Chapter 5 Chapter 2 1875: Compradors Save the Country

The two compradors that Li Hongzhang took a fancy to were Tang Tingshu and Xu Run.They were two of the "Four Great Compradors" in the late Qing Dynasty. In many textbooks and historical readers, comprador is a derogatory term that is despised by others. The definition of it is as follows: "Foreign aggressors have benefited from hiring compradors to engage in aggression activities, and gradually formed a kind of agency system. This is the comprador system. In the future, foreign aggressors will always find agents when dealing with the Chinese, and those Chinese who serve the foreign aggressors and are willing to act as their agents are like dealers who borrow foreign loans from imperialism for warlords and buy arms. People, politicians who serve as go-betweens between the imperialist and reactionary governments, negotiating traitorous treaties, and brokers who sell imperialist decadent and reactionary culture are all called compradors. The term comprador was used in semi-colonial and semi-feudal old China. It has been endowed with a broad meaning and has become a general term for the most disgraceful slaves and minions of imperialism."

"Comprador", Comprador, was originally Portuguese, and in popular parlance today, it means a Chinese professional manager in a multinational company.In Shanghai at that time, it was translated as "bran ferry", which is the bridge between China and the ocean. In 1757, the 23rd year of Qianlong, the Qing government restricted Guangzhou as the only officially permitted foreign trade port in the country, and established 13 official dental firms to operate and manage import and export trade, and implemented a state-run trade monopoly. This is the so-called "ten Three lines". The "Thirteen Banks" had the social identity of officials and businessmen. As official foreign trade franchisees, they collected various taxes and fees for imported and exported foreign ships on behalf of the customs, and managed foreign businessmen and performed foreign affairs tasks on behalf of the government. Practitioners in the "Thirteen Lines" thus became the first group of merchants engaged in legal foreign trade.By the beginning of the 19th century, the wealth of the merchants of the Thirteen Banks was astonishing. One of them, Wu Bingjian, had a family property of about 26 million taels of silver in 1834, which was almost equivalent to one-third of the annual fiscal revenue of the Qing government. At that time, the West was called "the richest man in the world". In 2001, the American "Asian Wall Street Journal" named Wu as one of the 50 richest people in the world in the past millennium. (There are 6 Chinese people on this list. Except for Wu Bingjian, the other five are Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, He Shen, Liu Jin, and Song Ziwen, an "official businessman" during the Republic of China.)

After the Opium War, the Qing government was forced to open Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo and Shanghai as treaty ports, and canceled the trade franchise of the "Thirteen Banks".Since then, those multinational banks and trading companies with strong financial resources, advanced business management concepts, and privileges have become the main forces monopolizing Sino-foreign trade. Formed a new group - compradors. In the late Qing Dynasty, many businessmen—especially those from Guangdong and Shanghai—started as compradors. Since foreign firms first sprouted in Guangzhou and continued to prosper in Shanghai, the two places and nearby counties became the places where the most compradors were produced. Among them, the most famous ones are the Xiangshan Gang in Guangdong, the Dongshan Gang in Wuxian County, Jiangsu Province, and the Ningbo Gang in Zhejiang. "Shanghai You Zhuzhi Ci" said: "The name of the chaff ferry is not easy. Ningbo Bangkou and Xiangshan call themselves melons and melons. Which class is they in the foreign business." Among the "Four Compradors" in the late Qing Dynasty, Tang Tingshu, Xu Run He and Zheng Guanying are both from Xiangshan, and Xi Zhengfu is from Dongshan.In Shanghai, the group of Ningbo people is the most powerful. Zhu Baosan, Yu Qiaqing and others have long held the post of chairman of the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce.

