H. H. K'ung and His Monetary Policy for Resistance against Japanese Invasion （1933-1938）

H. H. K‘ung (K‘ung Hsiang-hsi1 HR, 1880-1967), courtesy name yung-chih (庸之),literary name tzu-yuan (子淵),was born at Taiku ,Shansi(山西太谷).The K‘ung family, originally rooted at the Chufu district of Shantung ( 山東曲阜）, were regarded as lineal descendants of Confucius. The family moved to Shansi in the late Ming dynasty. His grandfather, K‘ung Ching-ling (孔慶麟) , laid the foundation of the family fortune by establishing and successfully managing remitting shops (piao-hao 票號 ) centered in Shansi. His business spread rapidly throughout the country, and even had branches in Annam and Japan. At the time, there were no modern banks in China, so Shansi remitting shops also worked like modern banks and the K‘ungs became very wealthy capitalists. K‘ungs father, K‘ung Fan-tz‘u ( 孔繁慈) , the third son of K‘ung Ching-ling, succeeded the family enterprise and maintained its prosperity in Shansi. In the turn of the century, domestic remitting business was gradually replaced by modern banking institutions. So the K‘ungs started to convert their business into variety stores and began to look elsewhere for big financial gains.