In July 1949, the Xinjing stock futures market was on the verge of destruction due to the rampant plunge of rubber stocks and futures. The storm quickly spread to the wealthy Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, as well as to the large cities in the Yangtze River valley and the southeast coast, and the empire's industry and commerce suffered heavy losses, and the achievements of the New Deal were ruined. According to rough statistics, the funds lost by Chinese businessmen in the Xinjing stock market and futures market are between 400 million and 500 million dragon yuan, while the disposable financial income of the political axe is only about 1 billion yuan. The evaporation of such a huge amount of money has made the financial situation of the political axe beyond its means even worse. Subsequently, many conservatives and Liao speculators who fell into bankruptcy became the biggest victims.

At the beginning of 1940, with the great development of the highway industry, the demand for rubber increased dramatically. At the same time, rubber has also become an emerging material for many industrial products, which is very popular. Horse-drawn carriages, tricycles, and rickshaws have been replaced with rubber tires, and people in various metropolises have a pair of rubber shoes and leather shoes, called "galoshes", and then wear rubber raincoats, and they can go out as usual in rainy days. Rubber medical gloves, infusion tubes, plugs, fillers, leak-proof coatings and adhesives, and countless other rubber products. In 1947, the empire imported rubber totaling 100 million dragon dollars, which increased to 180 million dragon dollars the following year.

Restricted by factors such as growth cycle, climate, and soil, the production scale of rubber cannot be expanded in the short term, which is destined to continue to rise in a certain period of time. The price of rubber in the futures market rose from 2 yuan per kilogram in 1941 to 10 yuan per kilogram at the end of 1942, reaching a peak of 22.5 yuan per kilogram in April 1947. Xinjing's rubber stocks also rose. A newly established rubber company issued 1 million yuan in shares, which were sold out in half an hour; The shares issued by another company, initially at $10 per share, rose to $180 per share shortly after the issue.

International financial capital, including Liaoguo, Goryeo, and Yueben, have set up rubber companies in the Nanyang region, which is suitable for rubber growth, and the headquarters are located in Xinjing, which is convenient for financing from the largest financial center in the Far East. According to Wusongjiang Baobao, in the months from late 1942 to early 1943, there were 122 new rubber companies in the Nanyang region, and at least 40 were headquartered in Xinjing. Some of these companies have just bought land, some have already planted rubber saplings, and many are leather bag companies.

Rubber companies headquartered in Xinjing have placed advertisements in newspapers to solicit funds. Affected by the wave of international financial speculation, Xinjing's rubber stocks are also very popular. A stock called "Baohe Rubber Tree Company" opened at 25 yuan per share on the Xinjing Stock Exchange and rose to 50 yuan more than a month later.

Wealthy Chinese and foreigners in Xinjing, fearing that they would lose a great opportunity to make a fortune, rushed to buy rubber stocks one after another. The ** official of the Xinjing Court said: "In 1944, a kind of rubber stock appeared on the market in Xinjing, and after a while, rich people competed to buy it, and some ladies and ladies of the mansion changed jewelry, sold diamond rings, and bought stocks, like crazy. If you have money, you have to trust people from all sides to buy stocks. I have been a triadier for many years, I know the broker, and it took a lot of effort to buy a few shares. When buying, it is 30 yuan a share, and the stock rises every day after buying, and the highest price rises to 90 yuan per share. Many foreigners know that I have stocks, take a checkbook, stare at the door, and sign as soon as I am willing to sell. ”

The panic buying frenzy has made many people rich overnight, and it has further aroused people's speculation**, so that the actual price of the stock exceeds several times or even dozens of times the par value. The issue price of Dao Mi Ren stock of Xiangmao Foreign Bank is 8 yuan, and the market price is 66 yuan. Companies with old brands and big reputations can bid up their stock prices as they please. The stock of Xue Nawang of Huitong Commercial Bank, which had a face value of only 100 yuan, rose to 15,600 yuan.

