Chapter 11 People in corporate history North Week

From the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China, the most famous industrialist in the north was Zhou Xuexi. Zhou Xuexi was the most famous and successful official businessman after Sheng Xuanhuai.He was born in a family of officials and eunuchs. His father, Zhou Fu, followed Li Hongzhang in his early years and became the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. He was also a famous minister of the Westernization School.He has a close relationship with Yuan Shikai, and once became the financial operator of the Beiyang government.Zhou's industry is huge, and it is one of the largest industrial groups in the early Republic of China. It is called "South Zhang Bei Zhou" together with Zhang Jian in Jiangnan.

Zhou Xuexi became the general office of Kaiping Mining Bureau when he was 30 years old. On the one hand, it was because he was good at business strategy, and on the other hand, it was because the Zhou family and Zhang Yi were sons and daughters.After Zhang Yi sold the game, Zhou resigned angrily, and then defected to Yuan Shikai, a rising political star at that time, the governor of Shandong Province. . Zhou Xuexi was very worried about Kaiping being cheated and vowed to take it back. He believed that energy is the foundation of all industries. Immediately proposed to Yuan Shikai the strategy of "using Luan to control development", that is, to open another Luanzhou coal mine ten times larger than Kaiping near the Kaiping mine, to surround the mine veins in the Kaiping mining area, and then crush Kaiping through competition, making it Submission, and finally achieve the purpose of recovery.

This very original and ambitious idea was implemented. In 1907, Luanzhou Coal Mine Co., Ltd. was established, and Zhou became the prime minister. It started with 500,000 taels of official silver and raised another 2 million taels of commercial shares. It was stated that foreign companies were not allowed to take shares. "The authority to offer shares is for Chinese businessmen, and foreign stocks are not allowed." In order to express support, Yuan Shikai, who had been promoted to governor of Zhili and Minister of Beiyang, announced that "the 330 square miles of Luanzhou Coal Mine are strictly prohibited from mining by others," and at the same time specified that the mine was Beiyang. The official mine serves the Beiyang military supplies.

When Zhou Xuexi opened the mine in Luanzhou, he used both hands and feet, using the latest coal mining machinery, and digging many small coal mines by local methods. For a time, the Kaiping mining area was dotted with dots, and suddenly became surrounded. fear.From the official start of production in 1908 to 1912, Luanzhou Coal Mine produced more than 1.3 million tons of coal, and sales in the Beijing and Tianjin markets continued to rise.In order to create market pressure, Zhou Xuexi engaged in a price war from the very beginning, and the price of coal of the same quality was lower than that in Kaiping.From 1906 to 1910, Kaiping’s benefits have been very good, with an average annual profit of more than 2 million taels, and an average annual dividend rate of 12.5%. Years later, Kaiping Coal sold at lower prices, even lowering the price to lower than that of Luanzhou Coal.Zhou Xuexi couldn't take it anymore. He borrowed from various foreign firms, but was obstructed secretly by Kaiping Company, and finally had to issue 1.5 million taels of bonds.

The entanglement between Kaiping and Luanzhou left both sides bruised and wounded.Zhou Xuexi and the British side negotiated and negotiated for many times on the merger of the two mines, and the two parties were at odds over three sensitive issues of the nature of the company, profit distribution and management rights.In the end, the British businessmen saw that the central government was determined to support Zhou Xuexi, and it was no good to continue the dispute, so they agreed to return Kaiping to the Chinese side at the price of a "ransom" of 2.7 million pounds.Zhou Xuexi bargained and reduced the price to 1.78 million pounds.The British side has decided to agree.However, in October 1911, the situation took another 180-degree sudden change.

In that month, the Revolution of 1911 broke out in Wuchang, the imperial court was in jeopardy, and the warships of various countries in the northern ports sounded their sirens, as if the dangerous scene of the Gengzi Guochang 11 years ago was reproduced.The shareholders of Luanzhou Company were afraid of the tragedy of being robbed of the coal mine by foreigners at the barrel of a gun again, and hastily agreed to renegotiate the merger.As a result, the host and the guest suddenly changed positions. In November, Kaiping and Luanzhou reached a "ten terms of agreement on joint conditions" and agreed to merge into Sino-British Kailuan Mining Co., Ltd., with equal shares and 60% of profits from Kaiping and 60% from Luanzhou. The state gets 40%, and the management right is controlled by the British side.

