Author | Ning Jingcheng
Ningbo Gang Yiyi Qianye Association
14 years ago, a TV series "Qiao Family Courtyard" telling the story of Qiao Zhiyong, a representative figure of Shanxi businessmen, abandoning his articles and finally making his business Huitong Tianxia landed on CCTV. Once the drama was released, a trend of recalling the "Shenzhen businessmen".
Friends who are familiar with Shanxi merchants know that Shanxi merchants started their business by selling salt in their early years. In the fourth year of Daoguang, that is, in 1824, the founder of Piaohao Lei Lutai founded the first Piaohao in my country's history, in Pingyao, Shanxi, and Shengchang.
It is precisely because of the advanced exchange business of ticket numbers and the semicolons spread across the country that Shanxi merchants were able to rule China's financial industry for 80 years.
But what is surprising is that in the early 20th century, under the impact of the modern banking industry, the modern bank that the Qing court was forced to organize and establish was nowhere to be seen from Shanxi merchants.
replaced it with Ningbo Shangbang , which was the leading financial industry in modern China.
China Commercial Bank
my country's first commercial bank was founded in 1897. It was led by the then Minister of Railway Affairs of Sheng Xuanhuai , and the three bigwigs of Ningbo Commercial Gang Ye Chengzhong, Yan Xinhou, and Zhu Baosan were involved in the establishment. It was also from that time that the Shanxi merchants' bills gradually withdrew from the stage of history, while the Ningbo merchants began to take charge of the modern Chinese financial industry.
Ningbo Business Gang is also known as Ningbo Merchant . When we mention it, we may be a little unfamiliar with it, but the founder of TVB, Run Run Shaw and the "Ship King" Bao Yugang are both from Ningbo. Compared with Shanxi merchants and Hui merchants shining in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the influence of the Ningbo gang is mainly reflected in modern times.
So, how did Ningbo merchants replace Shanxi merchants and gradually become the leader of China's financial industry in modern times?
01
is a rising star, making a fortune in Shanghai
Ningbo Mansion
Speaking of the history of the Ningbo Gang's fortune, it is inevitable that a city can't be avoided.
The history of the Ningbo Gang can be traced back to the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty, when Ningbo-born medicinal materials merchants first built the "Yinxian Guild Hall" in Beijing; in the second year of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty, that is, in 1797, Ningbo-born merchants traveling to Shanghai raised funds and set up Siming Office for the purpose of Ningbo merchants.
"Shanghai Siming Gongyuan's Origin" records: "The people who traveled to Shanghai from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty have been here for hundreds of years." , but when the Ningbo merchants were still exploring in Shanghai, Shanxi merchants and Hui merchants started their business with salt trading one after another:
Later, Shanxi merchants relied on the business of tickets to achieve their business to the point of connecting the world; and the representative figure of Hui merchants Hu Xueyan also became prosperous with Zuo Zongtang, and was in full swing for a while.
Ningbo Business Gang is relatively low in qualifications compared to these two "old seniors", and is still a junior, but Ningbo people believe in "to be successful, and to the three bays". Simply put, if people want to make a fortune, they have to go far and break into the world.
Ningbo
Ningbo
Ningbo is one of the five earliest trading ports in my country, and has been very active since ancient times. With the establishment of foreign companies such as the British Swire Foreign Company and the American Mobil turtle oil bank here one after another, the local atmosphere in Ningbo has also been opened.
The belief in venturing in the blood and the collision with foreign business philosophy, Ningbo Business Gang took the opportunity and began to welcome its own era.
is a trading port with Shanghai, and the latter has gradually become the center of domestic and foreign trade in China because of its advantage of being located at the end of the Yangtze River Basin, with its deep and wide hinterland and convenient transportation. Therefore, business groups from all provinces gathered in Shanghai.
Ningbo merchants flocked to Shanghai in large numbers because of the advantage that Ningbo and Shanghai transportation was separated by only one water. It is estimated that there were nearly 400,000 Ningbo people in Shanghai in the late Qing Dynasty.
