CFIC Guide
As a bank with a history of more than 110 years, the crisis encountered by the Bank of Communications at the time of the Xinhai Revolution, as well as several degrees of pitching and difficult development in the following hundred years, is a vivid example of the General Secretary's important speech: "This strong force is the Communist Party of China." ”
On the morning of October 9, the commemoration of the 110th anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution was solemnly held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, and Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President of the People's Republic of China, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivered an important speech at the meeting, pointing out: "... Due to the constraints of the historical process and social conditions, and because it did not find the correct road and leading force for resolving the problem of China's future and destiny, the Xinhai Revolution did not change the social nature of the semi-colonial and semi-feudal society of old China and the tragic situation of the Chinese people, and failed to fulfill the historical task of realizing national independence and the liberation of the people. ...... The history of the 110 years since the Xinhai Revolution has enlightened us that to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, we must have a strong force to lead the Chinese people forward, and this strong force is the Communist Party of China. As a bank with a history of more than 110 years, the crisis encountered by the Bank of Communications at the time of the Xinhai Revolution, as well as several degrees of pitching and difficult development in the following hundred years, today it has strides towards the "world-class bank", which is a vivid example of the general secretary's important speech: "This strong force is the Communist Party of China." ”
The Bank of Communications was established on December 8, 1907 (the fourth day of the first month of November in the 33rd year of Guangxu) and officially opened on March 4, 1908 (the second day of the second lunar month). In the early days of its establishment, the Bank of Communications took the development of transportation as its purpose and concurrently engaged in general banking business, and the profit rate of the first three years increased year by year (of which the profit in 1910 was the largest, reaching 690,000 taels, with a profit rate of 13.8%). After entering 1911, the Bank of Communications began to suffer a series of crises, and the General Management Office was paralyzed for a time. The Bank of Communications once summed up the reasons for the difficulties in the Xinhai year in its annual report, arguing that the Xinhai year was "actually the most difficult autumn for the bank, and what is obvious is that one is burdened by the source of righteousness and goodness, the other is the influence of the revolution, and the other is the wave of Saigon Wan Shun An".
Yuan Qi is seriously injured: the source of righteousness and goodness is closed
Li Jingchu, the first premier of the Bank of Communications, was also the name of Yi Shanyuan, one of the two major money banks in the late Qing Dynasty. Li Jingchu, with the power of the premier, often misappropriated the bank's capital turnover Yishanyuan ticket number.
On the sixth day of the first month of December (January 6, 1911) of the second year of Xuan reunification, Sheng Xuanhuai took over as Shangshu of the Ministry of Posts and Communications. In order to crack down on dissidents and monopolize the power of the Bank of Communications, he sent personnel to check the accounts of the Ming Dynasty court on the grounds that "the Bank of Communications is full of drawbacks and outsiders are snug", and the spearhead is directed at the source of righteousness and goodness. In the first month of the third year of Xuan reunification (1911), Sheng Xuanhuai removed Liang Shiyi from his posts as director of the General Railway Bureau and the assistant manager of the Bank of Communications, and immediately found that the general number of Yi Shanyuan and the semicolon had a total of more than 800,000 yuan of money to the Bank of Communications, and the current funds were also more than 100,000 yuan, and all of them were exposed.
Affected by the rubber stock trend in 1910, the capital turnover of Yishanyuan was already quite difficult, and with the spearhead of Sheng Xuanhuai, it collapsed. When liquidating the accounts, it was found that the bill number owed more than 2.3 million taels of collateral silver and more than 560,000 taels of current silver to the Bank of Communications, while at this time, the assets of the "Yishanyuan" ticket number were only 5,200 taels. The Bank of Communications suffered huge losses and its capital situation deteriorated unprecedentedly. At that time, the "Declaration" said: "In the past few days, there have been various distrusts in the Market for the Bank of Communications, bidding to withdraw the deposits, not hearing that there will be depositors, and even the banknotes of the Bank of Communications do not dare to use." ”
After the collapse of Yi Shanyuan, Sheng Xuanhuai immediately sent someone to check the accounts of the Bank of Communications, believing that "Li Jingchu lost a huge amount of public funds" and "should immediately go to the premier of the Bank of Communications." Subsequently, the Ministry of Posts and Communications removed Li Jingchu, the prime minister of the Bank of Communications, from his post as prime minister in March 1911 on the grounds that he wanted to sort out Yi Shanyuan. At the same time, Zhang Renjun, the governor of Liangjiang, appointed commissioners to clear Yi Shanyuan's arrears. However, the Qing court did not hold Li Jingchu accountable, but only managed to dispose of Yi Shanyuan's collateral and property, and promptly returned part of the arrears of the Bank of Communications. In order to fill the hole, Li Jingchu also "paid the family property first", but after all, it was a cup of water.
