A Research On Issues About Circulation Of Main Curr Encies During The Establishment Of XiKang Province (1905-1939)

The establishment of Xikang Province began with the advice that a province should be establish in Kham region which fisrstly put forward by Zhao Erfeng in his Three Strategies for Pacifying Kham Region.Until formally established Xikang province on January 1,1939 in consideration of changes of internal and external situations.During the establishment of Xikang province,Central government's currency reforms and changes of local situations caused emergences and changes of local and non-local currencies in Kham region.There were all kinds of currencies in Kham region,including Tibetan silver tangka during late Qing dynasty,Tibetan banknote and legal money during the Republic of China and currencies which were only circulated in small areas of Kham region.(With regard to forms,these currencies were only currency symbol and their issuance mainstay were commercial institutions like shops and old-style Chinese private bank,social organizations like chambers of commerce or grass-roots organs whose levels were lower than county.all of these will be expounded specially.)Some of emergences and changes of these currencies happened only in Kham region and some synchronized with national currency reforms such as currency reform in New Politics of Late Qing Dynasty and Issuance of Legal Money during the Republic of China.This progress was full of conflicts between issuances of local currencies and central currency reforms as well as sensitive and complex conflicts between Kham region and other regions like Tibet and Sichuan.Because currency system was influenced by special and complex multiple factors like politics,economy,military,social conditions and public opinion.Though difficulties and outcomes of issuing these mainstream currencies in Kham region were different,there was no doubt that these currencies gathered expectations and wits of elites from all works of life,highlighted the concept of the national sovereignty,promoted the unification of multiple currencies in and the development of economy Kham region and sped up the formation of Xikang province,which played an important role in making a success of establishing Xikang province.This essay combs through and studies the issuance and circulation of currencies during the establishment of Xikang province by analyzing the backgrounds of emergence,the progresses of issuance and the characters and efficiencies of circulation of mainstream currencies at that time and endeavors to expound the difficult and complex progress of issuance of these mainstream currencies during the turbulent period of late Qing dynasty and Republic of China,central government's painstaking efforts to strength local people's national consciousness and consolidate the unification and territorial integrity of China in monetary terms by analyzing situations,basing on facts and finding methods which could have fewest barriers and costing least.This essay also points out the strategic role in defending important border areas like Tibet and complex local political,military,religious,ethical situation,which fully expounds the issuance and circulation of these mainstream currencies' vital significance for make a success of establishing Xikang province and spreading the idea of the unification of China.