Economic crisis has occurred more than once in human history. It is said that people should be accustomed to cyclical economic crises that occur every once in a while. However, the economic crisis that occurred from 1929 to 1933 was given the specific title of " Great Depression ". This shows how destructive this crisis is and how wide its impact is. This crisis made the world understand that a social catastrophe can also occur in a peaceful state: within a few years, the industrial output value of capitalist countries dropped by 44%, and the unemployment rate hovered at a high level of 30 to 50%. More than $250 billion was lost.
This economic crisis originated from the stock market crash that broke out on Wall Street in New York, USA in 1929. In the 1920s, the American economy was booming. People at the time thought that this prosperity would continue forever. However, on October 24, 1929, Wall Street ushered in the bleakest " Black Thursday " ever: panic broke out in the New York stock market after 11 a.m. There was so much selling that the market fell to the point where even the meter couldn't keep up. In just half a day, the Dow Jones Index plummeted 33 points. The entire country remained sleepless that night as countless families' savings over the years were wiped out in an instant.
The next day, a nationwide run began in the United States: people came to banks to exchange cash. On the other hand, the stock market continued to plummet and sell-offs became common. At one time, more than 5,000 banks across the country were forced to close down under the impact of the bank run frenzy, and the failure of these banks in turn led to the bankruptcy of more companies. On October 29, 1929, the Wall Street stock price index fell from its highest point of 386 points to 298 points (a drop of 22%). This day was later described as "the worst day in the 112-year history of the New York Stock Exchange."
In fact, this day is just the beginning, because the protracted economic crisis has intensified: from 1929 to 1933, a total of 140,000 industrial enterprises and 10,000 banks in the United States went bankrupt. As many as 13 million Americans were completely unemployed during this period, and even those who were still working, many were only working part-time. The tax systems of some cities with severe economic downturns have collapsed and are therefore no longer able to provide social assistance and municipal services to the people. One city alone owes as much as $20 million in teacher salary arrears.
Schools that needed public financial support were closed in large numbers, so that in 1932 there were more than 300,000 poor out-of-school children in New York. About 20% of children who are still able to attend school are malnourished. By 1933, the U.S. Department of Education estimated that 1,500 colleges and universities in the United States had gone bankrupt and closed. This resulted in an unprecedented drop in university enrollment to below 250,000. Filling the stomach became the most basic desire of people during this period. At that time, some people even started rummaging through the trash cans to find something to eat.
In 1932, a person who investigated life in the Chicago slums described this scene: After a truck unloaded garbage, about 35 men, women, and children swarmed up and rushed to the garbage pile. Some people used sticks to dig through the garbage piles, while others dug directly with their hands. Some even fought over the discarded garbage. The " New York Times " at that time once described it this way: The poor person who knocks on your door at midnight and asks you for a sandwich may be a newspaper columnist, or he may be the bank manager who generously approved a loan for you a few months ago.
During this period, many white-collar workers in the past still dressed up and went to "work" every day in order to maintain their appearance. But in fact, they just went door-to-door to sell some small commodities. Some even walked a few blocks and turned into beggars as soon as they took off their clothes. Begged on the street. Even if this was the case for the relatively prosperous white-collar class in the past, it will be even more difficult for the poor living at the bottom of society. At that time, homeless people could be seen everywhere on the streets of America. During the Great Depression, the U.S. government repeatedly pledged that no one would starve to death.
However, in 1933 New York State at least 29 people were specifically registered as starving to death, and 110 such deaths were reported across the country.These are only those who are explicitly registered as dying from starvation directly, while those who die indirectly from hunger-induced diseases or accidents cannot be counted at all. From 1928 to 1932 cases of malnutrition diagnosed by public health agencies in Philadelphia increased by 60 percent. During this period, the number of cases of scurvy , rickets and other diseases among American children increased significantly.
The malnutrition caused by lack of food and clothing during the Great Depression left a permanent mark on an entire generation of American teenagers. After the outbreak of World War II , the United States conducted conscription according to the compulsory military service law. However, half of the 200 registrants who received physical examinations for military service in 1940 and 1941 failed the physical examinations, and most of these people were in the age of physical growth and development during the Great Depression. The Great Depression, which originated from the Wall Street stock market crash in the United States, soon spread to the world. From 1929 to 1933, more than 32,000 industrial and commercial enterprises went bankrupt in the UK alone, and nearly 3 million people were unemployed.
Within a year after the Great Depression began, Britain's international trade dropped from US$70 billion to US$55 billion. By 1933, Britain's total international trade was only about US$24 billion. British ocean shipping revenue in 1931 was approximately £105 million, but just one year later it was £25 million less. During the Great Depression, British steel production fell by 46%, pig iron production fell by 52.9%, and shipbuilding production fell by 91%... Before 1931, the British pound and after World War II Bretton Woods The US dollar is also directly linked to gold.