After this disaster, although the Bank of Communications was spared from bankruptcy, it is an indisputable fact that it was seriously injured. According to a report at the time: "After the collapse of the Bank of Communications' self-righteousness and good source, the impact was very strong, and the activity force was reduced, and Li Jingchu was also in a big way." At the same time, with the resignation of Liang Shiyi, Li Jingchu and others, Liang Shiyi "did not communicate with Wen Xingxing", and the Transportation Department also lost control of the Bank of Communications.
Storms and storms: the Xinhai Revolution broke out
On August 19, 1911 (October 10, 1911), the Wuchang Uprising broke out, and the Xinhai Revolution broke out. The Bank of Communications fell into an undoing predicament, and the whole bank fell into a panic. At that time, the arrears of officials and businessmen reached a staggering 18 million taels, far exceeding the capital raised by the Bank of Communications, according to the "Xinhai Pre-Xinhai Postal and Communication Department and Various Bureaus of Various Accounts Owed", "Our bank was subjected to the Xinhai coup, and the business affairs came to a standstill... There is almost no support for it." In fact, with the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, the nationwide financial crisis began to spread rapidly. In the banking system of communications, Han bank was the first to be paralyzed, and other branches were also hit by heavy setbacks, "Ning, Han, Ji, Feng and other banks have been lost, and Guangzhou, Shantou, Xiamen and other banks have actually ceased to operate.
Before the Wuchang Uprising, the Qing Dynasty was already in a state of turmoil. Due to the rise of the Baolu Movement, the Baoqing faction attacked Sheng Xuanhuai in groups, and Sheng Xuanhuai became the target of public criticism. After the Wuchang uprising, Sheng Xuanhuai, on the one hand, sent a telegram to Yuan Shikai as commander-in-chief, and on the other hand, he strongly recommended Yuan Shikai to the Qing court to suppress the uprising, so he became the target of people's opposition. On October 26, in order to calm the anger of the people, the Qing Dynasty dismissed Sheng Xuanhuai from his post and never used it.
With sheng Xuanhuai's resignation, the general management office of the Bank of Communications under the leadership of the Ministry of Posts and Communications also made a mess. The second prime minister, Zhou Kechang, has never had real power since taking office, and in the face of the crisis, he sat on a needle and felt, so he submitted his resignation; although he held real power in The Gangli Fenggang, he felt powerless and difficult to deal with the crisis, and also submitted his resignation together with Zhou Kechang. In their resignation letter, they said, "At this time, the situation is difficult, the police and telegrams in the branches of various ports are circulating, the money is exhausted, the financial obstruction, and it is all tricky to handle everything... Still begging for permission to go on an errand and send another cadre to take over." On November 16, the Ministry of Posts and Communications approved the resignation of Zhou Kechang and Chao Fenggang. Before they asked for their resignation, Assistant Lu Zongyu had also resigned. The General Management Office was leaderless for a while.
When Zhou Kechang resigned, the Ministry of Posts and Communications sent Yuan Jian, the general office and manager, to temporarily handle all the accounts and payments, but Yuan Jian felt that his work was tricky, and not only did he not go to his post, but even resigned from the post of general office and manager. In desperation, the Ministry of Posts and Communications sent Lu Hongchang, the general office of the Han Bank, to act as the premier of the Bank of Communications, and Lu Hongchang also failed to take office. In December, the Ministry of Posts and Communications sent a director, Yu Shouren, to act as the general manager, and Yu Shouren reluctantly agreed.
