| After Chongqing was opened as a commercial port, Sichuan and Chongqing areas have witnessed a series of changes and transitions in terms of financial geography patterns, gradually realizing the transitions among the first class financial centers between Chengdu and Chongqing and forming4secondary class financial areas within Sichuan and Chongqing driven by re-export trade and the influenced by the first class financial center:the Eastern Sichuan Financial Area with the County of Wanxian as the center, the Northern Sichuan Financial Area with Nanchong City as the center, the Southern Sichuan Financial Area with Luzhou City as the center and the Western Sichuan&Tibetan Financial with Kangding as the center.The transition of the financial center between Chengdu and Chongqing, under the impact of capitalist commodity economy after the port opened, is resulted from the continuous competition and complementation between the financial areas in two regions. In general, the financial industry of Chengdu lags behind that of Chongqing on the initial modernization of financial forms, which is resulted from the location difference of Chengdu and Chongqing limited by the trade traffic in upper Yangtze River Channel. Due to its geographic convenience, Chongqing has gradually formed the three-point-one-curve finical geography pattern along Yangtze River (River) together with Hankou City and Shanghai in the process of trading and exchanges with the middle and lower reaches of the River. It is because of this that facing with the Protection Movement of Chuan-Han Railroad by the people with the railroad rental stocks finance, the gentries in Chengdu and Chongqing had displayed a totally different attitude toward it at the initial stage fighting with the government of Qing Dynasty which lost its national credit, which reflected the subtle populace thinking behind it. The building of this rail road will break the monopoly of the trade and the finance among ports formed by relying on the River in Chongqing. The building of Chuan-Han Railroad will fundamentally change the three-point-one-curve (Chongqing-Hankou-Shanghai) financial geography pattern along the River. This point can help us better understand why the representative gentry of Chengdu Railroad Protection Union urge the gentries in Chongqing, and the Chongqing Financial Area maintains relatively calm. In the final analysis, the different attitudes toward the railroad finance of the two gentries come down to the interests of the local economic status.After the Republic of China (1912-1949), the warlords within Sichuan and Chongqing stood alone and set up separatist financial regimes by forces of arms. And it is true that the regional currency was closely related with the geographical environment, political conditions and economic structures in the circulation area, but what is more important is:the economic exchanges within this region is underdeveloped, among which the level and strength of currency economic development is not enough to get rid of or break the restrictions and shackles of the regional conditions. With the continuous development of currency economic development and expanding exchange range, it becomes more and more important for the circulation of currency to break through the barriers and restrictions of the regional conditions in terms of internal tension and the external attraction so as to adapt to the development of commodity economy with a wider and unified currency circulation regions. In the war between Liu Xiang and Liu Wenhui, the victory of Liu Xiang Group and the expansion of its affiliated financial group had speeded the process of the transition of financial regions in Sichuan and Chongqing area, which also laid certain foundation for the financial basis of the political unification in Sichuan. In order to realize the unification of Sichuan and Chongqing Financial Area and national control, the National Government, expelled Liu Xiang from Chongqing on the one hand; and on the other hand, gradually realized the centralization of the regional finance by enforcing to implement the legal tender. After the breakout of the Anti-Japanese War, Chongqing had established itself as the financial center for two reasons:the financial strength of the money industry enhances; and the old style financial industry, like the old-style Chinese private banks, become more like the modern banks, at the same time, the emerging insurance finance kept expanding at the rear area of Sichuan and Chongqing. The inflation in Sichuan and Chongqing at the wartime lasted to the breakdown of the financial system after the war and the new pattern of Sichuan and Chongqing did not get reborn until People’s Bank of China was set up. It should be pointed out that the restructuring of People’s Bank of China referred to the basic pattern of Sichuan and Chongqing:2first class financial centers and4secondary financial areas (Wanxian County, Nanchong City, Luxian County and Kangding).This kind of pattern enjoys different development forms in different secondary financial areas:the Eastern Sichuan Secondary Financial Area with Wanxian County as the center is growing basically driven by the re-export trade represented by Chinese wood oil. Because of its location advantages and abundant trade resources, Wanxian County either dependent on or independent of Chongqing, which is, fundamentally, the result of the fact that Wanxian County is swinging between the secondary and third tiers of the three-point-one-curve financial pattern along the River. The Northern Sichuan Secondary Financial Area with Nanchong as the center is growing driven by the re-export trade of silks and this area is greatly dependent on2first class financial areas in Chengdu and Chongqing. Financial speculation is booming in this secondary financial area because of falling short of financial capital supply and the special social financial habits. The Southern Sichuan Secondary Financial Area with Luxian County as the center is growing