At that time, the international financial community formed a tripartite structure of the US dollar group, the British pound group, and the gold group, which were dominated by the United States, Britain, and France. On September 21, 1931, the United Kingdom had to announce that it would stop implementing the relevant provisions of the gold standard regulations against the realistic background of depletion of gold reserves. From then on the Bank of England no longer sold gold at a fixed price, and also stipulated that the export of gold was strictly prohibited. The pound became a floating currency: its value was determined by the market and was no longer fixed to the value of gold.
During the Great Depression, British wages and incomes generally dropped significantly: the annual financial special funds received by the British royal family were reduced by 50,000 pounds; Royal Navy officers and soldiers' salaries were cut by 1/4. The pay cuts even sparked a riot among Royal Navy soldiers. As for those ordinary people, life is even more difficult. At that time, there were thousands of unemployed households crowded in basements that never saw the light of day. These people usually skip dinner and go to bed early so they don't feel hungry.
When the United States and Britain fell into an economic depression in 1929, France's fiscal budget was basically balanced. At the same time, the French Bank's gold reserves were also quite strong. The substantial devaluation of the franc in 1928 greatly enhanced the competitiveness of French products in the world market. In 1929 and 1930, most of France's economic sectors continued to develop: the output of coal, iron, and aluminum set the highest record between the two world wars. In May 1929, the French government's fiscal revenue was approximately 29 billion francs. By May 1930, it had increased to 55 billion francs.
All this makes the French authorities confident that France will not fall into an economic depression like the United States, Britain and other countries. It was not until November 1930 that the French Bank of Usterique declared bankruptcy, which kicked off the French economic crisis: a large number of banks and companies went bankrupt and closed. For a time, production dropped, prices soared, the number of unemployed surged, and capital exports dropped sharply. Foreign trade shrank... France's economic crisis in 1931 had spread to the entire industrial sector, causing French industry to return to the level of 1911.
The crisis has also dealt a heavy blow to French agriculture, which has been in a chronic crisis for a long time: a large surplus of agricultural products has caused prices to plummet. The economic crisis in France led to a general decline in the living standards of the people, which in turn triggered a political crisis in which the people did not trust the government: during this period, the French cabinet changed frequently.The French economic crisis broke out two years later than the United States and the United Kingdom. However, the impact of the French economic crisis is no less than that of the United States and the United Kingdom, and the French economic crisis lasts longer than the United States and the United Kingdom.
Germany suffered a greater impact from this economic crisis than the United States, Britain, France and other countries: as a defeated country in World War I , Germany was burdened with war reparations of up to 132 billion gold marks (excluding interest). . After 1922, Germany was actually in a state of chronic inflation. By 1929, before Germany could recover from its own inflation, it encountered a worldwide economic depression. The long-term indiscriminate issuance of banknotes has led to the depreciation of German currency and skyrocketing prices. At the height of inflation, a loaf of bread cost as much as one trillion marks.
At that time, more than 6 million people in Germany were unemployed. Adults no longer buy toys for children. Children will use money to stack blocks to play with, because it is much more cost-effective to play with money than to buy toys with money. Germany's poor state provides an excellent opportunity for some careerists who are dissatisfied with the status quo to rise to the top. In 1923 Adolf Hitler launched an attempted beer hall coup. At that time he was seen as little more than a flash-in-the-pan radical politician. After being released from prison, Hitler took advantage of the German people's dissatisfaction with the current situation of life and their disgust with the Versailles system to preach.
The biggest wish of the Germans at that time was to get rid of the economic crisis and improve their living conditions internally; to lift the constraints of the Versailles System externally, thereby enhancing Germany's status in the international community. Hitler made a targeted promise to the German people during his propaganda and agitation: "Let every household in Germany have milk and bread on the table." One can imagine how attractive such a slogan would be to people at the time. In 1928, the Nazi Party led by Hitler had only 2.6% support in the election. However, in September 1930, the Nazi Party became the second largest party in parliament with 18.3% support.
In July 1932, the Nazi Party gained 37.2% of the votes and 230 seats, becoming the largest party in parliament. This year Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany. A year later, the death of President Hindenburg made Hitler the supreme head of state of Germany. After Hitler came to power, he actively promoted fascism, ultra-nationalism, anti-communism, anti- capitalism, and anti-Semitism. A series of actions to expand arms and prepare for war promoted by Hitler finally made Germany the European birthplace of World War II .
