#Historical Cold Stories##National Defense Science ##民国那些事儿 #
Republic of China oil one
Old China was an "oil-poor country", and China did not produce oil at that time. Whether it is kerosene or gasoline, it must be imported from abroad. In those years, from Beiping to Shanghai, from Tianjin to Guangzhou, all the oilseeds sold in cities were foreign brands, transported from foreign countries by steamship and then packed in lead drums, sold on pounds or gallons.
This one-sided seller's market has resulted in expensive and shortages of oil. At that time, not only was gasoline expensive, making owning a car a luxury that only the rich could have, but even kerosene for lighting lights at night was a big burden for ordinary people. What I want to talk about in the past few days is the supply situation and price changes of this "foreign oil".
First, foreigners use low-price dumping to occupy China's lighting market
Before kerosene lamps entered China, our traditional lighting mainly used vegetable oil, followed by a wick twisted from cotton thread. The brightness of this lamp is very poor, that is, the so-called "one lamp is like a bean". And when using it, it is necessary to often cut the burned wick, which is more troublesome to use.
After the Second Opium War in 1861, China was forced to open up five ports of trade, and kerosene lamps quickly entered China, which was used exclusively for the lighting of the concession. Subsequently, the foreigners adopted the method of dumping and quickly seized the night lighting oil market in China. At that time, foreign kerosene was very cheap, in 1879 in Hankou, tea oil was 526 yuan per carton, hemp oil was 524 yuan per quintal, and foreign kerosene was only 228 yuan per quintal, and a quintal of domestic oil could buy two quintals of foreign oil. It is also recorded that the price of rapeseed oil was about 120 yuan a catty, while kerosene was only 65 yuan a catty, and foreigners dumped half the price of domestic oil on China.
And in order to more easily sell kerosene to the Chinese people, Mobil Oil has also developed a canne kerosene lamp with a glass lampshade, and anyone who buys his kerosene will be given a high-grade glass cover kerosene lamp for free - this kind of low-price sale or even give away the machine, and then let you buy his consumables, is it very familiar?
So this foreign firm has spread its sales network to every corner of the Chinese countryside through layers of agents. The service of the foreign firm, which was also first-class, stipulated in the "Oil Manual" issued internally by the Asia Group at that time: As long as it is a guest who can bring business, even if it is a small candle shop in a poor and remote area, the foreign firm also requires its employees to lower their dignity and "understand what they like and dislike, so as not to hurt their feelings."
And this kind of low-price dumping of warm pulses, coupled with the combination of giving kerosene lamps, is simply not something that the people of the late Qing Dynasty can catch. Soon after, foreign kerosene knocked traditional Chinese vegetable oil out of the market. In 1863, kerosene imports were 2100 gallons (1 gallon equals 3.7854 liters), in 1886 it grew to 23 million gallons, in 1893 it reached 100 million gallons, and by 1911, the xinhai Revolution, imports were as high as 236 million gallons, and foreign oil completely dominated the Chinese market.
In the commercial report of Zhenjiang from 1882 to 1883, it was mentioned that "kerosene has been widely used in a considerable area around the treaty ports... Every village has cheap kerosene lamps." In his 1886 business report, he said: "Many industries that used to stop working after dark now work at night, and poor readers can also light kerosene lamps at night... Shoemakers, grinders, tailors and carpenters all use oil lamps at night. ”
Through the unremitting promotion of foreigners, kerosene lamps and kerosene stoves have gradually spread to all of China and become a necessity for production and life.
Second, during the Republic of China, the cost of lighting lamps by poor people was very high
In the Republic of China era, kerosene has become a necessity of life, when most people naturally did not have electric lights, and every household of the people used kerosene lamps to illuminate them. The supply of kerosene, on the other hand, is controlled by foreigners. After dominating the market with low-price dumping and gifts, foreigners finally revealed the true face of green-faced fangs.
At this time, in Shanghai, the docking port of foreign oil, because the freight is cheap and the competition is fierce, the price is still maintained at about 0.06 yuan a catty. At that time, one dollar could be exchanged for about 128 pieces of ten copper dollars, which was equivalent to about 90 yuan a pound. In the mainland, kerosene is expensive, and the Beiping kerosene near the Tianjin port is one dollar and seven catties, and one pound is 1/7 = 0.14 yuan, which is more than twice that of Shanghai Port. In October 1925, after Peking University professor Wu Yu returned to his hometown in Chengdu, he bought two barrels of kerosene packed with 28 kilograms, which cost 0.3 yuan per kilogram of kerosene, and the total of two barrels of foreign oil was as high as 8 oceans!