According to the Xinjing Chamber of Commerce, before the outbreak of the rubber stock market crash, about 80% of the Chinese people bought it, and the foreigners in Xinjing snapped up 20%. Many Chinese people are not satisfied with rushing to buy in Xinjing, and they have also mobilized funds to Singapore. Chinese businessmen have invested about 260 million to 300 million yuan in Xinjing and about 140 million yuan in Singapore. As a result, Xinjing, the largest financial center in the Far East, has run out of capital, and the liquidity in the market, especially the liquidity of banks and banks, has been absorbed by rubber stocks.

The rubber stock boom is a tragedy caused by the influence of the domestic financial situation and the malicious control of some adventurers. The windfall profits made Xinjing's investors lose their minds and fall into the trap, while the banks and speculators profited.

In 1943, Fujiwara Takusho established Nanyang Takuzhi Company in Shinkyo. Fujiwara claims that his company runs rubber plantations, excavates oil and coal, and harvests timber. After tossing and turning for several years, there was no improvement, because his company was purely a leather bag company. After the price of rubber rose, Fujiwara realized that his opportunity had come.

This guy launched an advertising campaign, spending money and asking people to brag about the arrival of the "rubber era" in the newspapers of Xinjing. These articles are highly inflammatory, and they instill in people that rubber is indispensable in the future life. The company's trademark has long occupied the front pages of many influential Chinese and foreign newspapers. His propaganda campaign worked wonders, and the company's fame grew. In order to further attract wealthy people in Shinkyo to buy the company's shares, Fujiwara artificially inflated the price of the shares. He weaved his accomplices, snapped up stocks, and when the price rose, he threw out a large sum of money, and snapped up it again at a higher price, and several went back and forth. The stock was speculated higher and higher, and it was hard to find a ticket.

At this time, Fujiwara held a weekly board meeting and pretended to take out a "letter from the place of origin" to report to the directors on the recent production of rubber. Because he was worried that the imaginary head would be too big and would be seen through, he played a new trick and paid a dividend to the "shareholders" who bought the shares every three months, and each share could get 12.5 yuan. Such a bonus makes the buyer not think calmly. As a result, the stock with a face value of about 60 yuan soon broke through the 1,000 yuan mark per share, and Fujiwara quickly amassed a large amount of money.

The rest of the rubber companies also did the same, and the general manager of Huitong Commercial Bank also paid dividends to shareholders every quarter, 7.5 yuan per share. They boasted of higher skills, claiming that the quality of the rubber produced by the plantation company they ran was better than that of Fujiwara, and in the end, they even came from the latecomer, and the stock price surpassed Fujiwara's.

On the eve of the stock issuance, the Xiangmao Commercial Bank opened by the father and son of Korea Human Rights in Seoul first bought newspaper pages and boasted that the stock prices were cheap and profitable, and on the day of the opening of the market, a large number of hooligans were bribed to the door of the Chenji Bank to pretend to be customers and snap up the stocks. "Xiangmao Commercial Bank claimed that the subscribers were unexpectedly enthusiastic, the rated share capital was seriously insufficient, and could only be reduced as appropriate, and those who subscribed for less than 100 shares could keep 20% of the shares, and those who subscribed for 100 to 500 shares could retain 10% of the shares, and the balance would be refunded. As a result, their shares become sought-after as soon as they go public.

In March and April 1948, the highest stock price of Xinjing rubber stock was constantly refreshed, but there were few cash transactions, and most of them were short transactions. Fujiwara saw that the stock market bubble was about to burst, and in July, he rolled up all the money and evaporated from the world.

Without the intervention of the old forces, the failure of stock speculation would at most make some of the wealthy people in Xinjing lose some money, and it would not have evolved into a financial crisis that affected the whole country.

