What are the earliest famous commercial gangs in the history of China?

Top Ten Businessmen in China's History

First, Shanxi business gang.

Shanxi merchants are the earliest among the top ten business gangs. Shanxi merchants were the largest business groups in China during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and they were active in the business circles for more than 500 years. Their footprints not only spread all over China, but also appeared in Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia and Arab countries, which can be compared with the world-famous Venetian businessmen and Jewish businessmen.

Although the history of Shanxi merchants can be traced back to the Jin and Tang Dynasties of the Zhou Dynasty, it really rose in the Ming Dynasty and reached its peak in the Qing Qianlong, Jiaqing and Daoguang periods. At the same time, Shanxi Bank almost monopolized the foreign exchange business of the whole country, became a powerful commercial and financial capital group holding the national financial bull's ear, and formed two powerful Shanxi businessmen, Shanxi North Bank and Nanzhuang Bank.

What is the basis for the large scale, long duration and wide business scope of Shanxi merchants? Jingang has its own secrets of doing business. On the one hand, it unites the centripetal force of its businessmen with the ties of region and blood relationship, regulates business behavior with traditional ethics, seeks political backing and shelters its business activities. Another aspect, which is also the most important, is one of the important traditions of the Shanxi merchant family-"learning well is good." It is said that the first-and second-rate children of Shanxi merchants went to the sea to do business, and the third-and fourth-rate children took the imperial examination. There have even been literati who went into business without being an official after becoming famous.

The Qiao family in Qixian county is a typical example of Shanxi businessmen who start from scratch and operate with hard work and integrity. The Chang family in Yuci is famous for its foreign trade among Shanxi merchants. Taigu Cao Shi was a wealthy Shanxi businessman with great momentum in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Wei Lianjing's unique banker is; The well-known "Changyuchuan" in Qixian County is the Qu family; Konka in yangfu (now Linfen) amassed tens of millions of taels of silver in Ming and Qing Dynasties, becoming the richest man in Shanxi. The contemporary "hereditary imperial merchant" of Jiadi Lianhui was Jia Fan; Among Shanxi merchants, there is a famous "God of Wealth", that is, Taigu Kong Xiangxi, one of the four families in the Republic of China.

Comments: There are not many written records about the thought of "learning to be an official" of Shanxi merchants, but it is deeply hidden in their hearts and dissolved in their blood. Because of this, the cultural level of Shanxi merchants is relatively high compared with other business gangs, and their business model is also the most advanced. Modern management methods such as joint-stock system and capital operation sprout on them.

Second, Huizhou commercial gangs

Huizhou merchants are as famous as Shanxi merchants. As a powerful commercial force in China, Huizhou merchants have been active in the north and south of the Yangtze River, on both sides of the Yellow River, and even in Japan, Siam, Southeast Asian countries and Portugal. "No emblem, no business" is known all over the world.

The biggest difference between Huizhou merchants and other merchants is the word "Confucianism". Huizhou is the hometown of Zhu, a great Confucian scholar in the Southern Song Dynasty, and is famous for its unique Confucian style. Therefore, most of Huizhou merchants show the characteristics of being good at Confucianism, and their business ethics have a strong Confucian flavor. Huizhou merchants take the moral preaching of Confucian honesty and benevolence as the basis of their business ethics, so that they can win credibility in the business world and promote the development of commercial capital, which is the secret of their business success.

The most famous is "Red Top Merchant" Hu Xueyan, another name of Hutang (Zi Xueyan), a famous Huizhou merchant in the late Qing Dynasty. Pu donated money and assisted the governors of Shaanxi, Gansu and Gansu. The Qing court awarded the title of Minister of State, wearing a second-class civilian coral and a yellow coat. They are called "Red Top Businessmen". Levin, a famous contemporary writer in Taiwan Province, published a long historical novel "The Merchant with Red Top", which described the rise and fall of Hu Yisheng and made the nickname "The Merchant with Red Top" a household name. See Hu. There are also Huizhou merchants, who call the "Red-crowned Crane Merchants" as "all Jia Yi Ru" with a red-crowned crane belt.

