The jstars have been rich for generations.

"I have a more accurate record of my life in Qiao Zhiyong." Wu Dian said: "He was born in 18 18 and died in 1907, and lived to be 89 years old.

Among the previous generations of the whole jstars, Qiao Zhiyong lived the longest. "After two generations of management, born in Qiao Zhiyong, jstars family has been relatively rich.

Qiao Zhiyong had been admitted to a scholar when he was young. Zhu Xiuhai, the author and screenwriter of Qiao Family Courtyard, said that his life should have nothing to do with business.

"At that time, there were three people in the jstars.

A door is not popular. There are five people in the second door, and five flagpoles in the home. Business is mainly done in Sanmen, where Qiao Zhiyong is located, and Sanmen has no juren.

Brother Qiao Zhiyong has a wish that Qiao Zhiyong can earn a jury for Sanmen and erect a flagpole.

If you can get another Jinshi in the future, the task in this life will be completed ahead of schedule. "

Shanxi historical celebrities gather together.

According to the Five Classics, there were dozens of officials in the official history of Qixian County before the Yuan Dynasty, but there were no big officials in Qixian County after the Yuan Dynasty.

Such a change, in addition to Qixian is not the political center of the north, more importantly. In the mid-Ming Dynasty, in order to deal with the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty, the imperial court built nine border towns on the northern border, called Jiubian.

A large number of garrison troops consume an amazing amount of materials, which gives Shanxi people a great opportunity to do business.

The theory of five stores began to form in Shanxi in the Ming Dynasty, when people were proud of doing business.

"Take Qixian, for example, its climate is not very good. Frost-free period 170 days or more every year, the land is not very fertile, and there are no specialties and minerals. Doing business is called the only way.

Fortunately, Qixian County is located in the traffic center of Shanxi, with well-informed information and convenient trade conditions.

In the 1950s, a survey was conducted. At that time, more than half of the families in Qixian had a history of doing business.

At that time, the population of Qixian County was a little more than 65,438+10,000. According to this calculation, there were more than 20 thousand people in Qixian county doing business outside.

There are two ways to do business, one is to do business by yourself, and the other is to become a shareholder or employee.

During the Daoguang period, there were more than 300 grain stores in Beijing, and there were more than 100 grain stores opened by Qixian people.

In the end, Shanxi merchants mainly developed in Funan County, namely Yuci, Taigu, Pingyao and Jiexiu, south of Taiyuan. At that time, it was traditionally called' Qi, Tai and Ping', namely Qixian, Taigu and Pingyao. "

Qiao Zhiyong of Qiaojiabao in Qixian County, although living in this business place, lost his parents when he was young and was raised by his eldest brother's eldest sister-in-law, who loved him very much.

Zhu Xiuhai said that Qiao Zhiyong's life can be said to be very comfortable, because his eldest brother took good care of him, but he was not as strict as his father. "Qiao Zhiyong was a rich idle man when he was young, but he was not interested in being an official.

At that time, the annual salary of a county magistrate was only 50 taels of silver, while that of Yang Lian was only a few hundred taels.

At that time, the youngest big shopkeeper in the jstars had a salary of 1000 silver a year, which was not counting the dividends in the four-year account period. "

Zhu Xiuhai said.

But I didn't expect that in the early years of Xianfeng, the northern Nian Army and the southern Taiping Army revolted, and the north-south tea road was cut off. At that time, Qiao's main business was silk tea in Dadexing Tea House in Qixian County.

"At that time, there were six main businesses in the world: grain, oil, silk, tea, salt and iron.

Salt and iron have always been controlled by the imperial court, and Qiao Jiaji has not set foot in it.

The grain and oil business is mainly done by the Qiao family in Baotou.

I described the hegemony of sorghum in TV series based on the background that there is no big business like grain and oil, so even small businesses like sorghum have to compete. "

At that time, the grain and oil businesses were mainly merchants in Pingyao and Jinnan.

Although the Qiao family mainly engaged in silk tea, they were not the biggest businessmen in Shanxi at that time.

