At the age of 20, Tang Yue Bao Zhidao worked as a salt industry assistant in Yangzhou. Later, he made huge profits by earning money independently and became the general manager of Lianghuai Salt Industry. At first, the poor package, doing business in Tianlu, valued money over righteousness. "When Wen arrived, people from all directions scrambled to grab their goods, so the scholars were able to store their wealth, pay attention to the losses of their ancestors and redeem their land. "

Bao, whose real name is Tangyang. His family was poor and was trapped in a guest house. He was employed by his master, but he didn't go to the hotel. He left a bag of gold at the door. When he saw it, he told his master that he had entertained the guests and returned them. The guest took the money, but the official didn't. At the end of the year, I took my son home and an old friend made atonement for my father. The courtiers ended up with gold and silver, and there was a strong wind in Dongting. The courtier sighed: "I died with you, and this life is also; I hate being entrusted by others, but I can't finish it, so that my relatives are still guilty. What can I do? " Always rowing with me safely.

There is a telling record in Random Thoughts Tan, which reads: The merchant Bao paid the owner money to return one day, and the owner thanked him and rewarded him with money, but he didn't accept it. Therefore, the master valued him more and praised him everywhere. "After that, more and more people paid, or lent money to Mr. Yu, thinning his son's money. Mr. Yu gets the goods and sells them everywhere. When Mr. Wen arrived, people all over the world were vying for their goods. "

Bao, a native of Shexian County, lost his mother at the age of five, and his father soon after he became rich. He was poor and helpless. He went to Poyang on foot to do business, but he was exhausted in a hotel and had to earn money for the hotel owner. One day, a guest stayed in the shop and left before dawn. As a result, he left his wallet by the door. He got up early and went to the toilet to pick it up, but instead of hiding the money, he told the shopkeeper to wait for the guest to find it and return it to him. Sure enough, soon after, the lost passenger was found and the bag was returned in full, without thanks. The shopkeeper valued the bag very much, and the locals had heard of his name, so he borrowed money to do business, and he started a business.

Natural justice is the highest concept of Confucianism in the Ming Dynasty, and Huizhou merchants "follow the Tao and keep the ceremony" in order to conform to natural justice. Businessmen make a living by selling everywhere, speak out bravely, be kind to others, and be frugal with themselves. He said: "It is against heaven to waste borrowed things, and it is against heaven to save them."

Huizhou merchants' pursuit of elegance can also be verified by gathering ancient treasures. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, especially in the early Qing dynasty, rulers strengthened ideological control to consolidate their rule, and scholars hid in piles of old papers and cultural relics to study history to avoid its harm, which led to the trend of retro thinking. "Han literati are dissatisfied with the cultural policy of the Qing government, maintaining the existing cultural background and resisting ethnic oppression and bullying. At the same time, out of reflection on the collapse of the Ming regime, many people believe that the curse lies in the rebellion against traditional culture in the late Ming Dynasty. In view of this, the Qing people had an obvious psychological situation of returning to tradition, which was integrated with the environment of the whole era at that time, leading to a lasting and in-depth retro trend in the Qing Dynasty, and the cultural atmosphere suddenly changed from the late Ming Dynasty to the old. " As a result, from the beginning of archaeology in the Song Dynasty, through the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, to the Qing Dynasty, people have existed since ancient times and gathered in Tibet. "No matter which dynasty, which generation, no matter what style, simple, elegant and gorgeous, as long as it comes from the ancients, it is favored and worshipped by the Qing people."

In their spare time, Huizhou merchants read extensively, which improved their cultural knowledge and objectively enhanced their market management awareness and speculative ability.

For a long time, in people's minds, businessmen do not understand poetry and songs, but only know how to chase flies, which is vulgar. Huizhou merchants like reading and making friends, playing chess, painting and calligraphy, mastering temperament, talking about history and poetry, and pursuing a high-grade life, which is naturally impressive. Hui merchants Yu Guanghui, like learning and planning, I always sit in the book city. For a long time, his knowledge and demeanor are naturally extraordinary. He once wrote a book to his son, saying, "Learning requires self-cultivation and art is second. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, many Huizhou merchants wrote anthologies and poems, and liked to gather friends and write calligraphy and painting. " Shexian has lived in the mountains since the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties, and has been in the same place. The collection of ancient and modern books, calligraphy and painting is not as good as that in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. The custom is that all provinces do business, scholars send their books, and doctors are constant friends. Literature and art also have roots. "This is rare in the history of China businessmen. Huizhou merchants are good at Confucianism, advocating business ideas such as "paying equal attention to justice and benefit", "taking justice as benefit" and "honesty as the foundation", which is even more impressive.

