Chapter 13 1983 Bu Xin's birthday

On January 3, the first supermarket in China opened in Haidian District, Beijing. It is only 200 square meters in size, and 100 customers can’t turn around at a time. It only sells vegetables and meat. It is 5-40% more expensive than the vegetable market not far away.The vast majority of Beijingers walked in curiously, and immediately fled out with their tongues stuck out. The buyers were almost all foreigners. They complained that there were only prices on the packaging bags but no product name and quality, so they often put the chicken meat on the package. Buy it as pork. Also in January, a London-based "Asia and Middle East Investment Co., Ltd." established a "China Investment Capital Fund" with a total amount of US$10 million.According to a report in the Asian Wall Street Journal, this is the first investment fund specially set up for China. It will be divided into 100 shares and invested in "new or existing medium-sized industrial enterprises with development potential." .This news was reprinted by "Reference News", but it didn't seem to attract anyone's attention.At that time, "investment fund" was really a strange and distant term.

In the past five years of reform and opening up, everything seems to have not been carried out according to the regulations.The "contracting system" that worked once in the countryside has not been effective in enterprise reform. The administrative departments and state-owned enterprises that have been operating in the planned management system for many years seem to be unaccustomed to using the market to change themselves. The investment of transnational capital in China The interest seems to be not as great as expected, but the compatriots in Hong Kong in the south are very active, but in terms of the total amount, it is really difficult to quench the thirst of Deng Gong, who fought in the Huaihai Campaign and commanded a million troops across the Yangtze River.The surge of forces outside the system is unexpected, but we have to wait and see how big it will grow and where it will lead China.

Over the past two years, Nian Guangjiu and Chen Zhixiong have been arguing over whether it is illegal to employ more than eight helpers. No one dares to violate Marx's classic statement, but the reality seems to be that the inflated balloon is about to close. The explosion, Deng Xiaoping obviously also noticed this problem, when the two sides could not argue, everyone hoped that he could give a clear explanation.In a request for instructions on how to deal with private property owners hiring more helpers than the regulations, Deng Xiaoping wrote his opinion in scribbled handwriting: "Let's wait for two years." According to his instructions, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China immediately put forward The three-no principle: "It is not advisable to advocate, don't publicize, and don't rush to ban it." Two years later, it was not until the No. 5 document of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 1987 that the restriction on the number of hired workers was removed. "Changed to a 16-character policy: "Allow existence, strengthen management, promote advantages and restrain disadvantages, and gradually guide." At that time, the phenomenon of private owners employing a large number of laborers was everywhere, and there was no controversy in public opinion. up.

From this detail, we can see Deng Xiaoping's strategic thinking for leading this arduous transformation: move forward by feeling the stones, without arguing or making clear policy definitions, and let the final facts define the direction of progress.This kind of transformational thinking has turned China into a huge positive testing ground and adventure playground, where all passion and ambition are unleashed, and the flames erupting from the bottom of society finally set the earth aflame, as long as it is beneficial to the economy There seems to be no taboo for development and wealth accumulation. The moral bottom line and legal bottom line of Chinese society are challenged and impacted again and again, and public values ​​are becoming more and more secular and materialized.

In January 1983, all of this was just beginning. In December, Deng Xiaoping pointed out in a talk that some people should be allowed to get rich first.For many years to come, he repeatedly mentioned "Let some people get rich first", which became one of his most famous reform maxims.Together with famous sayings such as "crossing the river by feeling for the stones" and "it doesn't matter whether the cat is white or black, as long as it catches mice, it is a good cat" it formed the ideological basis of Deng's reforms. Many of those who got rich first were small people outside the system.More than ten years later, they will become the wealthy class of this country, but in that year, they were still timidly groping in poverty.

Just after the Spring Festival, Chen Yuxin, a college student who had just been assigned by the Agricultural Bureau of Xinjin County, Sichuan, suddenly resigned. What is even more incredible is that he asked to go to the countryside to work as a professional householder.This caused an uproar in the small county. Chen Yuxin's original name was Liu Yongmei. He has two older brothers, Liu Yongyan and Liu Yongxing, and one younger brother, Liu Yonghao. factories and institutions.The third child suddenly wanted to resign and become a farmer, which made everyone puzzled. Zhong Guanglin, secretary of the county party committee, planned to talk to the first cadre in the county to resign in person.Chen Yuxin's attitude was very firm, and Zhong couldn't object too much. Finally, he asked him earnestly, "Xiao Chen, you have gone to the countryside, and the vast world, you must make good use of the knowledge you have learned, and at least ten peasant households will be enriched. indivual."

Only the four brothers of the Liu family knew what Chen Yuxin was thinking.These four young people who are young and well-informed in the local area have long been impatient to spend their whole lives in the sluggish business organization. They made a plan to set up an electronics factory.They even developed their first product, a two-channel audio system, and secretly took it to the entrance of a shopping mall in the county, and the sound effect was not bad.At that time, private enterprises were not allowed in the cities at all, and the only possibility was to set up commune and brigade enterprises in the countryside.Therefore, the result of the discussion was that the third brother who was most proficient in radio resigned first to start a commune and team enterprise in Gujia Village in the suburbs, and the other three brothers resigned and joined separately.At that time, they even thought about the name of the factory. They admired Edison, the great inventor. His company was called GE, and the factory of the Liu brothers was called "Xinyi".

Chen Yuxin entered Gujia Village with his blanket on his back. A few weeks later, he took the village's report on the establishment of Xinyi Electronics Factory to the county for approval, but was flatly rejected.The reason is, "You don't have money, you don't have engineers, what are you doing!" The way to set up an electronics factory was inexplicably blocked.Chen Yuxin wailed and fell seriously ill.But life is still going on, and the four brothers decided that they could only find a way out in the rural business.At that time, the farmland had been subcontracted to households, the life of farmers gradually improved, and the breeding industry began to show signs of development.The Liu brothers thought it would be a good idea to set up a breeding farm.

