Also known as "Xin 'an Businessman", commonly known as "Hui Gang".
Huizhou merchants came into being in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, grew up in the Tang and Song Dynasties, flourished in the Ming Dynasty and declined in the late Qing Dynasty.
According to the Book of Jin, Huizhou people like "parting" and often go out to do business.
On the occasion of Qi and Liang Dynasties, Cao Lao, a native of Xiuning, often traveled between rivers and lakes and worked as a trafficker in Jia.
During the Tang and Song Dynasties, in addition to the distribution of bamboo, wood, porcelain clay and raw lacquer, the advent of commercial tea, inkstone, Hui ink, Tang paper and Wang Boli pen further promoted the development of Huizhou merchants.
In the Tang Dynasty, Qimen tea market was very prosperous.
In the Southern Tang Dynasty, Xiuning people took Zang Xun to Fujian.
By the Song Dynasty, emblem paper had been exported to Sichuan.
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. When Zhu Yuanzhang entered Anhui, he was short of salary, and Jiang Yuan paid him 65,438+2 million at a time.
During the Chenghua period, Huizhou merchants successively entered the field of salt industry, and the Shanxi-Shaanxi merchant group, which has always been mainly engaged in salt industry, was severely hit. Huizhou merchants took salt industry as the center and flew around in China business circles.
More than 300 years from the middle of the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty was the golden age for the development of Huizhou merchants, ranking first among all the merchants in the country in terms of business quantity, scope of activities, business sectors and capital scale.
At that time, commerce became the "first-class cause" of Huizhou people. Among adult men, business accounts for 70%, even higher at the peak.
The activities of Huizhou merchants spread all over urban and rural areas, from Huainan in the east to Yunnan, Guizhou and Guanlong in the west, Youxian and Liaodong in the north and Fujian and Guangdong in the south.
Huizhou merchants traveled as far as Japan, Siam, Southeast Asian countries and Portugal.
Huizhou merchants mainly engaged in salt, pawn, tea and wood, followed by rice, grain, cotton cloth, silk, paper, ink and porcelain.
There are many tea merchants in Wuyuan, salt merchants in Shexian, restaurants in Jixi, pawn shops in Xiuning, cloth groceries in Qimen and Yixian.
In addition to engaging in various commercial and trafficking industries, Huizhou merchants also run industries directly.
Zhu Jun, a businessman from Xiuning, mined iron ore in Fujian, and Ruan Bi, a businessman from Shexian, set up a paper printing and dyeing factory in Wuhu. They produce and sell it, which is a combination of industry and commerce.
Huizhou merchants are mainly engaged in wholesale and long-distance trafficking.
Wang Fuguang, a native of Xiuning, sells salt between Jianghuai and owns thousands of ships.
Some wealthy businessmen and tycoons have also appointed agents and deputies.
Huizhou merchants also used slaves to do business. Cheng Tinghao, a native of Xiuning, once traveled around Jia with dozens of slaves.
Huizhou merchants pay attention to talents in their management, so as to know people well, pay attention to market conditions and implement flexible management.
One industry is mainly engaged in other industries; There are commercial projects that change according to different market conditions and seasons.
Huizhou merchants pay attention to business ethics, and advocate treating people with sincerity, accepting things with trust, and giving consideration to justice and benefit.
Known for hard work, I worked outside, returned after three years, got married and left, and got used to it.
Huizhou merchants were literati, while Jia was good at Confucianism, confused with feudal bureaucrats, or entrusted each other.
In addition to "urgent public discussion", "donation" and "learning first", they also paid a lot of money to be protected by Cao Shouling and even eunuchs and emperors, enjoying the privilege of being an official.
Some Huizhou merchants themselves can't be among the bureaucratic industries, so they urge their children to go to the examiner and become officials and businessmen themselves.
In the late Qing Dynasty, the feudal rule declined, the tax payment became more and more serious, and the situation of Huizhou merchants became more and more difficult.
183 1 year, the governor of liangjiang was in charge of the salt affairs of the two provinces, and Tao Shu got rid of the accumulated disadvantages of Huai salt and changed it to the "ticket method". Huizhou merchants, who made their fortune with salt patents, began to decline, and the pawnshop industry was also reduced due to the left monopoly and the invasion of foreign banks.
Due to the influence of the Opium War and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, tea and wood merchants suffered losses year after year.
Especially with the invasion of imperialism, the infiltration of foreign capital and the dumping of foreign goods, most of the industries operated by Huizhou merchants were replaced by them.
At the same time, the chaebol in Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces, which are closely related to imperialism and warlord bureaucrats, began to rise. Huizhou merchants who only mastered traditional business knowledge and skills gradually lost their manipulation, monopoly and monopoly position in the commercial field and began to decline.
During the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, although some Huizhou merchants appeared, such as yi county salt merchant Li Zongmei and Shexian real estate developer Cheng, they could not save the decline of Huizhou merchants as a whole.