(1) Historical reasons:
According to archaeological findings, there was no shortage of gold in the field of social commodity circulation in China before the Han Dynasty, and the total amount of gold circulation in the whole society was also not lacking. This can be seen from the discovery of a large number of gold ornaments in tomb archaeology before the Han Dynasty, and the important position of gold at that time can also be seen from various historical documents. According to historical documents at that time, the emperor often gave hundreds of pounds of gold to meritorious ministers and generals.
But after the Han Dynasty, the total amount of gold in China society suddenly decreased. The sudden decrease of the total amount of gold in China's history is still a mystery, which needs to be further studied and solved by the archaeological community in China. There is a saying that since the Han dynasty, Chinese dynasties have changed frequently, peasant uprisings have emerged one after another, and various wars have continued. At that time, gold was actually stored in the hands of princes and landlords in China society, and these people were precisely the plundering targets of various wars and peasant revolutions. In order to preserve this wealth, these princes and landlords must hide high-value wealth like gold. In the process of social unrest and various continuous wars, a large part of these princes, nobles and landlords were wiped out by the revolutionary wave, and these hidden gold wealth became ownerless and disappeared wealth. From the Han Dynasty, wars and revolutions broke out frequently for hundreds of years, and a large amount of high-value wealth such as gold was buried in every corner of China. "One person hides a hundred people, but it is hard to find a trace", and a large amount of gold has become a lost wealth in the history of China. Perhaps this is really the historical explanation of China's "poverty".
(2) Modern factors of war:
In addition to the above historical mystery, many events in the history of modern China further caused the reality that Chinese mainland was poor in gold. Since the Opium War in 1840, China has suffered from opium trade in recent 100 and armed robbery and exploitation by western powers. A large amount of gold and silver have flowed out of China as opium reparations and war reparations, further causing a serious shortage of precious metals and hard currency such as gold and silver in China. Since then, China has been in civil war for years, and Japanese invasion of China has caused a large outflow of gold and silver from China. Some of these gold and silver are used to buy ordnance materials, and the other part is taken abroad by a large number of dignitaries. Today, there is still such an unsolved mystery of international gold among the people in China.
(3) The "Golden Voucher" incident during the Kuomintang civil war.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the "gold coin" incident concocted by the Kuomintang government during the civil war was another representative gold outflow event. The fiscal deficit of the Kuomintang government has been huge year after year. In order to make up the deficit, it issued a large number of legal tender, which soared and prices soared. In order to save the economic collapse, the Kuomintang government implemented the so-called "currency reform" and "price limit policy" in August 19. Among them, the "Measures for the Issuance of Gold Coins" promulgated by the Kuomintang government stipulates that each yuan of gold coins contains 0.222 17 grams of gold, and the number of issuance is limited to 2 billion. According to the exchange rate of 1, the gold certificate is converted into legal tender of 3 million yuan. At the same time, it is stipulated that 1 gold equals 200 yuan. Silver 1 equals 3 yuan. The dollar 1 yuan is equal to 4 yuan.
At that time, the Kuomintang government used coercion and deception to implement this decree, and ordered the people in the Kuomintang-controlled areas to exchange all their gold and silver into gold certificates before September 30, 1948. Those who failed to pay after the deadline would be forcibly confiscated. In less than two months, the total value of gold, silver and foreign currency extracted from the people reached 200 million US dollars.
1948, 10 At the beginning of the year, the buying tide in Shanghai spread to major cities in the Kuomintang-ruled areas, and prices soared further. 165438+ 10/0 The Kuomintang government was forced to announce the cancellation of the price-fixing policy. On June 2, 65438, the decree of "Amending the Method of Issuing Gold Coins" was promulgated, which stipulated that the gold content of 1 gold coin was reduced to 0.044434 g. Publicly announced that the price of the gold certificate will be reduced by 4/5, and the issuance limit of the gold certificate of 2 billion yuan will be revoked. After that, the gold coupons will be issued indefinitely. By May 1949, the amount of gold coupons issued was more than 670 trillion yuan, and the gold coupons became waste paper like legal tender.
These gold and silver exchanged with "golden certificates" and the gold and silver reserves of the Central Bank of the Kuomintang government over the years were escorted to Taiwan Province Province by warships at 1949. 1949 10 year 10 month 10 Jiang Jingguo, the eldest son, took out a "shouyu" from Chiang Kai-shek, which explicitly ordered Yu Hung chun to transport all the gold, silver and dollar bills in stock to Taiwan Province province as soon as possible. At that time, after the so-called "currency reform", the Kuomintang issued gold certificates and forcibly returned almost all the private gold and dollars to the state treasury. There are different opinions about the amount of this money. Chen Xiaowei, a Kuomintang scholar, said it was "five hundred and two thousand gold"; Others say it is $80 million, 924,000 gold and 30 million silver dollars; Liang, secretary of Li Zongren, said that when Nanjing fell, "there were still 2.802 million gold and more than 50 million dollars in bills in the national treasury, and the total value of cotton gauze sold through the liaison office was not less than 6.5438+0.5 million dollars, and there were securities". In short, it was a considerable number at that time. Under the direct command of Chiang Kai-shek, all this huge wealth was rushed to Taiwan Province Province by naval warships.
(4) Contemporary China is still short of gold.
1949, People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded in China, and it was in such a "gold-free" Chinese mainland that economic construction and financial system construction began. China government can only increase from newly produced gold, without historical accumulation. 1949 for a long time after the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), the gold issuance in China has been strictly controlled. Gold mining enterprises must sell the gold they produce to the People's Bank of China, and then the People's Bank of China will distribute the gold to gold users. At that time, the newly produced gold was mainly used for China's emergency international payment and national reserve. It was not until 1982 that Volkswagen began to regain the right to own gold, and the only way to own gold was to buy gold ornaments through shopping malls.
