Gas stations in the Republic of China
Gasoline was very expensive in the Republic of China, much more expensive than it is now.
1925 10 Wu Yu, a professor from Peking University, returned to his hometown and bought two barrels of foreign oil at a price of $8, each weighing 28 pounds. The "foreign oil" here refers to kerosene, which was used by ordinary people to light lamps in the era when electric lamps were not popular. Wu Yu inquired about the price of gasoline when he bought kerosene. The shopkeeper told him that gasoline is 30% more expensive than kerosene. Let's calculate an account: kerosene is 28 kg per barrel and sold in 8 yuan, which means that the price per kg is about 3 cents per yuan; Gasoline is 30% more expensive than kerosene, which means that the price of gasoline is about 40 cents per catty.
At that time, Wu Yu was teaching in Peking University, earning $260 a month, and he could buy more than 600 kilograms of gasoline every month. If he drives, he can still pay the gas bill. As we all know, university professors in the early years of the Republic of China were very rich and their income was much higher than that of ordinary people. The two nannies employed by Wu Yu's family only earn two dollars a month. When Lu Xun lived in Beijing, he also hired several nannies with a monthly salary of two yuan. Xiangzi camel pulls rickshaws in Beijing, and can only save 60 yuan a year at the most diligent time. In 1923, Yu Dafu wrote a night intoxicated by the spring breeze, in which he mentioned a female worker working in a Shanghai cigarette factory. She works ten hours a day and earns only nine dollars a month. In any case, the daily income of these working-class people is not enough to add a catty of gasoline.
Why is gasoline so expensive?
Because China didn't produce oil at that time. Both kerosene and gasoline should be imported from abroad.
Imported cars
From Beijing to Shanghai, from Tianjin to Guangzhou, the gasoline sold in the city is foreign brands. It is packed in lead barrels and sold by the catty or gallon. During War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, gasoline was used in military vehicles, fighter planes and trucks transporting soldiers and military supplies (most trucks were gasoline vehicles and few were diesel vehicles in the Republic of China). Gasoline is very scarce, so it is more expensive.
How expensive is it?
1February, 948, Traffic Weekly described the gasoline price in Shanghai as follows: "In a glass cabinet, the gasoline in a glass bottle the size of an eye drop bottle is used to hold a lighter. It used to be 10000, but now it is 30000. Yesterday, the price of a gallon of gasoline was 600,000 yuan. " At this time, legal tender is popular in China, and it will depreciate more and more in the future, but the money that devalues again is also money. February 9 1948 Shanghai rice price fluctuated around one million yuan a stone. In the late Republic of China, "stone" was the standard unit of capacity, and a stone of rice weighed 80 kilograms. 80 kilograms of rice needs 6,543,800 yuan, and a gallon of gasoline needs 600,000 yuan, which means it takes about 50 kilograms of rice to get a gallon of gasoline.
The more serious problem is that even if you are extremely rich, no matter how expensive gasoline is, you may not be able to add it, because gasoline is extremely scarce. China began to produce oil in 1930s, and there are oil fields in Yumen, Gansu, Yanchang, Shaanxi and Ziliujing, Sichuan. But the output is too low. 1932, the national natural oil output was only 42,000 gallons, and 1946 increased to 5.05 million gallons. According to the estimation of the National Defense Committee of the Kuomintang, in 194 1 year, only military gasoline needs 39 million gallons. Even if all the domestic oil is refined into gasoline, it can't meet the fraction of a military material. What should I do if there is not enough gasoline? Can only be imported. The period when China was most short of oil was exactly the period when the world was most short of oil-World War II consumed a huge amount of gasoline, and post-war economic construction consumed a huge amount of gasoline. Since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States, which originally exported gasoline to China, has tightened its pockets and stopped selling gasoline except for occasional assistance. Therefore, in the difficult environment where it is impossible to open up new customers, China must find ways to reduce its expenses.
A car that can't afford gasoline.
During the Anti-Japanese War, the Kuomintang government put forward the slogan in Chongqing: "One hundred thousand young people, one hundred thousand troops, one drop of gasoline, one drop of blood." The first half of this slogan calls on young people to join the army to resist Japan, and the second half calls on the people to save gasoline. At the same time, China's border government, Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong and Henan also controlled gasoline through "tariffs". According to the policy formulated in July of 194 1, "everything we need and can be self-sufficient", including gasoline, "absolutely forbidden to leave the country". "Anything we need urgently", including gasoline, "can enter this country duty-free." It can be seen that gasoline is a vital treasure in both the Kuomintang-ruled areas and the * * * production party base areas.
Million car purchase subsidy