Huizhou merchants were good at Confucianism, attached importance to education, and actively moved closer to the government, especially the children of Huizhou merchants entered the imperial examination, which expanded their influence in feudal officialdom and improved their social status. In addition, many bureaucrats have done business one after another, which has gradually integrated officials and businessmen. Among many Huizhou merchants, there are literati who are laughing and laughing, and there are also gentry who come and go. This also shows that the social status of businessmen has been greatly improved in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. At the same time, Huizhou merchants actively interacted with bureaucrats and scholars, which also expanded their influence in society. However, the integration of officials and merchants and the confluence of Confucianism and merchants promoted the feudalization of Huizhou merchants. Feudalism is the most fundamental reason for the decline of Huizhou merchants.

After doing business, many Huizhou merchants wrote books, defended businessmen, spread business ideas and management methods, and promoted the development and progress of business culture. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, merchants' books, such as Unified Travel Map by Huang Bian, Business Travel Survey by Ming Tao Chengqing, Travel Map in the World by Qi, Show Me My Week, and Travel Summary, appeared, which became the guide for merchants to travel and operate.

"Yong Zhengdi said ... and luxury goods are nothing more than businessmen. It is said that salt merchants in all provinces are empty and foreign affairs are extravagant. Clothes and houses are extremely poor; Tableware should be prepared for craftsmanship; Excellent music, continuous singing in the afternoon; Banquet and play tour, almost no virtual day; Money pearls are considered as sediments. Even being a slave, having food, clothing, housing and transportation is the same as being an official. You are more polite and guilty, don't know how to introspect, be arrogant and extravagant, and learn from each other. Salt merchants are everywhere, especially in Huaiyang. Huizhou merchants spent a lot of money on prostitutes' amusement, but objectively promoted the prosperity of brothel culture. Huizhou merchants are willing to spend money on prostitutes, and brothel operators use their arty psychology to cultivate a large number of geisha and teach them poetry etiquette, piano, chess, calligraphy and painting for the entertainment of Huizhou merchants. "Yangzhou brothel culture developed and prospered under the stimulation of Huizhou salt merchants." This also contributed to the extravagant wind in society. Among Huizhou merchants, "you are excellent at performing geisha and singing and dancing constantly; Banquet and play tour, almost no virtual day; Under the influence of the wind of life, rich children follow the crowd and live a luxurious life. A poem by Zhi Zhu in Yangzhou sings: "Whoever is young is good, and the shore is green and the water is flowing forever. I'm afraid I can't spend all my money, so I can fly a sedan chair to learn from salt merchants. "Huizhou merchants spend a lot of money on poetry banquets and ostentation and extravagance, especially the prostitutes of Huizhou merchants spend a lot of money and even go bankrupt. This undoubtedly consumed the operating capital of Huizhou merchants. It has affected business expansion and reproduction. This is the negative influence of Huizhou merchants' pursuit of luxury and leisure life. Of course, these businessmen are generally limited to a few wealthy businessmen. Generally, small and medium-sized businessmen can still adhere to thrift.

Doing business is a custom of Huizhou people, which is also witnessed in some local chronicles. Ming Wanli's Shexian Annals said: "There are many monks, but the soil is not heavy." The contemporary "Xiuning County Records" also recorded: "Generally, middle-earth cities do not give food, and most of them take Huo Zhi as their permanent production." The Records of Huizhou Prefecture by Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty also said: "The mountain of Huizhou is about five tenths, and the people are fresh in the fields, with Huo Zhi as their permanent property." Wang Shizhen, a great writer in the Ming Dynasty, put it more clearly: "Generally speaking, people are thirteen in the city, seventeen on earth, eleven years, and nineteen outside." Business has become a common practice.

Huizhou's long commercial tradition can be traced back to the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the third century. The Eastern Jin Dynasty established Jianye as its capital, which moved the political, economic and cultural center of the whole country to the south. A large number of aristocratic strongmen in the north also moved south with their clans and sects, and many of them learned Huizhou, a land not far from the capital Jianye. Immigrants from all directions also brought the customs and culture of more advanced areas, broke the original isolation of Vietnamese in mountainous areas, infiltrated the commercial economic consciousness in the primitive natural economy of relying on mountains and relying on agriculture, and gradually bred the custom of going out to do business. Moreover, the "Anshi Rebellion" in the Tang Dynasty disturbed the Central Plains, the national economic center shifted to the south, and the social economy in the south developed accordingly, providing a world for businessmen to display, and more Huizhou people were encouraged by the desire to get rich than before. Although Huizhou is short of food, it is rich in local products, which also provides sufficient supply for Huizhou people to do business.

