Chapter 12 10. The value of the foreign flag

On November 26, 1927, Huang Xizi, a wealthy businessman in Chongqing, signed a secret agreement with Geely Matheson Co., Ltd., claiming that the two joint ventures, Jufu Matheson Co., Ltd., were a fake joint venture, and that one-third of the shares nominally owned by the French side were "false shares."In the name of a French businessman, China hangs the French flag and pays 30,000 taels of silver for the "flag-hanging fee" every year. Thirty taels of silver is not a decimal.Converted from the price of rice from 1901 to 1910, this money can buy more than 500 tons of rice, which is equivalent to more than one million yuan today.Jufu Yangxing only has three 100-ton small ships, which are engaged in passenger and cargo transportation in the upper reaches of the Sichuan River, with a total investment of only 300,000 taels of silver.Is it worthwhile to pay such a large amount of "flag-hanging fee" every year, which is equivalent to 10% of the total investment?

False joint ventures also bring serious risks.Later, when the company grew bigger, the French businessman put on a face of acting in accordance with the law, and insisted on taking the "false shares" seriously, which severely hit the Chinese side.As for the private living expenses of the French manager and captain, including Yunnan drift smoke and famous brandy wine, it is also a considerable figure after 20 years. However, after counting these costs, and even the humiliation of being ridiculed as a "fake foreign devil", Huang Jinying, the general manager of Jufu Foreign Company, still thinks that the deal is worthwhile, "really worth it."

This is not the muddled accounts of individual entrepreneurs.In Sichuan in the 1920s, most ships were flying the flags of European and American countries.According to the "China and Foreign Economic Weekly" published on September 26, 1925, among the 16 shipping companies engaged in the Chuanjiang shipping, only 3 did not fly the foreign flag.In terms of ships, there are a total of 36 ships, 32 of which are flying the flags of France, Italy, the United States or Sweden, accounting for 89%.However, after searching the founders of these shipping companies, I only found one foreign name.

This phenomenon was not only prevalent in Sichuan in the 1920s.According to the November 1904 issue of "Oriental Magazine", "more than 300 merchant ships sailing from Xiamen, Fujian Province to other cities every day, all of which are owned by Chinese merchants in each port, and are now flying the flags of Britain, France and the United States, and are managed by various foreign firms. This right is calculated all the year round, and it is no less than hundreds of trillions if it is in the hands of outsiders." According to a report by "China and Foreign Daily" on October 7, 1905, in the Zhenjiang area of ​​Jiangsu Province, merchant ships often fly foreign flags, "the most bad habit". The local officials and gentry reported to the Ministry of Commerce for approval to set up the Merchant Shipping Association, and generally advised them to change to hang the dragon flag.In the 33rd year of Guangxu (1907), the local government of Guangdong even ordered reforms, exempting all merchant ships from flying the dragon flag from the fifty taels of licensing fee, and persuading Chinese merchants not to fly the foreign flag.

Businessmen from all over the country abandoned the dragon flags on such a large scale and hung expensive foreign flags. What is the value of the foreign flags?Next, let's follow the train of thought of Huang Jinying, the general manager of Jufu Foreign Trade Co., Ltd., to see what he bought for the flag-hanging fee of 30,000 taels a year.This is a transaction with Chinese characteristics.Throughout the ages, whether it is donating official titles or giving cadre shares, whether it is hanging foreign flags or wearing "red hats", such transactions have occurred frequently, and this fee has a good reason to be included in the routine expenses of China's industry and commerce.

When settling accounts, General Manager Huang Jinying first emphasized the warlords.He said: "By relying on this 'French Business' signboard, Jufu Foreign Firm did (really) reduce a lot of troubles in the defense zone era when the Sichuan warlords fought melee. For more than ten years, the ship has not sent soldiers. At that time , there are so-called business tax, direct tax, two-five-year tax and many other exorbitant taxes, but from the establishment to the end of Jufu foreign company, it has never paid any tax, thus avoiding the oppression of warlords. " This passage involves two possible losses, one is errands, and the other is exorbitant taxes.How to estimate the potential amount of these two losses?Comparing the experience of ships not flying foreign flags, we can see the shadow of loss.

Shujiang Company was established in 1915 and has a steamship named Yuanji.Due to the government making things difficult, bandits blocking robberies, and being heavily in debt, all the shareholders went into hiding, and only Ma Zeqing, who contributed the most, was left struggling to support. In 1917, when the Sichuan Army and the Yunnan Army went to war, the Yunnan Army detained the Yuanji as an errand, and released it half a year later.After returning to Chongqing, the Northern Army seized the ship to deliver military supplies.The Northern Army withdrew from Sichuan, and the Yuanji had just begun to operate between Yichang, Chongqing, and was seized by the Northern Army in Yichang.