In their research on entrepreneurs in the late Qing Dynasty, many Western scholars concluded that they lacked "entrepreneurial spirit".In his special study of Sheng Xuanhuai, Fei Weikai argues that bureaucratic industrialists were "stubbornly lacking in initiative" because of their connections with the Chinese upper-society system, especially their experience of receiving classical Confucian education, taking imperial examinations, and serving as government officials. prevents them from taking risks and thus stifles the formation of entrepreneurship.From a sociological point of view, Marion Levy attributed this lack to Chinese family results and family concepts. In his book "The Rise of the Merchant Class in Modern China", he believed that merchants used capital to pursue the status of gentlemen, " The standard of the most successful businessman is that he and his descendants are no longer businessmen.” As a result, there has been a loss of talent and capital in China’s business sector, and when opportunities for industrialization come, China lacks in realizing them compared with Japan. The "management talents" necessary for the process of industrialization. In the late Qing Dynasty, the only group of businessmen considered to meet the standards of entrepreneurs were compradors. Hao Yanping proved with a large number of facts in his book "Compradors in 19th Century China" that China Compradors "are outstanding Schumpeterian entrepreneurs," and by 1900 as many as 10,000 compradors met this criterion. (The American economist Schumpeter, who was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was the proponent of the "Innovation Theory". In his view, the function of entrepreneurs is to realize innovation and introduce new combinations. The so-called economic development refers to the entire commercial society The constant realization of new combinations, the work of the entrepreneur, is "a process of creative destruction".)

Tang and Xu hired by Li Hongzhang were the most prestigious compradors at that time, and both had made great names in shipping. Tang Tingshu (1832-1892) was the big comprador of Jardine Matheson, a British merchant with the largest capital scale at that time. (Foreign Bank refers to the general name of a trading firm or agency set up by foreign capital in China. In the early days, it was also engaged in banking business. Europeans and Americans called themselves companies, and Japanese called them Co., Ltd.) His father was an American missionary. He was a clerk's servant, and he studied in a church school in his early years. Among his classmates was Yung Wing, China's first overseas student mentioned in the previous chapter.According to Harvard scholar Liu Guangjing's book "Tang Tingshu: The Comprador Era", he quoted the comments of the people at the time, saying that he "speaks English like an Englishman".When he was young, he also edited "English Collection" in Cantonese dialect, which is the earliest book for learning Chinese and English.

At the age of 30, Tang Tingshu joined Jardine Matheson.At that time, the United States affected cotton exports due to the Civil War, and the cotton mills in Britain, India and other countries were in short supply, so they turned to China to purchase cotton. From this detail, it can be seen that the scene of globalization has indeed been clearly presented in the middle and late 19th century. .Tang Tingshu seized the opportunity to open the Xiuhua Cotton Store in Shanghai, buying cotton for Jardine Matheson, and made a lot of money.Because of his outstanding ability, after three years in the industry, he was promoted to a comprador of a foreign company and was given the right to take charge of the treasury.

In 1869, Tang Tingshu suggested to the boss of the foreign firm to invest in the shipping industry. Under his leadership, Jardines successively opened up the steamship route from Shanghai to Fuzhou and the shipping to Manila. This new business brought huge profits to Jardines. The annual profit margin of some shipping is as high as 60%.Tang Tingshu became famous in the business world for a while.His competitor, F.B. Fushi, the owner of American Merchants Qichang Yangxing, believed in a letter that Tang Tingshu "can defeat us completely in terms of obtaining information and soliciting business from the Chinese." Therefore, when Li Hongzhang decided to leave When the compradors were looking for leadership candidates for China Merchants, they first targeted Tang Tingshu.

Xu Run (1838-1911), who was 6 years younger than Tang Tingshu, had a very similar comprador experience.He went to Shanghai with his uncle at the age of 15 and worked as an apprentice in Baoshun foreign company.Baoshunyang was founded by the British opium merchant Diandi—this person was the representative of the British merchant who confronted Lin Zexu during the Opium War in 1840, and was identified by Lin as "honesty is the chief evil, and it is difficult to be tolerant"—it is the oldest in southern history. One of the oldest and most powerful foreign firms, Xu Run started as an apprentice with a monthly salary of 10 yuan, and by the age of 24 he had been promoted to the chief account.

