Chapter 8 Chapter Four 1894: The No. 1 Scholar Sets up a Factory

Losing 30,000 hu of Yuchen, the Lord of Heaven said nothing to Kuqi. ——Chen Baochen's "Feeling Spring", 1895. The "New York Times" on February 4, 1892 published a news saying, "The Qing Dynasty began to undergo the greatest change in the country's history. There is no doubt that this change will have a profound impact on the entire empire in the next few years. It may even further open the conservative and closed shackles and bring the Qing Dynasty to the forefront of the history of human progress, in short, it will exceed the sum of the changes in the past 50 years.”

After reading this for the first time, everyone thought that something earth-shattering had happened in the Qing Empire. In fact, what the newspapers swore to regard as the "biggest change" was a piece of lace news: the 20-year-old Emperor Guangxu began to learn English.Beginning in January of this year, two Guozijian students who had received British and American education were responsible for teaching the emperor to learn English every day. This matter was also notified to the whole country in the form of an imperial edict.The logical deduction of American journalists is: after the emperor condescends to learn English, the 3,000-year-old "rules" will be abandoned, and the national system will be changed. Next, "the Qing Dynasty should occupy a proper position among the civilized countries. Location."

Unfortunately, history has no patience for such a long rational evolution.Soon, in a cruel way, the bloodshot eyes of the Chinese people suddenly widened. In July 1894, war broke out between the Qing Dynasty and Japan over the Korean issue. Because this year was the Sino-Japanese War, it was known as the Sino-Japanese War in history.These two eastern countries, which carried out modernization reforms at the same time more than 20 years ago, decided to compete head-to-head. According to the statistics of the "World Military Yearbook", the navy of the Qing Dynasty was able to rank eighth in the world's naval strength, while the Japanese navy was the sixteenth.Many middle-level commanders in the fleets of both sides are students who graduated from Western military schools.As for the army, Japan's army was built after the Meiji Restoration, with no more than 100,000 people.However, the war was overwhelming from the very beginning. When the war started in July, China was first defeated by Pyongyang, and the Qing army rushed five hundred miles to surrender the entire territory of Korea to the Japanese army.Then, lost in the naval battle in the Yellow Sea.From September to November, the flames of war spread to the mainland. Tens of thousands of Qing troops in the 82nd Battalion lost the defense line of the Yalu River in just three days, and then lost the heavy town of Lushunkou. In January 1895, the main forces of the Chinese and Japanese navies fought a decisive battle in the Weihaiwei area. In just over ten days, the battle ended in complete defeat for the Chinese side, and the chief admiral Ding Ruchang committed suicide.The Beiyang Navy, which Li Hongzhang worked so hard to manage, was completely wiped out.

After the fiasco of the Sino-Japanese War, the Qing Dynasty was forced to sign the "Treaty of Shimonoseki", paying huge sums of compensation and ceding Taiwan.Japan received 260 million taels of silver in compensation, plus the loot and cash captured, the total silver was 340 million taels, equivalent to 6.4 times the annual fiscal revenue of Japan.When Japan got this huge sum of money, it didn’t know how to use it for a while. The then Japanese Foreign Minister later recalled: “Before this indemnity, I didn’t expect that there would be hundreds of millions of taels, and the total income of our country was only tens of millions of taels. Therefore, , When I think of the 340 million taels of silver pouring in now, both the government and the private people feel extremely rich." This huge sum of money was used in large quantities to build railways, develop shipping, shipbuilding and machinery manufacturing, and significantly improved transportation and industry. level, the national power of China and Japan has grown from then on.Another important change is that Japan used the Sino-Japanese War indemnity to reform its currency system and establish a gold standard.Since the 1870s, countries such as Europe and the United States have successively adopted the gold standard, and the price of silver has continued to fall, leading to currency depreciation and exchange rate instability in silver standard countries. This is also a major reason for the decline of the two "silver empires" at that time, China and India. .Therefore, Japan also wanted to establish a gold standard, but it has not been able to do so due to insufficient funds.The Sino-Japanese War indemnity solved the financial problem in one fell swoop and laid the financial foundation for the establishment of the gold standard.Japanese scholar Kazuo Terajima said in "On the Monetary System of Japan": The gold standard is "a part of Japanese capitalism, a financial symbol that can compete with other powers in the world market."

The "Treaty of Shimonoseki" was signed at the Chunfan Building in Shimonoseki, Japan. When the two sides negotiated, Li Hongzhang sat on a stool that was half shorter than the Japanese.Later, some Chinese came here to visit, and they all regarded it as "the first sad place".According to the "Wanguo Gazette" of the Christian Wide Society, at the time of signing the contract, Japanese Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito, the leader of the Meiji Restoration, had a conversation with Li Hongzhang. It is not as easy to govern as the Chinese people, and there is a house in the middle, so it is very difficult to handle." The implication was to show off Japan's "separation of powers" parliamentary system, Li Hongzhang replied without knowing, "The house of your country is not the same as the capital of China. The procuratorate is waiting." Ito said, "Ten years ago, I persuaded (China) to withdraw the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and (Li) Zhongtang replied that the system of the Metropolitan Procuratorate began in the Han Dynasty. It has a long history and it is not easy to abolish it." Li Hongzhang muttered but couldn't answer.After the treaty was signed, Li Hongzhang vomited blood that night.

