1922 Ren Li industrial co., ltd was formally established in Beijing, and then a woolen mill was established in Tianjin, and the general management moved to Tianjin. In the 27 years before liberation, I went through all kinds of hardships, but I still couldn't control my own destiny. Only after liberation did Ren Li Company and its subordinate factories start a new life and make contributions. 1956 65438+1October12 * * Chairman inspected Ren Li Wool Textile Factory, which gave great encouragement to all employees in the factory.

Ren Li Company was founded by some European and American students, mainly students studying in the United States. Such as Zhou, Fei Xingren, Joe Chu and Ling. These people have certain national concepts and patriotic ideas, and have more contacts with American and British business circles, which is related to the fact that export trade will become the company's main business in the future; American tourists and businessmen are the company's main customers, and exporting carpets is the starting point for the company to accumulate capital and get rich. At first, all books and records were in English, and even managers and senior staff often talked in English. Recruit a group of apprentices, and the company will send them to the YMCA night school to learn English.

In order to get direct business contact with foreign importers and find a long-term way out for carpets and handicrafts, Joe Chu went abroad with a considerable number of jade antiques, handicrafts and a large number of carpet patterns from Shanghai on June 1928. In fact, a group of guests from ITC are on business, from Shanghai to Japan, then back to Shanghai, passing through Hong Kong, Singapore and Ceylon, and crossing the Mediterranean to France, Britain and the Netherlands. In London, I sold a batch of jade antiques to the jewelry department of a noble "Freedom Department Store" and did business with Gutway Company, which deals in carpets. It was a smooth start and exciting, so Joe Chu left England for the United States with good expectations.

For Joe Chu, this is his second visit to the United States, but this experience is annoying. The ship arrived in new york on New Year's Day (1929). At first, I thought I could go ashore and have a pleasant holiday. Unexpectedly, immigration officials asked some insulting questions (such as "What are your wife's feet?" ), national dignity and personal dignity are not allowed to answer this question, so Joe Chu protested. Unreasonable immigration officials were surprised by the yellow race's protest and threatened Zhu Jisheng to send him to Alice Island where "unqualified passengers" were held. This unreasonable discrimination and spite is a sharp satire on the Statue of Liberty in new york Harbour. At the same time, it also educated China businessmen that they must make their country rich and strong. But after all, he also established new and strengthened old long-term business relations in the United States. 1autumn of 929, Zhu Jisheng returned to China. The cost of his traveling around the world is paid from the profits of his selling jade antiques and handicrafts, and there is still a surplus.

Carpet is a new commodity in international trade, and its export is profitable. On the one hand, Ren Li uses her own carpet factory to produce carpets, on the other hand, she also entrusts other factories to process and manufacture them. But in this industry, we meet the most direct competition from American businessmen. In Tianjin alone, there are as many as five American businessmen engaged in carpet export. They are: Hai Jing, Hai Rui, Mei Xing, Mei Gu Shen and Nike. Haijing, Meigushen and Nike are not only importers and exporters, but also set up their own woolen mills, spinning wool yarn with machines, and then hiring workers to weave carpets by hand for export. By virtue of unequal treaty privileges, they plundered cheap raw materials, exploited cheap labor and made high profits in China. The wool yarn used in the carpets produced by Ren Li Company is not machine-spun, but is spun by the old hand-spinning wheel, and the quality is not as good as that of machine-spun, which puts Ren Li Company in an extremely unfavorable competitive position. Tianjin is like this, and Beijing is no exception. There are two American carpet manufacturers competing in Tongren, Beijing: FedEx and Shumeike. Fred used to be a PE teacher in Beijing Normal University, and Shu was a PE teacher in Tsinghua University. They are all in semi-colonial China, enjoying superior treatment. Coincidentally, both of them are not only PE teachers, but also their wives especially appreciate China carpets and are good at economic calculation. These two American couples, from reselling carpets for their own use when they returned to China for vacation, to purchasing on behalf of customers, developed to set up factories specializing in weaving carpets (Yanjing Carpet Factory and Yongnian Carpet Factory were established in the name of their comprador Li Lixuan and Zhang Kanghou in China). These two "shopkeepers" pay attention to the pattern and color matching of carpets and display carpets and furniture in their private houses (enjoying the privilege of foreign businessmen paying local business losses tax-free). This price is more than 20% higher than the retail price in Ren Li, and it still attracts many foreign customers.

Faced with the economic impact of American businessmen, Ren Li Company had to buy woven wool yarn to weave carpets from wool factories such as Meigu God and Nike. They attacked Ren Li by despicable means of raising the price of wool yarn and delaying delivery. Of course, Ren Li also has a way to deal with them, that is, to take advantage of the contradictions between several foreign wool mills and practise fraud. Ren Li never succumbed to the oppression of American businessmen. Ren Li Company later established a woolen mill in Tianjin, which is the real reason.

The old China Tianjin Ren Li Industrial Co., Ltd. suffered huge losses from American businessmen, which made us realize a profound lesson: China's national industry and commerce should master its own destiny, and only by constantly pioneering and innovating can the country become rich and strong and overcome the oppression of foreign capital in the competition of international trade.