In the two months after the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, the General Management Office of the Bank of Communications was in fact in danger of being overwhelmed, and the entire bank's business was basically stopped. The banks of communications in various places have asked the general management office to allocate relief, but the general management office can only helplessly say that "the general management office has the responsibility to plan the overall situation, and should try to make a profit and because of the chaos affecting the overall situation, the financial panic in the market, the situation in each port is the same, and it is impossible to help with love." Fortunately, the General Management Office of the Bank of Communications demanded that Guangdong, Hong Kong, Shantou, Xiamen and other banks always respond to the chaos with a "neutral" posture in the revolutionary frenzy, successfully resisting the attempt of the revolutionary government to take over, and also avoiding the fate of being reorganized like the Great Qing Bank. On January 11, 1912, the Ministry of Posts and Communications appointed Lu Zongyu as the premier of the Bank of Communications; subsequently, the Provisional Shareholders' Federation publicly appointed Lu Zongyu as the prime minister of the Bank of Communications in Shanghai (due to the obstruction of the news, the appointment of the Ministry of Posts and Communications had not yet arrived in Shanghai at this time); after receiving the submission of the Provisional Shareholders' Federation, the Ministry of Posts and Communications issued another appointment letter on January 18 to appoint Lu Zongyu as the premier of the Bank of Communications. At this point, the General Management Office of the Bank of Communications gradually returned to normalcy.
Worse: The Saigon agency went bankrupt
At the beginning of its establishment, Bank of Communications actively developed overseas business. Before the opening of the Bank of Communications, Shangshu Chen Bi of the Ministry of Posts and Communications said that he would set up a branch in the place with the largest number of overseas Chinese in Nanyang, "so as to facilitate the exchange of foreign Chinese living abroad." In mid-October 1908, the Ministry of Posts and Communications consulted with the provinces and "instructed the governors to imitate the bank's charter, choose a place to build in the chongyao district, dispatch personnel, recruit commercial shares, and set up a branch bank of communications." According to the "Declaration" on November 22 of the same year, the Ministry of Posts and Communications also plans to set up branches of the Bank of Communications in Australia and the United States, of which "branches in Washington, Mexico, New York, San Francisco, Cuba, New Jinshan and other places intend to contact the Shanghai branch to handle exchange matters; in Singapore, Penang, Java, Siam, Myanmar, Saigon, Hanoi, hue, they will contact each other with the Guangdong branch; and Xiamen, Taiwan, Luzon, Wengewu, Tokyo, Yokohama, Hong Kong and other places, they intend to send managers to represent each other, and then set up branches later." The management law is governed by the statutes of the Bank of the West".
According to the deployment of the Ministry of Posts and Communications, when Chen Binghuang, the general office of the Guangdong Bank, went on a mission, the General Management Office instructed: "The city of Guangdong Province is close to Hong Kong, and there are remittances from time to time, and once the Guangdong Bank is established, it should immediately examine the situation, first set up a branch in Hong Kong, and then push it to the ports of Nanyang in order to facilitate the exchange." On December 9, 1908, Chen Binghuang sent a letter to the General Management Office to report that the preparations for the hong Kong and Annan divisions were generally complete. The General Administration Office replied that two disciplinary numbers could be opened in due course. On December 13, the Hong Kong semicolon opened on the second floor of the Xiang'an Silver on the Central Avenue. In January 1909, the Annam Saigon Agency was opened and was run by The Wan Shun An. Among them, the funds, accounts and all deacons of the Hong Kong Semicolon and Sai Kung Agency "are all subject to the comprehensive management of the Guangdong Bank". It should be noted that the opening of the Saigon Agency of the Bank of Communications has created a precedent for Chinese banks to set up branches abroad. After that, the Bank of Communications continued to set up branches in Nanyang based on the Guangdong Bank, and on January 18, 1910, the Xingjiapo semicolon was opened; on July 29, 1910, the Yangon branch was opened.
Saigon is an important area in Nanyang, and Wan Shun An is an important silver trumpet in Saigon. After the opening of the Sai Kung Agency, it became an important base for the Bank of Communications to develop overseas business, and "foreign organs really took this as a giant". However, the Bank of Communications in 1911 can be described as "a disaster", the domestic situation has become unmanageable, and foreign institutions have encountered crises.
In the spring of 1912, the Wan Thuan An in Saigon went bankrupt, and the Saigon Agency was also implicated. The collapse of the Wan Shun'an made "the people who travel with the Chinese and Western trumpets be burdened by it, and the loss of the special wu is even greater." The impact of the Xinhai Revolution has left the Bank of Communications crumbling in the storm, and the collapse of the Saigon Agency is nothing less than worse, pushing the Bank of Communications to the brink of collapse.