At that time, this price was equivalent to a month's salary for ordinary employees—when the faculty first became a librarian at Peking University, the monthly salary was only eight oceans. In Yu Dafu's 1923 essay "Spring Breeze Drunken Night", the female workers who worked in the Shanghai cigarette factory at that time could only get 9 oceans after ten hours of intense work a day. Camel Xiangzi pulls a rickshaw in Beijing, and he saves money for a month, but he can only accumulate 5 oceans.
At that time, the kerosene lamp, which output 4 hours a day, consumed about 3 liters of kerosene per month. A lamp a year is 36 liters, about 28.8 pounds, Professor Wu this is exactly the amount of a lamp bought for a year. A kerosene lamp a year will burn off your monthly salary, is it OK?
And this month's eight or nine ocean wages were actually high incomes in the 1920s. When Mr. Lu Xun lived in Beijing at that time, he used to hire several nannies, and their monthly wages were only two oceans. Professor Wu Yu's two nannies, the monthly salary is also two oceans - of course, this is not a few professors bullying people, the nanny at that time was wrapped up in food, these two dollars can be completely saved, although less than the camel Xiangzi's monthly remaining five yuan, but than the Peking University librarian that can only have a few coppers left every month, it is still much better.
That is to say, kerosene from Chinese mainland provinces at that time was very expensive. At that time, the income of ordinary workers, in addition to eating and living every month, was only two or three yuan, and they could buy ten pounds and eight pounds of kerosene. The price of this oil is so expensive, ordinary people are naturally reluctant to have more. At that time, the average family, it was the standard "sunrise and sunset rest", and few were willing to light kerosene lamps for a long time.
At this time, the students of the inland provinces who can "pick the lamp to read at night" under the kerosene lamp are no longer the children of the poor, but the treatment that only a solid family can have.
Third, Sandayang Oil Company monopolizes the Chinese market
The reason why kerosene is so expensive is mainly because foreign companies monopolize the market. At that time, China's kerosene market was divided up by the three ocean giants. They are the American Mobil Oil Company, Texaco Oil Company, and the British and Dutch joint Asia Petroleum Company. Among them, Mobil is the oldest and largest, followed by Asia Minor, while Texaco is smaller and the latest to enter the Chinese market.
At that time, in order to monopolize the Chinese market, the three major oil companies adopted a cooperative approach and agreed on the annual sales ratio of each company. For example, in the North China market, the average annual sales volume is about 40% of Mobil, 25% of Asia Minor, and 35% of Texaco. The three giants have joined forces to control prices and guarantee profits, while together they have cracked down on foreign competitors.
For example, in 1925, the American Daming Oil Company was established in Tianjin, and its "silver box" brand kerosene was immediately boycotted by the three giants, and finally Texaco merged the company. Hong Kong's Hu Brothers created the "Butterfly" brand kerosene, which was cheap and of good quality, and was bankrupted by a joint price cut by the three giants. The Guanghua Fire Oil Company, which was run by Chinese businessmen themselves, was jointly suppressed, and finally due to serious losses, they had to sell all the oil pools and oil stacks to the three major companies.
Under the joint control of the big three, China's kerosene sales have been relatively stable. In 1928, China's kerosene imports were 263 million gallons, only slightly higher than the 236 million gallons during the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, which is why the three major foreign companies joined forces to control the market, causing kerosene prices to soar, and ordinary people could not afford to consume. In the 1930s, the world economy began to decline, China's silver standard currency depreciated sharply, and kerosene prices rose sharply again.
At this time, the one-gallon (3.7854 liters) kerosene of Guangzhou Foreign Company had been sold for four silver dollars, averaging 4/3.7854 = 1.056691 yuan per liter, calculated according to 1.8 kilograms of kerosene per liter, it was 1.056691/1.8 = 0.587 yuan a catty, which was twice as high as the retail price in Sichuan in 1925. If it is calculated according to the price of 0.06 yuan a catty of Shanghai Port in 1927, it will soar nearly ten times!
So at this time, there were Guangzhou merchants who tried to extract kerosene from imported diesel and sell it at a low price with local trademarks. This local kerosene sold for three silver dollars a gallon, averaging only 3/3.7854/1.8=0.44 yuan per kilogram, which robbed a lot of foreign companies for a while. However, soon, the foreign firm joined hands to double the price of imported diesel, and then labeled the homemade kerosene with local trademarks such as "Peach Blossom Brand", "Moonlight Brand", "Economic Brand" and so on, and came to an "imported counterfeit domestic product", which sold at a lower price than the cost price of local merchants, completely knocking down local factories. After the local kerosene faded out of the market, the low-priced kerosene of foreigners soon disappeared from the market, and everyone had to continue to consume their high-priced oil of 0.6 yuan a catty.
