Do you know why Huizhou men go out to do business?

"Past life without repair, was born in Huizhou. Thirteen or fourteen years old, throw it out. " Qianlong once said to the prince who didn't study: If you want to have fun, you might as well be the son of Huaibei salt merchant. For the third time, Qianlong gave the title of 16 salt merchant to Jiangnan, of which 14 was from Huizhou prefecture. Although forced by livelihood, it also created the legend of Huizhou merchants. From being forced to leave their hometown to make a living, Huizhou merchants have left a brilliant stroke in history.

In ancient Huizhou, the style of writing was prosperous, with two yuan in one subject and two yuan in the same county, nine scholars and four ministers as brothers, one list of nineteen scholars and four academicians in ten miles. From the Song Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were more than 2,000 champions in Huizhou, and 28 champions were produced. With the continuous influx of immigrants, there is a serious shortage of cultivated land, less than one mu per capita, and food shortage. It is in this environment that Huizhou people decided to go out to make a living. It is a great ideological change for the ancients to stop clinging to the imperial examination as the right path.

When Huizhou men were young, they had to travel far away from home to make a living. After some efforts, a number of famous Huizhou merchants emerged. In this way, the atmosphere of doing business was formed, but at first, I started from the grassroots guys and gradually accumulated experience. It is precisely because of this that Huizhou people got married earlier in ancient times, and there was a saying that "thirteen dads came and fourteen mothers came", because after they got married, they all went out to make a living and rarely went home. A couple's life adds up to no more than three years. It was a common phenomenon in Huizhou at that time that men went out to do business and many women stayed behind. Bao knows that he left home to make a living at the age of 1 1. Before he left, his mother left him the only Kangxi Bao Tong left at home, hoping to bring him good luck. After suffering, Bao Zhidao became a famous merchant of Huaishui General.

The rise of Huizhou merchants is closely related to the salt industry in Huaibei. In the early Ming dynasty, China and France were opened to attract businessmen to transport grain to the border, and then businessmen could get salt. What really made Huizhou merchants seize the opportunity was the color folding method implemented in the middle of Ming Dynasty. You can get salt by paying money, and you don't need to transport food thousands of miles. Huizhou merchants gathered together to keep warm, and gradually occupied an advantage in this salt merchant war. There are 80 salt merchants recorded in the Records of Salt Law in Huaihe River, and 60 are Huizhou merchants. There are 35 famous salt merchants recorded in Zhejiang Salt Law, and Huizhou merchants account for 28. Huizhou merchants made huge profits from the salt industry. From 167 1 to 1804, Huizhou salt merchants donated more than 39.3 million taels of silver, 265,438+10000 mangoku and 330,000 mangoku to the imperial court. Ganlong went to Jiangnan, Jiang Chun and other salt merchants to plan the reception and sent silver10 million yuan. That's why Qianlong told the prince that if you want to have fun, you might as well be the son of Huaibei salt merchant. At that time, Huaibei salt merchants were really rich.

Huizhou merchants, whose ancestors had a prosperous style of writing, were deeply influenced by Confucian culture in their business, had a certain literary level, were both businessmen and scholars, and were good at Confucianism. Therefore, Huizhou merchants wrote many business monographs and specialized their business. Although Huizhou merchants declined gradually in the late Qing Dynasty due to many factors, their spiritual wealth was indelible.