In this way, the brothers of the Liu family, who will become the richest man in China in the future, started their first business: Yuxin Seed Farm.It was the autumn of 1983. Liu Yongyan sold the only watch in his family, Liu Yongxing sold his bicycle, and the four brothers pooled more than 1,000 yuan in total. Chen Yuxin converted his house into an incubator, and he and his wife moved to In a small single room near a kindergarten.A family entrepreneurial history full of legends and twists and turns began in such a humble way.A year later, a man named Yin Zhiguo defrauded 2,000 chickens and almost bankrupted the farm.Fortunately, at this time, Liu Yongyan saw a piece of news that Prime Minister Kim Il Sung of North Korea sent a batch of quail to China. The newspaper said that it was a "bird that lays eggs".He was very moved. He heard that there were quails for sale in Guan County nearby, so he rushed to buy 50 large quails and 200 breeding eggs.Because he spent all his money, he finally returned to Xinjin after walking a long distance with a large cage of quail and eggs.

It is said that quail will lay "golden eggs" because of its high egg production rate. A quail can lay an egg almost every day.The Liu brothers calculated that the average feed cost for laying an egg was about two to three cents. At that time, an egg could be sold for five to six cents, and the profit was almost double that.Moreover, quails are small, do not take up space, and are easy to breed on a large scale.Therefore, they shifted the focus of the breeding farm to quail breeding. The four brothers have their own expertise in agricultural technology and radio, and they are equally desperate to start a business. Of course, their breeding farm is much better than others.In order to improve the egg production rate, Chen Yuxin and Liu Yonghao have figured out the electric incubation technology. Liu Yonghao carries quail eggs to the counties and towns near Xinjin every day to sell them. Because he walks a lot every day, the old injury on his left leg, which was injured when he was young, recurs. , and finally fell into the sequelae of being slightly lame.Soon, they were making money on quail farming.By the end of the year, the Liu family bought a 14-inch color TV, which made the neighbors in the four townships envious.

In Xinjin, raising quails has gradually become a fashion. A few years later, it became the largest quail breeding base in the country, with more than 100,000 farmers, and the Liu brothers also found their "first pot of gold".Just then, they quickly switched to another industry.In quail breeding, they experimented with a feed formula. With the increasing number of farmers, feed became the most scarce commodity. The Liu brothers immediately opened a feed factory, which was named "Hope". It later became the largest feed group in China.At that time, there was only one state-owned feed factory in the entire Chengdu area, which was no match for the Liu family brothers in terms of system. It started from quail feed to produce pig feed that was in greater demand. Around 1987, the Liu family brothers had quietly gathered together. tens of millions of capital.They may be the first family to complete tens of millions of capital accumulation through industrial development after the reform and opening up.Liu Yongxing said in his autobiography "Hope Forever" in the future: "If we have been in the government, we will be department-level cadres at most today. If we have been making quail, we may be small bosses who have no worries. Make feed for pigs, and maybe be the middle boss of several middle factories.” While the Liu family brothers were happily raising quails, in Wan County in the same province, Mou Zhongqi, who had been out of prison for more than three years, was arrested again. This time he committed the crime of "speculation". The Sino-German Jiangbei Trade Service Department run by Mou Zhong has not improved in recent years, and can only do some small rattan chair business.At the beginning of this year, he discovered that a "555" brand table clock made by the Shanghai factory was selling well in the market, and most married young people would buy one.He immediately found a semi-stopped military industrial enterprise in Chongqing, and asked them to imitate 10,000 "555" brand clocks at 25 yuan each.Then he rushed to Shanghai and sold the imitation clock to a trading company for 32 yuan.In this way, he made a full 70,000 yuan.This was undoubtedly a big business at the time. For Mou Zhong, the greater significance was that he saw a huge space for cross-regional circulation. He became obsessed with the "smart industry" that moves around empty-handed, and started his "career as the richest man" full of legend and absurd temperament. But this time, he has to endure another test.News of his reselling was widely circulated in Wan County. In September, the Wanxian Administration for Industry and Commerce detained Mou Zhong and seven of his employees on charges of speculation. The Wanxian Daily reported the incident as follows: Wanxian self-employed "Sino-German Store" sells department stores and hardware. Signboards, using various illegal methods, colluding with insiders and outsiders, arbitrarily buying a large number of materials purchased and sold by the state, buying short and selling short, speculating, and making huge profits. Mou Zhongzhong, who