What caused its decline?

Dialectical materialism points out that everything has its process of occurrence, development and extinction. Huizhou merchants, as vassals of feudal forces in Ming and Qing Dynasties, are doomed to decline and collapse. However, the decline process of Huizhou merchants was not a straight decline, but a spiral ups and downs, and gradually withdrew from the historical stage. Specifically, the decline of Huizhou merchants can be divided into two stages: after the reform of Tao Shu's salt law in Qing Dynasty, the decline of salt merchants meant that Huizhou merchants were greatly weakened; After the decline of salt merchants, tea merchants revived during Tongzhi and Guangxu years. Since then, "the tea trade of Huizhou merchants, which was barely maintained in the early years of the Republic of China, completely lost its former prosperity and went into decline" [8]. With the decline of tea merchants, the whole Huizhou business gang began to decline and collapse. The fundamental reason for the decline of Huizhou merchants was that they were feudal business gangs, and they used their capital not for expanding reproduction, but for feudal activities, which also determined that they could not maintain their original advantages after the capitalist forces invaded China in the middle and late Qing Dynasty. Specifically, the reasons for the decline of Huizhou merchants can be divided into subjective and objective aspects. (I) Analysis of the objective reasons for the decline of Huizhou merchants Objectively, the reasons for the decline of Huizhou merchants can be summarized as follows: First, the changes in feudal regime policies have dealt a blow to Huizhou merchants, especially their pillar salt merchants. As a traditional "dying" industry, commerce has always been one of the key exploitation objects in past dynasties, and the Qing Dynasty is no exception. The purpose of opening the DPRK is to show virtue and avoid subsidies from various provinces. However, the social hole caused by the war at that time was difficult to heal. In addition to wise rulers, the rest of the subsidies should come from other taxes. The decline of Huizhou merchants began with the decline of salt merchants. The main reason for the decline of Huizhou salt merchants is the direct influence of government policies. One of its concrete manifestations is the salt law reform carried out by Tao Shu, which abolished the monopoly of Huizhou merchants on salt sales. According to the draft of the Qing Dynasty, "When the private interests of Huai and Huai increased, the salt affairs deteriorated", Daoguang Emperor appointed Tao Shu to reform the salt law. In the twelfth year of Daoguang, Tao Shu first planned to implement the ticket salt law with Huaibei, and later extended it to other regions. Although the ticket salt law has achieved the established purpose in a certain period of time, that is, reducing the sales of private salt, it is not a long-term policy, and the result was quickly confirmed. Soon, the trafficking of illicit salt increased. This not only made Huizhou salt merchants lose the hereditary patent right of salt trading, but also led to the breaking of the original monopoly system between officials and businessmen. Moreover, because the implementation of the law failed to adapt to local conditions, Huainan salt merchants were in trouble. Therefore, for three years of Tongzhi, Zeng Guofan was sparse. "Huainan salt affairs are difficult to pass, and there is a dilemma in organization. First, it has invaded neighboring salt for too long. Zhejiang, Guangdong and Fujian on the west coast are private, Sichuan on the Chu coast is private and Shandong is private. The land has been occupied for ten years, and the people use it to help them eat, and officials also use it to make profits. It is impossible to stop suddenly ... ". Not only salt merchants, but also businessmen in other industries suffered various policy changes in order to get rid of the crisis of the Qing court. Secondly, due to financial difficulties, the Qing government began to exploit businessmen relentlessly and endlessly. Since the prosperous time of Kanggan, the expenditure of the Qing court has been increasing day by day. Since then, the government has increased tax items, extorted money and squeezed businessmen. "During the Kangxi period, Huai merchants had three floating fees: one was Cheng Yi. When an incumbent or alternate official passes through Huaiyang, Beijing, he must ask for travel itinerary regardless of whether the official has contacts with Huaiyang or not. The second is etiquette. Local civil and military officials, whether related to salt affairs or not, should collect rules and etiquette from businessmen. Third, disrespect. First, every year when the empire expires, it is customary to collect money from businessmen. Later, it developed to the point that no matter how far away the place is, and whether there is friendship with businessmen or not, as long as they are dignitaries, they should demand respect from businessmen when they are in office. These three floating fees earn thousands of dollars every year. " As the national fiscal revenue, salt merchants bear the brunt. This is also a drawback of Zeng Guofan's salt management, that is, there are too many Li