As the Qing government was forced to open various ports, Baoshun Foreign Bank quickly "checked the situation and started doing business" in various places, and Xu Run played an important role in coordinating various coastal branches in Shanghai.He foresaw the importance of shipping on the Yangtze River very early on, and tried his best to develop shipping on the Yangtze River. At his instigation, Baoshun bought a ship called "Governor" from Hong Kong, and put it into shipping on the Yangtze River after a little renovation. It is dual-purpose for cargo, and can also tow 4 hook ships, each of which can load 600 tons of cargo, from Shanghai to Hankou in one round trip. Only the freight income has covered the cost of ship purchase and decoration, and the profit is really huge.Since then, Baoshun has purchased many river ships, built the only Baoshun large dock in Shanghai that can accommodate ocean-going ships, and opened routes from Shanghai to Yokohama and Nagasaki, Japan.The shipping business makes Baoshun's annual import and export value reach tens of millions of taels, which is very popular among foreign firms.Therefore, Xu Run became the chief comprador of Baoshun Co., Ltd.

By 1866, a financial crisis broke out in London, and all British companies were affected. The shareholders of Baoshun began to split their shares and shrink. The American Merchants Qichang Yangxing took the opportunity to acquire all of Baoshun's shipping business two years later.Xu Run left Baoshun and started his own tea business.When Li Hongzhang extended an invitation to him for China Merchants, Qichang's boss, Fushi, also took a fancy to him and offered him the post of chief comprador in Shanghai.Xu Run finally decided to join hands with Tang Tingshu to invest in the start-up China Merchants.

Li Hongzhang appointed Tang Tingshu as the general office, and Xu Run and Sheng Xuanhuai as the general office.Tang and Xu immediately restarted Sheng Xuanhuai's discussion, opened their doors, and recruited more investment shares. Of course, the comprador's action is completely different from that of the bureaucrat Zhu Qiang. Tang and Xu have been immersed in the business world for many years.They quickly recruited 500,000 taels of private capital, and imitated foreign companies "one hundred taels as a share, one ticket, and no recognition of the ticket", "Starting from the cash register date, the interest is paid annually, One-year summary, general ledger public review, three-year summary, surplus public distribution." Tang and Xu also invested funds themselves and became shareholders.Prior to this, there were only two types of enterprise organization in China: sole proprietorship and partnership. China Merchants Steamship Co., Ltd. raised funds through public offering, becoming the first joint-stock enterprise in modern China.In the past, Chinese businessmen could only do business with the eyes of the government, where there was no qualification to sit on an equal footing, let alone "public ledger review". Yes, after the establishment of China Shipping Merchants Bureau, it immediately fought with foreign merchants in the Yangtze River shipping.At that time, the most powerful shipping companies were Qichang Shipping Company of the United States and Swire Shipping Company of the United Kingdom. They jointly signed a "parity contract" to monopolize the shipping business.With the strong support of Li Hongzhang, China Merchants first relied on the water transportation business to ensure the basic operation of the company, and then received low-interest loans from the imperial court. Coupled with the shrewd management of Tang Tingshu and others, the two foreign firms felt great pressure and established China Merchants. In the past three years, the foreign firm, which had been making a lot of money, became unprofitable. The shares of Swire Matheson with a face value of 100 taels were only worth 56 taels in 1876, and by the end of the year they had no money to pay dividends to shareholders.And the most powerful Qichang Ocean Bank is also in trouble. Its 100 taels of shares also fell to 70 taels. 2.2 million taels of silver. At that time, China Merchants had only 11 ships, with a total capital of 750,000 taels. Buying Qichang was tantamount to "small fish eating big fish".Tang and Xu had no way to raise this huge sum of money, so they discussed with Sheng Xuanhuai, who had been in the officialdom for a long time, and they were greatly praised and willing to come forward to raise funds.However, the imperial court was really ashamed of the state treasury. He approached Li Hongzhang, who said that "the expenses are huge and difficult to raise", and then went to the governor of Liangjiang, Shen Baozhen.Sheng Ben traveled between Beijing and Shanghai, repeatedly advising his interests. Li Hongzhang finally agreed to allocate 500,000 taels of silver from Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Hubei provinces, while Shen Baozhen paid 500,000 taels from his treasury, barely raising 1 million taels.Sheng Xuanhuai negotiated with Qichang again, using both hard and soft tactics, and got the latter to agree to pay 1.2 million taels first, and pay off the balance in five