Huizhou merchants with huge funds began to appear in the Southern Song Dynasty. Cheng and Cheng Chenghai, Qimen brothers, became rich in business, and were called "100,000 Dagong" and "102,000 Dagong" respectively, collectively called "Cheng 100,000". Zhu's grandfather Suzaku's shops and inns accounted for half of Huizhou's government, which was called "Zhu Banzhou" in history. Some big businessmen with abundant capital also issued "Huizi" in Huizhou. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Jiang Jia, a businessman from Shexian County, lent usury to Huizhou and made huge profits. At the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty, the capital of Huizhou merchants increased greatly compared with that of Song Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang went to Anhui, and he was short of salary. Jiang Yuan helped to make 65438+ 2 million at a time.

Comments: A man who is called a Confucian businessman is of course a wise man. On them, they are not only full of the brand of excellent traditional culture, but also have the moral level and cultural quality to adapt to the development of the times. They understand the operating rules of the market economy and have the ability to control market changes. They combine traditional culture with modern culture and follow the principle of being a man before doing business. Businessmen's pragmatism and shrewdness, coupled with their heavy sense of historical mission and responsibility, make them embody the charm of Confucian ideal personality everywhere. In short, Confucian businessmen belong to people with knowledge, morality, strategy and money.

Third, Longyou business gang.

When Huizhou merchants and Shanxi merchants competed for hegemony in shopping malls, an influential Longyou business gang suddenly rose in southwest Zhejiang. Longyou business group in history is actually Quzhou official business group, in which Longyou county has the largest number of businessmen and the most sophisticated means of doing business, so it is named Longyou business group.

Although Longyou Business Group is located in a remote place, it is open-minded and relatively trendy. Mainly manifested in two aspects, one is the spirit of investing first in the world, and the other is the tolerance of all rivers. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, many businessmen used the money they got from their business to buy land or engage in pawn and loan business in order to obtain stable income. Longyou businessmen are keenly aware that in order to get more profits, they must turn to handicraft production and industrial mining. Longyou businessmen did not exclude the infiltration of foreign businessmen into their hometown. They got along well with each other and absorbed foreign businessmen to help themselves, which promoted the development of Longyou businessmen.

Fourth, Shaanxi business gang

In the business circle of Ming Dynasty, Shanxi-Shaanxi merchants used the advantages of neighboring provinces to combine with each other in order to meet the needs of Huizhou merchants and other businessmen. People usually call them western businessmen or Shanxi businessmen. Western businessmen had a great influence in the early Ming Dynasty, and they made a lot of profits from salt industry management. Unfortunately, because of the interests, they began to split inside. Shaanxi salt merchants parted ways with Shanxi salt merchants, and finally Shaanxi salt merchants went to Sichuan to develop independently, which laid the foundation for the final formation of Shaanxi business gangs.

There are many ways for Shaanxi merchants to make money, among which salt merchants are the most famous. Dealing in cloth, tea and leather goods is also an important way for Shaanxi businessmen to make profits.

Five, Shandong business gang

Shandong businessmen are from Shandong and naturally have the characteristics of Shandong people: straightforward and simple, straightforward and honest. To sum up, the way for Shandong commercial gangs to get rich is the business operation mode of selling land in different places, the commodity morality of stressing credit and the standardized business behavior. Shandong businessmen are mainly big bureaucrats, big landlords and big businessmen, which also determines that the road taken by Shandong businessmen and the flow of commercial capital are rich to the end and left to the end. Although the road to wealth of Shandong business gangs is really not brilliant compared with other business gangs, their experience and management methods are very practical and their business is also very practical.

