Chapter 42 Battle against Jewish merchants

Paris, France, the capital of romance. In 1982, Hu Fazong, a native of Pingyang, stood at the exit of the airport. He looked up and saw strangers with blue eyes and white skin. He touched his pocket and found only two francs left. He had no romantic feeling at all. "Where are you going, where are you going?" Hu Fazong muttered, he wanted to hear a Chinese sentence, even if it was spoken by himself. But where to go? A person hurried past him. "Are you from Wenzhou?" Hearing that he was talking to himself in dialect, the man stopped. A Chinese, from Wenzhou. In this way, Hu Fazong followed him to the third arrondissement of Paris, which is the oldest street in Paris and where the most Chinese gather.

He was taken to a room with a sign hanging on the door, which read in traditional Chinese characters: Overseas Chinese Club in France.Ten years later, the chairman of the club was named Pan Jinzhao, who was also from Wenzhou. Now they are overseas Chinese in France: Hu Fazong, director of the Chamber of Commerce, recalled: "If you find a club, you will be home. I had no funds at that time, so I relied on Zhuhui to help." Zhuhui is a traditional way for Chinese to support each other economically.People who have no capital in France for the first time rely on their fellow villagers to raise funds, and when they earn money, they will repay the principal with interest.

"A total of 34 fellow villagers helped me, 5,000 francs each, a total of 170,000 francs. I rented a small shop in the third district and opened a leather shop." When Hu Fazong was in China, he was in the leather business.There is a big leather market in his township, and he is one of the top players. However, he felt extremely awkward in the third district. "At that time, the third arrondissement was the leather trading center of Paris, but it was the world of the Jews. The Jews have been in the leather business for hundreds of years, and they are well-known all over the world. They almost control the leather industry in the third arrondissement. .”

In front of Hu Fazong's shop, people kept throwing stones and asking for trouble.The goods he bought were also bought by the Jews across the street, and they were only a few francs cheaper than his. Fortunately, there were more Zhejiang people doing leather business in the third district at that time. In order to survive, everyone moved their shops nearby. "Others think that the same business can't be done if crowded together, but we think that only crowded together can succeed. This is the business experience of Zhejiang people." Hu Fazong said, "Compared with the Jews, everyone buys the same raw materials, and the craftsmanship also has its own advantages. , There is only one thing that can be compared, which is hard work. He works for 2 hours a day, and I work for 20 hours. If he closes the door in the middle of the night, I will stay open all night.”

In this way, the cost of Chinese leather products is lower than that of Jews, and the price has also come down.The longer the business hours, the better the business.And then.Hu Fazong and the others worked hard on style design, brainstorming on the road to marketability, step by step, and pressing hard. Around 1990, Chinese leather products finally became popular in the three districts. "The competition is fierce enough." Hu Fazong still respected his opponent as he talked about the past with a smile. One year, a back pad that slipped over a chair sold well.In the third district, it started to sell for 50 francs a pair. The Jews first lowered the price to 40 francs, and the Zhejiang people immediately reduced it to 35 francs, then to 30 francs, and then to 20 francs. A year later, the price was only 7 francs.The Jews finally couldn't stand it anymore, and began to buy from the stores of Zhejiang people. Later, merchants from all over France came here to wholesale.

At the beginning of 1996, when a reporter from CCTV visited the third district of Paris to interview, 80% of the market share of the leather industry in the third district had been occupied by Zhejiang people. On the street, a CCTV reporter interviewed a passing Jewish businessman, and the interpreter was Hu Fazong.The Jew looked generous, and he said: China is doing well, congratulations. Today, the leather market in the third district is called "the Parisian version of the Wenzhou model". Flying across the sea, alone, relying on relatives and friends, making a living by hand.In the past hundred years, this is almost a portrayal of hundreds of thousands of Zhejiang people wandering all over the world.

With the development of the economy and the enhancement of self-confidence, today's Zhejiang people have begun to step out of the small world and seek greater development.In recent years, Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States and North America have increasingly frequent economic exchanges with China, and the number of Chinese people traveling to these countries has also increased. People from Zhejiang, who are particularly well-developed in the market, have started the idea of ​​​​opening the market again.However, it is not easy to build a market in a foreign country, and in some people's eyes, it is even an unimaginable fantasy.However, Zhejiang farmers still want to try.

In 1995, a Chinese shopping mall with painted eaves and hooked corners and rich oriental architectural features opened in the center of Budapest, the capital of Hungary, the "first city in Eastern Europe", which caused a sensation in the local area. The builders of this mall are a group of farmers from Zhejiang. According to related reports: "The mall mainly deals in Chinese textile products and small daily commodities, covering an area of ​​17,600 square meters and supporting a parking lot of 20,000 square meters. In recent years, a large number of Chinese businessmen have poured into Eastern European countries, and the emergence of Chinese shopping malls has been widely welcomed. "

Finally, let me tell you a little story. Engels' hometown is a small city called Barmen on the Rhine River in Germany. In 1991, a Zhejiang native "wandered" there for some reason. He opened a small Chinese restaurant in front of his mentor's former residence, and the staff of the former residence ate there five days a week. This Zhejiang native named Li Weizhou got along day and night like this and became Engels' neighbor.When he got acquainted, some Germans joked with him, "Are you sent by the Chinese government to protect your mentor?" Li Weizhou chuckled and didn't answer.

Looking at the red house on the opposite side at dawn and dusk, this Chinese farmer always feels very close, and he really wants to say something to his mentor. Perhaps that wise and learned old man would also be interested in his story?