years.In this way, China Merchants took down Qichang in one bite and became the largest shipping company in Chinese waters. Xu Run, who later had a lifelong feud with Sheng Xuanhuai, also admitted in his "Self-reported Chronicle" in his later years, "The foundation of the commercial bureau has been consolidated since then, and Sheng Xingweng (Sheng Xuanhuai) The name Xingsun, honored as Xingweng) has a lot of power." By 1881, China Merchants had paid off all the arrears, and had a surplus of over one million taels, becoming the largest and most profitable civilian enterprise of the Qing government at that time. The ship made a trial voyage to London, England, and Honolulu and San Francisco in North America, which was very impressive.At that time, after a Japanese official visited Shanghai's docks and ships, he said to Sheng Xuanhuai: "With this Ship Merchants Bureau, you finally have two new tables in the wind and rain of the Qing Dynasty." Complacent, he said in the letter "Reply to Liu Zhongliang Fangbo": "China Merchants really came to start Westernization, and the best handwriting." After gaining a firm foothold in the China Merchants Bureau, in 1878, Li Hongzhang appointed Tang Tingshu to go north to prepare for the establishment of the Kaiping Mining Bureau. Coal is the power raw material for warships, which is of great significance in both military and civilian uses. North China is rich in coal resources, but has always lacked development capabilities and has to import them from abroad.Kaiping Mining Bureau is the first coal mining enterprise to be invested and operated in the form of a modern company.Tang Tingshu and others wrote to Li Hongzhang two years ago, pleading to exploit the Kaiping Coal Mine. According to his calculations, the wages of Chinese miners accounted for only half of that of British miners in the price per ton of coal. Therefore, there is huge room for profit. The Kaiping Mining Bureau went smoothly from preparation to production, all thanks to Tang Tingshu's proficient management.Before introducing the equipment, he conducted a careful survey, testing and planning of the coal mine resources. He ordered the machines according to the mine terrain in Kaiping and tried his best to be practical.In the process of building the mine, in order to transport coal, Tang Tingshu presided over the construction of the first domestic railway from the coal factory to Xugezhuang, Fengrun County, with the acquiescence of Li Hongzhang. Under the careful management of Tang Tingshu, the Kaiping Mining Bureau produced coal in 1881, with a daily output of about 300 tons, and a total output of 38,000 tons in the second year. By 1899, the output increased to 778,000 tons, becoming the most important coal mine in China. base.From the very beginning, Kaiping Mining Bureau started a battle with Japanese companies for the Tianjin market. At that time, Japanese coal had an absolute advantage in Tianjin. Tang Tingshu took advantage of the favorable location to kill them at a low price.According to customs records, in 1881, Tianjin imported 17,400 tons of coal per day. After Kaiping coal entered the market, it was reduced to 5,400 tons that year, and then dropped to 566 tons three years later. The market was basically controlled by Chinese companies. The two major international rivals of China Merchants in the shipping of the Yangtze River, one is American Merchants Qichang, which was later acquired by China Merchants, and the other is the British merchant Swire. The chief comprador of Swire Shipping Company was one of the "Four Compradors" in the late Qing Dynasty. Another native of Xiangshan, Zheng Guanying (1842-1922).Zheng was also recruited into China Merchants later.In modern history, this man is not only famous for his good management, but also a great reform thinker. Zheng Guanying is Tang Tingshu's in-law, and Xu Run is a family friend of "the two generations have known each other for nearly a hundred years". His uncle and others are also compradors of many foreign firms.When he was a teenager, he traveled to Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore. At the age of 17, like many fellow villagers, he went to Shanghai Baoshun as an apprentice.By 1873, the British merchant Swire Pacific established a steamship company, and the young Zheng Guanying was hired as the chief comprador.He has a good business strategy and once summed up ten experiences in running a shipping company, including employing appropriate personnel, speeding up the shipping cycle, reducing energy consumption, attracting more passengers and cargo, and so on.In order to reduce energy consumption and transportation costs, the ships he purchased were all new-type ships that burned less coal, traveled faster, and loaded more cargo.Under his management, Taikoo Shipping Company came from behind and developed extremely rapidly. According to him, "When Taikoo was founded, there were only three old ships. More profits." In the early days of Tang and Xu's management of China Merchants, their important opponent was Zheng Guanying, a fellow villager. A very secret fact is that when Tang Tingshu proposed shares for China Merchants, he secretly persuaded Zheng