The Prosperity And Prohibition Of The Shanghai Lottery Market In The Early Republic Of China(1918-1922)

Lottery was introduced into China at the end of the Qing Dynasty,and it has a certain gambling nature and is strictly prohibited.However,fiscal constraints have led the government to relax the lottery ban.From the late Qing Dynasty to the beginning of the People’s Dynasty,official control over lotteries was loose and tight,and the lottery industry also showed a fluctuating development process.In the major lottery markets in China,Shanghai’s developed social economy,open social atmosphere,the coexistence of the Chinese boundary and the British and French concessions and other factors make the development of Shanghai’s lottery industry unique.At the beginning of the People’s Republic of China,Shanghai’s lottery industry experienced a process of prospering from prohibition,and then from prohibiting to prosperous,but not stopping.At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People’s Dynasty,the lottery ban was enforced,and the Shanghai lottery market was generally in a state of silence.In1918,the post-war reconstruction of Europe after World War I and the post-disaster relief of Xiang Province in China caused the French Concession and the Chinese Border to relax the lottery ban respectively.The issuance of French war relief coupons and Hunan Xiangxiang relief charity coupons officially marked the recovery of the French Concession and Huajie lotteries in Shanghai.Since then,various provinces have petitioned for the issuance of lottery tickets and have set up their distribution centers in Shanghai.However,the declining Beiyang government was unable to keep the lottery industry under control.With the prosperity of the lottery industry,various chaos such as fraud and fraud and abuse of winnings have emerged,and the destruction of the families of lottery players due to excessive addiction to the lottery has also occurred repeatedly.There were calls for banning colors in the major press.At the same time,the prosperity of the lottery has absorbed a lot of people’s wealth and affected the development of Shanghai industry.In August 1918,under the leadership of Shanghai business people,the people of Shanghai once again set off a movement to ban the color.The ban lasted four full years.During this period,in addition to the business community,Shanghai’s education circles,labor circles,Christian churches and other groups participated in the participation,and successively petitioned the government to ban the lottery.With the efforts of many parties,in September 1922,the Beiyang government officially issued a ban on lottery,prohibiting the issuance of national lotteries.But this ban is incomplete.The ban only lasted about two months.At the end of 1922,provincial lotteries once again appeared with the new appearance of "prize bonds" and "prize savings",and the Shanghai lottery industry revived.Since then,the Su Provincial Government and the Beiyang Government have successively imposed certain restrictions on the "disguised lottery",but in the end of the Beiyang government,the lottery has always been banned.Lottery is a special commodity,and its development is not limited only by the level of economy.The fluctuating development of Shanghai’s lottery industry in the early Republic of China not only reflected the changes in the central government’s finances and fluctuations in control to a certain extent,but also unconsciously showed the changes in the situation and the change in social atmosphere.It also shows that only by building a stable,centralized state and a well-ordered economic market can the lottery industry function well on the right track.