was extremely depressed, was imprisoned in a damp and filthy cell for a full year. The only thing he did during this period was to write a deeply affectionate "application for joining the party."He was not released until September of the following year. Almost at the same time that Mou Zhong was imprisoned again for the crime of speculation, in Shenzhen in the south, Wang Shi, who likes to use it as a pillow, was doing the same thing, but he did not suffer the same fate. After working as a worker and government servant for several years, the restless Wang Shi finally made up his mind to go to Shenzhen to realize his dream.One day, while wandering the streets of Shekou, he saw several tall tin cans standing on the north side of the road. They were the corn storage warehouses of the Chia Tai Group, which had just come in to set up a feed factory at that time.These corns are produced in the United States, Thailand and Northeast China, and then transshipped to Shenzhen via Hong Kong.Wang Shi broke into Zhengda's feed factory in a daze, found a manager in charge and asked, "Why don't you directly import corn from the northeast, but transfer it from Hong Kong?" The answer was: "We also want to. However, China's transportation We need indicators, we are a foreign company, and we don’t know who to turn to for wagons, so we can’t solve this problem.” Wang Shi patted his chest, "I'll take care of the means of transportation, there is no problem with railway and sea transportation, do you want the corn I brought?" In this way, he found the Guangdong Maritime Bureau through his relationship, and the two hit it off.Wang Shi became a corn middleman.From April to December 1983, in less than a year, he earned more than 3 million.Then, he took the more than 3 million corn money and established the "Modern Scientific and Educational Instrument Exhibition and Sales Center", which is mainly engaged in professional video equipment, and this is the predecessor of China's most famous real estate company Vanke in the future.Many years later, when Wang Shi met Liu Yonghao of Sichuan Hope, he jokingly said: If I hadn't changed careers at that time, the title of "Feed King" would have been mine. Mou Zhong, who was arrested, and Wang Shi, who made a fortune in corn, had a common folk title at that time, which was called "Daoye" which was more derogatory than praise. In the early 1980s, with the gradual recovery of the economy and the recovery of the purchasing power of the people, there was an overall shortage of materials (including consumer goods and raw materials for production).At the same time, the circulation channels controlled by the state are still inefficient and rigid, which directly induces the development of small commodity and professional markets in coastal rural areas in the rural market.In the urban market, an underground circulation force between legal and illegal has been formed. Some of these so-called "brokers" have a strong sense of commodity and operation ability, and some have reliable With a nepotism background, they have established a huge and complicated logistics network outside the circulation system of the state's unified purchase and sales, and profited from the price difference.In the next few years, the trend of "rebels" will intensify and last for more than ten years. They use their connections to breed corruption, resell approval documents, get rich overnight and wantonly destroy the order of the circulation field. image, so that everyone is gnashing their teeth and screaming for beatings.However, objectively speaking, these "destroyers" were like ants gnawing on the dike, and eventually destroyed the rigid planned circulation system to the point of bruises, thus helping to rebuild China's market circulation and resource allocation in a very gray and illegal way.They are economic parasites that inevitably appear during the economic transition period. Around 1983, China's first batch of "Dao Ye" appeared in Beijing and Shenzhen.The former is the center of policy resources and power-money transactions, while the latter has a relaxed business atmosphere and a window effect of opening to the outside world. At this time, Shenzhen has gradually revealed the advantages of reform first. What surprised Ren Zhongyi, Yuan Geng and others was that this "window" did not attract huge foreign investment as planned. On the contrary, the establishment of a trading company , using this as a "window" to use Shenzhen's preferential policies to resell and circulate goods.Dr. Chen Wenhong of the Hong Kong Asian Research Center found in a study that the four development goals of Shenzhen proposed by Yuan Geng and others had gradually deviated by 1983: "Products are mainly exported", and the actual imports exceeded exports by 484 million US dollars. ; "The introduction is mainly advanced technology", but the main import is Hong Kong, China and Japan's obsolete equipment; Capital; "The structure is dominated by industry". The total industrial production value of Shenzhen was 720 million yuan, while the total retail goods in the society were 1.25 billion yuan. The money earned by doing business is much more than that of industry.A work describing the early rise of Shenzhen, "The Mystery of the Sphinx in Shenzhen", records that "the enthusiasm for getting rich with loans is astonishingly high, and the borrowed money is put up to