A famous but short-lived mainland tobacco factory
（1939--1954）
The mainland tobacco factory in Qingdao from the establishment to the disappearance of only a short period of 14 years, but has a very unique and complex experience, Qingdao people who grew up in the forties and fifties of the last century, few do not know the mainland tobacco factory.
1. East Asia Tobacco Factory
In January 1938, after the Japanese army invaded Qingdao for the second time, in order to obtain high profits and support its war of aggression, in June of the same year, Japan's North China and East Asia Tobacco Co., Ltd. invested 67 million yuan to purchase land to build a tobacco factory in Qingdao Changyi Road, Luokou Road and other places. In December 1939, the tobacco factory was completed, and it was named "North China East Asia Tobacco Co., Ltd. Qingdao Factory" (also known as East Asia Tobacco Factory Qingdao Co., Ltd.), commonly known as East Asia Tobacco Factory. The East Asia Tobacco Factory was the predecessor of the mainland tobacco factory and one of the largest cigarette enterprises in Qingdao at that time. There were 32 new cigarette machines, (accounting for about 22% of the city's total number of machines at that time), employing 1,190 workers.
In order to enhance its competitiveness with British American Tobacco, the plant's machinery and equipment were the most advanced at the time. The plant is completely based on the cigarette production process, the first floor from the tobacco entrance, stalks, shredding, seasoning, to the second floor baking, cigarettes, packaging, nail boxes, into the warehouse storage, are connected by conveyor belts, from raw material processing to finished product storage, in one go. Cigarette machines all have independent generators, which are convenient for separate operation and save electricity. It can also prevent individual motors from breaking down and affecting the entire production. These unique features were not only unattainable by the national tobacco factories in the mainland at that time, but also by the British American Tobacco Company.
The East Asia Tobacco Factory started production in early 1940. After the outbreak of the Pacific War in December 1941, the United States and Britain declared war on Japan, and the British-funded Qingdao Yizhong Tobacco Company was confiscated by the Japanese army. Since then, 32 machines in the East Asia Tobacco Factory have been fully opened, working overtime day and night, and more than 2,700 workers have been employed at the busiest time. Its annual output has also increased dramatically year by year, in 1940 it was 8,258 large boxes, in 1941 it reached 49,626 large boxes, and in 1942 it was as high as 66,829 large boxes. The products of the factory are mainly supplied to the Japanese army. The brands include Golden Gun, Temple of Heaven, Yingnu, Tuba, Piano Score, Fuxing, 16, Welfare and so on. Among them, the "Temple of Heaven" brand was once used by the East Asia Tobacco Factory as a product to compete with the British American Tobacco Company. In terms of the number of cigarettes, the East Asia Tobacco Factory may surpass Qingdao Yizhong Tobacco Company, but in terms of quality and grade, it is far inferior to Qingdao Yizhong Tobacco Company.
2. Shanghai Tobacco Company
Japan surrendered in 1945. On January 16, 1946, the East Asia Tobacco Factory was taken over by the Office of the Commissioner of Luyujin District of the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the puppet Nationalist Government, and was renamed "The Ministry of Economic Affairs Took Over the Qingdao Factory of the East Asia Tobacco Company" and continued to start production. In February 1947, the Ministry of Economic Affairs handed over the factory to the Supervision Committee of the Enemy and Counterfeit Factory of the Qingdao District of Shandong Province of the Executive Yuan, and renamed it "The Bureau of the Enemy and Counterfeit Industry Management Bureau took over the Qingdao Manufacturing Plant of the East Asia Tobacco Factory". In 1946, the Ministry of Economic Affairs conducted a public auction of the factory, but it was unsuccessful. In March 1947, the Industrial Management Bureau bid for the sale of the factory, and the internal bid was 5 billion yuan (the online inquiry of 5 billion yuan in 1947 was equivalent to about 17,000 US dollars, and the price of gold at that time was 35 US dollars an ounce), and it was publicly tendered. On March 12 of the same year, Yu Zhongxu, a Shanghai tobacco merchant, won the bid in the name of Shanghai Tobacco Company with 6.08 billion yuan in legal currency.
Yu Zhongxu is a native of Yinxian County, Zhejiang, born as a landlord, and once served as a pseudo-security chief. In September 1946, he rented the machinery factory of Xinmin Tobacco Factory in Shanghai, registered as Shanghai Tobacco Company (unlimited liability company), and acted as a cigarette manufacturer for Huichang Tobacco Factory. Due to the speculative business and the extremely unstable social prices, after only four or five months, the capital was completely lost (and more than 62 million yuan of debts owed to the Chang Tobacco Factory were also accumulated). At this time, Yu learned of the news of the bidding for the sale of the East Asia Tobacco Factory, so he immediately rushed to Qingdao and found Shen Mingpan, manager of the puppet Central Trust Bureau, and Miao Yingzhou, director of the liquidation department of the puppet processing bureau. So the wind went smoothly, and on March 12, 1947, he won the bid with a dishonored check of more than 6.08 billion yuan. After winning the bid, he quickly sold the materials of the East Asia Tobacco Factory, and used the recovered funds to pay the bid, and finally got the East Asia Tobacco Factory in his hands and renamed it "Shanghai Tobacco Co., Ltd." (hereinafter referred to as Shanghai Tobacco Company).
