Huizhou merchants, also known as Xin 'an merchants, became "Hui Gang", which was the general name of merchants and merchant groups in the old Huizhou prefecture (Shexian, Xiuning, Wuyuan, Qimen, yi county and Jixi). Hui nationality has a long history of doing business. As early as the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there was a record of Xin 'an merchants' activities, which developed in later generations, and a business gang group was formed during the Ming Chenghua and Hongzhi years. From the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the business of Huizhou merchants reached its peak. From the Qing Daoguang and Xianfeng periods to the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, Huizhou merchants gradually declined. 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. Its huge commercial capital, such as the large number of merchants, the wide range of activities, the large number of merchants and the strong management ability, is unmatched by other commercial groups, and has dominated the commercial circles in China for hundreds of years. Huizhou, known as "Southeast Zou Lu", is a native of Sri Lanka. An obvious feature is "Jia Haoru" and "Jia Haoru". The essence of Huizhou merchants is Confucian merchants. The study of Huizhou merchants is a topic that is not worthy of attention in the study of Huizhou culture, and has always been concerned by scholars at home and abroad.
As an important business gang, Huizhou merchants are second to none in the business world because of their huge commercial capital, wide range of activities, strong management ability and many employees. Huizhou merchants not only made their career brilliant in China for more than 300 years with their excellent practice, but also became a great miracle in the history of feudal social and economic development in China.
Hui people have a long history of doing business for the following reasons:
1, the ever-increasing population and the objective environmental pressure of less mountains and land, as a village woman in Weizhou said in Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty: "Our county is in the valley, that is, it is rich and has no land, and there is nothing to do." ;
2. Rich products and convenient waterway transportation stimulate Huizhou people to do business;
3. The internal driving force of the Hui people's spirit of change and the external opportunity for China's economic center of gravity to move south at that time. Third, the most important and essential thing is the thinking and reform spirit of Hui people. Just because they dare to fight "emphasizing agriculture and restraining business"? Quot Breaking through the secular prejudice, many Huizhou people have become Huizhou merchants, and it is this change that has produced the prosperity of Huizhou merchants.
Of course, the reason why Huizhou merchants can dominate the business circles for hundreds of years and become one of the top ten business gangs in China is inseparable from their essential characteristics of being good at Confucianism.
The good Confucianism of Huizhou merchants is first manifested in the worship of Confucianism and the emphasis on Confucianism. For example, Xidi Village, an ancient residential village in Yixian County, has such a couplet: "Good study, good business and good grades are good; It is difficult to start a business, but make progress despite difficulties. This shows that Huizhou attaches importance to Confucian businessmen. Huizhou merchants' kindness to Confucianism is also reflected in their practical actions, that is, many businessmen abandoned Jia Yeru or Jia as officials after they became rich, and many Huizhou merchants even chose a road of donating money to buy officials.
So, what are the reasons why Huizhou merchants are good at Confucianism?
1. The area where Huizhou merchants are located is a region with profound cultural accumulation;
In order to achieve social status commensurate with economic status, we need to wrap ourselves in Confucianism.
Huizhou merchants are rooted in the heavy cultural soil of Xin 'an. As a business gang with high overall cultural quality, most of them consciously use Confucianism to regulate their business activities, pay attention to the way of righteousness and benefit, pay attention to integrity and business ethics, and are not deceitful and dishonest. They are good at grasping business opportunities, weighing avenues and being superior in business competition. Most of them attach importance to cultural construction, donate money to promote learning, engrave books and collect books, edit local chronicles, invite lectures, train their children to study and be officials, and seek to improve their political status. At the same time, they also promoted the prosperity of localism and trained a large number of outstanding talents in the country. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Huizhou merchants have created brilliant achievements-commercial prosperity and cultural achievements with their pioneering spirit, and at the same time formed the spirit of Confucian merchants and established the image of a generation of Confucian merchants.
For the economic development of China, the rise and fall of Huizhou merchants has become a thing of the past. However, as a historical and cultural phenomenon, "Confucian businessmen" is still worth summarizing and recalling. This still has important enlightenment and reference significance for us to develop socialist market economy and build socialist modernization with China characteristics today.
At the turn of the century, establishing and perfecting the socialist market economy is conducive to accelerating the pace of modernization. Market economy is essentially a legal economy, and its foundation is economic freedom, economic fairness and equal competition. Our socialist market economy has just emerged from the planned economy, and there is no ready-made model to imitate. However, the feudal tradition of ruling by man for more than two thousand years has caused people's legal concept to be generally low, and some merchants with low quality have taken improper ways to make money driven by interests. In recent years, counterfeiting, fraud and illegal profit-making often appear. In this regard, on the one hand, it is necessary to strengthen the construction of legal system, on the other hand, it is extremely important to strengthen moral education and attach importance to the construction of commercial civilization. The Confucian merchant spirit forged by Huizhou merchants in history regards the practice of Confucian ethics as the conscious pursuit of business rationality and pays attention to the establishment of its own image, which is instructive to today's businessmen.