Qiao Zhiyong's eldest brother was seriously ill because of the war, and Qiao Zhiyong, who would have ended up as a Confucian scholar, had to take over the family business.

"From the early years of Xianfeng to the late years of Guangxu, Qiao Zhiyong's life experienced the whole late Qing Dynasty.

After he took over the family business, Qiao's business, especially Qiao's banking business, was pushed to the peak in the late Qing Dynasty, when social unrest and wars continued. Zhu Xiuhai said, "The first thing Qiao Zhiyong did at that time was to dredge the tea road and the Silk Road in the south."

At that time, the Luchun tea market in Qixian County was very large in Shaanxi, and it was the main transit market for tea in the south.

After that, the traditional tea road will be divided into two ways: one is to go to Tacheng and Chaketu in Xinjiang via the west exit; The second is to go to the northeast via Zhangjiakou.

The long tea road, from Wuyi Mountain in the south to the hinterland of Mongolia, is related to the livelihood of countless tea workers, boatmen, camel teams and Shanxi merchants.

Zhu Xiuhai said that Qiao's monofilament tea business is directly or indirectly related to the livelihood of tens of thousands of people.

The Silk Road is to transport silk from Huzhou to Luzhou, Shanxi, and make it into silk.

The hardships and dangers of business travel began to make Qiao Zhiyong gradually realize the important role of the draft bank.

"At that time, jstars haven't set foot in banking.

At that time, there was a Richangsheng draft bank in Pingyao, and the earliest evidence found now is Richangsheng 1823 sub-account record, which is once every five years.

However, it is recognized that before Japanese businessmen, there were firms in Pingyao dealing in foreign exchange.

As a new industry, the draft bank was created by Pingyao people rather than Qixian people. Zhu Xiuhai said that there were very few banks at that time, and there were only five in the country. The largest Rishengchang had only seven semicolons, and it did not deal with small and medium-sized businessmen, so its influence was very limited. Generally speaking, small businessmen must bring money to do business.

When Qiao Zhiyong realized the broad prospects of banks, his ambition was to meet the world one day. "How advanced this idea is and how great his ideal is!" ! Isn't this similar to today's UnionPay? /kloc-Shanxi merchants more than 0/00 years ago also had such perfect ideas and broad verve at that time.

Moreover, Qiao Zhiyong has no intention to monopolize the banking business, although it tries to expand the banking industry to the whole country.

His idea, its difficulties and risks are clear at a glance-for example, you want the bank to remit 220 taels of silver to the south, which was not even enough for the trip at that time.

Think about it, if your Qiao family has a bank in Xinjiang, you must do it if you want to remit one or two pieces of silver. What amazing costs and risks! But Qiao Zhiyong is such an idealist. ".

The reason why Qiao Zhiyong values the future of banks so much is his own experience.

At that time, bandits and soldiers were rampant on the commercial road, and it was very dangerous and inconvenient for businessmen to carry a lot of silver.

Even if the bank exchange bill is intercepted by bandits, it is impossible to exchange money in the bank without secret records.

Surprisingly, it has been verified by later generations that there has never been a documented case of wrong remittance in the whole history of Shanxi draft banks.

Qiao Zhiyong opened two banks, Dadetong and Dadefeng, with jstars' funds.

"Dadetong was changed by Dadexing in TV series.

Dadexing was founded in Xianfeng period. At first, it mainly engaged in tea and foreign exchange.

Qiao Zhiyong later discovered that banking was a relatively new industry, so he changed it into an exchange, supplemented by tea. Wu Dian said: "In the tenth year of Guangxu, Qiao Zhiyong changed its behavior to Dade, and in the same year, Dade Feng Bank was established to specialize in foreign exchange.

Under the management of Qiao Zhiyong, later, Dadetong and Dadefeng became one of the few big banks in China. "Wu used these data to show the development speed of operating banks in Qiao Zhiyong." In Guangxu ten years, the capital of Dadefeng was 62,000 yuan, which became 1.22 million a few years later, and the capital in Guangxu ten years has increased to 352,000 yuan. "

The reason is actually very simple.

Qiao Zhiyong continues to invest part of its annual profits as capital, which is called "double capital" in the jargon.

