Why did Huizhou merchants, who had dominated the business world for more than 300 years, eventually decline?

I am "not my true character", so this is the right question.

In the thirty-sixth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1608), the playwright Tang Xianzu went to Wang Village near Xiuning County, Huizhou to visit his colleague Wang Tingna. As soon as he entered the "Sitting Garden" of the Wang family residence, Tang Xianzu was stunned by the exquisite and magnificent "Dream Garden" in front of him. How could a playwright build such a luxurious garden? It turns out that Wang Tingna was once a big salt merchant and served as the salt transport envoy for the imperial court. Tang Xianju felt a bit "jealous" of this outsider who was both elegant and talented in writing scripts and had the brains to make a lot of money. So I wrote the poem "A Tour to the White Mountains of Huangshan to No Results": "If you want to know the gold and silver energy, you usually travel from Huangbai to the place where you have been obsessed with life, and you have no dreams of arriving in Huizhou."

Obviously, this Wang Tingna He should be one of the Hui merchants. Hui merchants are commonly known as "Huibang", which is the general name for merchants or merchant groups from the old Huizhou prefectures (Shexian, Xiuning, Wuyuan, Qimen, Yixian, Jixi). Merchant gangs were formed during the Chenghua and Hongzhi years of the Ming Dynasty. As a powerful force in China's business community, Huizhou merchants have been active in the Dajiang and Yellow River basins, as well as in Japan, Siam, Southeast Asian countries and Portugal. They have strong commercial capital, a large number of employees, a wide range of activities, and many business industries. China's business community has been dominant for more than 300 years.

However, why did this once brilliant commercial force decline in the middle and late Qing Dynasty?

The "Characteristics" of Huizhou merchants

They operate in many industries. Huizhou merchants operate a variety of commercial and trafficking industries. The basic industries include salt, pawns, and tea wood, followed by rice, grain, silk, paper, ink, cotton, and porcelain. Among them, Wuyuan people are mainly tea and wood merchants, Shexian people are mainly salt merchants, Jixi people are mainly restaurant businesses, Xiuning people are mainly pawnbrokers, and Qimen and Yixian people are mainly engaged in cloth and groceries. host.

In addition, it also directly operates industries. For example, in Wuhu, Ruan Bi, a businessman from Shexian County, opened a dyeing paper factory; in Fujian, Zhu Yunzhan, a businessman from Xiuning, mined iron ore. They produced and sold at the same time, integrating industry and commerce.

The "Qixi Feng Shang Ji" written by the Ming Dynasty records: "There are many official boats,... business goods gather, and the big merchants in Huizhou and Hangzhou regard it as a source of profit. They open the ceremony to buy rice and trade silk. Those who drive are proud of themselves." That is to say, these big merchants in Huizhou not only trade silk, but also "drive" silk.

Some historical data about this aspect are also revealed in Wang Daokun's "Taihan Collection". Volume 47 of the book "The Epitaph of Zhu Chushi in Xinxi, Haiyang" records: "Zhu Chushi Yunzhi, named Tianze, was a native of Xinxi, Haiyang (Xiuning). ... From his brother Jia Min, he lived in the Tieye Mountain of Gaike. There are many servants and senior officials, so they are known for their efforts. If they don't get married at the age of 10, they will lend millions to the servants."

The emblem of the great salt merchant in Yangzhou. Jiang Chun, the merchant representative, is known as the "best Anhui merchant in the world" who "befriends the emperor with his commoners" because of his miracle of "building a white pagoda with salt overnight and making Hui cuisine succeed Emperor Qianlong". Hui merchants were so rich back then that even Emperor Qianlong exclaimed, "These merchants are so rich that I can't match them."

"Confucianism on the left and Jia on the right". The main reason why Huizhou merchants can be distinguished from other business gangs is that they maintain a unique style of "Confucianism on the left and businessmen on the right". As the saying goes, "Although I obey the businessmen, I still have the style of a Confucian".

