Zhang Mouzhi took out a stack of reports, threw them on the table and sighed: "Oh, these factories have to be closed. It's impossible not to close them."
"Shut it down," Zhou Hexuan said without looking at the report, "the workers' severance pay must be sufficient, and I will take out the rest. I purchased the goods hoarded in the warehouse at full ex-factory price and donated them to the people affected by the disaster in various provinces.
"
"Donate my share, too," Zhang Mouzhi felt a little discouraged. He turned to look outside and whispered, "Mingcheng, do you think the National Government can be saved? When the Anti-Japanese War is won, I'm afraid it won't be the Communist Party.
Take over the world."
"Don't worry Taishan, I have my own arrangements." Zhou Hexuan said.
"I believe in your vision," Zhang Mouzhi whispered, "How about we secretly send some supplies to the Communist Party and establish a good relationship in advance? You should be able to contact the Communist Party."
"The Communist Party has a tight organization, so I can only contact them through the Democratic League." Zhou Hexuan said.
Zhang Mouzhi said: "I have donated all the backlog of goods in the warehouse. Please help me contact them."
"Okay." Zhou Hexuan nodded.
In the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, the number of factories in the rear area was less than 100. By 1942, it had reached a peak of more than 1,000. However, in 1943, there was a sharp decline, with only more than 900 factories remaining.
Now that we have just entered 1944, the rear area is once again facing a wave of factory closures, and hundreds of them have been closed at once.
One-third of the factories Zhou Hexuan originally invested in Sichuan have now been closed, one-third have been suspended for a long time, and the remaining factories are struggling to maintain their operations.
The reasons for the large number of factory closures mainly include the following aspects:
First, the legal currency has devalued, factories have insufficient funds, and triangular debts are everywhere.
Second, prices have skyrocketed and social purchasing power has declined. Goods produced by factories cannot be sold, but people want to buy them but cannot afford them, resulting in a large number of scarce goods rotting in warehouses.
Third, the government limits prices. This is originally a policy used to control prices, but it results in factories losing whatever they sell.
Fourth, government control. Many daily necessities and industrial products are government-controlled materials, and these are often raw materials. Government control makes it impossible for a large number of factories to obtain raw materials.
Fifth, transportation is inconvenient. The war caused various transportation interruptions, the transportation cost of raw materials increased greatly, and the transportation of raw materials often failed to be delivered to the factory on schedule.
Sixth, government monopoly. Daily necessities such as cigarettes, sugar, salt, matches, etc. are all sold and purchased by the government. They are forced to purchase at low prices, and corruption is rampant. The factory has no profit at all.
Seventh, taxes are too heavy. In order to alleviate financial pressure, the central government canceled the unified tax policy and replaced it with a commodity tax, and a real surplus tax. The government stipulates that for enterprises whose profits exceed 60% of their capital, a commodity tax of 50% will be levied.
With the depreciation of the legal currency, the profits of almost all factories have reached this standard, but they are actually losing money. The government only looks at the book data and levies a 50% commodity tax on more than 90% of the factories. Others include stamp duties.
Donations of money, grain, and public debt were all forcibly apportioned.
Eighth, malicious hoarding and speculation are ruined. The smarter capitalists no longer engage in industry or open factories. A large amount of hot money is hoarding necessities and scarce materials crazily. They collude with government collection agencies to buy at low prices and then increase the price dozens of times.
Sell, the market has been controlled by speculators.
Just two or three of the above factors are enough for the factory to drink a pot. How can it be possible to survive if they are all encountered?
As an entrepreneur, Zhang Mouzhi has been completely disappointed with the National Government. With his very limited political vision, he can also see that the current government will inevitably collapse, because the government has completely lost its prestige in the industrial world. The same goes for the common people, who are suffering from hunger.
They supported the Anti-Japanese War and could not see the hope of victory in the Anti-Japanese War. All they saw were corrupt officials.
I can tolerate the devaluation of legal currency, I can tolerate the inconvenience of transportation, and I can even tolerate excessive taxes.
What is Zhang Mouzhi intolerable the most?
The government imposes price limits on commodities, purchases them at low prices, and then sells them to speculators. This means that the factories are working hard to produce, but all the profits are taken away by speculators, and the factory owners have to pay various taxes to the government.
Zhang Mouzhi has been doing business for half his life, and he has never encountered such an evil thing.
We often say that steel and coal are the soul of modern industry. However, now there is a situation where steel and coal are unsalable in large quantities. During the war, steel and coal were unsalable, and a large number of workers in related industries lost their jobs!
At the end of 1943, the machinery manufacturing industry was also in trouble. Countless precious engineers and senior technicians could only rest in empty factories all day long.
Let’s talk about the “China Industrial Cooperatives”, hereafter referred to as “Gonghe”.
The "Gonghe" organization was launched by the Snow couple in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War. Its purpose was to develop the inland economy, solve social problems, provide financial assistance, integrate industrial resources, and support the Anti-Japanese War. The Snow couple persuaded the British Alley, who formulated the
A set of industrial cooperative plans suitable for rural and underdeveloped areas in Asia.
This plan was not only realized in China, but was later adopted by India, Myanmar, Japan and other countries.
Mrs. Sun, Soong Meiling, Song Ziwen and Kong Xiangxi all initially supported the "Gonghe" plan and claimed that it was carrying forward Sun Yat-sen's people's livelihood doctrine. However, because "Gonghe" received help from international democrats, the sponsors, the Snow couple, were still obviously
They were pro-Communist and supported the New Fourth Army and the Eighth Route Army with some supplies. After the Wannan Incident, the national government suddenly began to suppress the "Gonghe".
The "Gonghe" organization that once helped China's wartime economy flourish has declined. On the other hand, the Communist Party, led by Taizu, actively supported the development of "Gonghe". A large number of "Gonghe" members in the Kuomintang-controlled areas were invited to the Communist Party base areas.
This significantly improved the industrial strength of the base area. Many factories in the base area were established with the assistance of "Gonghe" at this time.
Zhou Hexuan truly felt that Chang Kaishen was mentally ill and would not give up until he gave all the power in his favor to the Communist Party.
By the Spring Festival, only seven of Zhou Hexuan's factories in Sichuan were still producing, and another four were in a state of semi-stop operation. And just after the Spring Festival, due to the surging wave of factory closures, there was an even greater shortage of supplies. In addition, the government
A wave of legal tender was printed, and prices across Sichuan rose to unbearable levels.
Kong Xiangxi, who is in charge of managing money, was so anxious that he suggested to Chang Kaishen last year to tighten military expenditures, hoping that Chang Kaishen could find out the actual number of troops.
But there is no way to check...
According to Chen Cheng's later recollection, the budgeted strength of the national army was 5 million, but the actual number of people eating military food was 7.2 million. It would be very good to have 3 million combat troops. In other words, half of the national army at this time
The above number of soldiers belong to those who are on empty pay or those who are old, weak, sick or disabled.
Kong Xiangxi wanted Chiang Kai-shek to check these troops in order to save military expenditures. However, Chiang Kai-shek did not dare to check them at all. He did not have the courage to check them! It can be said that everyone in the national army generals were eating empty pay at this time, and checking the number of troops was equivalent to
Offending all the generals is tantamount to Chiang digging his own grave.
In the year 1944 that has just ushered in, the Chinese people will have an extremely difficult time.
