.1928 Tianjin Changlu Gang Case

In October 1928, based on the order of the Nationalist government in Nanjing, five business leaders of Tianjin were captured; it was the famous case of five salt leaders. From 1928 to 1932, the case was hung up. At last the case was end, because Wang Jun zhi, who was one of famous salt leaders, died of disease during their arrest in Nanjing. The case was end without any conclusion of the trial. More and more people paid attention to the case.The case can be seen as a specific incident that KMT regime tried to control the national economy and strengthen its rule. Since the late Qing Dynasty, in the decline of state power at the same time, merchants have grown to an influential social force, and formed a relationship with government which was not only conflicting but also cooperative, the five salt leaders' case was an example. From the late Qing Dynasty, the salt merchants of Changlu in Tianjin as the representation of business and industry groups have been active in the local economical, political and social affairs. When the Nationalist government in Nanjing was constituted, the position of salt merchant was supplanted, the aim of Nanjing government was to control the salt tax of Tianjin and the commerce in the north part of china. Although the case ended in a transigent way, Nanjing government still achieved his purpose.In a phantasmagoric situation, the case of Changlu, which had been lasted for three years, not only interlaced the conflict of interests within Tianjin Salt Merchants, but also showed the conflict of interests between central government and local government, entangled with those activities of weakening the strength of businessmen, restructuring and controlling the old Chamber of Commerce, the implementation of the fiscal and taxation reform, and the reform of salt affairs in particular, which were carried out by Nanjing government. All of this made the case of Changlu, which merely belonged to the dispute of economic interests, to have reflected the complex transformation of the domestic politics and economic interests during the early period of Nanjing Government.