Shanghai Tobacco Company inherited the East Asia Tobacco Factory and the mainland Tobacco Factory. The change of the name of the cigarette factory in Qingdao to the Shanghai Tobacco Company was not only puzzling at the time, but also confusing for future generations. Subsequently, Yu divided the shares to the puppet government officials in the form of stolen goods. also asked Shen Mingpan to give shares to Zhu Wenxiong, the head of bureaucratic capital, and let Zhu Wenxiong be the chairman of the board of directors, and Yu Zhongxu was the general manager. In addition to giving away shares, Yu Zhongxu also sold the materials of the East Asia Tobacco Factory and bought real estate to distribute to the puppet officials as a reward. With all the liquidity drained and the outbreak of the civil war, the Shanghai Tobacco Company became increasingly unhappy, and finally announced a two-month shutdown in February 1948. Unable to resume work when it expired, the workers petitioned the pseudo-social bureau. Shanghai Tobacco Company produces very few grades, only Maisigan and Min'an.
3. Mainland Tobacco Factory
In order to solve the working capital, on November 24, 1949, Yu Zhongxu and Ding Houqing, the manager of Shanghai Fuxin Tobacco Company, agreed on a cooperation agreement in Shanghai, stipulating that all the factories, warehouses, dormitories and other buildings and machinery and equipment of Yu Zhongxu at No. 3 and No. 34 Luokou Road and No. 210 Zhongshan Road in Qingdao should be used as capital; Ding Houqing used materials equivalent to the price of 25 boxes of raw materials for low- and medium-quality cigarettes as capital to jointly establish Mainland Tobacco Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Mainland Tobacco Factory). Ding accounted for 51% of the shares, and Yu accounted for 49%.
After the establishment of the Continental Tobacco Factory, production began on January 5, 1950. 7 cigarette machines were started, with a daily output of 50 large boxes of cigarettes. According to the assessment of that year, the mainland tobacco factory had assets of more than 29.5 billion yuan (RMB) and 375 employees. In addition to the original Min'an and Maisigan, the cigarette brands are also new to the mainland, Yangge, deer camel, welfare, etc. Among them, red gold and deer llama are very popular with the society and sell well. It not only brought good benefits to the mainland cigarette factory, but also became the traditional product of the Qingdao cigarette factory, and the social reputation was very high. Produced for decades.
However, the good times did not last long, and in August 1951, the Shanghai Municipal People's Court convicted Ding Houqing of being a traitor because he participated in the Wang puppet organization as a special agent of the Central Committee during the Anti-Japanese War and served as an economic intelligence worker, and closed down the Shanghai Fuxin Tobacco Company (later nationalized). In November of the same year, the Qingdao Municipal Military Control Commission's Committee for the Handling of Enemy and Counterfeit Assets, under the instructions of the East China Branch of the Supreme People's Court, supervised the mainland tobacco factory (because it owned 51% of Ding Houqing's shares).
In 1952, during the "Three Antis" and "Five Antis" movements, Yu Zhongxu's crime of buying East Asia Tobacco Company empty-handed was exposed. It was found that "by bribing Jiang bandits' receivers, they bought enemy property with enemy property, and all of them stole the enemy's East Asia Tobacco Factory, and the evidence is conclusive and completely true" (see "Report on the Handling of the Case of Yu Zhongxu, Manager of Qingdao Mainland Tobacco Co., Ltd. Concealing Enemy Property"). This is tantamount to determining that not only the 51 percent stake of Shanghai Fuxin Tobacco Company's mainland tobacco factory is enemy property, but also Yu Zhongxu's 49 percent stake is enemy property. In 1953, the factory was confiscated by the people's government. There are 32 cigarette machines, 12 shredding machines, 2 flavoring machines, 2 dryers, and 667 employees.
In 1954, the mainland tobacco factory was merged into Qingdao Industrial Tobacco Factory (formerly North China Tobacco Company, nationalized after liberation). After the merger, Qingdao Industrial Tobacco Factory moved to the mainland tobacco factory. In 1962, Qingdao Industrial Tobacco Factory (then renamed the state-owned Qingdao No. 2 Cigarette Factory) and the state-owned Qingdao No. 1 Cigarette Factory (formerly Qingdao Yizhong Tobacco Company) merged to form the only Qingdao cigarette factory in Qingdao that is still affiliated to Shandong China Tobacco Industrial Company.
(The article is written with reference to the information provided by the Qingdao Municipal Archives and related materials)
Authors of this group of pictures and texts: Zhao Yuhua, Su Jialiang, provided by Su Jialiang, edited and published by the official account of Qingdao City Archives Forum and Qingdao City Memory Headlines, please indicate!