In Huizhou, Confucianism has deep roots. Zhu Xi is regarded as a saint by Huizhou people. They are proud that Zhu Xi’s hometown is in Huizhou, and they are sincerely convinced by his teachings, as in the "Preface to the Mingzhou Wu Family Code" in the Qing Dynasty It states that "Xin'an is the birthplace of Zhu Zi, so it is advisable to read Zhu Zi's books, obey Zhu Zi's teachings, uphold Zhu Zi's etiquette, treat oneself in the style of Zou and Lu, and pass on Zhu Zi's style to his descendants."

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were 54 academies and 562 social studies schools here. There were 298 people in the Ming Dynasty and 698 people in the Qing Dynasty. There were 392 people in the Jinshi Ming Dynasty and 226 people in the Qing Dynasty.

In such a cultural atmosphere, Huizhou merchants have been familiar with the Book of Songs since childhood and attach great importance to education. "For hundreds of years, people have only accumulated good deeds, and the first good thing is just reading."

Higher cultural quality became the "cornerstone" for their interactions with the scholar-bureaucrats. They were mixed with the feudal bureaucrats or supported each other through "urgent public discussion", "donation" and "reading". By seizing an official position by ascending to the throne, you can also invest heavily in seeking the protection of ministers, ministers, and even eunuchs and emperors, and enjoy the privileges of official titles. If you cannot join the ranks of officials and businessmen, you should urge your children to take the exam to become officials. In addition, you can also draw rich business experience and wisdom from history to promote the development of your own business and form good business ethics.

Integrity and honesty. Huizhou merchants pay attention to business ethics and advocate treating people with sincerity, accepting things with trust, and taking into account both justice and interests. Known for his diligence and hard work, it is very common to run a business away from home, return home every three years, and get married and divorced. In their view, integrity is the foundation of a businessman's life, and using justice for profit is the way to make money. Therefore, they adhere to the creed that "wealth comes from the Tao, and benefits are taken from the right." Shu Zungang, a businessman from Hui County in She County, once said: "Money is like a spring. Where there is a source, there will be a flow." Also."

Hui merchants themselves compiled "Ten Essentials for Merchants and Merchants" as a code of conduct to restrain the public, so as to ensure that "the goods are genuine and fair, and the goods and residences are sold at the same price." Chen Shiliang, an Huizhou businessman from Xiuning County, said: "I have served southern Guangdong from far away, and I have become a city with the barbarians on the island. I am inspired by my sincerity, and the barbarians respect and fear me." Relying on integrity, Huizhou businessmen achieved both fame and fortune, and gained prestige overseas.

The source of decline

Family-run business, the environment has changed dramatically.

A typical business model among Huizhou merchants is family management, which uses family relationships and clan systems to form a tight and effective network across the country. Huizhou merchants went out to do business. Whenever they settled in a city, their tribesmen immediately came to "greet" them. Since they were all doing business locally, they gradually monopolized the market. The "accumulation economy" invented by Huizhou merchants, if replaced by modern economics, means industrial accumulation, but they are just the accumulation of families, clans, and townships. Huizhou merchants took advantage of this family business and reached its peak. However, with the development of society, especially after the Opium War, and the opening of China's door by Western powers, foreign capitalism seized economic privileges, and Shanxi merchants ended up in internal and external difficulties.

It is conservative and lacks development. Through "both Confucianism and Jiajia", the status of Huizhou merchants was improved and their own development was also promoted. However, Confucianism originally "served" the traditional feudal society, and it was difficult for Huizhou merchants' business philosophy and activities to escape the fence of feudal thought and transform into modern businessmen. With the opening of Shanghai in 1843, capitalist industry and commerce developed rapidly, and Shanghai became an emerging industrial and commercial center and import and export base. Faced with the influx of a large amount of foreign capital and companies, Huizhou businessmen are still clinging to old ways, lacking a pioneering spirit, and finding it difficult to adapt to the needs of the new market.

