Chapter 10 Foreign Compradors: A Special Phenomenon in China

The word "comprador" comes from Portuguese, and it originally means a servant in southern China who is in charge of purchasing for European merchants in the market.Later, it evolved to specifically refer to local businessmen who help foreign companies expand their business scope in China.The early foreign compradors were not employees of foreign foreign firms, but independent businessmen. They had an agency relationship with foreign firms. In order to obtain comprador qualifications, they often needed to pay a certain deposit. If the business scale failed to reach the expected target or suffered losses , their security deposit will be deducted by foreign firms.Similarly, if their performance is good, they will also enjoy the profit sharing of foreign firms.

From a purely commercial point of view, it is understandable that compradors are normal commercial agency behaviors.However, if the foreign banks do not conduct fair trade, but extractive trade; foreign banks do not conduct ordinary financial services, but manipulative behavior to control the money supply, then the nature of the problem has changed.The stronger the influence of foreign firms and foreign banks and the larger the scale of their business, the more serious the harm to the Chinese economy will be.In this process, foreign compradors who help foreign financial capital expand their sphere of influence have become important accomplices who harm their own interests.

From the case of Hu Xueyan being hunted and killed, people can clearly see the major damage done by the foreign comprador class to China's economy, finance, trade and people's livelihood.Without the dedicated efforts of foreign compradors, it would be impossible for foreign firms and banks to gain such control in China. Is it equal business dealings, or control and manipulation?Correctly judging the intention and behavior of foreign financial capital is the core of all historical merits and demerits and right and wrong judgments. Throughout the world, the phenomenon of foreign compradors is almost a Chinese characteristic.No such special class has ever appeared in India, Japan, Korea in Asia, or in the American continent.This is a phenomenon unique to China's semi-colonial state.In the process of Western expansion, America and Africa were the first to be colonized, and Asia’s India and Southeast Asia were later conquered. In these areas completely colonized by the West, Western ruling forces can directly implement vertical rule without resorting to local The middleman acts as a proxy for control, so there is no need for comprador trouble.The situation in China is quite unique. The Western colonists came to China too late, and China is relatively strong and cannot completely rule China vertically in a short period of time. Therefore, it must rely on an intermediate class to control it on its behalf. This class is the bureaucracy and comprador class.

From a deeper perspective, whenever a colony is ruled, the local writing must be completely eliminated, because the writing carries the genes of civilization and maintains a complex national self-identity and spiritual belonging. If conquering a country does not eliminate its writing, the ruler will either Assimilated, or expelled.It is the only choice for successful ruling that the ruled identify with the ruler from both spiritual and emotional aspects. It is no exception throughout the ages, and the same is true of any colony in the world.Colonial empires such as Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the United States, and Japan all first destroyed the colonial characters, causing the ruled nations to completely and completely collectively lose their memory, and re-accepted the spiritual and emotional indoctrination of the colonial empires in order to realize Its "long-term stability".In today's world, the general poverty and backwardness in former colonial areas is largely a legacy of the colonial era.The frightening thing is not that the material wealth of these areas has been plundered, but that the destruction of the colonial countries’ writing has resulted in extreme confusion in the spiritual world and a complete breakdown of the belief system. Rebuilding confidence in one’s own civilization is far from economic development and material Prosperity can pay off in the short term.

China's luck lies in the tenacious vitality of Chinese characters and the huge civilization system built on it.Whether it is the cunning of Britain, the greed of Russia, or the arrogance of Japan, it is impossible to completely conquer Chinese civilization.It is in this kind of realistic helplessness that Western colonial empires had to borrow and rely on foreign compradors to plunder and control wealth. In the case of the complete fall of the financial high frontier, neither the Westernization Movement, the Reform Movement of 1898, nor even the Qing Dynasty can fundamentally change the state of China's semi-colonization.

At that time, Japan also faced the colonial ambitions of Western powers, and was also opened the door to trade, but it had a completely opposite fate from China.The fundamental difference between the success of the Meiji Restoration and the failure of the Westernization Movement was that Japan maintained its high financial frontier, and foreign financial forces failed to effectively control Japan's currency system.Most importantly, Japan did not form a strong foreign comprador class.Therefore, it is difficult for foreign banks to conduct business in Japan, let alone control Japan's financial lifeline.

Since 1863, the six major foreign banks that have opened in Japan have carried a capital of up to 200 million taels of silver. Their strength is many times stronger than that of Japanese banks back then. Total bank capital is less than half that figure.However, with the exception of HSBC, which is still functioning, other foreign banks have collapsed.The number of domestic banks in Japan skyrocketed from zero to 1,867 in 1901.Before the Meiji Restoration, almost entirely with the credit support of the country’s banking system, it completed the modernization of industry, making Japan the only successful example of getting rid of the colonization of Western powers in Asia.

It is precisely because Japan has firmly controlled the high financial frontier and continuously provided a large amount of credit for its industry, national defense and trade that it gave birth to a rapidly rising industrial power.