Six, Ningbo business gang

Ningbo business gang is a rising star of China business gang. From the time it was formed, it showed its extraordinary knowledge and Excellence.

Ningbo business gang is a business group connected by kinship and geographical friendship, and it is a popular business gang at home and abroad. Ningbo businessmen have a long history of going out to do business, but it is too late to do business on a large scale and form a business gang. After the Opium War, especially during the period of the Republic of China, a new generation of commercial capitalists in Ningbo commercial gangs stood out, closely combining business with financial industry, thus making Ningbo commercial gangs, as a new modern merchant group, rank among the famous commercial gangs in China. The jewelry industry, medicinal materials industry, clothing industry, seafood industry and insurance industry they run are also very famous.

Seven, Dongting business gang

Assess the situation and seize the opportunity, which is the practice of smart businessmen, and Dongting businessmen are such smart business gangs. Especially after the Opium War, in Shanghai, as a financial center, Dongting businessmen used their skills to open up the world and opened up financial entities such as comprador, bank, money house, silk and cotton industry. In the new historical background, they are engaged in business activities different from those in the past. As a result, Dongting Commercial Group has produced a number of national capitalists and embarked on the road of development from commercial capital to industrial capital.

Eight, Jiangxi business gang

Most businessmen in Jiangxi are forced by family circumstances to do business. Therefore, small-scale operation and starting with loans are their characteristics. Their business activities generally start from selling local native products, and it is the unique background of Jiangxi businessmen that makes Jiangxi business gangs have the characteristics of scattered capital and many small businessmen. Except for a few industries such as porcelain, other industries are dwarfed by commercial groups such as Huizhou merchants and Shanxi merchants, and the accumulation of commercial capital is extremely limited. In addition, Jiangxi businessmen's strong traditional ideas and small-scale farmers' consciousness also affected their capital investment, only seeking breadth, not depth. Therefore, although there are a large number of businessmen in Jiangxi, involving a wide range of industries and flexible management, they are often easy to lose the market in the competition.

Comments: Jiangxi businessmen pay attention to Jia Decheng's faith, which is the external manifestation of Jiangxi people's simple and earnest character, and also the natural expression of China's traditional Confucianism in Jiangxi people's minds. Jiangxi businessmen are also good at trying to figure out the psychology of consumers and cater to the requirements of different customers. In a word, it is a summary of Jiangxi businessmen's experience in selling their goods and seizing business opportunities to get rich.

Nine, Fujian business gang

From the beginning, the rise of Fujian commercial gangs was directly opposed to the official tributary trade and sea ban policy of the feudal government. They smuggle for commercial trade, rob when they can't trade, and have the dual characters of pirates and businessmen.

Internal and external collusion is the most common way for Fujian maritime businessmen to do business. They have extensive contacts with coastal residents and set up many strongholds, which are used to buy goods at sea and hoard smuggled goods from abroad to facilitate sales. Not only do they do business at sea, but many of them are land businessmen. They also do sea trade and land trade. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Fujian merchants closely combined with domestic and foreign trade, worked hard and carried out various forms of trade, forming an influential local business gang in the late feudal society of China.

X. Guangdong commercial group

During the ten years of Daoguang, the British Parliament conducted a survey of British businessmen doing business in China, and finally came to the conclusion that the vast majority of people doing business in Guangzhou unanimously claimed that it was more convenient and easier to do business in Guangzhou than in other parts of the world. There is a saying circulating overseas that the sun shines on Guangdong society all the time.

The glorious period of Guangdong businessmen is still near and modern. Since modern times, due to the invasion of foreign economic forces and the slow pace of China's modern times, Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants have gradually declined due to their adherence to tradition, while Guangdong merchants have risen with the expansion of modern commodity circulation, the development of commodity economy and the climax of overseas immigration, and they have made a fortune in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Chaoshan areas. During World War II, Guangdong businessmen were once silent, but after years of hard struggle, they finally rose in South China, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia after the 1970s.