Research On Beijing General Chamber Of Commerce In Political Turmoil(1916-1938)

Against arrival of the warlord era in 1916,wars,revolutions and anti-Japanese movements were staged in turn in Beijing,the political center.To guarantee the benefits of merchants,the Beijing Chamber of Commerce in political turmoil had to try to cope with it and put all parties of influences off with fair works.There was no doubt that the sufferings from wars to modern China were extremely serious,like commerce destitution,traffic obstruction and financial panic,which got merchants thrilling.To survive in the wars,the chember of commerce had to draw on all parties of powers,appealing to peace before wars,maintaining local order during wars and averting financial agitation.All these actions were intended to prevent commercial depression from wars,but the chamber of commerce finally could not change the heavy blow of harsh reality.During the interregnum of regime change,the chamber of commerce often would be drew for cooperation by gentlemen.It was a general practice to set up a public security chamber and other temporary public security organizations which could play a role of stabilizing the society and would be praised by successors.The fiduciary circulation issued by the victory party especially depended on supports and maintenances from the chamber of commerce,while the damages to the chamber of commerce were also apparent.Therefore,the chamber of commerce generally tried to negotiate with governments to stabilize the currency.Among all releases,the currency for military use issued by Zhi-Lu allied forces in 1926 had greatest damages and relatively long circulation period.After foundation of the Republic of China,revolutions evolved to slogans cried and flaunted by various parties.When Feng Yuxiang launched the capital revolution,the chamber of commerce also was involved in it to keep the social order.In the Beijing controlled by Feng Yuxiang,the movements of anti-Japanese and anti-Zhang Zuolin grew vigorously under the organization of relevant political parties and groups.However,the general chamber of commerce seemed to be passionless to this,and coped with it negatively.In 1928,when the Northern Expedition Revolutionary Army reached Beijing,the general chamber of commerce actively raised funds for supporting the army.However,after success of the Northern Expedition,because of its five-month store taxes,it was glared fiercely at by the newly founded Commercial Civilian Association.The evolution of May 4th Movement,Fuzhou Event,Massacre of the May 30th Movement,September 18th Incident and other relevant incidents,was a further intensified process of Japanese aggression towards China,and also was a process that Chinese people kept awakening and raised anti-Japanese upsurges again and again.Nearly each anti-Japanese upsurge always developed with the voice of boycott of Japanese products.Beijing General Chamber of Commerce suffered miserable choices again and again between merchant benefits and national hatred,and it had to try to find a balance,but this led to contradictions and conflicts between anti-Japanese people and the general chamber of commerce.After the breakout of July 7th Incident,Peiping General Chamber of Commerce actively raised funds to support the frontier,relieved refugees and forwarded lower prices for food sales.When the government army evacuated,the chamber of commerce also joined in local maintenance organizations to assist to keep local orders,reassure the public and maintain the foods of the public.While after foundation of the puppet regime,it slid to Japanophile,and descended to be an aggression tool of Japanese puppet regime.To raise military expenditures or governmental funds,it was a normally adopted practice for the warlord or government to impose exorbitant taxes and levies.The chamber of commerce was not only the primary cooperator for taxes and levies by governments,but also the dissenter of exorbitant taxes and levies.To boom the commerce,the chamber of commerce often would strongly argue against the exorbitant taxes and levies,especially those newly increased taxes and levies,like policing taxes,housing taxes,luxury taxes and other relevant taxes beyond laws.The chamber of commerce often would negotiate with governments by employing various forces until these taxes were cancelled.The rouge tax imposing institution,Chongwenmen Customs since Qing still increased in the Republic of China.After capital migration in 1928,the incomes of Chongwenmen Customs were assigned to Nanking Republic Government,so that those Peiping merchants were extremely disgruntled.The chamber of commerce kept negotiating with governments to cancel the tax customs.After a difficult negotiation process,the customs were finally abolished.Beijing General Chamber of Commerce suffered several booms and slumps in the political turmoil,but to always kept a neither friendly nor aloof state with governments as the essence of merchants.It strongly argued for benefits of merchants,but to never go beyond its own pathway.