Usually, Shanxi merchants will share profits in each accounting period, which is usually 3, 4 or 5 years.

According to Wu Dian's theory, almost all of Qiao Zhiyong's dividends were invested in capital, and its capital was second to none among the banks at that time.

"At that time, it was estimated that the capital of jstars was four or five million taels of silver.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the research estimated that the Qiao family's liquidity was about 8 million to 6,543.38+million, which did not include the bank number and real estate. "Also admitted that the number is estimated by everyone. Because there is no clear record, it is mainly calculated according to the number of stores in the jstars at that time. It's hard to say whether it is allowed or not.

However, in Shanxi at that time, Qiao Zhiyong, as a representative figure, became an emerging force in the rising period among Shanxi merchants who began to make a fortune in the Ming Dynasty.

The reason why a Confucian scholar can make such achievements is that Wu and Zhu Xiuhai think that besides talent, Qiao Zhiyong brought the generosity and kindness of Confucianism to business.

The most conclusive evidence we can see now is the epitaph erected after Qiao Zhiyong's death.

According to the Five Classics Theory, Qiao Zhiyong's tomb is still in Qiaojiabao Village, and his epitaph is buried in the tomb. Qiao Zhiyong's epitaph has not been found yet.

The words on the tomb table were written by Chang Zanchun, granddaughter of Qiao Zhiyong, a cultural celebrity of the Republic of China.

He described the family situation of Qiao Zhiyong when he was a child. He was forced to take over the family business because he wanted to pass the imperial examination, and he was very successful under the guidance of Confucianism.

As a businessman, Qiao Zhiyong still has books such as Four Books and Five Classics Historical Records, and he will come forward to help social disasters.

Zhu Xiuhai said: "The people are precious, but the monarch is light.

This is the people-oriented thought in Qiao Zhiyong's mind. "

Zhu Xiuhai believes that this spirit can continue to Qiao Jiazu.

Qiao Guifa is a grassroots, and he can't get a wife at the age of 30.

But he finally married a widow with a child, which is affectionate and righteous.

"You go to Shanxi jstars, their family has a newspaper hall of the first generation of ancestors, next to the clay sculpture is a beggar's basket and a dog stick.

They don't hide the poverty history of their ancestors, but hope that their families will remember these poverty histories.

Not only Qiao Zhiyong, but also Qiao Zhiyong's grandson Joe's generation used to pull rice noodles by car every New Year to give financial aid to poor families to help them spend the New Year.

Their family education is very good, among which, don't forget that your family is not good.

You can give an example to illustrate how strict the family education of the Qiao family is.

There are many large families in Shanxi that have stage rooms, but the Qiao family doesn't, for fear that future generations will be discouraged from playing with things.

There is also a rule in the jstars that middle-aged women are used instead of young maids to avoid indecent things happening to young male owners. "

The reason why Qiao Zhiyong has abundant capital to realize the ideal that his bank can meet the needs of the whole world lies in that he carried forward Qiao's business of renaming in Baotou from the very beginning, and renaming also became the starting point of Qiao Zhiyong's prosperity.

According to Wu Dian's theory, when Qiao Zhiyong was the boss, Fuzihao was already the largest firm in Baotou, which almost monopolized the whole Baotou market.

"There is a saying that there is Baotou City first.

At that time, after two generations of operation, the Qiao family had a business of 1 1 in Baotou, and there were several shops in the customs, with a total of 17.

Guangfu font has three large sizes, more than a dozen stores and hundreds of guys. "Zhu Xiuhai said.

Baotou was a newly developed area at that time, where farming culture and nomadic culture met. Except for horses, many things are scarce.

Qiao Zhiyong, based in Baotou, extended its commercial reach to Mongolia, followed by Beijing and Tianjin.

Qiao Zhiyong is also very picky about the situation.

At that time, Qiao's family paid millions of taels of silver for the Western Expedition, but there were certain conditions, that is, after the army arrived in Xinjiang, Qiao's family could send a bank to follow the operational logistics, organize food and grass for the army, and be responsible for remitting the salary of the court.