The soaring price of kerosene has finally crushed the few consumption capacities of the Chinese people. It should be known that although the income increased in the 1930s, the salary of ordinary employees in large cities was only 15-20 yuan. This 0.6 yuan a pound of kerosene lamps, really reluctant to more. In the vast rural areas of Chinese mainland, the people who have been paying for this foreign oil price cannot afford to consume it, so they can only find the old oil cup that has been sealed for a long time again, and re-order the tea oil hemp oil bean oil that has been used for thousands of years.
Therefore, in the old movies and propaganda posters of that era, the poor people's homes were still lit by the old oil lamps that were "like a lamp like beans", rather than kerosene lamps that used "foreign oil". This is also a proof that the old literary and art workers attached great importance to historical facts and carefully examined the evidence.
Fourth, the compradors collude with foreigners to make a lot of money
While kerosene is being controlled by foreigners and the Chinese people are suffering from its exploitation, some foreign compradors in China have made a lot of money by acting as agents in the foreign oil business, from which they have made a lot of money. Among them, the typical representative who made a fortune by being a comprador is Kong Xiangxi, the famous minister of finance of the Republic of China and the richest of the four major families of Jiang Song Kong Chen.
Kong Xiangxi is a native of Shanxi, the local coal and iron, he sold iron from Yangquan to foreigners, and finally earned more than 200,000 yuan. Later, he saw that kerosene had become a necessity for residents to burn lights at night, and felt that it would be a huge profit to operate kerosene in the inland provinces - taking the same 1925 or so as an example, Shanghai Port foreign oil 0.06 yuan a catty, Sichuan Chengdu foreign oil 0.3 yuan a catty, the price difference of five times! So Kong Xiangxi organized a fire oil company and opened a "Shanxi Yuhua Bank", making himself an agent of Mobil in Shanxi, monopolizing the sales of Mobil kerosene in Shanxi, and making a fortune in one fell swoop.
Later, because the profits of Asia Petroleum Company were relatively lucrative, Kong Xiangxi abandoned Mobil to become Asia's agent. In 1918, Kong Xiangxi established the Xiangji Company in Taigu West Street. In addition to the General Number of Taigu, the company also has semicolons in Taiyuan, Yangquan, Pingding, Yuci, Qixian, Pingyao, Jiaocheng, Lishi, Fenyang, Xinxian, Yuncheng and other places, and branches in Tianjin, Shanghai, Shijiazhuang and other places. Its main business is to underwrite Asia's iron anchor brand, Yuanbao brand kerosene and Shell gasoline, engine oil, but also underwrite foreign alkali, foreign wax and pigments, fertilizers, pesticides, various chemicals and so on.
At that time, the average monthly turnover of Xiangji Company could reach 150,000 yuan, and the annual profit was about 350,000 yuan. After gaining a certain degree of economic strength, Kong Xiangxi's social prestige also expanded, and he was respected from Yan Xishan, the governor of Shanxi, to the local rich and famous. After this, Kong Xiangxi rose to prominence and later even became the minister of finance of the Republic of China.
And the Republic of China government was controlled by these foreign compradors, under the huge agency profits and kickbacks, it was naturally a variety of "better to buy than to buy", and many key industries in China have successively fallen into the hands of foreigners. As a result, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, once the coast was blockaded by the Japanese, the foreign goods could not be imported, and the necessities of life of the common people disappeared one by one, and then the prices soared and the people did not have a good life. The necessity of self-reliance and the establishment of one's own production system actually has a profound historical lesson.
Those who dream of crossing to the Republic of China, to do the young master's clothes and sideburns romantic entanglement, and then wear a cheongsam to lightly beat the devil's friends, or think about when the monthly income is only enough to barely eat, kerosene lamps can not be lit, need to keep cutting the wick under the old lamp, and then frown and ponder tomorrow's eating problem, what kind of way to live.
Resources:
"Kong Xiangxi, the richest man in Shanxi"
History of the Shanghai Working Class Movement
"Middle Class Ledger of the Republic of China"
《Zhenjiang Business Report》
A History of Life in the Silver Dollar Era
"Spring Breeze Drunken Night"