Guanying to pay for the shares. Therefore, Zheng was also a shareholder of China Merchants.In 1877, when Qichang was defeated, Zheng Guanying’s contract period with Swire came to an end. Tang tried his best to win Zheng Guanying into the game, but Swire offered a high price to keep him. Zheng Guanying reconsidered and renewed his employment contract for five years.Under his negotiation with Tang Tingshu, China Merchants signed a "price-parity contract" with Swire, thereby monopolizing the Yangtze River Shipping in the form of a "duopoly", and the profits of the two companies have therefore increased year after year. Soon in 1881, Zheng Guanying's five-year contract seemed to be full again.The China Merchants Bureau once again came up with the idea of ​​this business genius, and this time it was Li Hongzhang himself. He implored the imperial court to record Zheng Guanying's "good deeds" in the county annals of Zhihe County, Guangdong Province as a commendation. Well, Sheng Xuanhuai immediately copied a copy and sent it to Zheng Guanying. This is really an extremely honorable event for the Zheng family. , time and spring boo, Wu can take on this." Soon after, Sheng Xuanhuai took advantage of Li Hongzhang's trip to the south and invited Zheng Guanying to visit Master Li Zhongtang at Wusongkou.Next, Tang, Xu and Sheng took turns to persuade Zheng Guanying to switch to China Merchants. Bingxue is as smart as Zheng Guanying, but at this time "the heart is like a pulley, it is very difficult to make a decision".Taikoo has always treated him kindly, and Leng Shiwei, the general manager of the British side, has a very close personal relationship.In his opinion, the pros and cons of joining China Merchants are also obvious: In terms of position, he is the chief comprador who ranks first among the Chinese in Swire, and he will definitely rank behind Tang, Xu and Sheng when he joins China Merchants; , It also dropped greatly in value.He made it very clear in a letter to Tang Tingshu, "Regardless of the amount of salary, I am afraid that the long game will be short-term. It is about reputation." These immediate gains and losses are not his top priority, which makes him hesitate again and again. In fact, it is still the government-business system of the China Merchants Bureau. He has two concerns. ", and the second is that in the future, there will be "improvement every day", and there will be more operators. Those who slander, don't ask right and wrong, don't think about the work of those who did things in the past, arbitrarily depose officials, and adjust personal affairs." Unfortunately, Zheng Guanying's concerns were fulfilled one by one in the future, and even worse.However, after much deliberation, he decided to switch to China Merchants.The reason he convinced himself was that the current business structure of China Merchants is not stable. "If it is not maintained as soon as possible, it may be difficult to stand on its own. There are no ships in our country that travel to and from the treaty ports, and it will be bullied by outsiders." The last seven words are from Zheng Guanying. Inner calling. In February 1882, Zheng Guanying's contract with Taikoo expired. In March, he accepted Li Hongzhang's letter of appointment and took up the post of assistant of the China Merchants Bureau. The three big compradors have resolutely bid farewell to the lucrative and hereditary foreign business career, and turned to be used by the court.This was a miracle in the business world at the time.In the future, it will be embarrassing that Tang, Xu, and Zheng have experienced the same ups and downs since they devoted themselves to the government-supervised commercial business.Tang Tingshu passed away in 1892. According to people at the time, "he was depressed after his death, and his sons and heirs were all dependent on him, and he failed to get a little reward." That is to say, he did not leave any property to his descendants.Xu Run was later expelled from the China Merchants Bureau by Sheng Xuanhuai, and after many years of hardships, he died in 1911 with a fortune of only ten thousand taels.Zheng Guanying died in 1922, and his family wealth was very limited. Among the "four major compradors", only Dongshan Xi's family has always adhered to the status of compradors, flourishing and prosperous for a hundred years.The fate of life is turbulent with the country's fortunes, and the gains and losses are so weird that it is really difficult for latecomers to say. At the end of the 19th century, there were 933 foreign firms across the country. If each company employed an average of 10 compradors, the number of compradors in the country was 10,000.This was a lot of people at that time, and they basically gathered in the cities along the coast and the Yangtze River Basin, so they were a wealth class that cannot be ignored.In modern history, they are the first generation of entrepreneurs who have separated from the land and have independent characteristics. (According to Baijier's calculations, by around 1920, there were 9,511 foreign firms and more than 100,000 compradors.) The comprador class has three distinct characteristics, one is aristocratic, the other is wealth, and