Wu mentioned Qiao Zhiyong's smart investment in business contacts.

Eight-Nation Alliance captured Beijing in 1900, and Empress Dowager Cixi fled to Shanxi.

In August, gaoyu, the shopkeeper of jstars Dadetong, received a secret letter from Gui Chun, a cabinet bachelor who followed Cixi and Guangxu's Western Expedition.

Gui Chun wrote in the letter: "Luan Yu is scheduled to leave on the eighth day of August and go to Qixian County. I hereby hear that it is an inexhaustible plan. " After receiving the letter, Gao Yu immediately renovated the Dadetong of Qiao's family into a temporary palace for Cixi and Guangxu.

"After Empress Dowager Cixi fled to Shanxi, she was short of money. Shanxi officials called Shanxi firms in Taiyuan to discuss "borrowing money", so please understand the difficulties of the court. No one dares to agree.

At that time, Jia, the agent of Qiao's Dadefeng Bank, agreed to lend the court 65438+2 million yuan of silver. Wu Dian Lun holds that although he is a running agent, he has the right to make his own decisions.

The queen mother was very happy at that time.

Jia will tell Yan Da, the shopkeeper, that this character is also in the TV series.

Yan asked why you promised? Jia said that if the country dies, we will die, and if the country is still there, we can get the money back.

Yan Shizhan praised: "There must be a king in 500 years, but there is no Jia in a thousand years." "and" Empress Dowager Cixi's kindness to Shanxi merchants since then is paid by provincial governors, all of which are operated by Shanxi Bank; The other is to transfer boxer indemnity, together with interest, about 654.38 billion taels of silver to Shanxi Bank for operation.

Before 1906 Qiao Zhiyong died, the business of the jstars entered the most glorious period.

The theory of five stores may seem strange to ordinary people, because it was Eight-Nation Alliance that invaded China at that time, and the country was facing life and death, but the business of Shanxi Bank was very profitable.

That's because the imperial court and the Western Empress Dowager lifted the ban on Shanxi banks. In the past, banks were absolutely not allowed to exchange public funds, but the war made it impossible for the public funds from the south to reach the court, so the ban on private banks was lifted.

However, as soon as the national disaster was over, the court immediately banned it again.

After the Gengzi Incident, the state once again liberalized the exchange of private public funds, and Shanxi banks won a great victory.

"At that time, the dividend per share of Qiaojia Dadetong Bank was 850 Liang (1884) in Guangxu ten years, increased to 3040 Liang (1888) in Guangxu fourteen years, and reached 17000 Liang (1908) in Guangxu thirty-four years! According to the records of the archives of the Ministry of Finance at that time, by the thirty-second year of Guangxu (1906), one third of the silver of the Ministry of Finance was deposited in various banks in Shanxi.

All these proved the rapid development of Shanxi Bank after 1900, and the operation of Qiao Zhiyong reached its peak, which was also the beginning of the collapse of Shanxi Bank.

In the early days of the Revolution of 1911, most banks in Shanxi quickly closed down.

Only Dadetong and Dadefeng in Qixian, Sanjinyuan (the water master in the TV series) and Dashengchuan in Qujia are the banks with the longest operating time, among which Dadetong and Dadefeng in the Qiao family didn't close until 195 1 (the total number of Dadetong was originally in Qixian, Shanxi, and 1940 moved to Beijing and changed to one.

Finally, it ended its history at 195 1 and became the last Shanxi bank.

According to Wu Dian, Qiao Zhiyong's last great event in his life was to leave this jstars courtyard to future generations, in addition to revitalizing Baotou's compound name and popularizing the banks.

When Qiao Zhiyong was alive, the jstars never separated, and the family was under unified management. Everyone's annual expenses were clearly defined.

Zhu Xiuhai said that the Qiao Family Courtyard had only a tubular building built by Qiao Guifa at the earliest. Later, Qiao Zhiyong's father built a yard nearby, and Qiao Zhiyong himself was not interested in building a family house.

"He believes in the theory of Shaanxi businessman Ji Ran. Ji Ran said that the circulation of money should be like running water. The faster it flows, the wider the range of benefits it can bring to more people, including himself.