set up this company or that company, and the streets of Shenzhen are full of firecrackers every day." Constantly, uncontrolled loans run wild, exceeding the loan balance of Shenzhen by more than 2 billion yuan, so they have to go to the central government and other provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions to borrow funds..." This situation has not changed in the next few years. In the eyes of foreigners, the investment conditions in Shenzhen are not as good as promised. The US "Fortune" published an observation in the April issue, complaining: "Shenzhen's investment conditions are not as good as originally promised. Governance, overlapping institutions, lack of business experience. One investor said that in many countries, a problem can be solved with a phone call, and in Shenzhen it takes a long time to discuss with officials. This is still China.” However, inland and From the perspective of other provinces, the policy environment in Shenzhen is so good that it couldn’t be better. More and more people, like Wang Shi, come here to find opportunities, and more and more commodities and funds flow here.In 1979, the most important bank in Shenzhen was Shenzhen Construction Bank, with deposits of only 3.81 million yuan. By 1983, it had 719 million yuan.In the first ten years of Shenzhen's construction, state-owned assets increased to 25 billion yuan.Loans from banks amounted to 18 billion yuan, most of which came from inland areas in various formal or gray ways.In this sense, the miracle of Shenzhen was not produced by attracting foreign capital, but by the people of the whole country.Guangdong scholar He Bochuan once described an example of "reselling" in his book "China on the Cols": Some Shanghainese went to Shenzhen to buy a folding umbrella, but found that it was shipped from Shanghai to Hong Kong and then returned to Hong Kong. Shenzhen.People in Shanghai are very happy, saying that it cost a few dollars less than buying in Shanghai, and people in Shenzhen are also happy, saying that they have made a few dollars; Hong Kong department stores are also very happy, saying that they have made a few dollars. !The extremely active and liberal tendency in the field of circulation was the most important means of wealth distribution and accumulation in the mid-to-early 1980s.At that time, private capital was still very weak and unable to produce goods on a large scale, and foreign-funded companies were hesitant to enter, so the vast majority of social goods were still produced and manufactured by state-owned factories.However, these enterprises are deeply troubled by the system and cannot have autonomy in procurement, pricing and sales, which gives the "defeat" and various trading companies maximum production space.Reviewing the reform of state-owned enterprises throughout the 1980s, we found that there was a strategic deviation in the focus of promoting enterprise reform: the owners of state-owned capital focused on the reform of the internal management system, but in fact, the biggest change at that time It occurs in the link of commodity circulation. Facing the phenomenon of active circulation and "chaos", the central government is caught in a dilemma. On the one hand, "Dao Ye" and various private trading companies have disrupted the planning system of commodity circulation, causing random price increases and inflation.Therefore, during this year, Beijing has repeatedly downplayed this issue. In July, the State Council and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection jointly issued an "urgent notice", which strictly demanded "resolutely put an end to arbitrary price increases and arbitrary apportionment of two unhealthy tendencies." In October, the two agencies issued a "Notice", demanding "resolutely stop illegal activities in the supply of means of production in rural areas."The objective effect of these two "Notices" is that, although there is a deterrent for the "downtrodden" with a background, it cannot be banned at all. For those "honest and obedient" state-owned enterprises, they dare not make their own claims. Shrunk into the frame of the planning system.The newly launched "Economic Reference" published an intriguing news on the front page on July 22: Shanghai No. 5 Iron and Steel Works purchased a batch of molybdenum steel from Zhenjiang Smelter, and the latter asked for a price 28% higher than the national price. %, and said that if the fifth factory cannot introduce, other steel mills are willing to accept this price for goods.Factory No. 5 had no choice but to purchase according to this, and was forced to "raise prices" when selling steel.The Zhenjiang factory, which has been accused of "indiscriminate price increases", also has its own difficulties. If the price is set according to the state, it will undoubtedly lose money, so the price increase is also a last resort.The message revealed by this news is that rigid planned pricing has fallen into a structural dilemma in an increasingly market-oriented environment. On the other hand, it has become the general trend to loosen price controls and open up the pricing power of some commodities.Prior to this, all commodities in China, from large-scale machinery to needles and threads, were priced by the state plan, and no enterprise was allowed to have any autonomy.This situation is obviously unmaintainable. Therefore, the country