In desperation, Ma Zeqing invited the French merchant Maisie to become a shareholder, invested 20,000 taels, registered in Shanghai, Shujiang Company was renamed Mai Company, Yuanji also hung the French flag, and returned to Sichuan in 1919.The following year, the Sichuan Army and the Yunnan Army fought again, and Wang Wenhua, the commander of the Chongqing Garrison, detained the Yuanji for military use. As a result, the French consul came forward to negotiate, and the warlord was forced to release the ship. At that time, due to the continuous war and the cut off of traffic, the Yuanji became the only means of transportation that operated safely, and the business was booming.In eight months, the previous debts were paid off, and there were still profits of thousands of taels of silver.At this time, the shareholders who had retreated before came back and demanded to buy back foreign shares, and borrowed 20,000 taels from Dazhong Bank to return Max Matheson.After Maisi foreign company withdrew, Maisi Company was renamed as the Aviation Department of Dazhong Bank.Soon, the Dazhong Bank went bankrupt, and as a creditor of the Dazhong Bank, the warlord Yang Sen confiscated the Yuanji and converted it into a warship. In 1922, the Yuanji sailed to Yichang with Yang Sen's department, but the ship was damaged and its whereabouts were unknown, and the Shujiang Company disappeared.

From this point of view, the foreign flag is an umbrella against warlords. If there is one, it will prosper, and if it is not, it will perish.This phenomenon is not limited to Sichuan. According to the "Official Trade Statistics and Report", in the second half of 1920, when a war broke out in Guangzhou, "soldiers blocked the use of ships one after another, paralyzing the whole bank, and it was extremely difficult to recover the rent, so the ship owners suffered a great loss." According to a report from Yuezhou Port (Yueyang), Hunan: "In this year (1916), the trade of Chinese merchants was detained several times due to military transportation. The large and small steamers and civilian ships were all used by the military, so they came to a standstill. In one of them, the detained ship Parked on the river bank, extended several to three miles, and lasted for several weeks."

In 1923, the Wuzhou port in Guangxi reported: "People in China's shipping industry felt the pain of the military's closure of ships from time to time, so they took the lead in throwing foreign flags and borrowing money to protect them. When the business of the port resumed in autumn, most of the Chinese ships had already Change to Anglo-Portuguese nationality." These reports can generally show that the arrest of ships by warlords alone is enough to cause losses to shipping companies, and even kill them.Survival of the fittest, China's flag will be eliminated, it is only a matter of time.

