The Financial Relationship Between Guangxi And Central Government During The Anti-Japanese War Period

Finance,in short,refers to all the capital financing activities,which include currency circulation,credit activities and their operating and regulating systems. Finance covers a wide range of areas in business,including the currency systems,credit and financing,the functions and activities of the related policy-making and operation,and so on. Regional finance refers to the spatial distribution of the country's financial system and its operational system. It takes the form as a number of financial regions different from each other in formation and the level of development. The differences and their compensation and the mutual relation intertwine together and formulate the system of the country's regional finance. This paper chooses a regional financial unit - the finance of Gunagxi,to tentatively analyze its special development during the Anti-Japanese War period,from the perspective of its relations with the central financial system. These complicated relations are the miniature of the complicated relations between the regional powers and the central government,so the analysis is of great significance for a complete understanding of China's economy during the War.Since the founding the Republic of China,the regional warlords rose in excitement with the declining the central authority. Guangxi,ruled by the Kuangsi clique,was located in frontier regions. Because of its varied terrain and the backward transportation system,it was difficult for the central government to enforce effective governing there. Therefore,a closed and independent regional economy came into being and existed for some time. Just before the Anti-Japanese War,though politically half-independent,the new Kuangsi clique remained economically independent,and established a complete set of independent financial body and currency circulation system. Compared with other provincial powers,the financial business in Guangxi was more independent,and played an important role in investment to lay a solid foundation for the "three-self construction" in Guangxi,despite its strong feudal flavor.After the breakout of the Anti-Japanese War,the excessive division of authority among the local powers was ended. At the point of the country's destruction,the nation was in unprecedented unity. Seizing this historical opportunity,the National Government gradually established a highly monopolized financial system:firstly,through the establishing of the highly monopolized financial system-the four banks and two bureaus to reinforce their control over the local financial systems,then,to monopolize the nation's currency. Owing to the various situations in different areas,the relations between the regional financial systems and the central government could be classified into three different types:completely dependent,half-dependent and independent. Guangxi belonged to the second type. In view of the their political,economic and military interests,the new Kuangsi clique adopted a cooperative attitude and opened up to the central financial system to facilitate its rapid expansion in Gaungxi in order to break the monopoly of thelocal banks. In terms of financial business,the new Kuangsi clique implemented the currency policies of the National government,gradually replacing the local currency Gui Chao with Fa Bi,the paper currency issued by the KMT government from 1935on wards. In the meantime,in order to protect the previous privileges enjoyed by the Guangxi financial system,the Guangxi banks strengthened their deposit business and competed with the central banking system in remitting and trusting business,partially gaining some rights. Moreover,the Guangxi banks established a complete set of accounting system and reserved most of their strengths. Through the above-mentioned anti-controlling measures,the Guangxi banks had never be reduced to the dependency of the central financial system.In a word,the complicated relationship of struggle and cooperation between the two parties permeated the whole period of the Anti-Japanese War. But with regard to the nature o...