As Ito satirized, the system of the Qing Empire was lagging behind, but unfortunately the rulers have not been willing to look directly at it. Since the Opium War in 1840, although China has experienced the Second Opium War in 1860 and the Sino-French War in 1884, the final dignity has not been lost. The biggest failure, and the most humiliating failure.Since then, the ruler has lost all self-confidence. Due to huge indemnities, the government's independent finances went bankrupt, and it relied on borrowing from Western powers to survive.Everyone in the empire was stunned, inexplicably surprised at first, and then maddened with grief and indignation.

In Chinese history, the defeat in the Sino-Japanese War was a historic turning point, the so-called "everyone wakes up after the First World War".Liang Qichao, the most outstanding reform thinker from the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China, once said, "Arouse the great dream of our country for four thousand years, but it actually started with the First Sino-Japanese War." Later Professor Ge Zhaoguang also believed in "History of Chinese Thought", "This kind of The feeling of melancholy, anger, and shame and helplessness deeply rooted in the heart is probably something that Chinese people have never experienced for thousands of years."

It was at this historically tragic moment that the three Chinese intellectuals each made the most important choices in their lives: 37-year-old Kang Youwei chose reform, 29-year-old Sun Yat-sen chose revolution, 42-year-old Zhang Jian chose industry, And its ultimate goal is to save the country. In April 1895, after the "Treaty of Shimonoseki" was passed to Beijing, the whole country was indignant, everyone wanted to change, and the voice of shame on the powerful country suddenly amplified.At that time, more than 1,300 candidates from 18 provinces were taking the examination in Beijing. Kang Youwei, a 37-year-old Nanhai candidate from Guangdong, wrote a ten-thousand-character letter overnight, proposing "rejecting peace, moving the capital, and reforming the law" and strongly urging Emperor Guangxu to "issue an edict to encourage the world." Qi, move the capital to establish the foundation of the world, train troops to strengthen the power of the world, and reform to rule the world." It is a "public letter" to shock the world.

Over the next three and a half years, China entered a period of reform and reform.Since then, the Reform School, dominated by intellectuals, replaced the Westernization School, dominated by middle and senior officials, and became the new mainstream of China's reform. Kang Youwei's letter was positively responded by Guangxu, and he and his disciples Liang Qichao, Tan Sitong and others successively entered the central core and became the hottest trendy figure in the imperial court.They put forward many radical reform plans to the emperor, including building a modern army, raising taxes, developing the national banking system, establishing a railway network, establishing a modern postal system, and establishing training schools to improve the quality of agriculture, etc. These ideas are consistent with those of the Westernization School. Basically the same in concept.In order to promote the ideal of reform to the whole society, Kang, Liang and others successively published "Chinese and Foreign Jiwen", "Current Affairs News", "Guo Wen Bao" and "Xiang Bao" in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Hunan, which were discussed all over the country. The atmosphere of current affairs gradually took shape. Before that, most teahouses across the country posted a note saying "Don't talk about state affairs".By the end of 1897, 33 associations with the purpose of reform and self-improvement had been established in various places, 17 new-style schools, and 19 newspapers and periodicals were published. British missionary John Fryer commented in the "Shanghai New News" edited by him, "The whole In China, the book business has grown significantly, and even the printing presses can’t keep up with the pace, and China has finally woken up.” Even some Westernization leaders joined the ranks of the reformation, Zhang Zhidong, governor of Huguang, even joined the Strong Society organized by Kang Youwei, He also publicly pledged 5,000 taels and served as the president of the Shanghai branch.

Although the initiators of the reform movement were a group of high-spirited scholars rushing for the exam, the most influential reform books at that time were written by a comprador. He was Zheng Guanying, who wrote "Jie Yao" and "Yi Yan" more than ten years ago. . In the past ten years, Zheng Guanying has been busy taking care of the industrial affairs of various places for Sheng Xuanhuai, while still perfecting his reform ideas. In the spring and summer of 1894, just before and after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894, he published five volumes of "Words of a Prosperous Age".He claimed, "The times are changing, the overall situation is becoming more and more dangerous, and the advantages and disadvantages of China and the West are clearly revealed." In this book, he continued to call for "practicing military warfare is not as good as practicing business warfare", and proposed the establishment of new-style banks, equal taxation between China and foreign countries, and recovery of customs rights. Practical measures such as casting simple currency.He boldly proposed to learn from Japan, "Why don't you turn the scriptures into power and turn to a physicist?" This kind of pragmatic spirit is by no means comparable to ordinary scholars.In addition, and more importantly, he put forward the demand for political reform more clearly than ten years ago, including the introduction of a constitution, the establishment of a parliament, and open elections. He firmly wrote, "Without political reform, business will never thrive ".