the third is enlightened thinking. The "four major compradors" are all comprador families.The four brothers of Tang Tingshu's family are all big compradors, and more than a dozen of his nephews and nephews have also inherited the mantle. The Tang family has served the British merchant Jardine Matheson for more than half a century.Xu Run's family, from his uncle to many cousins ​​and nephews, a total of more than ten people, all served Baoshun, Taikoo, Lihe and other foreign firms.Zheng Guanying's family is roughly similar. The most representative one is Dongshan Xijia.Xi’s first comprador was Xi Zhengfu (1838-1904). He was the same age as Xu Run. At the age of 19, he went to a bank in Shanghai as an apprentice.Under his urging, Li Hongzhang borrowed 2 million pounds from HSBC with the salt tax as a guarantee, and issued the largest commercial foreign debt of the Qing government. From 1890 to 1890, the Qing government borrowed 17 loans from HSBC, most of which were handled by Xi Zhengfu. The largest one was that he cooperated with the "red-top businessman" Hu Xueyan and lent 10.75 million taels to Zuo Zongtang for the suppression of During the rebellion in Xinjiang, the annual interest rate of these loans was actually about 15%, which was out-and-out usury, which made the Qing government's finances even more difficult.From Xi Zhengfu's entry into HSBC to around 1911, foreign businessmen opened 34 large and small banks in Shanghai, 17 of which were compradors from the Xi family and their relatives in Dongshan. There were 14 people from three generations of Xi's family, and they worked successively in 6 British commercial banks and 2 American banks. Commercial Bank, two Japanese banks, and one bank each from France, Russia, and Italy acted as compradors, almost including the comprador positions of major foreign banks at that time. The income of compradors was so high that no other profession could compare with it at that time.Xi Zhengfu's annual salary at HSBC is about 100,000 taels, which can be converted into 50,000 dan of rice (about 150 catties per dan).In addition to the stipulated annual salary, there are two other sources of income.The first is the commission given by foreign firms. Whether compradors organize loans, buy and sell foreign exchange, or handle bills of exchange, there is a certain percentage of rebates, the highest being 12%, and the lowest being 0.12%.The commission was very high. Cao Rulin, who later served as the chief financial officer of Duan Qirui's Beiyang government, also worked as a comprador in his early years. He used the commission he earned from lending money to jointly establish a China Huiye Bank with a Japanese businessman. The greater income than commission comes from the compradors' own business.According to the practice at the time, foreign firms did not prohibit compradors from establishing their own businesses, so almost every comprador had its own business, and most of these businesses had a strong connection with the business of foreign firms.For example, Tang Tingshu opened a bank, a pawn shop, an insurance company, a tea store, and a cotton shop. He also jointly established two steamship companies with Zheng Guanying.Xu Run has chain stores in Shanghai, Hubei, Jiangxi, Guangdong and other places, specializing in the purchase of raw silk, tea and cotton, providing goods for Baoshun and earning the price difference.Because they have the right to purchase goods from foreign firms, the compradors have a particularly large right to speak. Jardine and Baoshun, which Tang Tingshu and Xu Run served, were one of the largest foreign firms at that time. They joined hands to do business, and it was possible Control the pricing power of certain commodities that are in short supply. Before joining China Merchants, the two even founded the Shanghai Tea Industry Office, the Silk Industry Office, and the Foreign Medicine (Opium) Bureau, "mutually maintaining" with the offices of various ports, and controlled the Yangtze River The trade of tea, raw silk and opium in the basin.Zheng Guanying's business is also very big. He owns a tea store, a salt store, a grocery store, a bank, and a steamship company. In addition, Taikoo has set up "carrying goods on behalf of customers" in various ports along the Yangtze River and along the coast—— It is a logistics service company, and Zheng Guanying owns shares in many Lanzai companies.The investment of the Xi family is also huge. They have a silver building, a bank and a yarn factory, and own a large area of ​​real estate on the bustling Nanjing Road in Shanghai. , The Xi family invested in shares in multiple private identities, with a total of 1,320 shares, accounting for about 6.6% of the bank's total share capital, and is the largest private shareholder. It is not a lie to say that such an intricate business has made the compradors rich in the world.In the two hundred years before their rise, domestic commerce was mostly controlled by Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants. Especially in the Yangtze River Basin, Huizhou merchants who started from selling salt and raw silk were the most powerful. At that time, there was a proverb in Shanghai that