Huizhou people choose local specialties as business objects according to local conditions. They tied the wood into rows, along the ever-flowing Xin' an River, through beach after beach, and went straight down to Zhejiang. "The more people go, the more they get." Tea and paint are also the highlights of business. As early as the Tang and Song Dynasties, Huizhou was famous far and wide: Lin 'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, had a large number of buildings and buildings, which needed a lot of bamboo and paint, and Huizhou merchants located nearby created favorable business opportunities. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, Huizhou was also rich in handicrafts such as pens, ink, paper and inkstones. Honesty paper, Wang Boli's pen and Weilong inkstone have become the "Four Treasures of the Study" that scholars all over the world compete for.

Another important factor in the formation of Huizhou's custom of "putting business first" is that business activities operate as a clan behavior. A traveler from Censhan, Shexian County, wrote in the book "Journey to Spring Sail": "Huizhou scholar-officials are mostly in the countryside, and villages live in groups, and their surnames are not mixed." This shows that those aristocratic families who moved in not only came from clans, but also flourished with the quiet living environment in Huizhou, and also formed a relatively closed clan space because Huizhou land was divided by mountains. Gradually forming the cohesion of clans is a force that cannot be ignored, and their business activities often rely on this force to carry out.

Huizhou merchants began in the Jin Dynasty, and from the Ming Dynasty, especially in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, they really formed a huge and distinctive local business group in individual capital.

During Chenghua and Hongzhi in Ming Dynasty, that is, in the middle of15th century, the commodity economy in southeast cities of China developed greatly and cities became increasingly prosperous. Nanjing, once the capital of the early Ming Dynasty, had a population of 240,000 at that time. Merchants from all directions gathered, goods piled up like mountains, and the streets were crowded. In order to promote the development of commercial economy, the Ming government also specially built many "collapsed houses" for merchants to store goods. Although Yongle Emperor Judy moved to Beijing, he still decided to make Nanjing the capital. At this time, there was no war in the south and the social situation was stable, which naturally promoted the economic development of the capital, which is located on the bank of the river and at the crossroads between the north and the south. As a result, dozens of years later, when the two emperors Chenghua and Hongzhi arrived at the next level, the capital of Nanjing presented the scene of "five parties gathered and all countries were educated", and businessmen from the north and the south competed to trade here.

Huizhou is adjacent to the Yangtze River Delta. Huizhou people, who have a long tradition of doing business, also follow the trend, conform to the times, join the big stage of this business and show their talents. Silk cotton cloth in Hangjiahu area, salt in Yangzhou Huaihe River, porcelain in Jingdezhen, bamboo and wood tea paint in Huizhou, cotton and soybeans in Four Treasures of the Study and North China, rice in Jiangxi and Hubei, and wood in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River. , are covered with "camel" and "hump", trading everywhere. In this circulation transaction, Huizhou merchants who are willing to endure hardships and have wisdom have made a lot of profits, and a number of hands have emerged rapidly.

The industries operated by Huizhou merchants can be described as all-encompassing. As long as it is profitable, it is almost out of stock. Especially in salt, economy, tea, wood and other industries. It is the most important industry operated by Huizhou merchants. Ming Wanli's Shexian Annals said that the industries operated by Huizhou merchants were "extremely large, so they were nothing more than the industry of salt pods between Jia Huaiyang". Salt merchants actually constitute the main body of Huizhou merchants group, which has a great influence on Huizhou social culture.

During Jiajing and Wanli years of Ming Dynasty, Huizhou merchants engaged in salt merchants in Yangzhou were mainly Huang, Wang and Wu, who owned hundreds of thousands or even millions of property. For example, the Huang family in Shexian County was born in the Huaibei saltworks there. In the Ming Dynasty, there were Huang Wubao, Huang Bao, Huang Zun, Shexian Huang and Huang Cunfang. , successful management, so that the Huang family won the reputation of "salt and salt".