Once "Words of a Prosperous Age" was published, Luoyang soon became expensive.Some court officials presented it to the emperor, and Guangxu appreciated it greatly after reading it, and ordered the Zongli Yamen to print 2,000 copies and distribute it to the ministers for reading.After being recommended by the emperor, this book became the first real political best-seller in modern times. The English "News Daily" published an article saying that in some places, the content of "Words of the Flourishing Age" is often used as examination questions.The book had a great influence on the youth of the country at that time. Many years later, in 1936, Mao Zedong said in a conversation with the American journalist Snow, "Because my father was only allowed to read books such as Confucius and Mencius and accounting, so Cover the windows of the house in the middle of the night, so that my father cannot see the light." Among the books he secretly read was "Words of the Flourishing Age", after reading this book "aroused my desire to resume my studies." In addition to "Words of Danger", another very sensational reform book is "Tianyanlun" translated by Yan Fu. Yan Fu was a Marquis official in Fujian. He studied at the Fuzhou Shipping School in his early years and was later sent by the government to study in England. He admired Darwin's theory of evolution very much. In 1898, he translated and published a book "Evolution and Ethics" written by the British biologist Huxley five years ago, and named it "The Ethics of Nature". , Survival of the fittest" and other evolutionary theories should be in line with the national sentiment of saving the nation at that time.) Also around 1894, when Kang Youwei and Zheng Guanying were famous all over the world, another passionate scholar from Guangdong also wrote a reform letter to Li Hongzhang. He was later honored by the Kuomintang as "Father of the Nation" (When he was in exile overseas, he used the pseudonym "Zhongshan Qiao", so he was also called Sun Yat-sen). Sun Wen, like Zheng Guanying, was also from Xiangshan, Guangdong—later the county was renamed Zhongshan County (city) because of this.He was born in a poor family. In his early years, he traveled across the ocean with his mother to study in a missionary school in Hawaii. Later, he returned to Hong Kong to study medicine and practiced medicine in Macau and Guangzhou. In April 1894, when the Sino-Japanese war was about to start, Sun Wen wrote the 8,000-word "Shang Li Fu Xiangshu", and went to Tianjin to submit a letter to Li Hongzhang in June.In this letter, the young Dr. Sun put forward his own opinions on the development of agriculture, industry, commerce, and learning. Military strength lies in the ability of people to make the best use of their talents, the use of the land to the best advantage, the use of materials and the smooth flow of goods—these four things are the great classics of prosperity and the foundation of governing the country. Our country wants to restore Expansion of grand plans, diligent pursuit of a long-term strategy, imitation of Western methods for self-improvement, and not rushing to these four things are only the task of strengthening ships and sharp guns, which is to sacrifice the basics and the end of the plan.” The great work was completed and needed a trustee to recommend. Sun Wen found Zheng Guanying, a fellow from Xiangshan. Zheng's hometown, Yongmo Township, is only 30 miles away from Sun's hometown, Cuiheng Village.Zheng wrote a letter to Sheng Xuanhuai, asking him to pass it on. In the letter of recommendation, Zheng Guanying wrote, "There is Sun Yat-sen in my city, a handsome young man who was admitted to a British doctor in Hong Kong and paid attention to Western learning... His ambition is not low, and his words are also good. It's quite close, not like a madman's big words to deceive the world." After Sheng Xuanhuai received the letter, he wrote "Dr. Sun's affairs" and "Tao Zhai" (Zheng Guanying's nickname) on the envelope, and sent out. Historical data show that Li Hongzhang had no response to Dr. Sun's letter.A very high possibility is that he, who was so busy with international disputes, never saw this letter. At that time, there were more than hundreds of young people who submitted letters, and Sun Wen’s discussion was quite grand without specific strategies, which was drowned out. , not surprisingly.However, for Dr. Sun, who had great ambitions, this was a great shame. Since then, he has decided to bid farewell to reform, resort to violence, and realize his ideal of governing the country in a radical way of bloody revolution.Just four months after he submitted the letter, he went to Honolulu to organize the revival of China, and put forward the slogan of "expel the Tartars, restore China, and establish a united government". At the end of 1895, he launched the "Guangzhou Uprising". The plan was suppressed before it was officially launched, many people were executed, and he was wanted and exiled overseas.In his own words, at this time, "the atmosphere is not yet open, and people's hearts are blocked...the public opinion of the whole country is full of rebellious officials and thieves, treacherous, and the voice of cursing and swearing is endless." Still in 1894. In July, when China and Japan went to