The Central Reserve Bank (Chinese: 中央儲備銀行) was the central bank of the Wang Jingwei regime that governed much of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Based in Shanghai, it operated between January 1941 and August 1945.
Overview
The bank was formally created on 21 December 1940 and started operations on 6 January 1941 in the building erected a few years earlier on the Bund by the Bank of China. It had initial capital of 100 million yuan, half of which was provided by the Ministry of Finance and the other half borrowed from Nissho and Huaxing Commercial Bank [zh].
The intent was to bring an end to the monetary chaos that afflicted China under Japanese occupation and to make it part of the yen zone, as had been done in Taiwan with the Bank of Taiwan, Korea with the Bank of Chōsen, and Manchukuo with the Central Bank of Manchou. The Central Reserve Bank issued currency known in English as the Central Reserve Bank dollar [zh] and widely referred to as "puppet currency".
Confidence in the bank started to decline in 1942, together with the prospects for Japanese victory in the Pacific War, leading to hyperinflation. Some banks refused to open accounts in the Central Reserve Bank's currency; in the case of the Bank of China, that led to violence against its agents. By the war's end, the Shanghai branches of Bank of China and Bank of Communications had fallen entirely under the Central Reserve Bank's operational control.
In August 1945, the Wang Jingwei regime collapsed and the Central Reserve Bank ceased to function. On 30 September 1945, the branch of the Central Reserve Bank in Osaka was closed by the American occupation authorities.
Banknotes issued by the Central Reserve Bank are known as "reserve notes". They bear a portrait of Sun Yat-sen, as did the earlier notes issued by the Central Bank of the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek.
See also
References
- ^ "893.515/9–1745: Telegram - The Ambassador in China (Hurley) to the Secretary of State, Chungking, September 17, 1945—8 a.m." U.S. Department of State - Office of the Historian.
- "Persistent Monetary Fight Against Financial Invasion by Japanese Puppet Regime (1939 - 1943)". Bank of China. Retrieved 23 January 2025.
- "100 Yuan, The Central Reserve Bank of China, 1943". National Museum of American History. Retrieved 23 January 2025.
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