In the 1940s, Xinjing, the traditional financial institutions, such as Qianzhuang, Yinhao and Ticket (hereinafter collectively referred to as Qianzhuang), also achieved great development in Xinjing, with a large number, among which Yuanfengrun and Yishanyuan were the most powerful. They are the leaders of the New Beijing Bank Money Industry, and together with Chenji Bank and Imperial Bank, they are the pillars of optimus for maintaining financial stability in the eastern part of the empire. However, compared with the wealthy Chenji Bank, the capital of the local money bank on Liangzhejiang Road was quite limited at first, with a registered capital of "no more than 500,000 yuan, and less than 200,000 yuan". The local money bank mainly provides foreign exchange business for enterprises and merchants in the Taihu Lake area, and issues bank bills, receives deposits, and issues loans. The rapid development of Xinjing Qianzhuang is mainly reflected in the increase in business volume. In 1938, there were only 8 to 10 slightly larger money banks in Xinjing, and the book capital was only 300,000 to 500,000 Chen base money, but by 1947, the deposits absorbed by Fukang Money Bank alone amounted to 8170690 yuan.

There are two main ways for money to get involved in rubber stock speculation. The first situation is more common, the money bank provides loans to speculators, in addition to credit loans, they also accept loans in kind, in fact, the speculators use the rubber stocks they have purchased as collateral, obtain new loans to buy new stocks, as long as the price of rubber stocks does not fall, the money bank will not lose money, and the pledged stocks are still appreciating. Therefore, the money bank accelerated the speed of lending money to Chenji Bank, and Chenji Bank enjoyed its success. With the strong financial support of foreign banks and local banks, the speculation of Xinjing rubber stocks has intensified.

The second situation is that the money bank is directly involved in stock speculation. Since the shares issued by the various rubber companies in Xinjing were mainly sold through the commercial banks and the Chenji Bank, the big compradors of these commercial banks could take advantage of their positions to snap up the shares on a large scale. The most famous is Chen Yiqing, the owner of Zhengyuan Qianzhuang (the comprador of Maohe Foreign Bank, Xinqichang Foreign Bank and Lihua Bank, who owns Qingyu Foreign Goods and Zhengyuan Qianzhuang, and also participates in Zhaokang Qianzhuang), Dai Jiabao, the owner of Zhaokang Qianzhuang (the comprador of German merchant Yuxing Foreign Bank), and Lu Dasheng, the owner of Qianyu Qianzhuang. They gathered together and successively issued 60 million yuan of banker bills (equivalent to bank checks, which were redeemed at maturity), of which 359 forward bankers fell into the hands of Chenji Bank, with a total value of about 14 million yuan. Chen Yiqing and Dai Jiabao also borrowed 10 million yuan from Imperial Bank, Huaxia Bank and Jardine Matheson Commercial Bank, which were deposited in three banks. They are still not enough, and they have adjusted their positions from Senyuan, Yuanfeng, Huida, Xiefeng, Jinda and other money banks, Senyuan is a small money village, and Chen Yiqing transferred 20880 two Zhuang tickets.

These eight banks have been combined to form a super rubber stock speculation group. In June 1949, the Singapore futures market plummeted, and Xinjing rubber stocks plummeted. Chen Yiqing lost more than 2,000 yuan, Dai Jiabao lost more than 1,800 yuan, and Lu Dasheng lost more than 1,200 yuan. Chenji Bank immediately stopped lending to Zhengyuan Group and urged it to repay. On July 21, Zhengyuan and Qianyu Qianzhuang went bankrupt; On the 22nd, Zhaokang and Senyuan Qianzhuang went out of business; 23 said, Yuanfeng went out of business; On the 24th, Huida, Xiefeng, and Jinda went out of business.