In a word, the historical reason of Chinese mainland's current "gold shortage" is very clear. We can clearly see that in China, a country with a large population and a large geographical area, there was a "golden fault" in our country from 1949 to 1982, which lasted for 30 years and affected two generations. In two generations' time, the people in China have never been exposed to gold. They just know that gold is very valuable, and gold is very valuable. However, they have never been exposed to gold, and they lack knowledge and understanding of all kinds of gold and know little about its important role and financial function. This gold fault actually leads to the general ignorance and indifference of the whole society to gold.
(5) China Bank's gold reserves.
By the end of February, 2005, the gold reserve announced by the Bank of China was19.29 million ounces, accounting for 600 tons. (The actual situation may exceed1000t)
According to the market price 150 yuan/gram, the value of 600 tons of gold is about 90 billion yuan. At the price of $580 per ounce, the value of19.29 million ounces of gold is about1165438+88 million dollars. By the end of June 5438+February 2005, China's foreign exchange reserves were about 800 billion US dollars, and gold reserves accounted for about 1.3% of foreign exchange reserves.
(6) China's gold production and mineral reserves.
In 2003, China's gold output ranked third in the world, with an annual output of about 180 tons, which was equivalent to the gold price of about 20 billion RMB at that time, and the output fluctuated little in the last six years.
According to the analysis of China's gold output from June to May, 2004, China produced 65,438+06.837 tons of gold (finished gold) in May. In May, 65,438+79.065 tons were completed. Compared with the same period of last year, gold output increased by 7.34 1 ton, up by 10.24% year-on-year. From June 5438 to May 2004, gold mining enterprises mined a total of 64.263 tons of mineral gold (finished gold+gold content), up by10.80% year-on-year; Smelting enterprises (nonferrous and gold smelting enterprises) accumulated 32.680 tons of finished gold, up 9.22% year-on-year.
In 2004, China's gold output reached 2 12.348 tons, an increase of 5.86% over the previous year. The provinces with large gold production are Shandong, Henan, Fujian, Shaanxi, Liaoning, Hebei and other provinces. Shandong is still the largest gold-producing province in China, with an annual output of 64.509 tons, accounting for 30.38% of the national output.
In 2005, the overall economy of China's gold industry performed well. According to the monthly report of national gold statistics of China Gold Association, the national gold output reached 224.050 tons in 2005, and the tenth five-year plan of China gold industry requires that the annual gold output reach about 240 tons in 2006. It can be seen that there is not much room for China to rapidly and substantially increase its gold production.
The proven gold reserves in China are 4,000-5,000 tons, accounting for 10% of the world's proven reserves. At the current mining speed, it can last for 22-28 years.
(7) The amount of private savings is low, and the awareness of gold investment is lacking.
Since the founding of New China, the China government has been strictly controlling the gold industry. Gold producers should sell all the gold mined and smelted to the People's Bank of China, and then the People's Bank of China will distribute it to all gold users through examination and approval.
1982, China resumed the sale of gold ornaments. With the issuance of panda gold coins by the People's Bank of China as a symbol, China took the first step to open the gold and silver market. 1999, 165438+ 10, China opened the silver market and closed the free trading of silver for half a century. Shanghai Huatong Nonferrous Metals Spot Center Wholesale Market has become the only silver spot trading market in China. The liberalization of silver is regarded as a "preview" of the opening of the gold market. In April of 20001year, Dai Xianglong, governor of the People's Bank of China, announced the cancellation of the planned management system of "unified purchase and distribution" of gold and the establishment of a gold exchange in Shanghai. In June of the same year, the central bank started the weekly quotation system of gold price to adjust the domestic gold price according to the price changes in the international market. Subsequently, the prices of gold ornaments, gold concentrates, gold nuggets and gold and silver products were all liberalized.
From June 5438 to/KLOC-0 to October 30, 2002, marked by the official opening of the Shanghai Gold Exchange, the gold market in China was fully opened, and gold investment gradually entered the public, and gold investment ushered in a new beginning in China.
At present, the total gold stock in China is about 4,000-5,000 tons. This includes the central bank's gold reserves and public-owned gold products.
China's domestic demand for gold has always been dominated by jewelry consumption demand. Most of the gold sold in China market every year has become gold ornaments, and industries such as industry, medical care and scientific research account for a small proportion of the consumption demand, while the financial investment demand of gold is still in the primary stage, accounting for a smaller proportion. China people's knowledge and understanding of gold is more of the first ornament, but little is known about the financial investment function of gold, and the degree of participation in gold financial investment is extremely low.
Due to various historical reasons and financial system, the per capita gold products in Chinese mainland are only about 3.5 grams. At present, the per capita annual consumption of gold in Chinese mainland is only 0.2 grams, and the consumption is concentrated on gold ornaments, which is far from the level of Hong Kong, Taiwan and western countries (the UAE consumes the most gold per capita, reaching 30 grams), and it is also far from the per capita level of about 1 gram in India. It is predicted that the consumption of gold in China will increase from about 200 tons per year to 400-500 tons in the next few years, which will have a very significant impact on the price of the international gold market. Looking at the domestic situation, the country lacks a long-term gold reserve plan, and ordinary people know little about the investment awareness of gold and its function of maintaining and increasing value in response to the financial crisis and inflation. However, at present, the domestic public's awareness of investing in gold is being awakened. Judging from the investment demand, China's gold market will once again surprise the world after it is fully opened, and the investment ability of China people in the gold financial market should not be underestimated.