The gains and losses of the Kailuan merger are very controversial in business history.Some scholars believe that this merger is a good thing for both parties in Kailuan. The two major coal mines will no longer fight price wars, achieving the scale effect of integration, and they can be regarded as equals in commercial negotiations. And language.Some scholars also believe that the merger of Kailuan is essentially "merging Luan with Kailuan". The Luanzhou Coal Mine has only 40% of the profit with ten times the area, and the management rights are all in the hands of the British. The result is completely different from Zhou Xuexi's original intention of opening.The Kailuan case once again proved the truth in the most direct and cruel way - if the country is not strong, business cannot stand.For more than 30 years thereafter, the Kailuan Coal Mine was always controlled by a British-funded company, and it was not taken back by New China until the end of 1948.

Zhou Xuexi was of course very sad about the outcome of the Kailuan merger, and he refused to be the supervisor of the new company.In his diary, he said with emotion, "I brushed the tiger's beard and risked all kinds of difficulties to establish the Luan Mine. After several desperate situations, I first meant that I would close the mine with Luan. Now it is only a joint business situation, which is not my wish." I also wrote a couplet at home, "I am lonely and loyal, but God knows me, and everything should be considered and looked at today." The meaning of a strong man's unfinished business is mottled and lonely on the paper.

At the same time when Luanzhou Coal Mine was fighting with the British, Zhou Xuexi used Yuan's background to establish many industries. Like Sheng Xuanhuai, his main means of doing business was to seek government-business monopoly, and the most important business opponents in his life were mostly multinational companies. In 1906, he set up Qixin Cement Factory, which was the only large-scale domestic cement factory.At that time, the cement market was monopolized by Japanese companies. In order to squeeze out Qixin, the Japanese companies engaged in a price war. The selling price of a bag of Japanese cement in Japan was 2.97 taels per bag, and the average shipping cost to China was 2.5 taels per bag. But it was sold at a price of 3 taels per bag, which clearly showed a loss of 2.4 taels per bag.Qi Xin rose to the challenge, reducing the original price per barrel from 2.25 taels to 1.55 taels, and bagged cement from 1 tael to 0.7 taels per pack.In order to reduce manufacturing costs, Zhou Xuexi asked the Luanzhou coal mine he controlled to supply coal to Qixin at a 30% discount.At the same time, he made full use of the advantages of the government and businessmen to take over almost all important construction projects at that time, such as the Huaihe River Railway Bridge, the Yellow River Bridge, sea dams and wharves in Qingdao, Yantai, Xiamen, Weihai and other places, as well as the Beijing Library, Yenching University, etc. , Continental Bank, Bank of Communications, Hebei Gymnasium, Shanghai General Post Office and other famous buildings are all made of Continental cement from Qixin Company.When building the Beijing-Zhangjiakou and Beijing-Han railways, the imperial court even explicitly required the use of Continental cement.With a two-pronged approach, Zhou Xuexi insisted on snatching the cement market from Japanese businessmen, monopolizing the Chinese market for more than ten years, and the sales volume reached more than 92% of the total sales volume in the country.

In 1908, Zhou Xuexi was approved to build a tap water project in Beijing, and he spent 22 months laying 200,000 meters of water pipes all over Beijing. In 1915, Zhou Xuexi founded a cotton mill in Tianjin. He obtained special privileges from Yuan Shikai. The purchased machine materials and cotton and other raw materials were exempted from all taxes, and the gauze produced was only levied a factory tax.This kind of preferential treatment naturally makes the spinning mills reap huge profits.In addition, he also founded the Industrial Bank of China, invested in the establishment of Yaohua Glass Company, had the initiative to transport roads, railways and canals, and gradually formed a huge Zhou's enterprise group, with a total capital of more than 40 million silver dollars at its peak. It is one of the largest enterprise groups in the country.