war, the Empress Dowager Cixi moved from the Summer Palace to the Forbidden City, and all the officials of the Manchu Dynasty came out of the city to meet her.On that day, it happened to be a heavy rain, and the water on the road was quite deep. All the civil and military officials crawled along the roadside, their clothes and hats were completely wet, their knees were soaked in the water, and bright red water flowed from the red tassels on their tops. Zhidong's cousin, Zhang Zhiwan, was over eighty years old and could not get up from his knees for a long time.When Cixi passed the officials in a sedan chair, she didn't even lift her head, as if she saw nothing in front of her eyes.Among the hundreds of officials, one person witnessed this scene, and his heart was ashamed.Years later, he said, at that moment, "the dream of thirty years of imperial examinations came to an end here." In fact, he is the last person who should not have such thoughts in the civil and military affairs of the Manchu Dynasty, because just three months ago, he had just "big leader of the world" and became the number one scholar of Enke this year.What is even more astonishing is that a year later, this man named Zhang Jian (1853-1926) from Nantong, Jiangsu announced that he would give up his official career and turn to be a businessman. It is a big fresh joke for thousands of years that the number one scholar goes to sea to set up a factory.Ever since Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, started his examinations and boasted that "all the heroes in the world belong to me", picking laurel in the palace examination is the greatest honor in a Chinese scholar's life.However, Zhang Jian's business has overturned all the glory.He seemed to have slammed a sledgehammer into the hearts of scholars all over the world, and the shocking effect was indescribable. Zhang Jian's motivation for doing business has nothing to do with making money.He started from a farming family, studied hard and became famous. He had a 10-year career as an unsatisfactory actor, and he went as far as North Korea.As early as around 1886, he had the idea that "China must revitalize industry, and the literati should be responsible for it." He also drafted the "Articles and Statements for the Establishment of the Country and Self-Strengthening" for Zhang Zhidong, clearly stating that "the foundation of enriching the people and strengthening the country is real. Yu Gong".He called himself going into business as "sacrificing his life to feed the tiger", and he had the tragic feeling of "I don't go to hell, whoever goes to hell".In an autobiography in his later years, he recalled, "Zhang Jian's family was a poor man, and he didn't like to see rich people since he was a child. However, in order to develop an industry, he must be bound with the rich. After repeated deliberations, he decided to donate what he held and sacrifice his life to feed the tiger. I believe Demote for China's big plans, not for personal gain, and keep what you want but keep it. If you decide on your own plan, you will not look back." Zhang Jian wanted to run a spinning mill, and he named it Dasheng, which means "the great virtue of heaven and earth is life".At that time, Japanese businessmen were allowed to open yarn mills and silk factories in Shanghai. Zhang Jian had the intention of competing with them. Moreover, Jiangsu was the hometown of silk, and the spinning and weaving of yarn had an ancient tradition.He contacted six local cloth shop owners, timber merchants and pawnbrokers in Nantong as partners, and agreed to set up a spinning mill with 20,000 spindles. There was a lot of thunder when the number one scholar set up a factory, but in fact it was very embarrassing.His start-up capital is only 2000 taels of silver - 700 taels of which were borrowed from friends, that is to say, without the support of big officials and wealthy businessmen.In terms of official position, he is just an editor of the Imperial Academy with a false title, and he has no public power to use.Therefore, Dasheng Yarn Factory has a modern corporate atmosphere from the very beginning. He drafted a "Share Collection Regulations of Tonghai Dasheng Yarn Factory", and publicly raised 600,000 taels of shares from the public, divided into 6,000 shares, 100 taels per share. It is estimated that each share can make a profit of 22 taels per year. He plans to complete the subscription in Shanghai, Nantong and Haimen within a period of two months. However, although the return on investment is quite attractive, and Zhang Jian still has an incomparably prominent aura of champion, the stock offering is not ideal. Many people don't trust this scholar who has never been in business, and some people ask him, "What? Is it a factory?” He went to Shanghai to apply for shares, and after several months, he got nothing, and even used up all the money in his pocket, so he had to set up a stall and sell letters to get all the money back to Nantong.Zhang Jian even thought about money from temples and Taoist temples. Sometimes he couldn't make up 100 taels for a share, and he even accepted half a share. The smallest one was only 37 taels. One can imagine the difficulty of collecting shares. After one and a half years, the six businessmen who started playing