These two places are so close to
In addition to continuing to deepen its cultivation in its traditional industries: silver houses, medicinal materials, ready-to-wear, seafood and other fields, Ningbo Gang also has the power of fellow villagers to plan money shops and deepen shipping business with his left hand, and serve as compradors of foreigners in Hankou and banks in Hankou, and started import and export trade.
novels written in the late Qing Dynasty, "The Strange Status of Witnesses in Twenty Years", have the following records of the comprador industry: "At the time when comprador came, the accountants also arrived" , it can be seen that the profession of comprador was already common at that time.
Not only that, the Yinlou Lao Fengxiang and the pharmacy Cai Tongde, who we are now familiar with, have headquartered in Shanghai, but they were both founded by Ningbo people in the late Qing Dynasty; the earliest ship shipping companies established in my country under the name of Chinese merchants, namely the Offshore Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial and Commercial in 1895 was also founded by Ningbo merchants.
Ningbo Gang insists on grasping both new and old industries, and is good at judging the situation. He can seize fleeting business opportunities. He quickly made a fortune in just a few decades. With Shanghai as the base, he extended his business territory to cities such as Tianjin and Suzhou .
As a rising star, Ningbo Gang has become the largest business gang in Shanghai, and has radiated across the country.
Shanghai Laoyinlou
02
Money bank becomes a bank, and the piao number finally falls
As mentioned earlier, in the mid-19th century, the two giants in China's financial industry were Shanxi's piao number and Ningbo's money bank. In addition to the usual exchange of gold and silver, the business of
also has a crucial role, which is to advance payments to the local government of the Qing court through exchange of military pay and joint pay. We can understand its function as an agent of the treasury.
号2号 and even the Shanxi merchants relied to a large extent on the privileges given by the Qing government. With the destruction of the Qing government, the losses suffered by the Piaohao must be much greater than that of the money house.
But Ningbo Shangbang’s money bank can eventually replace the Shanxi merchant’s bill number, which is not just for this. The author will analyze from two aspects where Ningbo Shangbang’s winning is?
Money Bank receipt
1. The posting system of the money bank is closer to the essence of modern banks
We all know that creating and eliminating money is the biggest feature of commercial banks, and the posting system founded by Ningbo Money Bank in the 1850s is undoubtedly closer to the most fundamental monetary credit system of modern commercial banks.
For the posting system, the "Inscription on the Ningbo Money and Banking Association Hall" published in 1925 is introduced as follows:
"The method is that there are several money, which communicates with each other, and controls the completion of silver and money. The merchants use the book to enter and exit a certain store. When entering and exiting a certain store, they will record it in the simplified form. Tomorrow, the various stores will produce a piece of paper, which is simple to read, and they should be paid for it, as if they are personally taught. The number of money collected in one day is daily, and they will be mutually connected, and they will be calculated. The next day is like this."
In layman's terms, the posting system facilitates trade payment transactions between customers. As long as the receiving and paying parties log in the account of the entry and exits into the account of the entry and exits to their own account opening bank, there is no need to collect and pay cash, and a transaction can be completed.
money bank uses "posting books" instead of bills, and at the same time realizes the functions of account opening and settlement and bill exchange, which is very similar to the credit functions of modern commercial banks (credit intermediary function, credit payment function and credit creation function).
2. Ningbo Business Gang dared to be the first, and followed the trend
In fact, when the Qing court was forced to form its own modern bank, the first person to look for Shanxi merchants. After all, the two have a close relationship, and the first thing that comes to mind must be the other party.
In the late 19th century, the Qing court's proposal to be led by Shanxi merchants to form a modern commercial bank was rejected by the latter. The Qing court thought to himself: gives you a chance and you don't blame me, then don't blame me.
Finally, the more open-minded Ningbo Business Group seized this opportunity and founded my country's first commercial bank, China Commercial Bank in 1897.
In 1908, the Qing court took advantage of the situation and launched the "Bank Permit Regulations" and stipulated that in the future, financial practitioners must verify and register and operate according to the rules, otherwise their business qualifications will be banned.
History proves that this is the last chance for Shanxi merchants to turn the tables.
Puo No. 2Finished
Just when Beijing's pledge manager Li Hongling joined forces with more than 20 Shanxi pledge stationed in Beijing, proposing that everyone jointly invest and form a restricted shareholding in Jinsheng Huiye Bank, Mao Honghan, the then leader of Shanxi pledge 115, did not recognize the situation and rejected the suggestion.