Shanxi
Why do Shanxi people do more business? What led to the development of Shanxi's commercial capital? There are many versions of social legends and written accounts:
First, in the Tang Dynasty, Li Yuan and Li Shimin went to Taiyuan, and many of their friends and partners took part in the uprising in Taiyuan and the struggle to establish a unified country. After the Lee father and son seized power, these friends also became officials. Later, some people were frustrated in the officialdom and embarked on the Silk Road. "At that time, Suzhou and Hangzhou silks and satins had not yet developed. Most of the silk sold to Central Asia comes from Shangdang Lu 'an area in Shanxi, as well as Lushan in Henan and wei county in Shandong, among which Lu silk is the most. "
However, if politicians are frustrated with officialdom and run enterprises, will it be the reason why Shanxi people do more business? There are far more businessmen than politicians. From the politicians in Shanxi in the early Tang Dynasty, there is no causal relationship with Shanxi merchants, and there is no historical data to prove it. On the contrary, there are some examples of businessmen's capital development, and their children enter school and embark on their careers, so I won't go into details.
Second, Li Zicheng's legacy in the late Ming Dynasty was the original capital of Shanxi merchants. Juxian Wei said in the book History of Shanxi Banks: "When Li Zicheng went to Beijing, more than 800 Ming civil servants competed for gold and silver, and Li Zicheng was defeated by Shanhaiguan. The silverware stolen from the palace was melted into cakes, each weighing about 2,000 yuan, and mules took tens of thousands of cakes. When the Qing soldiers entered Dingzhou, Li Zicheng was defeated ... When they passed Shanxi Avenue, ... they walked along Nanshan to Sun Jiahe, 20 miles south of Qixian County, and still abandoned some cash. Now Sun Zhi, the shareholder of Qixian Chuanyuanfeng Jiuhang, is from Sun Jiahe, and his ancestors once picked up Li Zicheng's abandoned gold. " According to Juxian Wei's investigation, the tombstone of Sun Gaoshan, Sun Zhi's great-great grandfather, reads: "His family's wealth has decreased, but he has no rich property ... but he went to Kanto to run an industry and gradually accumulated millions of gold." Sun Gaoshan lived from 1676 (15th year of Kangxi) to 1758 (23rd year of Qianlong), so Gao Shan's father or grandfather must be well-off. Panjia, Wanrong County, Shanxi Province, was also a famous industrial and commercial household in the Qing Dynasty. According to folklore, "the reason why Panjia made a fortune was that some raw gold was found in Lingqingshan outside the east gate of Laihe Old Town." According to the Records of Ronghe County, "In the late Ming Dynasty, a part of Li Zicheng crossed the river from Ronghe City to the west", and the commercial capital of Panjia came from the legacy of Li Zicheng. China Economic Encyclopedia said that Li Zicheng's army passed through Shanxi and stored the gold brought from Beijing in Kang's yard. Later, the Kang family picked up 800,000 gold and became the source of big banks. When Li Zicheng was defeated, there was no evidence. Even if there is a legacy, it is not the source of Shanxi merchants and commercial capital. Because Shanxi merchants and commercial capital had developed considerably in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, there was no Li Zicheng Uprising at this time. What is the reason? Moreover, people who have the opportunity to receive the inheritance money are individuals and can become Shanxi people.
The original capital of merchant capital? I'm afraid it's all postscript.
The third is the view of Mr. Fu Yiling, a famous expert in economic history. In his book Merchants and Commercial Capital in Ming and Qing Dynasties, he said: "The development of commercial capital in the mainland, such as businessmen in Shanxi, is based on the rich local resources in pampered agricultural areas, and gradually formed a huge local businessman from agricultural savings." There are many areas in the country with better agricultural conditions than Shanxi, and their agricultural accumulation is naturally more than Shanxi, but there is no merchant power like Shanxi merchants.
The fourth view is that salt monopoly is the main source of financial revenue in all previous dynasties, and Yuncheng Yanchi is the main reason why Shanxi merchants made a fortune. Luchang salt and Huaiyin salt are much superior to Yuncheng bittern in quantity, quality and sales. Why didn't the famous merchant power appear there? On the contrary, Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants monopolized the Huai salt trade?
The fifth view is that Pingyang, Anyi and Jinyang in Shanxi have established their capitals several times, which is the political center and economic center of the whole country, which is the reason why Shanxi people do more business. In fact, all this happened five generations ago. After the Song Dynasty, Shanxi did not have a capital, but the development of Shanxi merchants was after the Song Dynasty, especially in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. How do you explain this?
Others say that Shanxi people are poor in ambition, greedy for small profits and good at saving. I'm afraid this is even more untenable.