cards. "Huai salt is out of the river, from Yizheng to Chuxi, and tax returns are set up at all levels. The two armies depend on each other and cannot retreat. " Although Zeng Guofan and others successively revised the salt law to protect Huizhou merchants, the effect was not significant. Since then, the level of salt has been deteriorating and the price of salt has been rising. "At the beginning of the class, it covered Huaihe River, weaving, river engineering, copper and gold, and there were only more than 800,000, each attracting more than one or two pieces. Weaving, river workers, copper heavy, because the salt administration and transportation department is honest and clean, and there are many bad rules, 220 thousand silver is given every year, and the river workers donate 50 thousand. The change of San Francisco, Yunnan copper barrier, sent salt to buy donations, water is 50 thousand. During the Yongzheng period, it was considered as a proper reward to reduce the cost of maintaining honesty, and the right of inheritance was restored to other projects. Therefore, the number of internal and external branches increases with the increase, and each citation increases to 672, which is lighter after ticket exchange. In Tongzhi, the introduction of land has not been restored, but there is no need to increase the introduction by making up classes. " Thus, the burden of salt merchants can be seen. In view of this, although Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang successively revised the salt law and mixed the outline law with the ticket law, aiming at giving priority to the old merchants and making it difficult for the new ones, they could not solve the root of the financial problems, and the salt merchants gradually declined. Tea merchants, second only to salt merchants, were also one of the key targets of exploitation in the Qing court. Besides, Huizhou has always been one of the important tea producing areas in China. According to the Qing History Draft, "Tea is similar to salt." But salt is a big income, so people in charge of the national economy are attached to salt and always have to check it. At the beginning, there was tax, except how much Jiangsu and Zhejiang customs collected, which was not fixed. Other provinces spend more than 1000 taels a year, but only a few hundred taels or dozens of taels. ..... Since Xianfeng, the provinces have made trips one after another. In the 12th year of Guangxu, Fujian reported a total of more than190,000, and other provinces gradually increased, but it was not enough. According to Xuan Tong's three-year budget, the tea tax is1300,000. In a few words, it tells the general evolution of tea tax in Qing Dynasty. With the intensification of the ruling crisis, the lijin in each province is also rising gradually, which is one of the important reasons why the competitiveness of Huizhou tea merchants is lower than that of foreign businessmen, and then declines. Thirdly, successive years of war made the Qing court tired of coping and had to increase taxes continuously; Huizhou also suffered heavy losses due to the war, which is also one of the blows to Huizhou merchants based in Huizhou. Since the middle of Qing Dynasty, imperialist forces have infiltrated into China, which has greatly changed the original political and economic structure of China. In addition, China has frequent domestic turmoil, with internal troubles and foreign invasion. Especially during the reign of Xianfeng and Tongzhi, the Qing court launched a civil war that lasted for 17 years and spread to 18 province in order to suppress the uprising of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Nian Army. The main activity areas of Huizhou merchants were involved in the war, and even Huizhou itself became the main battlefield, which was devastating to Huizhou merchants. The war directly caused casualties and property losses of Huizhou merchants. In addition, the "Xi 'an Boy Scout Army" blocked the first-line traffic of the Yangtze River, interrupted the Wu Chu trade operated by Huizhou merchants, and also brought the commercial activities of Huizhou merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces to a standstill. All this has greatly damaged the vitality of Huizhou merchants and finally restored their vitality. Finally, since the Opium War, imperialist countries invaded China and carried out economic aggression against China, and Huizhou merchants, led by tea merchants, suffered heavy losses. The dumping of goods and plundering of raw materials by imperialist countries in China is a great blow to any business group. As a feudal business group, the backward mode of production of Huizhou merchants made them gradually at a disadvantage in the competition. Although Huizhou tea merchants can abide by the objective laws of market economy, foreign businessmen use the Qing court to formulate policies that are unfavorable to Chinese business groups, such as lowering tea prices; Relying on half tax, "taking advantage of purchasing from tea-producing areas, the invading foreign capitalist forces took advantage of it and dealt a fatal blow to Chinese businessmen, including Huizhou tea merchants." Coupled with the impact of imported foreign tea, Huizhou tea merchants are struggling. The decline of Huizhou merchants