100 Unknown Pictures from the Depositories of the State Russian Museum

FOR THE LOCALS, opium also brought astronomical inflation, much worse than in Nationalist areas. БЂњWe have caused great inflation,БЂ«Xie wrote in his diary on 6 March 1944, БЂњnot because we are poor, but because we are rich.БЂ«Mao played a key role in this. In June 1941 he had personally ordered unrestrained printing of the local Communist currency, bianbi. The original plan had had a ceiling. After he saw the budget, Mao wrote: БЂњdonБЂ™t get fixated on the idea that bianbi should be kept within 10 million yuan БЂ¦ donБЂ™t tie our hands.БЂ«He urged spending БЂњgenerouslyБЂ«on administration and the army, showing a total disregard for the local economy: БЂњIf in the future [the system] collapses, so be it.БЂ«In 1944 the price of salt was 2,131 times that in 1937, cooking oil 2,250 times, cotton 6,750 times, cloth 11,250 times, and matches 25,000 times, according to Chief Secretary Xie. This hyper-inflation did not hurt those feeding at the state trough. Russian ambassador Panyushkin, who probably had a better picture than most, said it hurt the БЂњtoilers,БЂ«i.e., the peasants, who needed cash to buy basics like cloth, salt, matches, utensils and farm tools БЂ” and medical care, which was never free for non-state employees, if they could get it at all ...»