During The Japanese Occupation Of Taiyuan People's Daily Economic Life

Life of citizen is an important part of urban history research. During Japanese occupation, Japanese established a pro-Japanese regime in China by making use of Chinese to contain Chinese. The article integrally described the economic cost, income level and social insurance of residents in Taiyuan city during the occupied period, using theories of study methods of statistics, macroeconomics, and sociology, in order to reveal the economic level and residents living condition in this area.On8th of November,1937, Taiyuan was falling in the hands of Japanese, facing with problems such as large number of population loss, broken city, public panic and severe social insecurity. The Japanese set up puppet Taiyuan Municipal Bureau and released a series of measures to stabilize society. Post war order had not been recovered until the end of1938. During the Japanese occupation, Taiyuan residents were forced to take heavy tax and increasing cost of living. The tax items are various, including routinely tax and temporary assessment. Increasing living cost results from material shortage and the monetary policy implemented by puppet government. In1941, inflation rate was even reached101.4%and continually grew up afterwards. Salaries were considered to be the major income of Taiyuan residents because majority of residents took part into work. Before1941, wage income was relatively stable and people could make a living although Engel’s coefficient indicated a poor living standard.1941upwards, the puppet Municipal Bureau began to carry on laborer control system. Neither can the income level grow up along with price increases, nor some industry can pay salaries on time. Besides that, working hours increased and more goods were replaced by money as income. In the situation of living cost overwhelmed income, social security institutions established by Puppet Municipal Bureau, such as employment agencies, porridge industries and ect., benefited only limited group of people, which could not bring the residents out of the poor living condition.Considering the factors of tax, living cost, income and social insurance, it can be conclude that living conditions in Taiyuan is poor in all. Before year1942, residents could make a living while after1942, daily support are hardly to maintain. The whole economic of Taiyuan city has left behind its pre-war level. There is nearly no guarantee for the residents’ survival.