Just as Zhengyuan Group was going bankrupt, Zhou Huang, the mayor of Xinjing, together with Zhou Jin, president of the Xinjing Chamber of Commerce, urgently went to Shenjing by special car to meet Chen Guanxian, the minister of finance of the empire. After Chen Guanxian transferred to the imperial court, Emperor Li Hao approved an emergency loan from Chenji Bank on July 27. At this time, Xinjing, Chenji Bank has shown a monopoly situation, Chenji, HSBC, Dehua, Gali, Huasheng, Zhengjin, Amundi and other 9 large banks control Xinjing's financial industry. They were well capitalized, absorbed large deposits from large factories and merchant houses, and because they were protected by the imperial financial laws, many enterprises, merchants, and bureaucrats also preferred to deposit their funds in the big banks, although the interest rates on deposits in the big banks were low.

On August 4, Zhou Huang signed a "loan contract to maintain the Xinjing market" with 9 large banks, borrowing 35 million yuan, including 8 million yuan from Chenji Bank, 5 million taels from HSBC, 5 million yuan from Dehua, 4 million yuan from Huasheng, 3 million yuan from Zhengjin, 3 million yuan from Amundi CIE, and 3 million yuan from Gali. At the same time, he also allocated a financial surplus of 30 million yuan in Xinjing, which was deposited in Yuanfengrun and Yishanyuan and their affiliated Zhuang numbers to help stabilize the market. After Zhou Huang's emergency treatment, the Xinjing market became calm.

In fact, Yuanfengrun and Yishanyuan were also hit hard in the collapse of Zhengyuan. The loss of Deyuan Qianzhuang, which is linked to Yuanfengrun, is about 20 million taels, and the Yuanli Qianzhuang, which is backed by Yishanyuan, also has a huge loss. The two financial giants survived the first shock wave with their own strength and Zhou Huang's emergency assistance. As long as these two giants stand tall, the Xinjing market will not be rotten. However, in order to bail out the money banks of the same system that were losing money in the Zhengyuan Boom, they have become weak.

The matter should have ended here, but it is a pity that the conspiracy of the people has buried the hard-won success of saving the market. By September, the government had to repay the national debt, and according to custom, Xinjing should bear 19 million. However, Zhou Huang took the financial surplus of the municipal axe to save the city, and the treasury was empty. In view of the fact that the market in Xinjing is still not relaxed, Zhou Huang asked for 20 million from the Imperial Bank to be paid first.

Chen Bangrui, the vice minister of finance who had a disagreement with Zhou Huang, took the opportunity to join his cousin, the governor of Jiangsu, to impeach Zhou Huang, saying that he used the panic in the market as an excuse to "intimidate the imperial court". The central government immediately dismissed Zhou Huang from his post and ordered him to settle the money he had received within two months. Since the amount of money he handled was as high as 62.5 million yuan, most of which existed in Yuanfengrun and Yishanyuan, he called the Senate again to ask for a grace period, and once again affirmed that he must not rush to withdraw "Huguan treasury funds" from Yuanfengrun and other money banks. The reason why Yuanfengrun and Yishanyuan dominate the country is that they do not rely on the loans of big banks, and they have received the support of Xinjing's finance, which has about 6/10 of its finances in the Yuanfengrun system and 4/10 of its finances in the Yishanyuan system.

The Senate still regarded it as an intimidation, and in addition to sternly reprimanding him, he was ordered to complete the settlement within two months. Zhou Huang was embarrassed and angry, so he had to ask Yuan Fengrun and Yishanyuan for official money, and withdrew more than 2 million taels in one fell swoop. On October 7, the big banks suddenly announced that they would refuse to accept the banker bills of 21 Xinjing money banks. Yuanfengrun could not turn around, and on October 8, 1910, it was declared liquidated, and the deficit of public and private funds amounted to more than 200 million. Its 17 branches in Shenjing, Daimyofu, Guangzhou and other places also closed at the same time. The collapse of Yuanfengrun led to the collapse of a large number of money banks in Xinjing, and the financial crisis began to spread to the whole country. This is the second wave of the rubber stock boom.

After the fall of Yuanfengrun, the Ministry of Finance ordered the Imperial Bank to urgently transfer 10 million cash coins to Xinjing. On December 11, the political axe came to the rescue again, and Chen Guanxian came forward to borrow 30 million from Chenji, HSBC, and Amundi Oriental, with an annual interest rate of 7% and a term of 6 years, and it was guaranteed by Jiangsu Yanli.

