Former Site of the Finance People's Commissariat of the Chinese Soviet Republic

Former Site of the Finance People's Commissariat of the Chinese Soviet Republic

The Former Site of the Finance People's Commissariat of the Chinese Soviet Republic is one of the revolutionary heritage sites in Ruijin. It is located in Shazhoubajie Village, Shazhoubajie Town, Ruijin City, Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province (within the Hongjing Scenic Area at the intersection of Colorful Avenue and Jindu Avenue). In 2006, it was announced as part of the sixth batch of Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in China and was added to the (Ruijin Revolutionary Sites).

Alongside the establishment of the Soviet government, the Finance People's Commissariat was among the first nine ministries and one bureau set up by the central government. Initially, the Ministry of Finance operated out of a small wooden building of about 10 square meters in the Xie Ancestral Hall in Ye Ping Village, Ruijin, with Deng Zihui serving as the first Minister of Finance. The staff consisted of only three to five people, and there were no internal departments.

As the Soviet area continued to expand and the tasks and functions of the government grew, the Provisional Central Government moved to Sha Zhou Ba in April 1933, and the Ministry of Finance relocated to the Yang Family Ancestral Hall in Xinwujia Village, Shazhoubajie. By this time, the functions of the Ministry of Finance had become more fully developed, and management had begun to normalize. According to the “Interim Organizational Outline of the Finance People's Commissariat of the Central Government” passed by the Provisional Central Government in 1933, the Ministry of Finance had eight internal departments: the Confiscation Committee, the Requisition Bureau, the Tax Bureau, the Public Debt Bureau, the State-Owned Property Management Bureau, the Secretariat, the Budget Bureau, and others. It also ran a printing factory and established a main treasury just 20 meters to the left of the Ministry, inside the State Bank (headed by Mao Zemin and under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance). The Ministry of Finance was the largest of all central ministries at the time. By 1934, the staff had grown to over 40 people, but by the time of the Long March, it had been reduced to 20–30. At the same time, corresponding finance departments were set up at the provincial, county, municipal, and district levels. Administratively, they were subordinate to higher-level finance departments and also guided by the local Soviet governments, forming a relatively comprehensive financial system in the Central Soviet Area.

Due to the harsh wartime environment, raising funds for the war effort and ensuring the supply needs of the Red Army and the Soviet government became the most important and fundamental functions of the red financial system. At that time, war funds were mainly raised through confiscations from local landlords, seizures of movable property, and spoils of war. The Ministry of Finance unified tax regulations, abolished various exorbitant taxes imposed by the Kuomintang, and replaced them with a unified progressive tax system. The main taxes collected included agricultural tax, forest tax, and a unified industrial and commercial tax. Issuing public bonds was also an important method. During the Fourth Encirclement Campaign, the Ministry of Finance raised 300,000 yuan in “Short-Term Revolutionary War Public Bonds” from workers and peasants in the Soviet Area. The second “Revolutionary Public Bond” was issued in installments starting on November 1, 1932, and by December 1, a total of 1.28 million yuan had been issued, along with 3 million yuan in Economic Construction Public Bonds.

The History Exhibition Hall of the Finance People's Commissariat of the Chinese Soviet Republic covers an area of 11,200 square meters and is mainly divided into two parts: the original site of the Ministry of Finance, which is a typical example of traditional southern Jiangxi Hakka ancestral hall architecture. It has been fully restored following the principle of “restoring the old as it was.” The other part is the newly built Exhibition Hall of the Financial History of the Soviet Area, covering an area of 1,600 square meters, displaying 1,769 cultural relics and historical materials, providing a comprehensive exhibition of the financial history of the Chinese Soviet Republic.

Shazhoubajie Village: Shazhoubajie Village…… More details about Shazhoubajie Village++