As early as the end of Tang Dynasty and the beginning of Song Dynasty, Huizhou began to plant tea trees, and the transportation and marketing of tea became one of the main industries on which Huizhou merchants prospered. In the Song Dynasty, Huizhou people began to run the tea industry in all directions. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the sales of tea in Huizhou increased greatly, and tea trade became a "giant industry" second only to salt industry in the management of Huizhou merchants. At that time, many professional tea merchants "kept their jobs" among the Hui people. Xu Chengyao's predecessor went to Juyongguan to sell tea as early as the Ming Dynasty. Since then, Huizhou tea merchants have become increasingly active in the north. According to "Idle Tan", during the Qing Dynasty, Shexian people alone opened seven tea shops in Beijing, with a shop name of 166 and thousands of small tea shops. In Hankou, Jiujiang, Suzhou, Shanghai and other cities in the Yangtze River valley, there were also activities of Huizhou tea merchants, and then they spread all over Northeast China, Shandong, Henan and other places. According to the Records of Qing Wu Town in the Republic of China, all the tea shops in Wuqin Town, Zhejiang Province were opened by Huizhou merchants. Huizhou merchants manage tea industry, including tea brands, tea shops, tea houses and tea stacks.

The domestic tea business of Huizhou merchants is called teahouse. The tea export business of Huizhou merchants is called Yangzhuang. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, tea was an important export commodity in China, and Huizhou tea was one of the most purchased teas by foreign businessmen in Guangzhou. Huizhou tea merchants absorbed their suggestions and improved their tea-making technology in their contact with Guangzhou merchants, and Tunxi green tea, with Shexian and Xiuning tea as the main body, became a famous tea that sold well overseas.

According to experts' research, the timber business of Huizhou merchants "started in Song Dynasty at the latest". Especially in the Southern Song Dynasty, when the capital moved to Lin 'an, a lot of wood was needed to build a palace, and Huizhou was close at hand, which naturally brought Huizhou merchants the right time and place to manage wood. Therefore, in the Southern Song Dynasty, the timber business of Huizhou merchants was quite prosperous.

However, compared with other industries, doing wood business is a riskier business. Qing Qianlong wrote in Wuyuan County Records: "Woodmen used their capital and sent it to Yu Hongtao's huge waves." In the six counties of ancient Huizhou, the number of merchants engaged in wood industry should be led by Wuyuan, followed by Xiuning, Qimen and Shexian. Xu Chengyao said in Shuo Shi: "There are many wood merchants in Huizhou ... but they are all Wu people, only close to the northern countryside, and occasionally people who do business are not as prosperous as Wu." During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the timber business of Huizhou merchants became more and more prosperous, and there were more and more timber channels in various places. It is difficult to satisfy the timber resources in Huizhou mountainous area alone. The flexible Huizhou people turned their eyes to Jiangxi, Huguang and Sichuan to explore new sources of goods and expand timber trafficking activities.

The momentum of the Hui people's timber management is quite grand. At the entrance of Yuanjiang River flowing into Dongting Lake in Hunan Province, there is a Deshan Town, which is the only place where Chinese fir produced in the upper reaches of Yuanjiang River in western Hunan will be transported abroad. There are many exchanges between Huizhou merchants in the town, and thousands of Huizhou rafts have gathered here for many years. Hangzhou is also an important timber distribution center. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Huizhou wood merchants founded Huizhou Wood House, also known as Muxing, in the Huiguo Wengong Temple outside the Houchao Gate in Hangzhou. Huizhou Woodhouse was founded by Wujiang, a native of Wuyuan, and its son Jiang Laixi carried it forward. He bought sand in Jianggan, up to the city gate and down to Tao Qiu Palace, covering an area of more than 3,690 mu.

Pawnbroking is the oldest credit industry in China feudal society, and it is also the business of Huizhou merchants after salt industry. People call Huizhou merchants "Huizhou merchants", in fact, this is synonymous with Huizhou pawnshop owners. Tracing back to the source, Chaofeng was originally an ancient official position, which began to be set up in Qin and Han Dynasties and was defined as "from six products to seven products" in Song Dynasty.

At the end of Ming Dynasty, there were 500 pawn shops in Nanjing, most of which were run by Fujian and Huizhou. Fujian helps individual soldiers fight, and the profit is as high as three-quarters Pawnshops in Huizhou operate side by side, relying on abundant financial resources to lower interest rates, and the interest rate is only one point, at most three points. Therefore, people don't want to go to Fujian pawnshop, but are willing to go to Huizhou pawnshop. Fujian gangs are jealous and Huizhou people win. "

The prosperity of Huizhou pawn industry lies in their emphasis on improving management methods and attitudes. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, Wang, a native of Shexian County, managed the pawn business in Shanghai, so he changed the form of the stone-paving warehouse and opened the door on all sides, allowing the clan disciples to receive customers alone, which improved the management efficiency. He also strictly bound his disciples that the money lent must be heavy and the interest should be calculated fairly. When he takes back the money, he won't take it again.