Of course, this cannot be blamed solely on Huizhou merchants, because Huizhou merchants at that time were "both officials and businessmen". Although they enjoyed many benefits from the court, they were also more squeezed and extorted by the government, resulting in capital Massive loss. This situation was especially true in the late Qing Dynasty. Huizhou merchants pinned all their hopes on the declining Qing government, and they themselves began to decline.

Official position. In ancient China, it was generally said that "those who excel in learning will become officials", "officials" were the first among the four people, and "businessmen" were the last. These children of Huizhou "obtained" high-ranking officials through their strong financial resources. To a certain extent, Huizhou merchants' political voice was "very effective" and their business interests were protected to the greatest extent. The combination of "officials" and "business" was very close. For example, Xu Chengxuan, who was born in a family of Huizhou merchants and was an official in the field of engineering, gave Shizhong his seal, "The customs administration at Wutang in Yangzhou is causing abuses. Chengxuan said that there are customs outside the customs and taxes outside the customs. Generous efforts can be relied on." It can be seen that Huizhou merchants basically got rid of their identity as low-level farmers and joined the elite class of scholar-bureaucrats. Therefore, in the peaceful and prosperous times, Huizhou merchants used this kind of business method to "invest" huge sums of money into officialdom without integrating it with industry. "The money" was unlimited; once it entered troubled times, such irrational economic behavior would inevitably destroy the official status of Huizhou. The overall competitiveness of enterprises will eventually decline. The most typical example is the abolition of the official salt distribution system, and the advantages of Huizhou merchants in the salt industry suddenly collapsed.

Geographical factors. With the opening of Shanghai in 1843, the capitalist economy developed rapidly, becoming an emerging industrial and commercial center and import and export base, and "driven" the entire Yangtze River Delta and surrounding areas. However, the surrounding traditional industrial and commercial cities began to decline. A large number of wealthy officials, businessmen and celebrities moved to Shanghai from these places, bringing with them a large amount of capital and huge market share. Not only that, a large number of labor and talents also moved to Shanghai from these areas. .

As a result, the local traditional market shrinks faster.

Shanghai’s foreign trade has grown almost geometrically. For example, raw silk exports from Jiangsu and Zhejiang have been transferred to Shanghai by Zhejiang silk merchants early on. The local products of the Yangtze River Basin, such as tung oil and pig bristles, became bulk export materials and relied on the Shanghai port. The late Huizhou merchants did not get any share. Textiles, daily necessities, medicines, etc. are basically produced by machines or imported instead of manual production.

Under the impact of new business methods and business networks, Huizhou merchants retreated steadily, and instead, Fujian and Yue merchants, Jiangsu and Zhejiang merchants rose rapidly.

According to the traditional land trade routes, Huizhou is still an important transportation thoroughfare. However, the newly built transportation routes and newly introduced transportation methods have greatly changed Huizhou’s traditional transportation pattern, and Huizhou merchants have also suffered a fatal blow. . For example, the shipping ships introduced from the west were faster and more convenient than canal transportation; the later opening of the Jinpu Railway also broke the last straw for canal water transportation.

With the rapid development of small and medium-sized cities along Jinpu Road, the prosperous canal towns of Linqing, Wangjiaying, Qingjiangpu, and even Yangzhou fell into decline. The Huizhou merchants living there have since declined. Even if they have the courage to move to Shanghai and other places, the time and space left for them is very limited. Of course, Huizhou merchants have other weaknesses of their own.

As China gradually enters modern society, businessmen in the southeastern coastal areas can invest in industries and embark on the path of capitalism, but a large number of Huizhou businessmen are still struggling with the trinity of Confucianism, businessmen, and officials and the mutual conversion , it has been unable to take the step of developing a strong sense of feudal small-scale farmers and relying heavily on feudal forces, and has fallen into a desperate situation of increasing decline.

I have written so much, and I would like to give it a cool thumbs up if it passes by.