said, "No matter how ruthless the Hui gang is, if you see the Shanshang gang (referring to the Dongshan gang), you have to bear it." Some researchers have verified that by around 1900, the assets of the Xi family had exceeded 10 million taels.What kind of number is this, which can be compared with the Empress Dowager Cixi's repair of the Summer Palace. In 1885, the Empress Dowager Cixi had no money for her birthday, so she insisted on embezzling naval military expenditures to build the Summer Palace. Therefore, the imperial court stopped purchasing warships in 1888, and stopped appropriating equipment and ammunition for the Navy three years later.This incident is considered to be an important reason for the defeat of the Sino-Japanese naval battle in 1894.How much naval military expenditure Cixi embezzled has always been controversial. According to the "Summer Palace" recorded by the Summer Palace Management Office, the estimated value of 56 projects including Foxiang Pavilion was about 3.18 million taels, and 680,000 taels were allocated in the name of rebuilding the water gymnastics school. In addition, more than 2.6 million taels were raised in the name of "Navy Funds".Scholars of later generations estimated the total cost to be between 10 million and 14 million taels. The historian Luo Ergang of the Republic of China calculated in "A Study on the Relocation and Construction of the Summer Palace of Navy Funds in the Qing Dynasty": "Although we can't test the exact number today, it must be in the More than 10 million taels can be asserted."It can be seen that 10 million taels is quite a large amount for the Empress Dowager Cixi who controls the empire with one hand, and it affects national defense, which eventually led to a sharp turn in the national fortune.And for a comprador family, its assets can reach this figure, which is not shocking. The comprador career is so stable and rich, but the three Xiangshan people have abandoned it one after another. The reason is that in addition to the evaluation of commercial interests, the greater impulse should come from their desire to serve the country. Around 1870, thirty years had elapsed since the Opium War. During this period, on the one hand, a large number of foreign goods were imported, which eroded and disintegrated China's original economic structure and foundation, and led to a large outflow of China's profit sources.On the other hand, foreign forces have increasingly penetrated into the mainland of China, mining, sailing, and setting up enterprises, plundering various resources, and infiltrating and controlling the lifeline of China's economy.The people of the country are all worried about their love and scenery. The comprador clan was the first Chinese to accept the "Western Wind" at that time, and it can also be said to be the first to be civilized.They have been in contact with foreign businessmen every day, and some have received British and American education since they were young. They have a deep understanding of advanced business concepts and modern national concepts.Tang Tingshu’s classmate Yung Wing also worked as a comprador in Shanghai Baochuan Foreign Firm after graduating from Yale University. The leader of the slaves.” This sense of inferiority and humiliation is deeply embedded in the personality of many compradors.Therefore, if the country calls, they will never turn back.When Tang Tingshu recalled his mentality when he took over the China Merchants Bureau, he said: "Buy your own ships to transport goods and collect profit rights. This is the most important task for a rich country to facilitate business." At a shareholder meeting, he even more generously said to everyone , "Shu and Run don't care about the lack of capital, nor the price increase of foreign merchants, but hope that all gangs will unite and jointly contribute to the great cause, so that all the benefits of transshipment will be returned to China. This is unprecedented in history. It is also a feasible benefit for all generations." His words are sonorous, and there is still the sound of gold and stone after a hundred years of reading. Among these people, Zheng Guanying's ideas are the most advanced. He is considered to be the earliest reform thinker in modern history with a complete ideological system of reformation. When Zheng Guanying was a comprador in Taigu, he began to write two books, "Jie Yao" and "Yi Yan".According to the textual research of Zheng Guanying research expert Xia Dongyuan, "Jie Shi Jie Yao" was written around 1862 and published in 1873, and "Yi Yan" was completed in 1880. "Canthus Crack", "every time I am under the heat of wine, I hear that I can calm down the inside and outside, and I feel it in my arms, and I write and take notes. Over the years, I have accumulated several articles."In these two books, Zheng Guanying proposed for the first time that the way to strengthen a country is not only military warfare, but also commercial warfare. to preserve wealth". As a comprador, Zheng Guanying, like Yung Wing and others, was deeply ashamed of the low status of the Chinese.He wrote, "My Chinese occasionally violate the rules, and they are banned and punished, and there is no