would not have begun to mint coins by machine earlier. This machine, which was originally intended to produce individual small milliliters, had a limited degree of impressing, and was used to produce larger, thicker one-dollar silver dollars, which overloaded the machine and damaged it by the summer of 1933.
In 1933, when foreign trade was developing greatly, according to Xie Liren and Yao Mingkun's recollections, the Jiangkou Branch of the Central State Administration of Foreign Trade (hereinafter referred to as the "Jiangkou Branch") in Ganzhou used red gold (gold of high purity) and the "big head ocean" and "small head ocean" made by the Central Mint as foreign currency. In order to cope with this dilemma, after investigation, the merchants in the area still received "Eagle Ocean", so the Central Mint decided to renovate "Eagle Ocean". However, the machine was damaged, and the Jiangkou branch purchased a suitable machine for making silver dollars from Shanghai through merchants in Ganzhou, and purchased several large boxes of horses and gold steel to carve molds, and the finished products were soon available, and after the silver dollars were sent to the Jiangkou branch, "foreign trade" was quickly restored. However, the silver dollars, which had been discovered by the merchants of Ganzhou, continued to be produced, because the 19th Route Army of the White District, which was doing business with the Xinquan Trade Branch in western Fujian, wanted to collect "small head oceans"[3].
Cao Juru recalled that in 1933, when the Red Army attacked Yong'an and Shaxian, it confiscated a machine for minting coins and used it to make metal currency issued by the Chinese Soviet Republic, and to make "big-headed" and "small-headed" silver dollars circulating in the white area as a purchase of goods from the white area. Xie Liren also recalled that in 1933, he conquered Shaxian County, Fujian Province, and seized a set of silver quill minting machines and a batch of copper molds, and the time was relatively vague. According to research, this incident should have occurred during the period when the First Front Army of the Red Army and the Eastern Army entered Fujian, and the time was from September 3 to 18, 1933 [4]. At this point, the Central Mint had at least one silver dollar machine and one silver quill machine. By the time the Long March set off in October 1934, the mint was moved to Dulongshan, where the machines were buried and personnel were transferred, and the Central Revolutionary Base stopped producing silver dollars in the White Zone.
Carry out foreign trade
At that time, trade in the White Zones relied entirely on state-run trade institutions to organize the masses and merchants in the Soviet and White Areas, and under the enemy's tight blockade, they bought salt, medicines, cloth, and other necessities. Taking the Jiangkou branch as an example, one day after the establishment of the branch in April 1932, a merchant from Ganzhou sold dozens of catties of salt in the business department of the branch, and the salesman paid a few pieces of silver according to the price. Because of the fairness of the transaction, the merchant introduced a large group of people on the same day, and the sub-bureau purchased more than 4,000 catties of salt and sold more than 10,000 catties of rice on that day, opening up the situation of red trade for the first time. With the exponential growth of the business, a coin transport team of more than 30 people was specially organized between Ruijin and Jiangkou. It can be seen from this that the key to opening up the situation is the quality of silver dollars, and merchants are all profit-seeking, and if the quality of the Red Army is too different, the merchants will not come again. Only by word of mouth can the red trade be established in the local area. However, the limitation of the merchant is that the small profit is thin, and it cannot withstand the wind and waves of the shopping mall, so once the "big head ocean" and "small head ocean" are identified in Ganzhou, there will be a credibility crisis immediately, which will bring a heavy blow to the "foreign trade".
Trade was piecemeal through merchants, and bulk commerce was actually achieved through sitting, and they were the main consumers of silver dollars. In order to preserve their strength, the local warlords did not fully implement the Nationalist government's "encirclement and suppression" and "blockade" arrangements, and were more willing to do business with the Red Army, and 60-70% of the materials in the base areas had to be imported from Ganzhou by the Jiangkou Branch, and small businessmen could not do it, and they had to rely on large merchants to achieve it[5].
It should be particularly pointed out that when contemporary scholars talk about the Jiangkou sub-bureau to carry out foreign trade, they generally quote Yao Mingkun's recollections, saying that the largest merchant in Ganzhou is called "Guangyuxing", with Guangdong warlords Li Huankui and Chen Jitang as the backstage, and the sub-bureau and its mutual representatives, the monthly import turnover is at least more than 60 yuan, and at most more than 1.5 million yuan, and more than 70 percent of the materials urgently needed by the central revolutionary base area are purchased from Ganzhou in various ways through here. The author found that among the old and new Cantonese warlords, there was no one named Li Huankui who could be called a "warlord" and seized Guangdong. The author believes that his real identity should meet at least six conditions, one is to have a certain military strength, the second is to have a certain economic foundation, the third is to have a Cantonese background, the fourth is to have an intersection with the central revolutionary base area, the fifth is to have an intersection with Ganzhou, and the sixth is to have the surname Li. In February 1932, Yu Hanmou, the commander of the First Army under Chen Jitang, led his troops into southern Jiangnan, and the first division under his jurisdiction was deployed in Ganzhou, and the division commander Li Zhenqiu. Li Zhenqiu secretly colluded with big businessmen to transport salt and cloth to the base areas, and arbitraged tungsten sand to make huge profits, and the officers at the regimental commander level also colluded with businessmen to make the above-mentioned business on a large scale, and the company commanders and platoon commanders stationed on the front line even made profits by "fines" for the salt sellers, and these were all open secrets during the period when the First Division was stationed in Ganzhou. At that time, the largest and longest merchant in Ganzhou and the Red Army was Guang Yichang, and Guang Yichang and Li Zhenqiu jointly sent representatives to Jiangkou to trade with the Red Army, so it can be seen that Guang Yichang was actually Li Zhenqiu's "agent" in Jiangkou, and "Guang Yuxing" was Guang Yichang. And Chen Jitang must have supported all this, and he had specially telegraphed to the Red Army that there was no shortage of salt and cloth in Jiangkou Town, which could supply the needs of the Red Army. To sum up, Yao Mingkun's memories seem to have a slip of the tongue, which is the reason for the scholars' rumors. It can be believed that Li Zhenqiu, a subordinate of the Guangdong warlord Chen Jitang, took advantage of the garrison in Ganzhou to engage in red-white trade with the Red Army through the local merchant Guangyichang, "fattening" Chen Jitang, objectively vigorously supporting the economy of the base areas, and digesting a large amount of silver dollars in the white areas manufactured by the central revolutionary base areas.
