A Study On The Financial Struggle In The Shandong Anti-Japanese Base Are

The Shandong Anti-Japanese Base Area,the only provincial strategic area and the most integral strategic base behind the enemy lines under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party during the Anti-Japanese War,shouldered an important task of fighting against the Japanese,uniting friendly forces,confronting local anti-revolutionary die-hards,and leading the masses in the construction of a new democratic society.Its success had vital significations for the Communist Party’s winning of the Anti-Japanese War and the War of Liberation.The Shandong Base Area owed its success to the correct leadership of the Chinese Communist Party,to the initiatives of different levels of Anti-Japanese democratic regimes,to the troops and the civilians of the province,and to their acting in compliance with the objective and scientific laws.Among other things,the fierce struggle in the financial sector in line with the developments of the struggle against the enemies on other fronts,the KMT forces and the local die-hards,and the construction of an independent financial system,formed a very important part of this success.Therefore,a more thorough study of this aspect of history will impact on a comprehensive and thorough understanding of the historic role of the Shandong Anti-Japanese Base Area.It will also reveal the totality and complexity of the Anti-Japanese War and further enrich the study of the history of the Anti-Japanese War and of the contemporary history of finance.The struggle in the financial sector in the Shandong Anti-Japanese Base Area developed under particular historic circumstances of struggle for national salvation and survival as well as the construction of Anti-Japanese democratic regimes,under the guidance of the financial policies of the Chinese Communist Party.It went through the stages of emergence,development and consolidation.In the early stages of the war of total resistance,in the face of aggressive financial offensives of the Japanese aggressors,the Communist Party cooperated with the KMT government in the financial sector and managed to maintain the principal status of the Legal Money through setting up local banks and issuing complementary currencies,combining the currencies of the border areas and the official Legal Money in circulation to confront the enemy.This delt a heavy blow to the Japanese aggressors who sought to dump the currencies of their local puppet regimes and absorb the Legal Money.After the outbreak of the Pacific War,the international situation changed,and therefore,the Japanese failed in their attempts to absorb the Legal Money for purchasing strategic goods and materials.In view of this,the Japanese aggressors adapted their tactics for financial offensives.While doubling their efforts to dump the currencies of their local puppet regimes,they turned from absorbing the Legan Money to dumping the Legal Money on the base areas.That led to the fluctuations of prices in the base areas and the flow of large quantities of goods and materials from the base areas.Due to the drastic changes in the struggle in the financial sector and the fact that the KMT authorities turned reactionary,the Anti-Japanese Base Areas made timely adjustments to their own tactics,and made firm efforts to “terminate and reject the use of the Legal Money”.Despite the difficulties and setbacks,an independent financial system was eventually built up to satisfy the needs in the struggle against the enemies.This Currency War behind the enemy lines forms an integral part of the fight against the Japanese.To “sustain the war with the war”,the Japanese aggressors did everything they could financially,which brought about serious disaster to people in Shandong.In the face of the powerful enemies,the anti-Japanese democratic regimes led by the Chinese Communist Party adopted flexible tactics in line with the specific conditions of the different stages of the war.A financial defensive was waged against the Japanese aggressors,the intensity of which could match that of the military operations.In the early stage of total resistance,the base areas were still rather weak and could resort to only one way of combating the Japanese financial aggression,that is,the issuance of their own currencies to resist the currencies of the puppet regimes.In 1940,the Shandong Wartime Work Promotion Committee was set up and provided unified leadership for finance in the province.Coordination was formed in the financial struggle against the enemy.While continuing to boycott the puppet currencies,the base areas gradually managed to promote production through financial means,get through the most difficult stage of stalemate,and maintain the stability of prices and currency value within the base areas.In 1943,the Bureau of Industry and Commerce was formed in Shandong to supervise the struggle in commerce and finance within and without Shandong Province.The Anti-Japanese democratic regime launched a comprehensive counterattack against the enemy in finance,through unified supervision of key strategic goods and materials and strengthened administration of commerce.The most important lesson to be drawn from the victory of this financial war against the Japanese aggressors was a coordinated and comprehensive application of various tactics for struggle,a combination of currency as well as production,construction and trade as means for the struggle.Concerted efforts were thus made to lay a solid foundation for the eventual victory of the currency war behind the enemy lines,through getting hold of key strategic resources and therefore stabilizing the value of the currencies of the border areas.After the outbreak of the total war against the Japanese,currencies issued by local reactionary forces and various local banks,which were then already on the decline,revived and spread unchecked.These currencies were employed by the reactionaries as tools for grabbing power and resources,and plundering the people.At the same time,they became obstacles to the war efforts led by the Communist Party.How to deal with the relations between currencies of the border areas and those of the reactionaries and local banks,and safeguard the interests of the broad masses of the people while accelerating the extinction of the currencies of the reactionaries and local banks,posed yet one more challenge to the Anti-Japanese Base Areas.The Anti-Japanese democratic regimes made full use of the benefits these currencies could provide and at the same time,combined the efforts to confront the reactionary die-hards with efforts to eliminate their currencies.This long-existing problem was eventually revolved.The confidence and support of the people was the key to crushing the currencies of the reactionaries and the local banks.The struggle in the financial sector and the development of the base areas were supplementary to each other and inseparable.They were both parts of the whole.The construction of the base areas was a totality which was comprised of politics,economy,military,culture and the livelihood of the people.The struggle in the financial sector was a key part of this whole,an important element of the economic development of the base areas.The whole could lead the parts,and the steady growth of the base areas provided firm guarantee and underpinning for the struggle on the financial front.In the meantime,the parts also served the whole.The struggle on the financial front contributed to the base areas in three ways.First,economic development of the base areas was promoted.Agricultural economy was recovered.Textile,handicraft and manufacturing industries sprang up and grew.Second,the building of regimes in the base areas progressed.Financial revenues steadily increased.Democratic politics was advanced.Third,human and material support was provided for the struggle on the battleground.A study of the struggle in the financial sector in the Shandong Anti-Japanese Base Area may provide inspirations and practical guidance for us as we move ahead in our work in currency and finance in the new era.First,we must adhere to the unified leadership of the Party.Second,we must continue to proceed from actual conditions in all our work.Third,we must seek growth and development from struggle.Fourth,we must act according to economic laws.