Chinese Shoppers Bring Bags of Cash

中國消費者現金滿袋

By David Barboza

SHANGHAI – Lin Lu remembers the day last December when a Chinese businessman showed up at the car dealership he works for in north China and paid for a new BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo – in cash.
林祿（譯音）還記得去年12月某日，一名中國商人前往他在中國大陸北部工作的一家汽車經銷商展示間，以現金購買一輛全新BMW5系列Gran Turismo的過程。

“One of his friends carried about $60,000 in a big white bag,” Mr. Lin recalled, and the buyer had the rest in a heavy black backpack.”
他回憶說：「他同行的一個朋友帶著一個大約裝了六萬美元的白色大袋子。買家把其他現鈔放在一個沉甸甸的黑色背包內。」

Lugging nearly $130,000 in cash into a dealership might sound bizarre, but it’s not exactly uncommon in China.
把將近13萬美元的現鈔搬到一家汽車經銷商聽起來可能有點異乎尋常，在中國大陸卻相當普遍。

This is a country, after all, where home buyers make down payments with trunks filled with thick wads of renminbi China’s currency. And big-city law firms hire armored cars to deliver the cash needed to pay monthly salaries.
畢竟在中國大陸，購屋族往往以裝有一綑綑人民幣的皮箱支付頭期款。大城市的法律顧問公司會雇用裝甲車輛運送支付員工薪水的現鈔。

For all China’s modern trappings – the high-speed rail networks and soaring skyscrapers – analysts say this country still prefers to pay for things the old-fashioned way, with cash.
分析家說，在中國大陸的現代化表象（包括高速鐵路網與摩天大樓）之下，許多人還是選擇老方式的現金付款。

Doing business in China takes a lot of cash because Chinese authorities refuse to print any bill larger than the 100-renminbi note. That’s equivalent to $16. Since 1988, the 100-renminbi note, graced by Mao Zedong’s face, has been the largest note in circulation, even though the economy has grown fiftyfold. No major economy has limited itself to such a low denominated bill as China.
在中國大陸，做生意必須用到許多現金，因為當局不肯發行面額超過100元人民幣的紙鈔。人民幣100元相當於16美元。1988年至今，即使總體經濟規模已經成長50倍，印有毛澤東頭像的100元面額人民幣一直是中國大陸面額最大的紙鈔。其他主要經濟體都不似中國大陸這樣把本國貨幣面額壓得如此之低。

By making the 100-renminbi note the largest bill, the nation’s citizens need more of it to buy a television, never mind a car, home or a yacht.
人民幣紙鈔面額最大只到100元，大陸人必須以更多張現鈔購買電視機等商品，遑論汽車、房子或遊艇。

Chinese economists and government officials often suggest that printing larger denomination notes might fuel inflation. But there is another reason.
大陸經濟學者與官員常說印行更大面額紙鈔可能助長通膨。實則另有原因。

“I’m convinced the government doesn’t want a larger bill because of corruption,” said Nicholas R. Lardy, a leading authority on the Chinese economy at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, noting that it would help facilitate corrupt payments to officials. “Instead of trunks filled with cash bribes you’d have people using envelopes. And there’d be more cash leaving the country.”
華府彼得森國際經濟研究所的中國大陸經濟權威拉迪說：「我認為，中國政府因為貪腐的問題而不願發行面額更大的紙鈔。」因為面額更大一定有助於向官員行賄。他說：「人們行賄不須再帶著裝滿現金的皮箱。他們會改用信封。此外，流到國外的現鈔也會更多。」

All the buying, bribing and hoarding forces China to print a lot of paper money. China, which a millennium ago was the first government to print paper money, accounts for about 40 percent of all global paper currency output.
一切的購買、行賄與聚藏迫使中共當局印行大量紙鈔。一千年前，中國是全世界第一個印行紙鈔的國家，如今印行的紙鈔數量約占全球的四成。

Although China’s coastal cities have flourished during the 30 years of economic prosperity, economists say the country’s interior remains poor and disconnected from the more modern aspects of the financial grid. As a result, the poor prefer to do business in cash.
經濟學家表示，雖然中國大陸沿海城市在30年的經濟繁榮期間興盛，內陸地區卻仍然貧窮，而且與比較現代化的金融網隔絕。在這種情況下，窮人傾向於以現金做買賣。

The rich also like to deal in cash, and they typically hide their money in the underground economy to avoid government scrutiny.
有錢人同樣喜歡以現金交易，而且通常把他們的錢藏在地下經濟，以逃避政府追查。

“The average Chinese trusts neither the Chinese banks nor the Communist Party,” said Friedrich Schneider, an authority on shadow economies around the world and a professor of economics at the Johannes Kepler University of Linz in Austria.
奧地利林茲大學經濟學教授史奈德是地下經濟權威。他說：「大陸上一般人不信任國有銀行與共產黨。」

That lack of trust fosters a game between the government and its subjects, analysts say. Executives make secret cash deals to earn outside consulting fees while working at state-run companies. The government responds by trying to penetrate a vast underground economy, where transactions are conducted almost entirely in cash.
分析家表示，缺少信任造就政府與人民之間的一種遊戲。國營企業高階主管私底下可能為了賺取正職之外的顧問費而進行秘密的現金交易。政府的因應之策是，設法打入交易幾乎全數以現金為之的龐大地下經濟網。

Often, the culprits are the very government officials who are supposed to be upholding the laws. Take the case of Wen Qiang, the former police chief in the city of Chongqing. He was caught in 2009 with nearly a million dollars in renminbi, carefully wrapped in plastic bags and hidden in a water tank at a relative’s home.
犯罪者往往正是執法官員。以重慶市公安局前局長文強的案子為例。2009年，他被查獲把將近合100萬美元的人民幣現金小心翼翼的裝在幾個塑膠袋內，藏在一個親戚家的蓄水池裡。

To keep a lid on the illegal cash transfers, China restricts cross-border money transfers and places limits on foreign currency exchange.
為了遏止現金違法流通，中共當局限制現金的跨國界流通，對外幣兌換也有限制。

And then there’s the issue of rodents. In March, a migrant worker in Shanghai discovered that mice had chewed into tiny pieces the $1,200 his wife stored in a closet. A local bank agreed to exchange the money if the man could reassemble at least three-quarters of a bill.
還有老鼠的問題。今年三月，上海的一名民工發現，老鼠竟然把他妻子收在衣櫥裡約合1200美元的現鈔咬碎。當地的一家銀行同意為他更換新鈔，條件是，他必須能夠拚湊一張紙鈔至少3/4的部分。

“But the bills are now in small pieces and it’s almost impossible to fix them,” said Zhao Zhiyong, the 37-year-old worker. “Who could know that the money would be chewed by mice?”
37歲的民工趙志勇（譯音）說：「可是這些現鈔已經碎成小片，幾乎不可能復原。誰想得到現鈔會被老鼠咬碎？」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/business/global/chinese-way-of-doing-business-in-cash-we-trust.html

紐時中文網翻譯：
http://cn.nytimes.com/business/20130501/c02yuan/zh-hant/

2013-05-21聯合報/G9版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 陳世欽譯 原文參見紐時週報七版右