has to gradually liberalize the prices of small commodities, and at the same time allows similar products to have a "quality difference" of 5%-15%. Those high-quality products that have been awarded gold and silver awards There is also a larger room for pricing. Among them, the price increase of gold award products does not exceed 15%, silver award does not exceed 10%, and high-quality products does not exceed 5%. The liberalization and loosening of small commodity prices has brought possibilities for the circulation of goods and the rise of private enterprises.In the following descriptions, you will see that the emergence of the first generation of private enterprises in China is closely related to the circulation and manufacture of small commodities. Active private capital has completed its primitive accumulation. Now, we are going to turn our attention to some remote villages in central and southern Zhejiang.In the future, it will be difficult for people to imagine why distribution centers for Chinese commodities will be born in places without railways, factories, resources, and low knowledge. Before 1980, few people knew that Yiwu was a small county. It was located in the central Zhejiang Basin, surrounded by mountains on three sides, with narrow streets and low wooden houses. The income is 88 yuan.In the past hundred years, Yiwu has been most famous for its "mashing of sugar and wool". Brown sugar is produced here, and the land is barren. In the slack season of spring farming, shoulder the load of sugar goods, shake the rattle, and go from village to village to "crack sugar for wool".In order to make more profits, some front face powder and wooden combs needed by women are often put in the sugar basket.There are about ten thousand people in this group of "Tangtang Gang", which has been going on for a hundred years and has become a "natural" farm vendor in central Zhejiang. Around 1978, spontaneous rural fairs appeared in Niansanli Township and Futian Township in the eastern part of Yiwu County, where more than a dozen loads of goods were set up to sell various needles, threads, homemade feather dusters, scrub brushes, etc.Two years later, these peddlers entered the county town of Choucheng, and when one load was laid down, two or three pairs appeared nearby, and then more.The small stalls meandered, and the shouts gradually became loud, and soon developed to more than 200 stalls.The local county government didn't know how to manage and deal with these "candy knockers", so they issued the "Temporary Permit for Small Department Stores to Knock Candy for Chicken Feather and Other Fertilizers", which is a tacit approval of the existence of these vendors. By the end of 1982, 7,000 "temporary licenses" had been issued in the county without knowing it, and there were more than 300 vendors in Choucheng Town, and the commodities traded far exceeded the scope of "chicken feathers and fertilizers".Some people began to write letters to the province, alarming that "a small hotbed of capitalism has appeared in Yiwu."Xie Gaohua, who was then secretary of the county party committee, was under tremendous pressure. Xie Gaohua is a thin and short middle-aged man, less than 1.65 meters high, weighing at most 90 kilograms. Walking on the road, he looks like a cotton flower floating.However, it was this "cotton" that made the most stubborn decision in his life. In November 1982, he announced the official opening of the "Choucheng Small Commodity Market" and announced the "four permits": allowing farmers to do business, allowing farmers to engage in Long-term trafficking, allowing the opening of urban and rural markets, allowing multi-channel competition.Among the four articles, "Long-distance trafficking is permitted" obviously deviates from the central document, and the remaining three articles have no legal basis to follow.Xie Gaohua issued the small commodity market's first business license to a rural woman named Feng Aiqing, who later became a national news figure. In July 1983, the Yiwu County Government invested 580,000 yuan to build a stall-style market covering an area of ​​220 mu. The market was entirely covered with concrete floors and steel-framed glass tiles. This was the most advanced professional market in China at that time. The "policy depression" dug out by the daring Xie Gaohua in Yiwu quickly had a cumulative effect.By the end of the year, a caring person named Zhu Hengxing made a statistic. The number of market stalls in Yiwu increased to 1,050, and the average daily number of traders was 6,000. More than 60% of them were foreigners, mainly in Wenzhou and Taizhou, and there were many products on the market. There are more than 3,000 kinds, and local industrial products account for about 1/3. Most of the rest come from township enterprises in the province and products from Jiangsu and Guangdong. Most of them are sold to provinces north of the Yangtze River and Yunnan and Guizhou.Obviously, a market network that crossed provincial boundaries and radiated across the country had taken shape at that time.At the same time, commodity circulation has also driven the development of family factories in Yiwu. Many vendors set up stalls in the market and set up family factories at home. The so-called "shop in front and factory in back" model emerged spontaneously. "Large goods at low prices and new styles", Yiwu's reputation