with him also ran away a few times. By the end of 1896, they had raised less than 80,000 taels of money to set up the factory.At this time, Liu Kunyi, the Governor of Liangjiang and the Minister of Nanyang who had a good impression of Zhang Jian, was of great help.He proposed that the state-run Nanyang Textile Bureau has more than 20,000 yarn machines that have been overstocked for a long time and are useless. These equipment can be converted into official shares and a "government-business joint venture" can be established with Zhang Jian.These British-made machines have been sitting at the Shanghai wharf for five years. They are exposed to the sun and rain, and even the wooden packaging boxes are broken. Three to four out of ten of the machine parts are rusted. It cost 6000 taels.Zhang Jian, who had nowhere to go, gritted his teeth and took over the pile of machines.He revised the stock-raising regulations, and the capital of Dasheng was set at 500,000 taels, of which 20,000 official ingots were discounted to 250,000 taels of official shares, and he raised another 250,000 taels of social funds. At this moment, he was fooled by Sheng Xuanhuai once.As a fellow from Jiangsu, Sheng promised to help him raise funds. The two also solemnly signed a contract of "A contract for the joint operation of Tongshang Spinning Mill", with Zheng Xiaoxu and He Meisheng as witnesses.Unexpectedly, as soon as the contract was signed, Sheng felt that there was not much money to be made, so he started to let go.Zhang Jian wrote many urgent letters, almost with tears in every word, but in the end Sheng Xuanhuai did not cash in a tael of silver.Zhang Jian was very annoyed by this, and he could not forgive Sheng's dishonesty, and since then he has never thought about officials and businessmen. Finally, another year and a half passed, and in the summer of 1899, Dasheng Spinning Mill had enough funds to start construction. On May 23, the first batch of "Kuixing" brand white cotton yarn left the factory, and 6,000 spindles were started on that day.By February 1900, Dasheng Cotton Mill had made a profit of 26,000 taels of silver. Zhang Jian has a natural management and business genius.At the beginning of Dasheng’s founding, he personally wrote the "Factory Agreement", and divided the work between himself and several directors. Department heads hold regular meetings, and any problems are discussed and resolved in time at this meeting.What's interesting is that the "Factory Agreement" is so detailed that there are regulations on several small dishes for entertaining guests. The usual meals are two meat and two vegetables, and four dishes and two catties of wine are added on rest days.In addition, rewards are given twice a month, and during festivals or entertaining guests, the "eight dishes", "five gui", "four small bowls" and "one point" must not exceed this standard. In addition to the "Factory Agreement", there are 25 articles of association and 195 rules. At that time, this was probably the highest management level that Chinese self-owned enterprises could achieve. It can be seen from historical data that the only advantage of Zhang Jian’s establishment of a factory was that he registered a patent right in Nantong that “no other company is allowed to set up another spinning factory within 20 years and within a hundred miles”, which can be regarded as a bit of a monopoly. advantage, but this was also a common practice at the time. (When Li Hongzhang founded the machine weaving layout in Yangshupu, Shanghai, he demanded that "a time limit of 15 or 10 years should be given, and all trade ports should be ordered. No matter whether Chinese or foreigners, they are not allowed to weave themselves within the time limit." Kaiping Mining Bureau When it was opened, he also stipulated that no one else should be allowed to mine within ten miles of Tangshan.) In addition, the growth of Dasheng is almost entirely dependent on commercial operations.After normal production in the cotton mill, Zhang Jian founded Tonghai Reclamation Co., Ltd. and began to grow cotton himself in order to reduce the purchase cost of cotton.Then, he successively established Guangsheng Oil Factory, Daxing (Fuxin) Flour Mill, Zisheng Smelting (Iron) Factory, Fusheng Sericulture Dyeing and Weaving Company, Zesheng Water Conservancy Company, Dada Inland River Shipping Company, Dasheng Shipping Company, etc. These enterprises are all related to the spinning mills. The Guangsheng Oil Factory was established to use the cottonseed from ginning. The Dalong Soap Factory was established to use the waste oil from Guangsheng. The leftover flying flowers were used to produce wrapping paper and printing paper for Dasheng. Fuxin was established because Dasheng had surplus power and needed a lot of flour for sizing and weaving every day. The steamship company was originally established for Dasheng’s transportation needs. The real estate company needs housing because the increasing number of migrants needs housing, and the iron factory is to manufacture looms, ginning cars and other equipment. The creation of such a complete and exquisite industrial chain is completely the concept of large-scale industrial manufacturing. Not only was it unique in China at the time, but it is still the right way in business