The Study Of The Chongqing Liji Consortium (1937-1939)

Chongqing Liji consortium was established in January 1937 and completed on August 1st, 1939 which went through two years and seven months. It consists of Chuanyan Bank, Meifeng Bank, Chuankang Breeding Industry Bank, Chongqing Bank, Sichuan Commercial Bank, Jianghai Bank and Sichuan Province Bank. Its foundation has close relationship with the " Anti-Opium Campaign" held by Sichuan. Its essence is a financial Alliance which was composed of these 7 banks temporarily for the reason that the Chongqing Financial industry wanted to be in line with the opium control policy implemented by Sichuan Provincial Government. There was not that much of study on this consortium before. This paper aims at further study on this and making breakthrough according to the present materials.Liji consortium is a product of the times. Its foundation has great relationship with the Anti-Opium Campaign held by Sichuan Provincial Government which was forced by the pressure of National Government. However, in 1937, Sichuan Provincial Government was in financial difficulties. And forced by this, the government changed the prohibitive policy into opium control policy with the goal of getting big benefits from it. But they did not have the money to implement the opium control policy so they had to resort to Chongqing Financial sector. This is the direct cause of the consortium foundation. As we can see from the relationships between all members and the government, the foundation also thanks to the long-standing complicated relationship between the various banks and the Sichuan government besides the reason of getting big profits. In terms of the operations, the Chongqing consortium played very important role in guaranteeing the smooth developing of this system by opening a promissory note, make advances and serve a loan etc as the main part of the opium control system in Sichuan. But in fact, the leaders of the consortium were too optimistic even though they had the previous experience in co-working with the government and consider their relationship to see the existed unexpected potential risks. And this leaded the deviation of the consortium operation gradually. The crisis started to come up obviously with the increase of the advances. Since the outbreak of the anti war, the consortium was unable to afford to its promissory notes which finally leaded to the unrest of Chongqing Liji consortium. Under the influence of this, the Chongqing bond crisis came up. All Chongqing financial fields were in big trouble. But under the help of people like Liu Hangchen, Sichcuan Provincial Government and National Government, the unrest subsided. After this, the liji consortium, the Sichuan Provincial Financial department and the Anti-Opium Administration negotiated with each other against some questions about promissory notes, advances etc. They decided to solve this by distributing the opium to implement self-sale and allocating the money and so on.In terms of the influence of the Chongqing Liji consortium, on the one hand, the Chongqing Liji consortium unrest and the Chongqing bond crisis urged the change of Chongqing financial patterns. On the other hand, It promoted to transfer the right of the opium control from Sichuan Provincial Government to National Government. Besides, the essence of Liji Consortium in line with Sichuan Anti-Smoking Bureau implementing opium control policy was the continuation of long-term cooperation between Chongqign Financial sectors and Twenty-one Army, Sichuan Provincial Government. The study on this not only helps us to know the relationship between Chongqing Financial Sectors and the Government during the republican period,but also provides reference about how to deal with the relationship between business and government.