The Study On The Twenty-fourth Arsenal Of The Kuomintang Government

The predecessor of the twenty-fourth arsenal is Chongqing electric steelmaking plant,which was established in 1919.Because of the dogfights among warlords,the preparatory work of the plant was off and on,and it didn't produce anything.In January 1937,the plant was taken over by the weapons manufacture bureau due to the shortage of fund,and continued with the previous preparations.On January 1st 1939,the twenty-fourth arsenal was formally founded.During the comprehensive Anti-Japanese War,the machinery equipment,departmental building,and payroll of the arsenal was expanded continually,the management system of the arsenal was improved continuously,and the steel's production and type of the arsenal was also increased constantly.After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War,the arsenal downsized its organization and dismissed some staffs and workers for following the order of the weapons manufacture bureau.In 1949,it was taken over by the Chinese People's Liberation Army and suspended production,therefore,it went through 13 years' development in all.Relying on the advantages that the arsenals possessed in the funding source,raw materials' ordering,and product sales market,the twenty-fourth arsenal has become one of the most principal state-run steel factories in Chongqing,which produced the steel that weapons production need,and has occupied an important place in Chongqing steel industry since it was founded.In this thesis,I take the twenty-fourth arsenal as the research object.According to the collected historical material,I adopt the methods of historical material analysis,quantitative statistics,induction and deduction,historical comparison to discuss the arsenal's development process,management system,production,and technological innovation,and so on,hoping to supplement the research in this field.The arsenal of the Nanjing national government learned from the factory system of modern western countries,therefore,in the organizational framework,the twenty-fourth arsenal was under the arsenal manager's centralized and unified leadership,and had a standard organizational system.The division of every department's work was clear-cut,each one was charged with specific responsibilities.In the personnel management,every department supervisor of the twenty-fourth arsenal was usually appointed to those people,who had the professional knowledge of metallurgy,and it enacted some regulations about staffs and workers attendance,production rewards and punishments,which was regarded as the basis that their rise or fall,stay or leave.In addition,the arsenal attached great importance to the training of staffs and skilled workers,so it established all kinds of technician training classes and vocational schools,which cultivated a group of technical talents for the arsenal.In the financial management,the twenty-fourth arsenal made strict general accounting system and cost accounting system,every single account could be tracked.When the arsenal has a surplus after the annual settlement,except offsetting the former years' deficit,the remaining 20% could be used for turning in the weapons manufacture bureau,and the other 80% could be used for improving and supplementing the machinery equipment,increasing the welfare facility and giving out the bonus.In the staffs' and workers' life,the twenty-fourth arsenal made and carried out the welfare system that guaranteed their life,involving in the basic necessities of life,the medical treatment and public health,the cultural and educational entertainment,and so on,which aroused the production enthusiasm of staffs and workers.In short,those scientific modern management systems were the bond that kept the twenty-fourth arsenal working efficiently and orderly.During the Anti-Japanese War,the main task of the twenty-fourth arsenal was to provide steel for other arsenals' weapons production,including the twenty-first arsenal's barrel steel,gun steel,and bayonet steel,the thirtieth arsenal's grenade launcher steel,and other arsenals' hubbing steel,tool steel.In addition,the arsenal also helped to produce some military equipment.As a result,the twenty-fourth arsenal's productions relieved the lack of military materials to some extent,which was equivalent to join indirectly in the ranks of the nation's military resistance.However,the Chongqing modern steel industry was late in getting started,weak in the basis,and more dependent on foreign countries in terms of technology and equipment.Moreover,in the violent condition of wars,the transportation was impeded,and all kinds of raw material were scarce.Therefore,the twenty-fourth arsenal's steel,on the whole,was not high in annual output and deficient in quality.Nevertheless,it made all personnel in the arsenal work hard and overcome difficulties.For example,depending on the local resources,they made smelting equipments by themselves,innovated metallurgical techniques,and tried to develop the replacements of the imported materials,which supported the arsenal's continuous production.In a word,as one of the most principal state-run steel factories,the twenty-fourth arsenal's establishment occupied a unique historical status and significant role in the history of Chongqing modern steel industry,its' development was the epitome of the Chongqing modern steel industry's growth.And it played an important role in cultivating the rear area's metallurgical industry talents,supporting the chongqing arsenals' weapons production,and getting the Anti-Japanese War's final victory.