During the 17th century, Great Britain began to establish its modern financial and taxation systems and became a great power in the world. China still had not created a modern financial system at the time of the late Ching Dynasty and did not even control its own customs or tariffs. These issues were discussed by Feng Kuei-Fen, a noted scholar, in his books.

When China began to interact more with foreign countries, it created opportunities for Chinese students to study abroad. Many such students, whether on government scholarships or supported by themselves chose to study economics, finance, and business.
Following their return to China they started to introduce western financial and economic ideology and pushed for the modernization of finance.

After the Ministry of Finance was established, elites of all ages and from all across China were recruited to serve in the Ministry. The work performed by such personnel formed the backbone of the work on Chinese financial reforms in subsequent eras.

1. The Beiyang Government

There were over thirty-two turnover of cabinets in seventeen years during the era of the Beiyang Government with the shortest cabinet lasted for only a period of less than one month. Although most of the financial elites had proper background and good education, they were limited in the effort which they could achieve due to political uncertainty.

2. The National Government

There were ten Ministers of Finance after the establishment of the National Government, but the most important figures are Soong Tse-Ven, known as T.V Soong, and Kung Hsiang-Hsi, known as H. H. Kung.

T.V Soong was the Minister of Finance from 1925 to 1933, resigning twice and then resuming his position again during that eight- year span. The Ministry of Finance of the National Government was only recently established at this time and Soong’s most important task was to collect military funds for the Northern Expedition. With a unified political situation after the successful ending of the Northern
Expedition, he started to push for national financial integration and set up a basic frame work for the organization of the Ministry of Finance.

H.H. Kung succeeded to Soong’s position and became the Minister of Finance from 1933 to 1944. He continued to carry out the financial reform under T. V. Soong, promoted legal tender system, set up the Central Trust of China, readjusted financial institutions, created direct tax system and monopoly system, etc. All these measures had far reaching influence.

When T. V. Soong was the Minister of Finance, he also served as Minister without Portfolio of the National Government; and when he was Vice-Premier of the Executive Yuan he also held the position of Finance Minister. Minister Kung also served as the Premier and then Vice-Premier of the Executive Yuan concurrently at the time that he was Minister. It was evident to show how important the Ministry of Finance was in the government.

3. After the Adoption of the Constitution

There have been twenty-seven Ministers of Finance since the adoption of the Constitution of the Republic of China in 1948. Li Kwoh-Ting, known as K. T. Li, had served the longest, being in office for seven years.

During the late period of the Sino-Japanese War, incomes fell while expenses increased with price index shooting up to about 2,167 times of those in pre-war China. The currency was also over-printed, leading to serious inflation during the Chinese Civil War.

The most urgent task for the government after the withdrawal of the Republic of China to Taiwan was to stabilize its finances. The combing efforts of each and every succeeding ministers to set up new financial development plans, the budget system, and the assistance from the United States all led to the creation of the ‘Taiwan Economic Miracle.’

Several reforms were undertaken beginning in the 1960s. After the economy was stabilized, the government began to launch the policies of liberalization and internationalization. By taking these important steps, Taiwan was transformed from an island of few resources into a key member of the global economic network.

Since the work of the Ministry of Finance touches on the areas of finance, law, economics, and politics, it has attracted many members of the elite of different fields of expertise to serve their country. The Ministry encourages its employees to serve our citizens in many ways and to continue to uphold the spirit of the Ministry of Finance.