Japan is a late imperialist country: Japan retained a considerable part of its feudal residual system in the process of transforming into one of the great powers through Meiji Restoration . The development of Japan's economy has long been restricted by factors such as lack of resources, limited domestic market, and residual feudal constraints. Before World War II, Japan's industrial level was second-rate compared with European and American countries, so it was ridiculed by European and American powers as "poverty imperialism." Even before the international economic crisis broke out in 1929, Japan's domestic economy had been experiencing continuous crises.
In 1918, a nationwide rice-grabbing craze broke out in Japan. In 1920, the stock markets in Tokyo, Osaka and other places plummeted. The Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 made the already sluggish Japanese economy even worse. Throughout the 1920s, the Japanese economy was actually in a state of chronic depression. When the economic crisis that originated from Wall Street in the United States in 1929 spread to Japan, the authorities began to try to deflect the crisis in their country by launching a war of aggression. In fact, Japan has a history of deflecting internal crises through external aggression.
At about 10 pm on September 18, 1931, Lieutenant Kawamoto Suemamoru of the Shimamoto Battalion of the Japanese Kwantung Army commanded several subordinates to blow up a section of the track of the South Manchuria Railway near Willow Lake about 800 meters south of Shenyang North Camp. Afterwards, the Japanese Kwantung Army spread rumors that the incident was caused by the Chinese army. The Second Battalion of the Japanese Independent Guards immediately used this as an excuse to launch an attack on Beidaying , where the Northeastern Army of China was stationed. The September 18th Incident, which shocked China and the rest of the world, opened the historical prelude to the 14-year war of aggression against China by Japanese imperialism.In this way, the Asian origin of World War II gradually took shape under Japan's aggressive expansion policy.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the world's total industrial production shrank by 36%, and world trade volume shrank by nearly two-thirds. During this period, the total number of unemployed workers worldwide reached more than 30 million, millions of small farmers went bankrupt, and tens of thousands of banks collapsed. Accompanying the financial crisis and industrial crisis was a profound agricultural crisis : a massive surplus of agricultural products led to a sharp fall in agricultural product prices. In the United States alone, tons of milk are poured into the Mississippi River, and a large amount of wheat, corn, and corn are used as fuel instead of coal. At the same time, a large number of unemployed people live in hunger and cold.
The economic crisis quickly triggered social and political crises in various countries: during the crisis, 1/4 of the US labor force was unemployed; 1/5 to 1/4 of the British labor force was unemployed; about 1/5 of the workers in Germany were completely unemployed. There was no job, and 1/5 of the people had only temporary jobs...For a time, people all over the country were queuing up to receive relief bread and looking for work. Against such a background, governments and people of all countries are full of anxiety. In May 1931, the United States took the lead in passing a bill to increase taxes on 890 commodities.
The United States first built tariff barriers on and , which immediately caused a chain reaction: 33 countries quickly protested, and 7 countries took retaliatory measures. Of course, countries are not united in retaliating against the United States' tariff barrier policy, but they are also competing with each other unprecedentedly fiercely: France increased taxes on imported cars from the United Kingdom by 60%. During the Great Depression, tariff wars, market wars, and currency wars among countries were unprecedentedly fierce. At the same time, some countries such as Germany and Japan tried to pass on internal crises through military expansion.
Such an unprecedentedly fierce competitive game background eventually indirectly triggered the Second World War. In our history textbooks, the narrative of the economic crisis of the 1930s focuses more on Roosevelt's New Deal and the fascistization of Germany and Japan. As for the impact of this crisis on our country, it is believed that it indirectly triggered Japan's war of aggression against China . However, the impact of this crisis itself on our country has not been mentioned much in our history textbooks. At that time, China's self-sufficient economy still accounted for the main proportion, and its connection with the world market was still relatively limited.
Therefore, China’s direct impact from this crisis is indeed less than that of the United States, Britain, Japan, Germany and other countries. Of course, it cannot be said that this crisis has no impact on China: after the First World War, China's national capital and national industries have developed to a certain extent. Between World War I and World War II, the world's major capitalist countries' demand for China's tobacco, eggs, bristles, tung oil, tea and other agricultural products has been steadily rising. During the Great Depression, the United States, Britain, Japan, Germany and other countries faced severe crises and reduced their imports of Chinese agricultural products.
In 1929, China's export prices of raw silk, tea, bristle, and tung oil were 320 yuan, 27.8 yuan, 100.7 yuan, and 234 yuan per quintal respectively. By 1931, they fell to 145.3 yuan, 16.2 yuan, 54.2 yuan, and 182 yuan respectively. Even if the price is reduced to such an extent, it may not be sold. The dilapidation of China's rural areas, the decline of agriculture, and the hardship of farmers in the 1930s are also related to this to some extent. In this context, the class antagonism between the poor people at the bottom and the wealthy classes has also been intensified.