Regrouping: The Department of Transportation is back
The social chaos at the time of the Ding Revolution, on the one hand, caused the Bank of Communications to suffer a huge impact and almost failed, on the other hand, it also provided an important opportunity for the Department of Communications to regain control of the Bank of Communications.
Liang Shiyi, the head of the Department of Communications, was one of the main founders of the Bank of Communications. Although after the establishment of the Bank of Communications, Liang Shiyi only served as a helper because of the shareholding relationship, but because he was the director of the Railway General Bureau and held the power of railway finance, and the deposit business of the Bank of Communications relied heavily on railway funds, Liang Shiyi actually controlled the actual power of the Bank of Communications until he was squeezed out by Sheng Xuanhuai and resigned as the director of the Railway General Bureau and the assistant of the Bank of Communications. After that, Liang Shiyi, who was frustrated in the Ministry of Posts and Communications, soon became Yuan Shikai's confidant. During the period from the Wuchang uprising to the abdication of the Qing Emperor, Liang Shiyi devoted himself to republicanism, "mediating the overall situation", "comforting the imperial family on the inside, and persuading the nobles on the outside", so that Yuan Shikai smoothly entered The Capital and contributed a lot to the overthrow of the Qing court. In March 1912, Liang Shiyi became the secretary general of the The President of the Republic of China Government.
At this time, the Bank of Communications was in the midst of internal and external troubles, waiting for a hundred wastes, and urgently needed a figure with a pivotal position to preside over the overall situation. Although Lu Zongyu is a suitable candidate for the prime minister, when it comes to political status, financial management ability, and prestige in the industry, he is obviously inferior to Liang Shiyi in an all-round way. When Liang Shiyi was running to calm the political situation, there was no time to deal with the affairs of the Bank of Communications, and the Ministry of Posts and Communications and the shareholders naturally intended Lu Zongyu to become the premier of the Bank of Communications; and once the political situation was stable, Liang Shiyi could spare no effort to deal with the affairs of the Bank of Communications, and it was only natural for him to regain control of the Bank of Communications.
In March 1912, the Ministry of Posts and Communications (later reorganized into the Ministry of Communications) appointed Ren Fengbao as the assistant of the Bank of Communications and Ye Gongqi as the assistant of the Bank of Communications, which was a strong signal for the full return of the Department of Communications to the Bank of Communications. At the same time, Liang Shiyi "felt the needs of the financial institutions" and "raised huge funds for officials and businessmen to resume business". As the main founder of the Bank of Communications, Liang Shiyi could not bear to sit idly by and actively ran for the bank of Communications, which also won the general recognition of shareholders, and in May 1912, Liang Shiyi got his wish and was elected as the prime minister of the Bank of Communications by the shareholders' federation.
Since then, the Department of Communications headed by Liang Shiyi has given full support to the Bank of Communications for the rest of its life, and has used its influence in political circles to find ways to expand the strength of the Bank of Communications; on the one hand, it has actively straightened out its business and promoted the rapid development of various businesses through a series of measures such as clearing up accounts, absorbing deposits, restricting loans, and suspending the promotion of official deposits; on the other hand, it has promulgated the "Regulations of the Bank of Communications" in the form of a grand presidential decree, so that the Bank of Communications can obtain a series of privileges from the national bank and continue to consolidate and enhance the status of the Bank of Communications. Under the presidency of Liang Shiyi, the Bank of Communications was able to gradually recover its vitality.
Sheng Xuanhuai (1844-1916)
On January 11, 1912, the Ministry of Posts and Communications appointed Lu Zongyu as the prime minister of the Bank of Communications
Source of this article: China Banking and Insurance News on September 24 and October 8, 2021
Author: Mao Zhihui
WeChat Editor: Wang Shitong
Founded in 1991, Shanghai Securities News, sponsored by Xinhua News Agency, and legally disclosed securities market information media by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, is the first national financial daily newspaper in New China to provide authoritative financial and securities professional information, and has now formed an all-media financial media matrix covering newspapers, websites, clients, videos, WeChat, Weibo and other platforms.
Pursue political morality, news character, professional taste, service quality, first-class brand, do "product" of the all-media financial information service provider, be your decision-making staff, investment consultants, financial assistants.
Because of dedication, so professional; because of believing, so see...