The prosperity of Huizhou pawn industry also lies in its distinctive internal management characteristics, fine division of labor and strict system. According to the introduction of the old pawnbrokers in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were two or three "counter gentlemen" in Huizhou pawnshops, who sat in the hall to identify the goods pawned by customers and evaluate the prices; "Write a ticket" 2 people, specifically writing a pawn ticket; "Middle shift" 6 people, responsible for the packaging of goods; There are 2 people on the list and more than 0 students/kloc-0, sorted by ability. Students with serial numbers of 65,438+0-6 assist the housekeepers to take care of their business respectively, and students with serial numbers of 7 are responsible for running the package building, delivering the package and picking it up; There are also a number of "housekeepers", who are in charge of private rooms, money rooms, jewelry rooms and accounting rooms, each with its own responsibilities.

In addition to the four pillar industries of salt, tea, wood and yard, Huizhou merchants also engaged in many industries such as grain, cloth, silk, Four Treasures of the Study and book engraving.

The grain industry operated by Huizhou merchants originated earlier than tea industry and wood industry. Mainly selling foreign grain into Huizhou, the scale is not very large.

Huizhou grain merchants operate in various forms and pay attention to efficiency. They either set up warehouses in grain-producing areas to buy grain and then sell it to businessmen. Or look at the rich and embarrassed market and sell the market directly; Or sell the grain from land A to land B, and then transport the goods from land B to land A or other areas to increase profits through convection.

Many salt merchants also deal in grain trade. After unloading in Hankou, their salt ships often return with grain as return goods.

Cloth industry This is also an important industry operated by Huizhou merchants. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the processing and distribution of cotton cloth in China were mainly concentrated in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and Huizhou merchants were also active in these areas. Most of them buy and sell cotton cloth in their hands, or walk around the street and buy cotton cloth from farmers weavers sporadically; Or set up a dental shop or a cloth shop to control the market price. In the thirty-second year of Kangxi in Qing Dynasty, there were more than 30 Suzhou 8 1 Buzhuang numbers belonging to Huizhou Wang and Cheng, and Huizhou Zhu, Jin and Wu created cloth numbers, accounting for the majority. Hu Langfu and Wang Jinxian, who were the first to set up "Hu Rentai cloth number" and "Wang Yixing color cloth number" in the late Qing Dynasty, are representatives of Huizhou cloth merchants in Changzhou.

In those places where cotton is not produced, but the cotton textile industry is developed, Huizhou merchants set up tooth shops to exchange cotton for cotton cloth, which is called "flower cloth shop". For example, there are many Huizhou merchants engaged in such activities in Wuxi. They shipped the cloth they bought to the north and sold it, from which they made high profits. Therefore, they regard Wuxi as a good place to make profits, and call it "Cloth Wharf", which is in the same breath as the so-called "Hankou is a ship wharf and Zhenjiang is a silver wharf". The trafficking of cotton cloth has made Huizhou cloth merchants gain greater profits. It has created many Huizhou merchants with millions of assets.

Huizhou merchants also run many industries. For example, Four Treasures of the Study, since the creation of Huimo and She Yan in the late Tang Dynasty, Chengxintang paper and Wang Boli pen appeared in the southern Tang Dynasty and the northern Song Dynasty, which became the tribute of Four Treasures of the Study; During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Huimo and She Yan continued to develop, especially the ink industry. In the Ming Dynasty, there were four famous Mohists, namely, Mohist, Mohist and Mohist, and in the Qing Dynasty, there were four famous Mohists, namely, Mohist, Mohist and Mohist. Huizhou has become a well-known inkstone town and ink capital. Another example is Xin 'an engraving book industry, which jumped to the top of the national publishing industry from Wanli to Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty. They made bold innovations in engraving methods and techniques, edited and published a large number of series, printed a large number of illustrations in the book, and made the book beautiful and moving through four-color and five-color color printing, resulting in many bookstores and booksellers all over the country. There are also ceramics, catering, pharmaceutical, jewelry and so on. It can be described as various industries. Therefore, it can be said that the diversified operation of Huizhou merchants is one of the important factors that have dominated the business circles in China for hundreds of years.