When they arrived at the Second National Congress of Ruijin, Zhou Enlai and Zhu De specially instructed He Changgong, commander and political commissar of the Guangdong-Jiangxi Military Region, to do a good job in Chen Jitang's united front work at the front line, not to take the initiative to attack, not to provoke him, and to use his support. Mao Zedong, who was persecuted by Wang Ming's "leftist" line, proceeded from the overall situation and personally went to the Guangdong-Jiangxi Military Region to instruct He Changgong to correct the relationship between "fighting" and "peace." At the same time, the 19th Route Army stationed in Fujian maintained close ties with the Red Army under the command of Cai Tingkai and Jiang Guangnai, as reflected in the above-mentioned Xinquan Branch's use of the silver dollar abandoned by Ganzhou.
After the Red Army's Long March, some of these white zone silver dollars were still mixed with other silver dollars in the white zone, and the other part was taken away by the Red Army and became a reserve for the Red Army to issue banknotes during the Zunyi period.
To sum up, the silver dollar made in the central revolutionary base area was one of the important links that maintained the political, military, market and social relations at that time, which enabled the Red Army to successfully dismantle Chiang Kai-shek's "blockade" strategy and win the financial war.
Analysis of relevant cultural relics
Since many of the "Da Yuan Tou", "Xiao Tou Yang" and "Diao Zibian" were made by the warlords themselves to solve military expenses, and there are many versions, and most of their characteristics are not included in the literature except for the method of identification by word of mouth, so it is impossible to use the method of elimination to determine the version of the central revolutionary base area. The quality of the silver dollars made in the central revolutionary base area basically meets the needs of market circulation, and it is precisely because of this that it is almost difficult to distinguish them from other versions in physical objects, and if they can all be accurately distinguished, they will not be able to circulate in that year, let alone be rejected in one place, but circulated in other places, after all, the seller will continue to use them after receiving the cash, so it is reasonable that there is no direct evidence to point out which version of the silver dollar was made in the central revolutionary base area.
At present, the memorial hall of the Ruijin Central Revolutionary Base has a central mint silver dollar steel mold (Figure 1), which is engraved with a part of the silver dollar of Yuan Shikai's head dated "the third year of the Republic of China".
It is worth noting that the National Museum of China has a number of three silver dollars issued to soldiers on the way by the Red Army troops who set out on the Long March from the central revolutionary base area. The "Three Years of the Republic of China" model Yuan Shikai's avatar silver dollar includes the food tail that Chen Zheng of the Third Army of the Red Army saved during the Long March (Picture 2), and the silver dollar given to him by his brother (a soldier of the Red Third Army) when Zhong Zhaolong of the Third Section of the Military Commission of the Red Army passed through Guizhou during the Long March (Picture 3); Sun Yat-sen's portrait is a silver dollar commemorating the founding of the People's Republic of China, including a silver dollar given to him by Zhong Zhaolong, a soldier of the Red Third Army (a soldier of the Red Third Army) during his Long March through Guizhou. Since the possibility of these silver dollars being seized or traded cannot be ruled out, it cannot be assumed that they were made in the former central revolutionary base.
The National Museum of China has a silver dollar casting mold from the Central Soviet Mint (Fig. 5), which is observed by the author to be the upper part of the punch of the stamping machine, with iron on the outside and a copper punch, which is consistent with the above record of the silver quill machine and copper mold seized by the Red Army in Shaxian County, Fujian Province in September 1933. It should be pointed out that Chen Xiaoliang once said that the National Museum of China has a frontal working model of "Yuan Statue of the Three Years of the Imitation of the Republic of China in the Soviet Area" [6], but after careful examination of the author's collection, there is no such and similar collections.
Exegesis:
[1] People's Bank of China Institute of Finance, ed., Cao Juru Manuscript, China Financial Publishing House, 1983, p. 1.
[2] Among them, silver taels are the main raw materials. For example, at the end of August 1931, the main force of the Red Fourth Army successively won victories in Yingshan and Qichun Caohe Town, and captured more than 1,600 catties of silver.
[3] Xu Yi, editor-in-chief, The Financial and Economic History of the Central Revolutionary Base Area, Volume II, People's Publishing House, 1982, p. 103.
[4] Military History Research Department, Academy of Military Sciences, "The War History of the Chinese People's Liberation Army", Volume I, "The Period of the Agrarian Revolutionary War", Military Science Press, 1987, p. 33.
[5] Wang Zhongren, "The Struggle Against Economic Blockade in the Central Soviet Region", Revolutionary History Materials 19, edited by the Revolutionary History Group of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China Literature and History Publishing House, 1992, p. 119.
[6] Chen Xiaoliang, "Research on Modern Coin Steel Molds in Nanjing Museum", Southeast Culture, No. 6, 2016, p. 95.
(Author's Affiliation: National Museum of China)
Source: Yanhuang Chunqiu
Author: Zhang Anhao