Shanxi merchants have thus missed the opportunity, and Ningbo merchants have risen with the trend, and the modern financial industry has no longer had the position of Shanxi merchants.
The rise of Ningbo merchants in modern financial industry is of great significance to themselves. It not only established the hegemony of Ningbo Gang in Shanghai, the most important economic center in modern my country, but also derived a high-leverage business model of "financial + industry" linkage, and began the era of Ningbo merchants' rule.
03
Ningbo merchants value education, and they have a heart of feeding back
Like Hui merchants, Ningbo Gang attaches equal importance to education for future generations, but the difference from Hui merchants is that Hui merchants pay attention to education mainly in the imperial examinations and become officials in the court, while Ningbo merchants pay more attention to the cultivation of traditional culture.
"Chengzhongtang Matrix Class Pictures" is a Chinese character textbook compiled in the late Qing Dynasty. It profoundly influenced my country's accompanies Chinese character textbooks and is also known as the "best primary school class". It is still a best-selling Amazon classics.
, Ye Chengzhong, the founder of Chengzhong College, was a tycoon in Shanghai in the late Qing Dynasty and from Ningbo.
If you don’t agree with this book, then I think you will definitely be familiar with "Yifulou".
Run Run Shaw, known as the "first person in China's donation to promote education", founded the Shaw Brothers Foundation in 1973. Since 1985, Run Shaw has donated more than 100 million yuan to the mainland every year to support various social welfare undertakings.
As of 2012, Run Run Shaw donated a total of HK$4.75 billion in mainland education, with a total of more than 6,000 donated projects. Almost all schools across the country have "Yifu Building" (the author's high school has a Yifu Building, located in Shanxi).
Ningbo Gang has been working hard for many years, and although they all have been doing well, they have never forgotten to give back to their hometown.
The rich man Bao Yugang, known as the "ship king", donated US$20 million on October 29, 1985 to prepare for Ningbo University, which will cover an area of 3,036 acres in the future.
Crows have the meaning of feeding back, sheep know the kindness of kneeling down, and there are many Ningbo merchants like Run Run Shaw and Pao Yugang who are committed to giving back to their hometown.
04
Revelation of Ningbo Merchants’ Prosperity
Looking at the history of Ningbo Merchants’ Prosperity, what left the deepest impression on me was its spiritual core of following the trend and daring to be the first.
When money shops and bills face the impact of modern banks at the same time, Ningbo merchants responded to the times, absorbed new knowledge, and completed the transformation from money shops to banks in a timely manner, retained their position in the financial industry, and provided a solid support for other industries.
They neither deviate from Confucian values, but can also accept the bathing of the west wind with a relatively open mind, knowing how to use the past for the present and the foreign for the Chinese, and achieving the successful transformation of the modernization and modernization of regional merchant groups.
I can’t help but think of the short videos that are so popular now. When
short videos first emerged, many people disdained it, but with the explosion of downloads of related software and the rise of short video sales, even many first-line celebrities will choose this channel when promoting movies.
The industry driven by this has also allowed countless people to earn their first pot of gold. Those who dare to follow the trend and continue to deepen their roots are not lucky people, but people who really dare to take the lead.
also has another synonym, that is, keep pace with the times.
Facts have proved that sticking to the rules will only lead to stagnation and being left far behind by others. The Qing court, who was closed to the country, made such a mistake. Nokia, which did not keep up with the pace, was also forced to sell its company's mobile phone business.
The educator Yan Fu of the late Qing Dynasty once said: "Not new, no progress, no preservation, no preservation, no preservation," I hope you and I are the trendsetters of this era, because we can only live in vain because we have been dealing with the tide of suffering.
encouraged together.
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Reference:
1. On the origin of China's local commercial banks - Research on the Ningbo Money Bank Posting System, Author Zhang Yue, Sun Shangen
2. Comparative analysis of Ningbo Business Gang and Shanxi Merchants, Hui Merchants, and Guangdong Merchants, Author Chen Meilong , Shen Yuehong
3. Lang Xianping: Why does the "Ningbo Merchants" rise? Source: New Century Weekly
4. "Ningbo Gang" of family and country feelings, source: Guangming Daily