strategy after a hundred years.The British at that time wrote in a report, "The meaning of Zhang Dianzhuan is that all kinds of goods shipped from abroad should be established by China itself." Fan Xudong, a Tianjin industrialist who was a generation younger than Zhang Jian, later lamented He said endlessly: "Mr. Zhang Jizhi in the south (Zhang Jian's word Jizhi), under the environment of poisoning in the imperial examination, the industry he held was actually concerned about the coordination of raw materials and manufacturing, transportation, sales, and planning. feature." Zhang Jian’s other major contribution to setting up factories was the “gentry supervising business operations”. Compared with Sheng Xuanhuai’s “government supervising business operations”, this was a great improvement model for enterprises in the late Qing Dynasty. As a joint-stock Dasheng yarn factory, half of its share capital is the official shares converted from the pile of British yarn machines, so it was also called "co-operation between the government and the business" at the beginning, but in the end of Zhang Jian's life, he never let the government I have reached out to the enterprise. For decades, the official shares have only taken official profits and dividends, and have not interfered with factory affairs.As the "Prime Minister", although Zhang Jian himself is also one of the shareholders, his share capital is only 2,000 taels (accounting for only 0.4% of the total capital). His authority in Dasheng has never been based on capital or shares, but on his own He has the title of champion, network resources and management ability. As a gentry, he sits between officials and businessmen and is responsible for setting up factories with full authority. This is his unique and irreplaceable advantage. Officials cannot replace him, and pure businessmen cannot replace him.Another great thing about Zhang Jian is that when his business was booming, he did not rely on his own authority to take the company bit by bit as his own. This was not easy in the system and human environment at that time.In Dasheng's career, although he was "deified" at times, he was always under the supervision of shareholders. Especially in the late stage of business distress, he had to face accusations and pressure from the shareholders' meeting time and time again. Intellectuals went to sea to do business - what we call "scholar merchants" or "gentry merchants", gradually became fashionable in China after the Sino-Japanese War. In the late Qing Dynasty, the group of emerging entrepreneurs who devoted themselves to modern industry mainly consisted of four types of people. One was Sheng Xuanhuai-style government-run businessmen, the other was Zheng Guanying-style comprador businessmen, and the third was grass-roots private businessmen with a large number of people. The representative figures are the Wuxi Rong Zongjing brothers who will be mentioned later, and the fourth is the Zhang Jian-style gentry businessman.Ma Min, a Chinese scholar, believes that: "Between the two social classes of officials and merchants, scholars and merchants blur the boundaries between officials and merchants by virtue of their dual identities of 'being in charge of both officials and merchants'. "Communication with business and industry" constitutes a buffer and medium between officials and businessmen, and undertakes the dual mission of not only implementing the government's intentions, but also acting as an endorsement for the business community." Fei Zhengqing, a Harvard scholar who edited "Cambridge History of China", said of "Zhang Jian "Phenomenon" pointed out that at the end of the 19th century, there was no bourgeoisie in China. "On the contrary, it was these reformers who first created the bourgeoisie, or could be said to have invented the bourgeoisie. Started to invest in modern enterprises, mainly out of political and ideological motives. Their actions were caused by changing their beliefs or being infected by other ideas. Chinese capitalism has long had a certain voluntary idealism specialty." Zhang Jian’s business career did cause a great uproar at the time. Under his influence, two years later, another number one scholar in Suzhou, Lu Runxiang, also announced that he would go to sea to set up a yarn factory. There was also an old number one scholar in the Xianfeng Dynasty, Sun Jianai, who was already an official in the Ministry of Rites. Then he ordered his two sons, Sun Duosen and Sun Duoxin, to establish my country's first machine-made flour mill in Shanghai, the Fufeng Flour Mill. For the Chinese society of the "last karma", it is simply unbelievable. The sudden emergence of this literati and business class, due to its multiple combinations of ideas, capital, and political resources, will soon become a major force affecting the process of China's reform. Many of them will play an important role in the future social turmoil. subtle role. The disastrous defeat of the war against Japan discredited the Westernization faction, and Li Hongzhang fell to the point where "everyone in the country can be killed". Went to the Xianliang Temple under Hutou Peak in the suburbs of Beijing.Many historians believe that after the Sino-Japanese War, the tortuous Westernization Movement came to an