Qiao Zhiyong devoted all his profits to business all his life. He was not interested in buying a house or land.

However, Qiao Xiaying, the grandson who later took over the family business from him, is a very modern person. At that time, he was even more opposed to his grandfather's point of view, saying that you have been busy all your life, but you can't leave anything behind. "

"When I said this, it was the time when China was facing collapse and paid 450 million taels of silver abroad." Zhu Xiuhai said: "At that time, the biggest business of the Qiao family was that the tax revenue of the imperial court was exchanged through the Da Detong and Da Deheng of the Qiao family.

The second business was when the British controlled the Tianjin Customs in China. After directly withdrawing the indemnity, the remaining tax was collected by a bank like Qiao's.

During the accounting periods of 1904 and 1905, the dividend of Qiao's share was 17000 taels of silver, while the original share may only have 100 taels of silver.

In the TV series, the people in the jstars are all waiting for their old club to share the money, but their old club Qiao Zhiyong is very angry. He said, I don't know what business you do? You are in the business of helping foreigners get money from China people.

What do I need so much money for? The more money I earn, the more money China will be taken away by foreigners. "

With China dying, Qiao Zhiyong naturally knows the future of its business.

At that time, the population of large families also increased, and Qiao Zhiyong finally began to turn over old houses in his later years.

Jstars courtyard in Qiao Zhiyong's hands began to become a closed courtyard, specific affairs to the grandson Qiao Xiaying.

The Qiao Family Courtyard is not the largest among Shanxi merchants' houses, but it is the only state-level cultural relics protection unit in Shanxi merchants' houses, because it has never been demolished and has always preserved its original flavor.

The fifth store said, "The first yard on the right side of the door.

We are called Northeasters, and their home is an old courtyard, which has existed since the Qianlong Dynasty.

Later, his father repaired another one, and he later repaired two others himself.

Qiao Zhiyong lives in an era of social unrest. After the outbreak of the Yihetuan in Nian Army, he felt that he could not rely on the government, so he bought four yards-just at a crossroads in the city-to make them closed for permanent use.

Later, I found evidence that Qiao Zhiyong bought this corner. Later, I found this monument in Guan Gong Temple in Qiaojiabao Village, which recorded that Qiao Zhiyong bought these land property rights with 450 taels of silver. Zhu Xiuhai said that he later helped Shanxi businessmen redeem Yangquan coal mine in the hands of the British.

Due to the large amount of silver, a corner of the Qiao family courtyard was not built and became a so-called "garden".

Zhu Xiuhai said that the final preservation of the Qiao Family Courtyard is also directly related to Qiao Zhiyong's kindness.

At that time, Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China, and Shanxi Governor Yu Xian killed foreigners in Shanxi.

Seven Italian nuns escaped from Taiyuan, fled to Qixian, were protected by Qiao Zhiyong, hid in their own vaults, and were finally pulled to Hebei by a cart carrying firewood.

Later, Italy gave the Qiao family an Italian flag in recognition, which came in handy when Japan invaded China and went to Shanxi.

The Italian flag is hung at Joe's door. When the Japanese saw that it belonged to their allies, they didn't destroy Joe's family.

In contrast, other big houses in Shanxi were destroyed by the Japanese.

However, Qiao's family later felt that it was still unsafe here, and finally they all left the Qiao's compound.

In the early 1940s, the jstars came back for a while, but they finally left and never came back.

Zhu Xiuhai said that after liberation, the Qiao Family Courtyard became the Qixian County Government, and later became the People's Hospital and Grain Depot. Finally, because it was the Party School of Jinzhong Prefecture Committee, it passed the "Cultural Revolution" safely under the protection of the Qiao family.

"It is a great thing that the Qiao Family Courtyard can be completely preserved to this day."

1907, Qiao Zhiyong died at the age of 89.

From a Confucian scholar to a leader of Shanxi merchants, Qiao Zhiyong lived through five dynasties: Jiajing, Daoguang, Xianfeng, Tongzhi and Guangxu, and the legend of Shanxi merchants was concentrated in his life.

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