really? sources say that gold that Chiang brought to Taiwan was already gone by 1950, most of which used to pay and feed the mass amount of KMT soldiers he brought to Taiwan.
A reasonable number from a bunch of already exaggerated sources state Chiang took about 187,500 KG worth of Gold from China. That would be worth 500 million USD today.
really? sources say that gold that Chiang brought to Taiwan was already gone by 1950, most of which used to pay and feed the mass amount of KMT soldiers he brought to Taiwan.
A reasonable number from a bunch of already exaggerated sources state Chiang took about 187,500 KG worth of Gold from China. That would be worth 500 million USD today.
Official record shows at most 113,398KG.[/quote]
This is my understanding as well. The army used it up.
As I understand it the “reconstruction” of Taiwan was American funded. The KMT gold was only ever used for the KMT. Even the much vaunted land reform only happened because it was a pre-condition of Taiwan receiving what was basically Marshall Plan aid. The US “loaned” millions of dollars to Taiwan (or more specifically the KMT). Not a cent was ever repaid.
There was nothing wrong with the Old Taiwanese Dollar, the KMT deployed the NTD as a way to strip wealth from the locals. It’s the same ploy they used when they issued Jinyuanjuan in China.
Mind you, Taiwan had its own gold mine. Jinguashi was producing gold at around 1~3 metric tons annually post 1946. In comparison, the gold that KMT brought is like nuggets to a full roasted turkey.
Something like this happen back home during the great depression, 2 million Mexican or mestizo looking people were forced to relocate in Mexico on a period of 6 years, and 1.2 people were US citizens.
I think this is what you are looking for. Central Bank’s Wen Yuan on the way to Wulai.
According to this article, about 1.08 million taels of Gold reached Wen Yuan from Shanghai. That equals to 40,000KG.
The article mentions that after CCP took power, trading with gold and silver were forbidden, so each household had to surrender their gold. From Guangdong alone, CCP extorted 7.4 million taels of Gold out of the people. That equals to 280,000KG.
I dig a little bit and found General Wedemeyer, Military Assistance Advisory Group in Taiwan, in April 1946, insisted minimizing the number of these Japanese technicians and their family to 5,000. And the KMT negotiated with US and increased the number to 35,000.
No, I think he means Old Taiwan dollar - Wikipedia, a currency that saw hyperinflation due to civil strife and reckless mismanagement on the part of ROC authorities.
Yes, you are correct. The Old Taiwan Dollar (issued from 1945 to 1949) was pegged to the currency on the mainland. So, as hyperinflation occurred on the mainland, so did it occur on Taiwan. Once the Generalissimo arrived on Taiwan with all the gold, he got rid of the old currency and reissued the currency as the New Taiwan Dollar to restart the economy, using the gold to back up the new currency. Because of the civil war, there was everything wrong with the Old Taiwan Dollar. The yen was actually pretty stable (as far as I know) after WWII.
Dirt, you keep repeating that Taiwan had infrastructure but little else, but that’s not quite true.
The Japanese left Taiwan with a relatively well organized agricultural system. They did a lot to increase the amount of land in production. Japanese also left Taiwan with rural development plans that were still in use long after they left. The Japanese did a lot of disease eradication and left a generally healthy and well educated population by the standards of the time. Most importantly, the Japanese also left Taiwan with relatively strong institutions like the railway, post-office, post-office banking system and school system. These institutions all played a key role in the development of Taiwan and really provided a stable platform on which the KMT technocrats could build. This wasn’t altruism, it was the fact that the Japanese saw Taiwan as a breadbasket for Japan.
This is in stark contrast with the situation in China where the economic base had been at worst eroded or at best stagnant for the past 100 years.
The inflation after WWII was really driven by the KMT commandeering Taiwanese resources to support the effort in China. After 1949, the gold and US aid was really used to support the 1MM influx from China that didn’t really have means. The KMT then extracted economic benefit out of the farmers with the price controls on rice. They were able to extract economic benefit out of the landlords through land reform. Yes, landlords didn’t get a bullet like in China, but they didn’t exactly get market value either. Anecdotally, but I think in general true; in my Taiwanese relative’s case, this meant seed capital for light industry.
