A Probe into Tianjin's Tax during the Enemy-Occupied Period with the Files of Tianjin Trade Union as the Object of This Study

After Lugou Bridge Incident in 1937, the Japanese occupied Tianjin and pieced together a puppet regime to control the Tianjin's tax and important strategic supplies in order to change the city into a strategic base for further invasion of North China and to fuel war with warfare. The Japanese puppet regime seized the wealth and expanded their aggression through tax. With the war going on, the enemy-occupied areas faced the problems as inflation and the economy was quite difficult. In order to keep the fundamental running of the regime, the Japanese stopped at nothing to increase the tax amount to be paid and the tax rate, which worsened the business of Tianjin's industry and commerce and quickened the pace of Japanese destruction.