Li Jingchu, the major shareholder of Yishanyuan, was the cousin of Li Fei's wife, and at that time he also served as the deputy minister of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and the general manager of the East China Bank of Communications. He borrowed 28.7 million yuan from the East China Bank of Communications as collateral with his industry, and urgently transferred funds from branches across the country to make up for the deficit after the transfer of official funds and temporarily preserved the source of righteousness. However, in early 1949, Sheng Yongxian (one of Li Ji's secretaries) took office as the head of the Financial Supervision Department, and in order to combat the influence of the old conservative forces in the East China Bank of Communications, he began to check the accounts of the East China Bank of Communications.

Seeing this, Li Jingchu hurriedly returned the money borrowed by Yishanyuan from the East China Bank of Communications, resulting in only 7,000 taels of cash left on the books of the Xinjing Yishanyuan General Account. On March 20, Ding Weifan, the manager of Yishanyuan's general account, tried to borrow 100,000 taels from Liu Yan, the new mayor of Xinjing, using the stocks of various enterprises in his hands, but was refused. The next day, Yishanyuan announced its bankruptcy with a debt of 140 million. The last pillar to maintain the Xinjing market collapsed, Xinjing's financial industry suddenly collapsed, and a nationwide panic followed, with Nanjing and Yingkou in Liaoguo in the north, Guangzhou in the south, and Hankou and Yucheng in the west, and the major industrial and commercial cities across the country fell into a panic.

Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo and other six major economic towns collapsed 18 famous money banks and ticket numbers, implicated by them, except for Suzhou, the old conservative landlord capital and financial institutions in the above five major cities were all washed away.

Taking Zhenjiang as an example, affected by the Zhengyuan trend, in August, Zhenjiang's four big business names Dasheng Hengmu Bank, Zhenyuan Xiang Silk Bank, Ruihe North Goods Bank, and Ma Zhenji Silk were all washed away. The four major firms have been established for a year, and their business operations in Zhenjiang are all large. Dasheng Hengmu Bank owes 86,000 yuan to Zhenhe Qianzhuang, 40,000 yuan to Fuyuan Qianzhuang, 40,000 yuan to Yuanchang Qianzhuang, 30,000 yuan to Yongyuan Qianzhuang, and 7,000 yuan to Yongyu Qianzhuang. Ma Zhenji owes 36,000 to Yuanfeng Qianzhuang and 14,000 to Yiyuan Qianzhuang. Although the four major firms have not closed down, they have been struggling, which in turn has dragged down a large number of money banks.

The tide of rubber speculation, which has spread widely and has great destructive power, is unprecedented in history, which not only makes the commercial capital accumulated in Chinese society for a long time realize the danger of bubbles, but also makes the new industry and transportation industry realize how to control speculation and honestly do a good job.

This is yet another financial crisis that could have confined space to a certain extent, a factional struggle between the masses and the old-fashioned officials, and the destruction of the already infrogate financial balance. The crisis destroyed the last hope of the old-fashioned family of landlords and bureaucrats and exacerbated their financial crisis. Under economic pressure, the gate lords would auction off the land at a low price, piercing the illusory bubble of land worship, which led to the outbreak of the land rent revolution. Because of the rent revolution, the old forces were completely decayed. It can be said that the crisis of rubber speculation laid the groundwork for the victory of the bourgeois rule of the New Deal.

The financial crisis occurred because the old forces lacked the ability to control finance and the means to reduce financial risks. The existence of the traversal masses has enabled China's policy of financial liberalization to give big financial capital and speculators an opportunity to easily plunder the fruits of hundreds of years of land accumulation by the old forces. History has proven more than once that advanced systems and huge capital can control everything, and this is also the reason for the occurrence of countless financial crises in the future. (To be continued.) )