marks the decline of the whole Huizhou merchants. As Mr. Zhang Haipeng said, "The rise and fall of Huizhou tea merchants in Qing Dynasty is the epitome of China traditional feudal merchants in modern society". Under the double oppression of foreign imperialism and domestic feudalism, Huizhou commercial gangs inevitably declined. (II) Analysis of the reasons for the decline of Huizhou merchants In addition to external factors, the decline of Huizhou merchants also has its own reasons, which is also the fundamental reason for its decline. Generally speaking, the decline of Huizhou merchants is that they are a feudal business gang, and whether they are closely related to the rulers' sects is directly related to their fate. In addition, the operating profit of Huizhou merchants has not been converted into capital for expanding reproduction, but used for non-operating consumption, mainly in two aspects. First, the luxury consumption of Huizhou merchants is huge. Huizhou merchants, represented by salt merchants, mostly used their savings from years of operation for luxury consumption. "In the Ming Dynasty, Huizhou merchants spent huge sums of money to build gardens, villas and houses in their hometowns. Orchard, Swallow Garden and Jujube Garden in Shexian County are all famous scenic spots. Huizhou merchants' houses are popular with fighting arch paintings and pursue grandeur. " After entering the Qing Dynasty, with the development of commodity economy, the strength of Huizhou merchants became stronger and stronger, and their profligacy became more and more fierce. According to records, salt merchants living in Yangzhou spared no expense to build gardens and villas, which led to the first garden in Yangzhou during the Qianlong period. On the one hand, they built Yangzhou and other places, on the other hand, they also reflected the general flow of their profligate funds. In addition to investing in the construction industry, Huizhou merchants also spend a lot of money on spiritual consumption, such as building theatrical troupes, collecting books, antiques and so on. In the Qing dynasty, taking over driving cost businessmen a lot of money. As Wang pointed out in "On Salt Law and Salt Affairs", "It is unprecedented for a husband to stay in China and prepare 100 million yuan with deep affection. ..... Cover the salt merchant's luck, so far; The disadvantages of salt merchants' luxury are also so deep. " Second, the rise of Huizhou merchants can not be separated from the support of Huizhou clan forces. Therefore, once it flourished, the clan thought passed down from generation to generation made Huizhou merchants always generous in feudal activities such as clan affairs construction. For the development of clan, Huizhou merchants spared no expense to repair ancestral halls, tombs, genealogy, self-study, examination halls and academies, and purchased clan property and fields. With the strong support of Huizhou merchants, Huizhou's cultural and educational undertakings developed rapidly, which also led to the rapid loss of Huizhou merchants' capital. In addition to spending on non-operating projects, the lack of close integration between Huizhou merchants and politics is also an important reason for its decline. As we all know, the prosperity of Huizhou merchants is due to their "Confucian and Jia" business model and the main means of close integration with feudal regime. Its decline is also due to its attitude towards the Qing court. In order to get the so-called "fame", Huizhou's donation is popular. Moreover, in order to increase income, the rulers tried to persuade businessmen to donate subsidies. Huizhou merchants voluntarily and forcibly donated a lot of wealth to the government, which also brought them a lot of burdens. In addition, the combination of Huizhou merchants and political power in the late Qing Dynasty was no longer close, which made the original trinity status of landlords, merchants and bureaucrats unable to be maintained, which directly led to their decline. To sum up, under the influence of subjective and objective reasons, Huizhou commercial gangs began to decline in the middle and late Qing Dynasty. The decline of salt merchants is the first stage of the decline of Huizhou merchants, while the decline of tea merchants shows that Huizhou merchants have lost the power to support the endgame after the decline of salt merchants, and the whole Huizhou merchants have gone through the second stage of decline. At the same time, other industries of Huizhou merchants, such as pawn, timber, silk, rice and department stores, declined one after another and gradually lost their position and role in the past economic life. The decline of Huizhou merchants marks the complete decline of Huizhou merchants. However, despite the disintegration of Huizhou merchants, some of them still followed the pace of the times to develop commercial capital and improve their management methods, so they were still active in the big cities in the south of the Yangtze River in the early years of the Republic of China and even before liberation. It can be seen that "after the decline of the feudal emblem gang, Huizhou merchants are still a force to be reckoned with in local economic life, and some of them have become members of the national bourgeoisie"