Is the rubber crisis the first economic crisis in China?

About one hundred years ago, the first financial crisis triggered by capital broke out in China. A large number of banks, capitalists and ordinary people lost their blood, and China's emerging industries were also hit hard. This financial crisis became the last straw to overwhelm the Qing government.

This financial crisis is called. Rubber crisis.

As the name implies, this is a game played by a group of capitalists and speculators. They used various means to raise the price of rubber, and let countless people and even capital go crazy into this capital feast.

Even in Shanghai at that time, there was a joke: People who buy rubber have never seen what rubber is, but they all put money into it. ?

That's right, as long as it makes money. Who cares what rubber is?

However, capitalists who cooperate in a game are not good people. They spend a lot of time frying rubber and don't send money to charity. Except for a few who saw that the crisis was wrong, they all became fertilizer under this capital feast.

After the speculators left, Jacky, Yuqian and Zhao Kang, the three largest banks in Shanghai, closed down one after another, and a large number of banks in Guangzhou and Beijing also closed down.

How did the games played by a group of foreigners attract the whole capital of the Qing Dynasty to follow suit, and finally how did they become a chicken feather? And listen to the author tell you in detail!

1, rubber speculators enter

1886, Karl, Germany? Ben Ci invented the first automobile in the world, and since then, the transportation industry dominated by automobiles has developed rapidly.

By 1908, Ford's Model T made cars popular among low-and middle-income people. At that time, the price of Model T in the United States was $300, which was about one year's salary of ordinary American workers.

Ford model t, known as the worker's car.

With the development of automobile industry, a large amount of capital has poured into its related industries, among which rubber planting has become particularly profitable.

Wealth is touching, and every capital wants to get involved in the rubber industry. Some capitalists choose to set up rubber plantations in Southeast Asia, while others choose to set up tire manufacturing plants? However, some capital chose the white wolf with empty gloves and made a fortune in this rubber capital feast.

1903, George McBain, an Englishman, came to Shanghai, China and announced that he owned a big company named Lancate, whose business included rubber planting, tree felling and even oil exploitation. Now he only needed a sum of money to expand his business.

Waishangtan in the early 20th century.

At first glance, it sounds like this, but in reality, it's like Steve Jobs announcing that he will return to China next week. The company needs a sum of money to build a car, and now it only needs your investment.

The same is true of the nature of this Lanzhizhi company, which is completely a leather bag company, not to mention plantations in Southeast Asia, and even rubber trees are rarely taken out.

According to the common sense of modern stock market, there must be an audit mechanism, that is, if you want to sell stocks, you must let the stock market staff visit your plantation to make sure that the property right of this plantation belongs to you, right?

But I'm sorry, there was really no such censorship system in the capital market of the Qing Dynasty. Moreover, Maibian is a foreign monk who dares to spend money on sales promotion and advertising, making Maibian's Lan Zhi company stock particularly popular. The estimated cost is to buy newspapers for publicity.

Of course, if Mai Bian was the only one who blew it, even blowing Lan Zhi Company to the sky, he was unable to create a financial crisis. So who helped Mai Bian and finally created this rubber crisis?

2. The booming rubber market

Because of the surge in automobile production, the demand for rubber for automobiles is in short supply, and the price is soaring.

According to relevant statistics, the bulk transaction price of 1908 rubber was only 2 shillings, but it soared to 10 shilling in 1909. In the most enthusiastic rubber market in 19 10, the rubber price was as high as 12 shilling.

In three years, it has increased sixfold, making countless capitals crazy, and a large number of rubber plantations have begun to take root in Southeast Asia. In just a few years, hundreds of new rubber plantation companies have emerged in Southeast Asia.

rubber plantation

At that time, Shanghai, known as Little Paris in the East, was also involved in this rubber speculation. Of the 65,438+022 rubber companies in Southeast Asia, at least 40 have opened branches in Shanghai.

These companies have set up branches in Shanghai to raise funds for expanding the scale of plantations, and a large part of them are rubber companies selling stocks. As for the life and death of the plantation, no one really cares. Some companies don't even have plantations at all, just to pit leeks in the market and run away.