driven by the re-export trade of goods represented by grains, sugar and salt, etc. Because the circulation of the commercial goods and materials greatly depends on Chongqing, it lacks independence compared with the first financial center of Chongqing, greatly influenced by the finance in Chongqing. The Western Sichuan Secondary Financial Area with Kangding as the center is growing driven by the re-export of goods represented by tea:a series of economic and social changes at the borders of Sichuan in Qing Dynasty had given birth to monetary finance, which, however, still lagged behind other secondary financial areas within Sichuan and Chongqing. The rise of Kangding Financial Center, the upgrading of the financial forms within the secondary financial areas and the formation of the hierarchy system are mainly driven by the top-bottom hierarchy system of the first financial centers in Chengdu and Chongqing.There are also impulse and practice to expand the regional financial capital in the course of pattern-changing of Sichuan and Chongqing Financial Area. In the process of the former-closed financial industry in Sichuan and Chongqing marching towards modernization, the financial awareness of people is gradually raising, which helps form a batch of rich financial consortiums represented by Chu Hsin Chen Commerial Bank, Ltd and The Mei Feng Bank of Szechuan. At the initial stage of establishment, these consortiums began to realize their gaps with the consortiums in Jiangsu and Zhejiang represented by Shanghai in terms of expanding their businesses. And they adjusted their operating strategies in time and spared no effort to operate the southwestern area of Sichuan and Chongqing. These consortiums depended on the military and political power of Liu Xiang and Chiang Kai-shek and integrated itself into the financial control network in Sichuan and Chongqing of the National Government, leading to fast development. The rise of the financial status in Sichuan and Chongqing area results from the competitions, adjustment and cooperation between the western financial consortiums and the local ones in Sichuan and Chongqing, which are both dependent and independent. All of these led to the conflicts and the disputes between them, but was suppressed temporarily out of the special situation of the Anti-Japanese War. After the War, the powerful financial consortiums in Sichuan and Chongqing had a great ambition in expanding themselves to the whole country, which was nipped. This is because:on the one hand, the economic and financial situation after the breakout of the civil war was severe; and on the other hand, the consortiums partially independent of the National Government was still not the foundation of the political power, but at least an allay for cooperation, to the Government which had realized the financial monopolized consortiums. Therefore, it could not allow the consortiums in Sichuan and Chongqing like Chu Hsin Chen Commerial Bank, Ltd and The Mei Feng Bank of Szechuan to grasp the financial basis, which lays the deep cause for not realizing the radical financial status raising in Sichuan and Chongqing.Financial geography, as an interdisciplinary subject emerging recently, can be defined as:no matter the financial system, financial regulation, standards, practices belonging to the "formal constraints" or the financial awareness, financial culture and professional ethics, etc. belonging to the "informal constraints", they do not grow out of the thin air and they are the results of the long-term accumulation of human geographical factors. Financial geography, as an interdisciplinary subject emerging recently, can be defined as:no matter the financial system, financial regulation, standards, practices belonging to the "formal constraints" or the financial awareness, financial culture and professional ethics, etc. belonging to the "informal constraints" they do not grow out of the thin air and they are the results of the long-term accumulation of human geographical factors. Against the backdrop of regional differences in giving play to the integrated financial functions like regulation, constraints, incentives and feedbacks, there is also the regional transition and movement in the innovation, study and dissemination of financial system as well as the innovation, demonstration, simulation and adjustment of financial regulations, which is, at the same time, integrated with the financial awareness, knowledge, cultural traditions, financial managerial experience and the professional ethics in other areas, forming the financial resources network with integrated functions together. The key in establishing financial geography lies in the geographical space patterns and the hierarchy system and the theory of regional system by Shi Jianya is a sound theoretical foundation. Comparatively, China is still at the initial stage of introducing and developing financial geography. Influenced by the paradigm of economic geography in SU and the geographical paradigm of "Quantitative and Theoretical Revolutions" in western countries, China has made some achievements in building its own theory and a series contributions to practices and services, but still lacks theoretical innovation in developing this subject, which forms sharp contrast with pluralistic economic geography in Europe and America and the booming theoretical building. The changing pattern and the formed hierarchy system of the financial geographical pattern in Sichuan and Chongqing area after1890are in agreement with the regional system theory by Shi Jianya, which also has the typical interactions between the first and the secondary financial centers, which provides a good material for attempting to study the Chinese historical financial geographical research---vertical time dimension combined with the horizontal space layout---with the focus on establishing the interaction and game theory among financial centers in different hierarchy. |
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