end.However, judging from the facts, after 1895, the cause of Westernization reached a climax, and various projects that had previously been stranded or delayed due to ideological debates were rapidly advanced. After the Sino-Japanese War, Chinese people's acceptance of new things is no longer comparable to that of more than 20 years ago.The theory that railways and factories affect Feng Shui has finally become a joke. In November 1896, The New York Times wrote in a report, "The conservative Qing Dynasty is awakening." The newspaper reporter interviewed a newly built silk factory in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, where the latest machinery and equipment were installed. , also built a new chimney up to 90 feet, "The chimney is a major blow to the feudal superstition of the Qing people, and it is a great challenge to the so-called Feng Shui concept. Before that, how much the Qing people advocated superstition and Feng Shui! There is no doubt that Now they haven't even said a word of protest." According to the statistics of the scholar Wang Jingyu in "Modern Chinese Economic History", in the four years from 1895 to 1898, a total of 62 factories and mines with a capital of more than 10,000 taels were newly opened in all provinces across the country, with a total capital of 12.465 million taels of silver, far exceeding The total number of more than 20 years before the Sino-Japanese War, in terms of growth rate, the average number of factories established per year was more than 7 times that before the Sino-Japanese War, and the average annual investment was more than 15.5 times. While private investment is booming, state-owned enterprises have also made major breakthroughs.During this period, Sheng Xuanhuai, who has been operating on the front line of the industry, became the most dazzling figure. Almost all the projects he handled were related to the national line. In May 1896, Sheng Xuanhuai was recruited by Zhang Zhidong, governor of Huguang, to take over Hanyang Iron Works, the largest steel company in China at that time.At first, he thought of entrusting foreign businessmen to undertake the project, which is of course a typical official thinking.After Sheng Xuanhuai learned about it, he went to call again and again to ask for a job, and insisted that "the iron government belongs to foreign businessmen, and the disadvantages are far away if the power is large, and it belongs to the Chinese businessmen, but the effect is far away if the power is small." Finally, Xiang Shuai was persuaded. After Sheng Xuanhuai took over the Iron Works, he immediately invited Zheng Guanying to be the general manager. Zheng Guanying and Sheng Xuanhuai appreciate each other and are good friends for life. They are the most outstanding industrialists in the world.However, they have always been at odds with the concept of government-supervised business management. Zheng believes in people-oriented principles and has always been deeply dissatisfied with the government-business system. The fate of Tang Tingshu and Xu Run in China Merchants more than ten years ago made him feel cold. .However, he has a heart to know Sheng, and he also wants to use Sheng's official background and strong power to revitalize the country's industry.This ambivalence haunted him all his life.He was very hesitant about taking over the Hanyang Iron Works, and finally decided to "come out of the mountain on a voluntary basis." He said in a letter to his friends, "The Prime Minister Hanyang Iron Works stated at the time that it was an obligation and would not receive salary. However, he wanted to rectify it and save it. Crisis situation, but to comfort the confidant's ears." Although he does not receive a salary, he does his part in doing things.As soon as Zheng Guanying took office, he announced the recruitment of private shares and sufficient capital.At the same time, he rebuilt the iron melting furnace in Daye, the iron ore producing area, which greatly reduced the cost of long-distance transportation of iron sand.Then in terms of production improvement, he proposed that "seeking coke and selecting talents" are the two most urgent tasks to save the iron factory.The problem with Hanyang Iron is that the price is high and the quality is poor. The production cost of pig iron in the British and American factories is 15 taels per ton, while the Hanyang factory needs 25 taels. The key lies in the shortage of raw material coke and the backward refining technology.In order to solve the coke problem, he sent people to explore coal mines in nearby Jiangxi, Hunan and other places, and finally chose to use the nearest Pingxiang coke, "set up a bureau to buy coal for coking".In order to reduce transportation costs, he also built a 180-mile railway from Pingxiang to Xiangtan and Zhuzhou.After solving the problem of raw material supply, he made innovations in ironmaking technology, hired high-level British engineers, and set up a special school to train his own technical talents.With a two-pronged approach, in just one year, the production of Hanyang Iron Works quickly came back to life. Under his strategic adjustment, Hanyeping (Hanyang, Daye and Pingxiang) formed the largest iron and steel complex in Asia, and has a prominent position in the history of Chinese industry. After