spread in rural China at an incredible speed, and vendors from all over the world soon appeared here. At the end of 1984, Shen Jiqing, a reporter from Shanghai Wen Wei Po, heard from an acquaintance that there was a place called Yiwu in Zhejiang Province. As soon as a new small commodity or new technology appeared in a domestic urban shopping mall, it didn’t take long for people to buy it there. found in the market.He rushed to Yiwu with great interest, and later he wrote an article "The Big Market in a Small Valley", which was the first time Yiwu was discovered by the media.Shen Jiqing saw that there are tens of thousands of vendors and more than 2,000 family factories active around the small commodity market, and the technology of Yiwu people is brought by vendors from all over the country, plastic processing is learned from Guangzhou, and knitting technology is from Guangzhou. It was introduced from Shaoxing and Jiaxing, and the production of children's shoes was transplanted from Wenzhou.He also told a very vivid story: At the beginning of the year, a trader heard that the business of sun hats in the city was very good, so he rushed to Hangzhou to buy one, and after three days of research, he imitated the exact same sun hat. , the price is half the price in the city.Half a year later, there were 3,000 merchants processing and selling sun hats in Yiwu Market, making it the largest sun hat production and marketing center in the country. According to the development model of Yiwu, Yiwu later became the largest small commodity market in the world. By 2006, the annual transaction of small commodities in this place exceeded 30 billion yuan, with more than 40,000 booths, and a daily passenger flow of 200,000. General agent, more than 8,000 foreign businessmen are resident in Yiwu.It is almost a sample of the growth of China's private economy in the 1980s: the emergence of a professional market has built a commodity network that radiates in rural areas and small and medium-sized towns. The primary industry pattern of "shop in front and factory in back" and "two-wheel drive".In the first ten years of China's reform, any objective conditions in terms of industrial foundation, policy support, humanistic quality, and even geographical location could not match the local awareness of reform and innovation. There is no unique condition in which it is possible to develop.Those urban areas with a strong industrial foundation and superior geographical location, such as Northeast China, North China, and Shanghai, have a strong planned economy, sound government governance capabilities, and a high degree of public dependence on the system, so it is difficult for private capital to germinate. However, remote and impoverished areas with weak state-owned economies, such as the Pearl River Delta, southern Fujian, and central and southern Zhejiang, unexpectedly possessed the courage and possibility to fend for themselves. In the Yiwu Small Commodity Market, traders from Wenzhou are the most important group.In fact, before the rise of Yiwu, the professional market in Wenzhou had developed to a considerable extent. Compared with Yiwu, Wenzhou is a more legendary place name.In the history of contemporary Chinese reform, Wenzhou can be regarded as a "sacred place".The first batch of self-employed businesses, the first batch of professional markets, and the first batch of private companies were born here. Therefore, this place has endured huge political and ideological pressure. The target of public criticism.During the rectification that started last year, Wenzhou has become the focus of attention, and the occurrence of the "Eight Kings Incident" is not accidental.The rectification once made the chaotic and bustling Wenzhou economy suddenly cool down, but the water lurking among the people has never been cut off. Around 1983, there were more than 100,000 cottage industries in Wenzhou, employing 400,000 people, and 100,000 people traveled around the country all year round to sell products and purchase raw materials. Later, some people used the "four thousand spirit" to describe this "ten The hardships of the army of thousands of buyers and sellers: they have gone through untold hardships, spoken thousands of words, traveled all over the world, and tried every means.With the help of these buyers and sellers running around and threading the needle, Yueqing, Cangnan and other counties have gradually formed more than 400 distribution centers for commodity transactions. The trading commodities are small daily commodities and productive raw materials, such as buttons, plastic woven bags, plastic shoes, low-voltage electrical appliances, leather, aluminum-plastic signs and so on. The most surprising thing is that these markets are not located in the main roads of traffic or in the center of towns. They are all located in valleys or bay villages where the traffic is very inconvenient.For example, the Qiaotou button market in Yueqing rose in a mountain nest 3.5 kilometers away from the Hangwen National Highway. Since it appeared in 1979 until it gradually declined 20 years later, it has not moved away from the original site or a little closer to the national highway. The recycled textile market in Yishan, Cangnan, is even more inconvenient. Xinhua News Agency reporter Hu Hongwei recorded his "road map" when he went to Yishan for an interview: starting