Lanzhizhi Company established by Maibian is a typical example, but it still can't stop the upsurge of rubber speculation market. At that time, 40 rubber companies in Shanghai issued shares worth 25 million taels, which were robbed by Chinese people in just a few months, and even the leeks that later entered the market were difficult to enter.

It is said that the sedan chair is popular, and all the leeks involved in the rubber market are advocating rubber, not to mention the international capital that has invested a lot of capital waiting for harvesting.

I won't talk about other rubber companies. Let's take Lan Zhi, the leather bag company that first entered the market, as an example.

19 10 in February, the stock of Lan Zhi Company was listed in Shanghai, and the issue price was about 100 taels of silver, but it soared as soon as it was listed.

On March 2nd, the stock of Lan Zhi Company rose to 1080. 18, Lan Zhi rose to1300; 2 1 day, and the value of each share is 1600 Liang; Two for the 28th 1670?

In more than a month, the price has risen from 100 to 1600, which is not much different from robbing money. At that time, all speculators thought that they would lose money if they didn't join the capital feast?

But almost everyone subconsciously ignores the nature of this fanaticism? Can the actual price of rubber really support this overvalued market value?

3, the frenzy faded, leaving only a chicken feather.

In 1882, Shenbao comments:? Nowadays, stock buyers in China don't ask whether the company is good or bad, and whether it can make a profit. However, if a company starts new venture capital and gathers shares, it will compete for additional shares anyway. ?

The following year, a large number of mining companies went bankrupt, a large number of speculators lost their money, and countless people looked at the ground from the rooftops of high-rise buildings.

More than ten years have passed, and time seems to have gone through another cycle, which just proves that leek has no memory. It was the mining company that thundered last time, and it's the rubber company's turn this time.

I think it's appropriate to put this picture here.

19 10 in June, when rubber speculators were still dreaming of making a fortune, as the country with the largest rubber consumption in the world? The United States announced a monetary tightening policy, which limited the consumption of rubber.

As soon as the American law was promulgated, the international rubber price was like a punctured bubble, which finally revealed the essence of inflation, while the Shanghai stock market was like an ice cube in midsummer, which ushered in a total collapse.

The foreign banks that got the news first immediately tightened their pockets and demanded all loan speculators to repay their loans, while those Chinese banks and speculators who were not well informed suffered greatly and almost all of them faced bankruptcy. As for those who owe money to the bank or even usury, they can go to the rooftop and say goodbye to their peers.

According to the data reported by the East Asian Cultural Association, the total investment in the china rubber market at that time was about 60 million taels of silver, of which at least 70% was held by China people and China Bank. Not to mention the speculators at the bottom, a large number of Chinese banks not only own them, but also borrow money from foreign banks to buy them.

At the craziest time of the stock market, not only businessmen and ordinary citizens poured in, but also some Qing bureaucrats with illegal income were throwing money into it?

The Qing government watched the stock market fail, of course, to save the market. After all, so many people went bankrupt, which dealt a great blow to industry and commerce and even the whole Qing economy.

But when the avalanche has already started, how can it be so easy to stop it?

In September of the same year, the Qing government invested 2 million taels in the stock market, but this was only a drop in the bucket for the stock market with a market value of 60 million taels.

Want the Qing government to continue to invest money to save the market? I'm sorry not. After all, the Qing government at that time still owed a lot of foreign debts to repay. Where can it find funds to save the market?

On October 7th, 654381,a number of foreign banks jointly announced that they refused to recognize the check of 2 1 bank, which led to the closure of six large banks. On the eve of the Spring Festival, more than 30 large and medium-sized banks closed down?

According to statistics, at the beginning of 19 10, there were 9/kloc-0 banks in Shanghai, and 48 closed down due to the rubber crisis, accounting for more than 50%, of which the loss amount exceeded19 million silver.

After a crisis, the whole country's industry and commerce was also in a depression, and the people who invested in it completely lost hope.

Naturally, those rubber companies that make money retire after success. Mai Bian, the founder of Lan Zhi, has made a lot of money and returned to London to enjoy his luxurious life. As for the life and death of those leeks, who cares?

And this rubber crisis became the last straw to crush the dying Qing government?