Zheng Guanying solved many problems such as insufficient capital, high coke price and low quality, it was time for Sheng Xuanhuai to solve the problem of product sales. At that time, steel was produced for two main purposes. One was to produce guns. Rifles made of Hanyang iron were known as "Made in Hanyang" in history. They were the most important basic equipment of the Chinese Army for the next fifty years. There must be, and there is no service.The second is to build railways. It was not until after the Sino-Japanese War that the imperial court and local governments began to realize the importance of railways.At that time, there were only 360 kilometers of national railways, compared with 182,000 kilometers in the United States, 21,000 kilometers in the United Kingdom, 25,000 kilometers in France, and 3,300 kilometers in even the small island country of Japan.Railways were as important to the economy back then as the Internet is today.For more than two decades at the intersection of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, almost all corporate securities in the two major stock exchanges in London and New York were related to railways. William Roy, an expert on American economic history, even believed that railway companies shaped corporatization Early American history, "In short, the corporate structure is the railroad structure." The raw material of railways is steel.When Sheng Xuanhuai took over the Hanyang factory, the first agreement he reached with Zhang Zhidong was that if the railway was built in Huguang, the rails from the Hanyang factory must be used.Zhang agrees with this very much. In his memorial to the court, he said, "The current situation is becoming more and more urgent, and the plan for prosperity and strength is based on the railway as the first plan." So, within the court, who is responsible?In a nutshell, Zhang said, "If you want to invite businessmen to undertake the railway, it seems that this person is competent." This person is Sheng Xuanhuai. Zheng Guanying was also insightful about this. He said to Sheng, "If the railway is not under my father's control, I will withdraw from the ironworks." He also observed a phenomenon at that time that officials from all over the country were very happy to purchase foreign companies On the surface, the grand reason is that the quality of the foreign goods is good, but in reality there are other tricks. The selfishness of the left and right generations." It is a pity that the scene described by Zheng Guanying has not been eradicated in the past century. Sheng Xuanhuai naturally knew the key to this. He actively asked himself to be the supervisor of the Luhan Railway Company, and then tried his best to become the supervisor of the Guangdong-Han Railway. In September 1896, four months after taking over the Hanyang factory, Emperor Guangxu promised to build a Chinese railway. The head office is supervised by Sheng Xuanhuai, who is granted the title of Shaoqing of Shaochang Temple and enjoys the privilege of specializing in commemorative affairs.His first memorial after taking office was to request that "all government-run steel materials will be ordered from Hubei Factory (that is, Hanyang Iron Factory) in the future, and no foreign goods shall be purchased." That is to say, "rails from the factory "Out" has become a national policy.Once, he heard that the railway from Nanguan to Baise in Guangxi was going to be built with French-made rails. He urgently asked Zhang Zhidong to stop him, and he insisted on taking the business. For the next ten years, almost all of Sheng Xuanhuai's energy was devoted to road construction.The first railway line built at that time was Lugou Bridge, more than 10 kilometers away from the capital (40 years later, the "July 7th Incident" occurred here, and the Anti-Japanese War broke out in an all-round way) to the Luhan Railway in Hankou, Hubei. Sheng Xuanhuai said when talking about the difficulty of road construction , "There are three difficulties, if you have no money, you must invest in foreign debts; if you have no materials, you must buy foreign goods;修铁路2100多公里，是之前三十余年的6倍，甚至超过民国成立至民国二十年（1911年－1931年）所修铁路的总数。 靠“轨由厂出”的垄断政策，盛宣怀打通了钢铁厂与铁路公司的产业链，但是，他还碰到了另外一个大难题，那就是修铁路的钱从哪里来。 在这一点上，赋闲在家的恩公李鸿章给他的建议是，“洋债不及洋股容易”。当时，几乎所有的洋行和外资银行都对铁路事宜垂涎三尺，如要招募股份，可以说马上会被踏破门槛。然而，盛则表示万万不可。在他看来，当时中国面对的是一个充满了敌意的世界，在国力赢弱之时，铁路权很可能被洋股控制，到时候，“俄请筑路东三省，英请筑路滇、川、西藏，法请筑路两粤，毗连疆域，初则借路攘利，终必因路割地，后患无穷。若借款自造，债是洋债，路是华路。”他对李鸿章表示，宁可借钱也不能出让股份，唯有这样，主权才不会外泄。尽管困难陡增，不过，“唯有坚忍，力持得步进步，渐图成效。” 作为“国企大当家”，盛宣怀对外国资本的警惕十分强烈——谁料，十多年后，他竟因修路事宜被国人“误读”为“卖国求利”，最终导致帝国的覆灭，其情曲折，令人百年感慨。1897年，也是洋务派名士的容闳提出用法国资金修筑天津至江苏镇江的津镇线，盛得知后，“恐以后各路事权均属外人，无一路可以自主”，因此急电朝廷，百般阻扰。容闳是曾国藩时代就已成名的人物，为盛宣怀数十年好友，此议且得到李鸿章认同，盛仍不惜翻脸，直言反对。 洋股不得入，郑观应给他的建议是，创办新式银行。他在信函中说，“银行为百业总枢，籍以维持铁厂、铁路大局，万不可迟。”盛宣怀马上依计而行，他给内阁大学士、接替李鸿章出任直隶总督的王文韶写信说：“因铁厂不能不办铁路，又因铁路不能不办银行。”就在出任铁路总公司督办的一个月后，他又乘光绪皇帝召见的机会，提出开办银行。 此议很快准奏。1896年11月，中国第一家现代银行——中国通商银行获准成立，盛宣怀受命出任督办。他招募上海、南洋等地的十多个民间商人入股得300万两，朝廷入100万两，银行章程均以英国汇丰银行为蓝本。通商银行成立之际，一度代行了中央银行之职责——清政府正式的央行（户部银行，1908年更名为大清银行）要到1905年才成立，负责铸币及发行货币，其利润当然丰厚，盛宣怀在给朝廷的报告中得意地说，“询诸汇丰开办之初，尚无如此景象。”（中国通商银行：1897年5月，在上海外滩6号开业，实收资本金250万两，100万两来自盛宣怀主管的轮船招商局和电报局，78万两来自李鸿章等官员投资，其余为商股。民国后，日渐衰落，1934年，该行在上海各大银行中排名第15位。1935年，被国民政府收编，1949年，新政府接管，1952年公私合营。） 建铁厂、修铁路、办银行，盛宣怀在1896年前后一口气干成三件大事，而且产业垄断、混业经营、上下游通吃，自然成就为当时最显赫的大实业家。