from Lingxi in the county town in the morning, he took a minibus and bumped on the country road for almost two days. An hour later, an unknown river flowed in front of my eyes.Boarding the boat, the mountains on both sides of the river are very, very beautiful, and the narrow boat without a roof, which looks like a dragon boat, turns back and forth on the curved river.When I went ashore, I saw a bunch of farmers' "taxis" (this is a small diesel three-card, limited to six passengers, and there are often more than ten people in reality, and some are simply hanging out of the car like a spider). Solicit passengers everywhere, and the beeping diesel engine makes your heart beat awkwardly.Another small river, another scenic journey that businessmen have no time to take care of.In the afternoon, when you feel a little too hungry, Yishan Town will arrive.At that time, Yishan had tens of thousands of textile machines, 67,000 employees, 4 specialized townships, 58 specialized villages, and 7 specialized markets. Every year, 17,000 tons of acrylic fiber scraps flowed into the area. With a load of 20 tons, a total of 850 wagons are needed. Such a huge amount of raw materials, plus tens of millions of pieces of recycled acrylic underwear every year, are trafficked in and out of this extremely inconvenient place, but the operators do not want to move. This phenomenon is very puzzling for future generations to read.A Wenzhou researcher named Zhang Renshou once used the "border area effect" to interpret: "Most of the top ten markets in Wenzhou are located in places with inconvenient water and land transportation. The only reasonable explanation can only be that in those places, the left The trend of thought is relatively weak, and the shackles of the planned economy are relatively small. Otherwise, these markets are likely to be banned before they flourish. The experience of China's reform proves that the initial breakthrough of the old system often occurs where the old system is least guarded. "This argument hits the nail on the head.This proves that the Wenzhou businessmen were in a dangerous situation at that time, and the cunning and bitterness of the reform pioneers are probably here.In contrast to Wenzhou is Shanghai, China's largest commercial city.It is the city with the strongest planned economy and the strictest government control. Until the early 1990s, the growth of local private enterprises was still weak.According to the "China Business Times" report on January 18, 1992, in 1991, the Shanghai Municipal Finance Office still issued Document No. 287, clearly stipulating that the products of private enterprises in Shanghai "shall not enter the famous stores on Nanjing Road and Huaihai Road." ", none of the city's 2,195 private enterprises were allowed to form joint ventures with foreign companies, on the grounds that "there is no precedent in Shanghai."Banks in Shanghai stipulated that “no loans shall be made to private enterprises,” and credit unions could only use securities as collateral, or a powerful state-owned enterprise to guarantee loans, but the amount was less than 3,000 yuan. By the end of the year, Wenzhou's professional market experience had attracted the attention of the central government.At the National Rural Work Conference on November 29, Vice Premier Wan Li praised Yishan's recycled textile industry and suggested that all participants can visit it.When his speech was broadcast back to Wenzhou, the local officials held a meeting immediately, and the loudspeakers were broadcast widely. Finally, the haze caused by the "Eight Kings Incident" a year ago was slightly dissipated. These changes in the field of circulation were few and far between in China at that time. Although they were extremely active, they had not shown their revolutionary impact on the planning system.The shortage of commodity supply makes the decision-makers still believe that the illness of state-owned enterprises is mainly due to the rigidity and low efficiency of internal management.So, all the attention and policymaking is focused on these areas. At that time, state-owned enterprises gathered almost all the assets and elite talents in China. They were the protagonists of China's gradual reforms. In a sense, their growth patterns and reform paths determined the nature and fate of China's reforms.在当时全球范围内，所有社会主义国家都面临着国营事业的改革难题，匈牙利经济学家亚诺什·科尔内在两年前出版了《短缺经济学》，他对国营企业的运行模式及特征进行了理论上的解剖，针对普遍存在于社会主义国家的企业效率低下及商品短缺现象，科尔内指出其根源不在于“政策的失误”，而在于使企业预算约束软化的社会经济关系和制度条件。这是一个非常致命的判断，其言下之意便是，必须改变现有的社会制度条件才可能让国营企业的活力获得焕发，而不仅仅是寄希望于中央政策的调整或企业内部管理的变革。这个思路在东欧和苏联获得了强烈的反响，并最终成为那些国家选择激进的“休克式疗法”的理论依据。在中国，科尔内的理论也早早地传了进来，他的结论显然无法获得认同，不过，他的非均衡理论及分析方法却极大地启蒙了中国的经济学者。 第一轮国营企业改革的现状表明，如果没有利益分配上的明确界定，即便企业的生产积极性被暂时的释放了出来，它与上级行政主管部门的矛盾也不会得到缓解，而且可能愈演愈烈，首钢与北京市财政局之间的那场纠纷事件在全国各地正不断地上演。同时，由于缺乏预算的约束力，企业的投资冲动会盲目膨胀，在过去的几年里，基础建设和计划外的项目之所以会越来越大，到了难以控制的地步，就是因为没有人需要对投资的后果负责，先把蛋糕做大，分了再说，至于如何收摊子，那是“国家的事情”。于是，为了解决这个症结，中央政府决定从税制改革下手。 6月，国务院转批了财政部《关于国营企业利改税试行办法》，同意把执行多年的利润上缴方式，改成有比例的纳税制。有盈利的国营大中型企业均根据实现的利润，按55%的税率缴纳所得税。企业的留利部分，再根据不同情况分别采取递增包干上缴、固定比例上缴、缴纳调节税、定额包干上缴等办法，上缴国家财政。国营小型企业则试行八级超额累进税制，缴纳所得税后，由企业自负盈亏。 “利改税”是国营企业向现代公司治理制度改革的第一个重要举措。It has liberated the enterprise from the "father-like" blanket, although this "liberation" has only just begun, and the "father" still gets the "big head".从日后的执行情况看，“利改税”在客观上调动了企业的积极性，部分地缓解了企业与主管部门的紧张关系，不过，潜藏的问题仍然很多，包括税种过于单一，难以发挥税收调节经济的杠杆作用；税后利润的分配仍然比较复杂，且具有任意性等等。