Chapter 18 depression effect

In the economic miracle of contemporary China, the "depression effect" has occurred again and again. Throughout the 1980s, Shenzhen was the largest depression in China.The preferential policies of the SAR have created a huge temptation, making a large amount of domestic funds and outstanding talents fly southeast.Later, scholars in Shenzhen wrote a book called "The Mystery of the Sphinx in Shenzhen". In fact, one of the most important answers to the mystery is the depression effect. Yiwu is also a "depression", but this is a "depression" dug out by the peasant brothers themselves.

In 1983, Zhang Deli came here suspiciously when he heard that Yiwu Kaicheng was attracting investment. At this time, his mobile vendor team had grown to more than ten people. They found four stalls on Huangyuan Road at that time. Gradually, their neighborhood became a small distribution center for firecrackers and rural cultural items. Zhang Deli, who has been wandering for many years, finally feels at home. Now, Zhang Deli is already owned by a family. The director of a garment factory with 120 employees has his own branch stores or stalls in the markets of Yiwu and Fenghua. At that time, thousands of farmers like Zhang Deli were scattered in the Jinqu and Wentai basins. They flowed around like water and could not find a place to gather.Later, they suddenly discovered Yiwu, a unique "depression" at that time, so, almost without thinking, they immediately swarmed like a tide.

A huge depression effect is created. In June 1984, an interested person named Zhu Hengxing conducted a more detailed survey of the small commodity market. According to his records: in the small commodity market, the number of people who come to participate in the transaction every day is 6,000, and the peak season can reach more than 10,000. More than 10% are foreigners, mostly from Wenzhou and Taizhou.There are more than 3,000 kinds of products on the market, and local industrial products account for about one-third. Most of the others are products from township enterprises in the province, Jiangsu, Guangdong and other places, and most of them are sold to provinces such as the north of the Yangtze River and Yunnan and Guizhou. .Obviously, a market network that crossed provincial boundaries and radiated across the country had already taken shape at that time.

Interestingly, those who came to Yiwu back then were not only stragglers, but also the whole market. The following is an example we personally interviewed: At that time, dozens of small gold pen factories sprang up in Lishui in the south of Zhejiang Province, which also cultivated a very prosperous gold pen market.However, the relevant local authorities always looked down on it and caught "tax evasion" and "illegal traders" in the market for more than a year. As a result, the market soon shrank and finally disappeared.And in Yiwu, a gold pen distribution center has sprung up rapidly.

In 1992, the Lishui area carried out the great emancipation of the mind. The first example that the news media used to reflect was: Why did the gold pen market run away? If it is said that the gold pen market in Lishui was forced to leave, then there are still many markets that were attracted away.In Yueqing, Wenzhou, there used to be a large-scale clothing market. However, with the rise of Yiwu, merchants and farmers have moved to Yiwu. The reason is simple: Yiwu’s geographical conditions are better than Yueqing’s. The most important thing is that Yiwu is full of people and business is naturally booming.

Around 1990, a Wenzhou cadre made a statistics. He found that in the early 1980s, more than half of the self-employed engaged in small commodity business in Wenzhou went to Yiwu.Therefore, he concluded that the Yiwu market is supported by Wenzhou people. And in some places in Taizhou, Shaoxing, and Jinhua, we can often hear that the Yiwu market is supported by people from a certain county. The sum of these statements is actually: Yiwu people put on a big stage, attracting famous actors from all the rural areas of Zhejiang. The "depression" in Yiwu not only absorbs business flow and talent, but also absorbs capital, technology and information.

According to data, by 1985, the annual throughput of Yiwu market had reached 2 billion yuan, which was already an astronomical figure for an agricultural county in mountainous areas. Ten years later, it soared to 28 billion yuan. The county's net return of funds was 2.3 billion yuan, accounting for one-third of the total in Zhejiang Province. At the end of 1984, Shen Jiqing, a reporter from Wen Wei Po, heard from an acquaintance in Shanghai that there was a place called Yiwu in Zhejiang Province. As soon as a new commodity or new technology appeared in domestic urban shopping malls, people could buy it in Yiwu soon. Found it on the market.He rushed to Yiwu with great interest and stayed for three days to write an article "The Big Market in a Small Valley". This is the first time that Yiwu Market has been published in a national newspaper.

He wrote that there are more than 2,000 family factories active around the small commodity market, and the technology of Yiwu people is brought from all over the country by traders: plastic processing is learned from Guangzhou, knitting technology is imported from Shaoxing and Jiaxing , The production of children's shoes was transplanted from Wenzhou. He also told a very vivid story: There was a merchant in the market who heard that the business of sun hats in the city was very good, so he rushed to Hangzhou to buy one and came back. After studying for three days, he imitated it. The exact same sun hats were very popular when they appeared in the Yiwu market.

Half a year later, in the Yiwu market.The number of farmers processing and operating sun hats reached 3,000, and it became the largest sun hat production and sales center in China at that time.