At that time, train hard seats and hemp bags almost became props for "profiteering". It is said that before Wenzhou Metersbonwe, Bang Wei and Bang Wei became a big brand for 2 million yuan, he was still curled up under the hard seat of the train with a linen bag and cloth. And Lin Wenhe is also carrying products in big bags, squeezing around on the train. These reselling behaviors were named "speculation" at that time.
1986, affected by price control, the output of color TV sets dropped significantly. 1988, the state allowed all localities to float by 20%, which attracted the attention of Wen Lin and these "profiteers". But a year later, in order to stop the "black market trading", the state once again controlled the circulation system and prices, which led to the simultaneous contraction of "production and demand". In the 1980s, "official defection" was the main manifestation of corruption, and the main reason was the double-track pricing system. The "official defection" is mainly through "going through the back door" and "approving the notes", taking advantage of the price difference to take bribes, speculate and cheat, and buy and sell. So "beating officials" became the slogan of 1989. At the beginning, in order to eradicate the "official collapse", the central government decided to merge prices, and there was no difference after the merger. It was just that the conditions for price reform were not actually available at that time, and the rush to buy at that time eventually led to serious inflation.
Later, with the disappearance of the price dual-track system, the word "profiteering" gradually disappeared from people's lives. 1In March, 997, the crime of "speculation and profiteering" was abolished in the criminal law. Only the "Provisional Regulations on Administrative Punishment of Speculation" has not been abolished. It has been provisional for more than 20 years, and occasionally it will sneak out like a ghost to let people learn the meaning of "speculation" again. After being hit at home, "profiteers" quickly turned their eyes to foreign countries. "If you go to Russia to do business, you can earn a Mercedes in a week." In the 1990s, this highly inflammatory remark was widely spread in China. As an "international profiteer", in fact, in places bordering Russia, such as Heilongjiang, Sino-Russian border trade has been quite prosperous as early as the1980s, and many villages have made huge profits in Russia, going back and forth, going back and forth. The locals still remember the "grand occasion" of "one car watermelon for one jar".
It was also at this time that Xiushui Street, known as the "warehouse after international defection", gradually became an important channel for China and Eastern Europe to understand each other. At that time, Beijingers had witnessed the buying spree of Russian businessmen sweeping Xiushui Street, so some timid people tried to rush to Russia.
For more than 20 years, Beijing has unconsciously opened the road to foreign business through the folk trade in this small street. Those "second-hand dealers" who seize the opportunity and break through the old economic system are all honored as "Ye" in Wang Shuo's works, and are familiar to the world as a title with the characteristics of China times.
The railway from Beijing to Moscow via Manzhouli is more than 9,000 kilometers long. International trains run once a week for six days and six nights. This kind of international train is the main means of transportation for those international "profiteers". In the eyes of profiteers, this road is as familiar as the country road home.
As soon as the train entered Russia, at every stop, "profiteers" flocked in leather jackets and down jackets, and the platform was already crowded with Russians waiting to snap up. These "profiteers" made a lot of money, and these legends were passed down from mouth to mouth by "profiteers" after returning to China, which was very inflammatory. For a time, the Sino-Russian border has set off the climax of border trade among the whole people. From the initial "profiteering" in Heilongjiang and Beijing, it has developed to "profiteering" in Fujian and Zhejiang. However, only these international "profiteers" know the hardships.
The route of non-governmental trade between China and Russia was opened by them with sweat and even blood, during which the story was thrilling and the parties' mood of looking back on the past was extremely complicated. Almost all the people who walked up and down the road of profiteering were robbed, and some people lost their lives.
In Astai, China's largest Russian goods market, the rent is extremely high despite its simple appearance. The annual rent and various "welfare" and "protection fees" of the shops built on top of two waste bins total about 500,000 RMB. However, compared with the profit of business, these "small money sent to Russians" are no longer included in the calculation of "profiteers".
Business is bigger and money is earned. The hard part is to bring the money back to China. It has become an important task for Russian customs to check the dollars carried by every China businessman. Because the train was the only channel at that time, "profiteers" could only take thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars home.
As a result, every time I went in and out of Russia, it turned into a carnival-like catharsis. As soon as the train enters Russia, all the diners are "profiteers" from China, because every station in Russia will be out of stock. As soon as the train left the Russian border and entered China, the profiteers all breathed a sigh of relief. "It's good to be home!" It is the actions of these "profiteers" that make this monolithic circulation system loose until it collapses. Following in their footsteps, under the joint action of private enterprises and international "profiteers", the foreign trade system that was originally unique to the country was opened. With the development of trade, the former "profiteers" have also become today's China businessmen.
The evolutionary history of Sino-Russian trade may be the best footnote for the role of international "profiteering". The drastic changes in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe have greatly complemented the economies of China and Russia. On the one hand, Russia urgently needs Russian goods with good quality and low price; on the other hand, China needs Russian raw materials and industrial products. Increasing bilateral trade conforms to the common interests of China and Russia. In the early 1990s, Russia's economy was depressed and there was a serious shortage of daily necessities. However, China's light industrial products had obvious competitive advantages, and a large number of China goods began to enter the Russian market. Wenzhou businessmen who entered Russia miss that era very much.
Data show that the trade volume between China and Russia in 2000 was 8 billion US dollars, while the highest trade volume in the former Soviet Union was only 4.6 billion US dollars. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the trade peak of 1993 was $7.28 billion. In 2000, China exported US$ 2.23 billion to Russia, including US$ 654.38 billion for clothing and US$ 320 million for footwear, accounting for 60% of the total.
Exports amounted to $2.23 billion, including private exports 1 billion. In 2000, almost half of China's exports to Russia were completed by Russian private enterprises and self-employed. Obviously, China's individual businessmen in Russia, that is, those international "profiteers", have made great contributions.
International "profiteering" once flourished in Zhejiang. In Jiaxing, Wenzhou, Zhejiang and other places where investment in Russia is relatively intensive, relevant persons from local foreign trade and economic management departments said that they did not fully grasp the actual situation of local investment in Russia, because many investments went out without approval.
Only in those early days, "profiteers" were mixed, and some people brought inferior products to Russia, such as "down jackets" with glass in cotton wool. Many unscrupulous traders even glued wool to artificial leather and filled down jackets with black heart cotton.
China's shoddy, disorderly price, fake and shoddy, seriously damaged the reputation of China's goods. Lin Wenhe witnessed the great contrast between the situation of Russian goods in China in those years. At one time, "some Moscow shops simply put up signs at the door: We don't sell pirated goods and China goods." Lin Wenhe said.
This also directly led to the decline in trade volume. The data of Heilongjiang Statistical Yearbook also confirmed that Sino-Russian border trade began to decline after reaching the peak of 1993. The Russian proportion in China's foreign trade began to decline in 2000, and in 2003 it was only 1.9%, only half of the 3.7% of 1.990.
The local system has also affected the living environment of these international profiteers to some extent. On April 1 2007, the Russian law prohibiting foreigners from engaging in retail business in the market came into effect. Since the promulgation of this regulation from June 5438 to February 2006, every weekend, there will be scenes of Chinese businessmen selling goods in major markets. Most of these customers come from neighboring cities. They rushed to buy China goods at low prices, while some Russian businessmen bought and hoarded them in large quantities, hoping to sell them at a good price after China people left. Prior to this, savvy Wenzhou businessman Zheng Xiukang and others invested 2 billion yuan to build an economic cooperation zone in Russia, and the finished products originally exported to Russia were transported to the local area for processing as semi-finished products, turning China manufacturing into Russian manufacturing. In this way, the lock-up order is invalid for his products.