forgiveness. Why do foreigners enter China to make a living, take advantage of China, and do not follow China's rules! What does this mean!" To do business wars, you must first learn from the West, "follow its skills and achieve prosperity and strength."This concept is not new. Since Wei Yuan, people have had this view, and it has become a consensus among the Westernization School at that time. What is superhuman is that Zheng Guanying went on to conduct an in-depth discussion from two aspects. First, starting from Mencius's people-oriented thought of "the country is based on the people", he unexpectedly led to the conclusion that private capital is the protagonist of the commercial war.As a master in the shipping industry, Zheng Guanying has long had a calm observation of the industries run by the Westernization School. He saw that the two major ship manufacturing companies at that time, the Fujian Shipping Bureau and the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, were not running smoothly. It is the lack of funds, and the third is the rough quality. In his opinion, if private merchants are allowed to build ships, not only "the resources can be used endlessly", but also the technology is easy to be sophisticated. What matters is that there is no one to supervise and blame, and it does not take into account whether it is not made exquisitely." "The same wheel is made, but there is a world of difference between fine and rough." This argument demonstrates the efficiency of enterprises from the perspective of clear property rights. Thought has won the essence of institutional economics, and it is still regarded as an axiom so far.What is even more surprising is that Zheng Guanying also made an interesting comparison between state-owned capital, private capital and international capital, and came to the conclusion that attaching capital to officials and extorting a lot of money makes it unprofitable, while attaching capital to foreign businessmen, There is a reliable profit.I'm afraid even he would not have expected that this observation would still be in effect a hundred years later. Second, Zheng Guanying believes that it is far from enough to adore the skills of the West. It is also necessary to "follow the main purpose of Western legislation", which is to improve politics, "imitate Western good laws", and implement a constitutional monarchy.He compared the advantages and disadvantages of Chinese and Western political systems in the article "Yi Yan·On Discussion of Political Affairs", and clearly pointed out: Because China believes in "the world has a way, the common people do not discuss it", "so political affairs are abolished, and laws and regulations are changed. , but those at the top are self-assessing, and act upon the conclusion of the discussion. Although the gentry may have good words, there is no superiority...so what is beneficial to the superior is not conducive to the inferior; what is convenient to the inferior is not convenient to the superior.” But "Taixi countries are not the same. Their capitals have an upper house and a lower house. The upper house is filled with the clan members of the country and all the officials, so that they are close to the king. The lower house is filled with gentlemen, senior businessmen, talented and respected people." , because it is close to the people. Whenever there is a state matter, first order the lower house to discuss it, and then reach the upper house in detail. The upper house makes a decision and hears the king. If the two houses agree, the king will decide whether to follow. If there is a difference between them, then or Orders should be stopped without discussion, or deliberated and then decided. Therefore, the political affairs of Taixi are known to the whole country, so the feelings of the upper and lower are communicated, and the measures are expected to be good." Zheng Guanying's theory can be described as shocking, and it can be regarded as "heresy".At that time, there were only a few prophets in the political and academic circles who formed similar ideas. Minister Guo Songtao proposed in a memorial in 1875 that "the establishment of a country in the West has its origin and its end. The foundation lies in the imperial court and the end in merchants. In 1879, in the article "Respecting the People", the scholar Wang Tao proposed that China should implement the idea of ​​"common rule between the monarch and the people".From the time point of view, comprador Zheng Guanying’s expositions were earlier than the two, so later generations of scholars generally believed that Zheng was the first to propose the implementation of a constitutional monarchy in China.More than ten years later, on the basis of "Jie Shi Jie Yao" and "Yi Yan", he wrote the even more sensational "Words of the Flourishing Age". Zheng Guanying's two books were engraved and published at his own expense, and distributed to relatives and friends. Tang Tingshu and Xu Run both had to read them as gifts, and they deeply respected them.This conceptual unity is the ideological origin of their making the same choice.However, to the surprise of these compradors, the subsequent evolution of facts was quite different.