During this period, because of the toughness of the concession police station, the Japanese could not bail out hundreds of arrested Japanese puppet spies, so in order to exert pressure, they strengthened the checkpoints outside the concession and began to restrict the import of all kinds of materials, especially grain, coal, etc., which were closely related to the people's livelihood, in an attempt to force the concession to bow its head.

Under such circumstances, the rice and coal shops in the concession area were reluctant to sell at the same time, which played a role in fueling the fire, causing the market prices of rice, coal, and other necessities for the people's livelihood to skyrocket in just a few days, causing panic among the citizens.

In order to cope with this situation, Li Junhao proposed that the Ministry of Industry and Bureau establish a market management office, which would set up a grain management office and a coal management office to control these two types of commodities on the market and crack down on the behavior of accumulating strange people, and the anti-smuggling department of the police department would cooperate in the action.

As soon as the market management office cleaned up the market, it first faced two powerful chambers of commerce, the Rice Industry Association and the Coal Industry Association.

The Rice Industry Guild is a trade association composed of more than 700 rice and grain merchants in the concession, most of whom have a consortium or gang background, and they work together to control most of the food supply in the concession.

The Coal Guild was even more powerful, controlling all of the coal supply in Shanghai, and was now controlled by Japanese merchants.

——

At a meeting of the board of directors of the Ministry of Industry and Industry Bureau on February 1, the commercial counselor of the consulate in charge of the economy, Sain, released a set of data, which illustrated the serious situation of the shortage of grain and coal supply and the soaring prices in the Shanghai and Shanghai markets.

Originally, Shanghai was the largest grain entrepot in Asia and the most important rice grain consumption and trade entrepot market in China. In entrepot trade, there are both exports of Inter rice and imports of Southeast Asian rice, totaling millions of tons per year. Therefore, before the establishment of the Republic of China and the July Seven Incident, although the price of rice in Shanghai had been affected by man-made or financial crises and fluctuated sharply, it never exceeded 20 yuan/quintal (100 catties).

Before the Battle of August 13, the population of the concession was about 1.7 million, and the annual consumption of rice grain was about 300,000 tons, which was the highest per capita consumption in the country, and the average price of rice at that time was 13 yuan per quintal.

By the end of last year, the population of the concession exceeded 4 million (or more), but it is estimated that the consumption of rice and grain in the concession was only 480,000 tons, a decrease of 30 percent per capita, indicating that the average standard of living has dropped significantly.

At the beginning of last year, the price of rice was about 17 yuan/quintal, and by the end of the year, it had risen to 60 yuan/quintal, an increase of two and a half times; Now, because the Japanese army has blockaded the concession and frozen the entrepot trade of Wusong Port, and the grain merchants in the concession have taken the opportunity to sell and raise prices, the price of rice in the market has reached 70 yuan per quintal, and it is bound to continue to increase in the future......

In terms of coal, Shanghai is a complete consumer market, factories and mining enterprises need coal for steam power, power plants need coal for power generation, and people need coal for daily life, and the coal source has long relied on North China to supply (mainly Kailuan coal mine), and a small part is imported Indian coal......

For example, in 1939, more than 1 million tons of coal were imported from the Kailuan Coal Mine.

Although the Kailuan coal mine in Tangshan, Hebei Province, is still under the control of the British, the external transportation route is completely surrounded by the Japanese-occupied areas, so there is no pricing power in the price of coal arriving in Shanghai.

At present, the transportation and sales of coal in North China are controlled by the Japanese "North China Development Association", and Central China is controlled by the "Central China Revitalization Association", so since the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the price of coal in Shanghai has risen more than ten times; This time, the Coal Association, which is controlled by Japanese businessmen, used the coal purchase and sales channels under its control to manipulate the coal price in Shanghai and Haihai, causing the market coal price to continue to skyrocket.

In the end, Sain pointed out that the price of grain and coal in the concession area has skyrocketed again, although it is due to the blockade by the Japanese and the manipulation of the market by the two major guilds, but the fundamental reason is that the police department has cracked down on the Japanese puppet spies in the concession, and military attache Pan Sen should be held responsible.

In response to this accusation, everyone in the meeting was silent, although some people also thought so, but no one echoed his statement - who is Pan Sen, Counselor Sean actually took the opportunity to make trouble in the board of directors, what do you want to do!

Everyone understands that this matter can be discussed at the internal meeting of the Consulate General and then announced by the board of directors of the Ministry of Industry and Bureau, and there is no need to expose internal contradictions to the outside directors; And that's what Sain did! Is this to tear the skin?

Li Junhao looked at Sain with a serious face, and couldn't help laughing, no wonder he refuted him, but said to himself: "I have a somewhat different view from Mr. Sain, first of all, the rise in grain and coal prices did not start from now, after the Huhai concession area became a Japanese war zone, it has been more than two years now, and the entry and exit channels of Huhai have been controlled by the Japanese army, and the price of consumer goods has risen inevitably;

"Secondly, isn't this operation to crack down on illegal intelligence outlets in the concession right?"

Sein had a gloomy face and didn't answer, he couldn't say that this was wrong, it would affect his image too much.

"Isn't it a good thing that the police have done the right thing to eliminate most of the illegal forces in the concession and greatly improve the law and order situation?" Li Junhao did not force him to answer, and continued, "The concession is controlled by us, so what we need to consider when we do anything is beneficial to the overall situation of the concession, instead of passing the buck and evading responsibility when something goes wrong...... Oh, I don't mean to say that Mr. Sein is such a person, don't get me wrong! ”

Hearing his words, many people couldn't help but laugh, but Sein's face turned black to the bottom of the pot.

At this time, Ayres spoke: "Okay, Auger, tell me your opinion on how to deal with this matter, needless to say, some of the situations that everyone knows, a waste of time!" ”

His words sounded like he was asking Li Junhao to get to the point quickly, but everyone here is an old civil servant, how can they not hear it - this is talking nonsense and wasting time before talking about Sain!

"Yes, sir." Li Junhao said, no longer looking at Sein's expression that was about to be uncontrollable, "I have learned that the pricing of rice grain in Huhai is mainly determined by the Rice Industry Association, and the people behind it are the Jiangsu and Zhejiang consortiums, the green gang bosses and black market merchants, and now the Japanese have strengthened the blockade of the concession access channel, and they see the opportunity to make a fortune, so they want to make huge profits!"

"As for the current situation of the coal market, as Mr. Sain said just now, the root cause is the manipulation of the Coal Association, which is completely controlled by Japanese businessmen! On the one hand, they want to make more profits, and on the other hand, they want to take the opportunity to attack the prestige of the Ministry of Industry and Bureau of the Concession, or our American side......"

(End of chapter)