While doing business, Zhou Xuexi also served as Yuan Shikai's "money bag". In 1912, Yuan became the president of the Republic of China, and the treasury was empty. Zhou Xuexi was invited to be the chief financial officer. He negotiated loans with consortiums from six countries including Britain, France, and the United States. There was no room for maneuver, and under the urging of Yuan Shikai, a "aftermath loan agreement" was finally reached to borrow 25 million pounds from banks in five countries including HSBC in the UK and Deutsche Wain in Germany.This loan is mortgaged by the national salt tax, which is a major pain in financial history. Moreover, the bonds were sold at a 10% discount and received in August 4th. The actual loan was only 21 million pounds, and after deducting the previous advances of 6 million pounds, The 2.8 million pounds borrowed by the provinces and the 2 million pounds in reparations for the losses of the countries during the revolution, the government was actually only half of the debt, but the interest for 47 years was as high as 42.85 million pounds.Zhou Xuexi dealt with all kinds of troubles in this negotiation and was tortured. After the terms were announced, he was scolded and betrayed by the people of the country. He was deeply ashamed and resigned soon. In 1915, Yuan Shikai once again invited him out to serve as the Chief Financial Officer. At that time, Zhang Jian served as the Chief of Agriculture and Commerce, and "Southern Zhang and Northern Zhou" entered the cabinet together.Both of them became giant businessmen from officials and gentry, but because of their different paths, they have completely different economic policy ideas. Zhang Jian was deeply hurt by bureaucrats in the process of starting a business, so he always believed that the official intervention in the enterprise would only destroy the freedom of operation and compete with the people for profit, which would inevitably lead to the failure of the enterprise.He sympathizes with private enterprises struggling to survive in the cracks between bureaucrats and foreign businessmen, and describes the plight of private enterprises as "surviving a life of death". Therefore, he is willing to speak on behalf of private capital to call for the reduction of monopoly and the expansion of private enterprises.After he took office as the chief minister of agriculture and commerce, he issued an announcement: "Starting today, all government-run enterprises affiliated to the headquarters will be closed and will be undertaken by investment promotion; however, there are some large-scale industries, such as silk tea machinery, etc., which cannot be operated by one or two private companies. However, its importance is related to the progress of social agriculture and commerce, so the government can make plans first to arouse the interest of the people, and then hand it over to the private sector.” The line of thought basically coincides with the idea of ​​Japan’s Meiji Restoration. Zhou Xuexi, on the other hand, seems to come from an official and businessman background, and his businesses are all closely related to the government, which is quite beneficial.Therefore, completely different from Zhang Jian's free commercialism, he showed strong nationalism in various aspects such as finance, taxation and economy.He proposed to "implement national socialism, make all kinds of industries flourish, and make great profits." He led the planning of ten industrial and transportation construction projects, including Yunnan Copper Mine, Yanchang Petroleum, Liguo Iron Mine, Mohe Gold Mine, Qinhuangdao Commercial Port, Haitang Dock, Koubei Railway, provincial railways, forest law along the river, opened textile factories, etc.These projects all have a strong central planning color. It was also when he was chief executive that he planned to set up a spinning mill in Tianjin.On the one hand, he invited many senior officials in the government to become shareholders, such as Yuan Shikai's son, the prime minister, cabinet ministers, and warlords, and many others became shareholders; on the other hand, he sought various preferential policies from the government. , He even proposed to "specialize in the three provinces of Zhizhi, Shandong, and Henan for 30 years", that is, the entire East China region can only be operated by his old Zhou family's sole spinning mill.This proposal needs to be jointly approved by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce. Zhou himself is the chief financial officer, and he stamped the big seal of "agreed" very quickly. However, the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce under the leadership of Zhang Jian got stuck, and this one was blocked. After coming down, Zhou and Zhang had a very unpleasant quarrel for a while. Yuan Shikai attempted to proclaim himself emperor and died in Beijing.Zhou Xuexi lost his backer, and the previous discounts were lost one by one, and various industries became the targets of warlords' erosion and competition.Zhou Jiliu retired bravely and basically quit the business world by 1927, when he was only 61 years old.For the next twenty years, he hid in the Zhou mansion in Sanduoli, Tianjin as a very low-key apartment. He set up a Shigu hall at home, wore blue cloth robes all day long, and passed the time by reciting Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism. Oppose children and grandchildren to go to new-style schools.When he was dying, he left two poems "The Last Words of Shier", which contain "I hope that the descendants will still accumulate virtue, and continue to study behind closed doors." There is no great businessman in the descendants of the Zhou family. Master, founder of the China Buddhist Academy, whose grandson Zhou Shaoliang is a famous red scholar and Dunhuang scholar. In later generations, few people know Zhou Xuexi.He is mentioned very occasionally, but because of a drama "Gossip". In 1934, Cao Yu, a student of Tsinghua University who was born in Tianjin, created a four-act drama "Thunderstorm", which caused a sensation due to its distinct anti-feudal theme and strong tragic temperament. Cao Yu became one of the most outstanding dramatists in China. The story of "Thunderstorm" takes place in Tianjin. The protagonist is a big industrialist named Zhou Puyuan, and his residence is called "Zhou Mansion", so many people guess that it is the story of Zhou Xuexi's family.It was not until many years later that Cao Yu "clarified" in a short article that "the Zhou family is a big family and has contacts with my family, but it has nothing to do with the incident. They just borrowed a building in the British Concession." The image of a big old house."