More importantly, it does not involve how to define the responsibility of the enterprise in the event of risks and losses.The state-run economy is still a "big pot of rice", and the "reform of profits into taxes" only partially solves the problem of competition between enterprises and competent authorities. 在税制改革的同时，中央政府也小心翼翼地开始做一些其他方面的调整和开放尝试。 首先是，根据企业的规模“把好果子收上来，把烂果子扔下去”，从这一年起，凡是中央投资兴建的大中型企业收入，都归中央财政，中央与地方共同投资兴建的大中型企业收入，按比例分配。中小企业，特别是县办工业企业的亏损，由原来中央负担80%，地方财政负担20%，改为中央与地方各负担一半。这种收入划分和“亏损下放”，在主观上当然是中央政府“卸包袱”的做法，不过在客观上，倒为日后很多濒临亏损的中小国营企业的创新与改革意外地预留了空间。 其次，在对外开放方面也日渐放松尺度。那几年来，中国政府在外资引进方面一直令人失望。《亚洲华尔街日报》透露的数据是，在1980年和1981年，中国分别兴建了20个合资企业，而1982年则只有8个。6月份的《经济学人》不留情面地批评了中国的外资引进工作，它在题为《中外合资企业的官样文章》的文章中写道：“中国的合资企业法很失败。自从这项法规1979年出台以来，中国官方批准了105家合资企业，引进外资约2亿美元。去年，只有不到10项新交易签署，大多数合资企业都停留在照相室等小规模项目上，对现代化进程没有太大帮助。”这样的批评声让人无话可说，正如它所提供的数据，2亿美元的引资成绩离三年前制定的“五年内吸引100亿美元”的目标实在相去甚远。 9月，久唤不出的《中外合资经营企业法规实施条例》终于出台，它对外资公司在中国的合资及经营活动进行了明确的规定，这个开明而积极的姿态受到了国际社会的欢迎。美国的3M公司应该是最早感受到这种变化的外资企业之一，它的代表到中国来谈判，希望建立一个全资的生产绝缘体的制造工厂，他提出了一个“三不原则”：不搞合资，不转让技术，产品不出口。还在一年前，在中国是根本行不通的。然而，这一次，进行谈判的上海投资信托公司却没有马上拒绝，中方委婉地提出，可否先搞益一个试验项目，等到中央政府允许外国公司搞单一所有制的公司，就把股权全部转让出来。 很显然，国家希望让改革的步子走得更快一点。自两年前开始的治理整顿，固然起到了遏制经济过热的效果，但是也挫伤了各地改革的积极性。到1983年秋天之后，如何振奋全国人心，唤起改革的热情，让舆论的重心再次回到发展的主轴上成为主政者最大的课题。在这样的大背景下，浙江北部小县城里的一个裁缝出身的厂长走到了时代的镁光灯下。 11月16日，浙江海盐县衬衫总厂厂长步鑫生一早去上班，他打开报纸，突然满脸通红，眼皮乱跳，在头版头条的位置上，他赫然看到了自己的名字。这篇题为《一个有独创精神的厂长——步鑫生》的长篇通讯当日登在了所有中国党报的头版。在没有任何心理准备的情况下，步鑫生成为当年度最耀眼的企业英雄。 夏天，一个叫童宝根的新华社浙江分社记者曾经前来海盐县武原镇采访，步鑫生小心翼翼地接待了他。童记者在厂里转了两天，还找了一些人座谈。在海盐县里，步鑫生是一个不太讨上级喜欢的人，他从三年前当上厂长后，就开始在厂里按自己的想法搞改革，一些不太勤快的工人被他克扣工资，甚至还开除了两个人。他在厂里搞奖金制度，打破“铁饭碗”和“大锅饭”，提出“上不封顶，下不保底”，这很是让一些老工人不满意，时不时的总是有一些告状信写到县里和省里，让他日子很不好过。不过，由于他管理抓得紧，工厂效益不错，生产出的衬衫品种和花样也比较多，所以在上海、杭州一些城市还很受欢迎。童记者离开后，再没有回音，他也没有挂在心上。 童宝根回到杭州，觉得步鑫生这个人很有趣，于是写了一篇《一个有独创精神的厂长—步鑫生》，他对这篇报道心里也没有底，就先试着发了内参——这是新华社一个很独特的新闻产品，它不用于公开发表，而是供中央领导人“内部参考”。谁也没有想到，11月6日，总书记胡耀邦会从成堆的“内参”中挑出这篇报道，写下了一段批示，认为步鑫生的经验可以使广大企业领导干部从中受到教益。”十日后，新华社便将童宝根的通讯向全国报纸发了“通稿”，胡耀邦的批示以“编者按”的方式同时发出。 让人感兴趣的是，童宝根的通讯和“编者按”并没有让步鑫生一下子成为全国典型。也许是一些人对“编者按”的背景不了解，在12月的《浙江工人报》上发表了一篇针锋相对的新闻稿《我们需要什么样的独创精神》，指责步鑫生专断独行，开除了厂工会主席，发行量上百万的上海《报刊文摘》转载了这篇报道，就这样，步鑫生从一开始就成了一个有争议的企业家。很快，一个联合调查组进驻了海盐。调查的结果是，步鑫生是一个有缺点和弱点的改革家，他很像苏联卫国战争时期的一个红军将领夏伯，此人脾气暴烈，小错不断，但骁勇善战，以他的事迹拍成的电影《夏伯》在中国放映后一直很受中国观众的喜欢。胡耀邦又在这个调查报告上写了批示，认为应当抓住这个活榜样，推动经济建设和整党工作。步鑫生争议一锤定音，1984年2月，新华社播发了浙江省委支持步鑫生改革创新精神的报道，并且配发了“中共中央整党工作指导委员会办公室”的上千字长篇按语。 步鑫生被选中为典型，有很偶然的戏剧性因素，却也似乎有必然性。当时国内，通过强有力的行政力量，经济过热现象已被控制，治理整顿接近尾声，在邓小平等人看来，重新启动发展的列车，恢复人们的改革热情又成了当务之急，而在国有大型企业中确乎已经找不出有说服力的“学习榜样”，相对而言，受调控影响较小的中小国营或集体企业倒是有一些亮点，特别是那些与日用消费品市场比较紧密的企业，其效益并没有受到太大的影响。就这样，企业规模不大的衬衫厂及其有小缺点的经营者便“意料之外、情理之中”地脱颖而出了。在新华社两次大篇幅报道，尤其是“中央整党委员会”的按语出现后，全国各主要新闻单位“闻风而动”，“步鑫生热”平地而起，仅新华社一家在一个多月里就播发了27篇报道，共计字数3.4万字，各路参观团、考察团涌进小小的海盐县城，中央各机关、各省市纷纷邀请步鑫生去做报告，他被全国政协选为“特邀委员”，他用过的裁布剪刀被收入中国历史博物馆。 在一些新闻记者的帮助下，步鑫生很快发明了一些朗朗上口的“改革顺口溜”：分配原则是“日算月结，实超实奖，实欠实赔，奖优罚劣”，生产方针是“人无我有，人有我创，人赶我转”，管理思想是“生产上要紧，管理上要严”，经营思路是“靠牌子吃饭能传代、靠关系吃饭要垮台”、“谁砸我的牌子，我就砸谁的饭碗”、“治厂不严、不逼，办不出立足坚稳的企业。不管、不紧，到头来，工厂倒闭，大家都受害”。这些朴素而容易背诵的改革格言迅速传遍全国，成为许多企业挂在厂内的标语口号和企业精神。步鑫生的这些观念对于无数白手起步的民营企业主算得上是一堂最最生动的启蒙课，日后，很多在那个时期创业的企业家都回忆说，正是步鑫生的这些话让他们第一次接受了市场化商业文化的洗礼。 “步鑫生神话”渐渐生成，他成了一个管理专家、经营大师。美联社记者在1984年5月20日的一篇新闻中生动地描述说：“他的工人威胁要杀他，他的妻子由于过度担忧终于病倒而住进精神病院。但是，浙江海盐衬衫总厂厂长步鑫生先生，顶住了压力，成为中国改革浪潮中的一名佼佼者。这位52岁的裁缝的儿子，在昨天会见西方记者时，讲述了他同'吃大锅饭'的平均主义战斗的经过。”这样的形象无疑是高大、勇敢和受人拥戴的，是那个时代所一再期待和呼唤的，至于它是不是步鑫生的真实面目则似乎是不重要的。 萧山的鲁冠球日后还清晰地记得他去海盐参观的情形：通往海盐武原镇的沙石路上车水马龙挤满了前去“参观学习”的人们，当时的步厂长炙手可热，据称，连厅局级干部要见一下他都很难，我们的面包车还没进厂门，就被门卫拦下了：“步厂长今天很忙，下次吧。”好说歹说，最后他同意我们的车子绕厂区开一圈，这样也算是学习过了。在厂区里，我碰到两位熟悉的《浙江日报》记者，在他们的引见下，步厂长终于同意见我们一面。他是一个说话很生动的人，很会做比喻。他说了15分钟，我们就退了出去，后面又有一拨人进来了。 “步鑫生热”在1983年年底到1984年年初的出现，让国内沉闷多时的改革氛围为之一振。中央的政策也从“调整、改革、整顿、提高”的八字方针悄然变成了“改革、开拓、创新”的新提法。在对步鑫生的学习运动中，扩大企业自主权、推行厂长负责制、打破“铁饭碗”和“大锅饭”等被搁置起来的改革理念又再次成了主旋律。 1983年，如果我们把此时的中国放到全球的背影下来观察，将会发现，尽管已经进入到了改革的第六个年头，但是我们离世界的中心舞台还是那么的遥远。 日本仍然是全球经济的主角。这一年，后来写出了的管理学家彼得·圣吉去福特汽车公司调研，他惊奇地发现，尽管日本公司蚕食了福特在美国的很大一块市场份额，但是福特的管理人员仍然坚持地认为他们被击败的主要原因还是“日本的劳动力太便宜了”。而在圣吉看来，日本汽车最大的创新是“精益生产”和“零库存”。戴维·加文发表在9月号《哈佛商业评论》上的论文《处于危险中的质量》更是证实了这个判断，他在论文中披露了一个让人很吃惊的数据：根据他对所有美国和日本空调生产商的研究，日本公司的平均装配线差错率比美国公司低70倍，最差日本公司的故障率也要比最优的美国制造商故障率的一半还要低；在矿工率方面，美国公司平均为3.1%，而日本公司则为零。很显然，这些年日本崛起不是偶然的原因，他们在制造线的严谨和苛刻得到了回报。从戴维·加文及很多经济学者的调研来看，美国要在质量、现场管理和成本上战胜日本人几乎是不可能的事情——最多也就打一个平手。这是一个让人近乎绝望的结论。美国的企业家还将在这种绝望中沉浸多年，直到七年后他们在信息产业重新找回自信和优势。 在华人经济中，中国台湾的企业开始发生令人羡慕的转型。王永庆在他的台塑工厂尝试电脑化作业，因而大大地提高了生产效率，台湾的电子代工产业开始萌芽。一个叫郭台铭的中专生在前一年创办“鸿海精密工业股份有限公司”，他决定重新“定义”电子产业，在日后的回忆录中他说，“当全世界的电子业者都把电脑业称为新技术行业的时候，我则认为它的规模制造能力将体现在模具技术上。”就是靠着成熟的模具技术，鸿海迅速切入连接器领域，22年后，鸿海成为全球最大的电脑配件生产商，全世界每五台电脑就有一台在使用鸿海的产品，郭台铭也因此成为台湾首富。 唯一一个在全球商业界让人侧目的中国人，是一个叫王安的华裔企业家。他在这一年成为全美的商业英雄。1949年，王安发明了世界上的第一片“存储磁芯”，几年后，他创办王安实验室（Wang Labortories），从此替代IBM成为计算机领域的领跑者，到1983年，王安公司的营业额猛增至15亿美元，位居全美电脑公司第七位。在《福布斯》杂志的富人排行榜上，他的个人财富达到20亿美元，为全球第五富翁及华人首富。很多年后，比尔·盖茨说，“如果王安能完成他的第二次战略转折的话，世界上可能没有今日的微软公司，我可能就在某个地方成了数学家，或一位律师。”王安是第一个全球意义上的华人企业家，但是，他又是一个老派的东方人，他不相信华尔街和美国公司制度，他说，“我不主张开放投资，因为我是公司的创始人，我要保持我对公司的完全控制权，使我的子女能有机会证明他们有没有经营公司的能力。”同时，他对苹果电脑公司在PC机上的努力不屑一顾，他认为搞个人电脑是“闻所未闻的荒唐事”。两年后，他就为这段话付出了代价，IBM和苹果公司的个人电脑开始风靡，王安公司在1985年陷入亏损，他出版了一本名为《教训》的自传，直到1990年他去世时，王安公司已经不值一提。 1983年便是这样的一个年份：计划经济的闸门已经被撬开，民间的力量如涌出地面的小涓流正四处漫游，致富的渴望日渐成为全民共同的理想。让人稍稍有点不安的是，尽管几乎所有的人都已经清楚地明白改革是唯一出路，但是却没有一个人知道未来的中国和我们的生活将变成一副怎样的模样。 5月，中国最好的话剧团北京人艺将阿瑟·米勒创办于1949年的《推销员之死》搬上了舞台，这是“文化大革命”后第一部在中国上演的外国话剧。由英若诚扮演的主人公威利·洛曼每天都要带着两只特大号的样品箱开车去四处推销。他已经50多岁，筋疲力尽，仍为贷款所迫，不能休息。黄金时代已经过去，他所面对的，是失业、压力和一败涂地的人生。最终，洛曼在落寂中结束了自己的生命。 对1983年的中国观众来说，或许能够感受阿瑟·米勒所带来的艺术享受，但却无法真正切身地体会人物的内心挣扎。若干年后，当商业的幽灵渗透到中国社会的每一个细胞的时候，人们才可能真正体会到威利·洛曼式的悲凉。