General manager Huang said that they have hung the foreign flag for more than ten years and have not paid exorbitant taxes to the warlords. How much is this right worth?I tried to calculate but couldn't figure it out, so I could only transcribe a few paragraphs of original data to indicate. According to the "Oriental Magazine" report in March 1926: "Since the rise of the army in Sichuan, various taxes have sprung up like clouds, or the original taxes have been aggravated; or the same tax has been collected repeatedly; Sections, set up checkpoints; or use various names, cleverly search and include. As far as the names of the fees are concerned, there are escort fees, river defense fees, ship delivery fees, merchant escort fees, inspection and release fees, ship fees, and group defense fees. , village clearing fee, capital estimate fee, ship inspection fee, unified donation fee, agricultural protection fee, Red Cross fee, landing fee, temporary military fee, stamping fee, boat fee, public ticket fee, music donation fee, education fee, export Taxes, land charges, and other names, to name a few. "As far as the levy agencies are concerned, there are the Entrepreneur Affairs Office, the Quanchuan Jiangfang Army Collection Office, the General Merchandise Donation Bureau, the Jiangfang Card Inspection and Waterway Police, the Smoking Ban Inspection Office, the National Defense Levy Office, the Insurance Merchants Office, the Stamp Inspection, Tobacco and alcohol card inspections, ship merchants' offices, various military protection merchants' offices, Guizhou military music donation offices, etc., are scattered all over the place, fraudulent claims are everywhere, and merchants regard it as a fear of the road." There are 22 types of taxes and fees transcribed above, and 12 types of collection agencies, and the collection is generally repeated and aggravated, which is already difficult to calculate.What's more, these situations are still changing at any time and advancing with each passing day.According to the Nanning port report in Guangxi in 1923: "The army collects protection fees in the name of protection, and every time a ship arrives at a place, there is a military officer in that place who is engaged in constricting. At the beginning of spring, each ship only pays a total of 600 yuan to Xiaoyang. Knowing that we are advancing with the day, there is actually a ship that has to pay as much as 3,600 yuan in autumn." The merchants at that time couldn't figure out how much to charge.According to the 1923 report of Sanshui Port in Guangdong: "All places along the river set up agencies to collect protection fees for merchant ships... This collection agency can be set up anytime and anywhere. The small boat sails once, and the fee is too much. It cannot be estimated, and the profit and loss are also difficult to predict. ... If the political bureau remains unchanged, there will be a day when there are only a few foreign ships left." Speaking of this, I need to add a few words. Why can you take refuge and eliminate disasters by flying a foreign flag?We know that what best reflects the style of the yamen and the warlords is this rhetorical question: This is what I do, what can you do to me?Sue if you have the ability! The foreigners did tell.Their government sued for businessmen.Starting from consular negotiations in various places, if it fails, it will be brought to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the central government, and if it fails, it will send troops to fight.In fact, our warlords defy any rules and reason, they just want to fight.They knew that they couldn't beat the foreigners, or the larger warlords supported by the foreigners, and that the gains outweighed the losses, so they were very obedient. According to the report of Wanxian Port in Sichuan, in 1918, the sales of cotton yarn in Sichuan became more and more popular. The head of Tian Zhonggu who was stationed in Wanxian suddenly ordered the establishment of a donation bureau on October 21. According to the amount of cotton yarn loaded, the special military Insurance fee, if not paid, the ship will be detained.More than 80 ships were detained, and foreign consulates, customs and various businesses tried their best to protest to no avail.Half a month later, the British warship intervened. The captain issued a straightforward threat, and Captain Tian immediately released the ship. In the following year, we saw in the report of the Chongqing port that the method invented by Tuan Zhang was fully promoted with the support of the provincial government, but it was only effective for Chinese businessmen: Expropriation. Donations will not be collected for cargo from foreign merchants, or the goods loaded on genuine foreign merchant ships, in order to avoid diplomatic difficulties.” When calculating foreign flag accounts, General Manager Huang also mentioned bandits.He said: "The French took our 'flag-hanging fee' every year and every month, and they are bound to come forward to support us. Under such circumstances, besides sending Shali as the French manager of Geely Matheson, the captain also The French were in charge, and five or six French sailors were sent to serve as escorts on each ship. When the banditry was rampant, there were French ships to escort them. Not only were the French flags painted and hung on the ships, but they also wrote "French merchant ships are not "Soldiers', and Chinese passengers are not allowed to go on the third floor of the ship. Our ships are covered and sheltered in this way, so they can travel unimpeded in our inland rivers, and even open routes arbitrarily." This time we saw something real in exchange for 30,000 taels (approximately equal to 1 million RMB) for hanging the flag: an escort team composed of five or six French sailors, as well as French ships that came to escort when bandits were rampant.Jufu foreign company has three ships, which should be escorted by sixteen or seventeen French sailors all the year round. According to the current market situation, hiring a security guard or bodyguard will cost 10,000 to 20,000 yuan a year. Using these French sailors will cost at least two yuan a year. Three hundred thousand yuan, worth about a quarter of the flag-hanging fee.It is naturally more expensive to use military rounds, the key is that they cannot be bought.It is simply a dream in China for ordinary businessmen to use military ships. The calculation here is only the cost, not the utility of sailors and soldiers.If you can't buy these protections, you may not be able to do business.As the report of Chongqing Port in 1919 said: "In the first six months of this year, from Yunyang to Chongqing, armed bandits are very popular. Without soldiers to escort ships, they dare not sail in the meantime." Not only in Chongqing.According to the "Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce Monthly" report in March 1927, in 1926, small steamship companies and ferry companies in inland rivers in Guangdong generally lost money. Often, if a ship is plundered, tens of thousands of dollars will be lost. When crossing the rivers, the bandits charge irregular fees and there are very few merchants, so there is no profit to be made.” From this point of view, the flag-hanging fee is worthwhile just to deal with bandits.Bandits and warlords are both a given in the environment in which companies operate, like droughts, floods and pests that farmers must grapple with.Now it only costs a sum of money to control the insects, and even the drought has been cured. Having said that, we also understand how French Geely Matheson relies on to make money.What they privately resell to Jufu Foreign Firm is the public product provided by the French government to its citizens-citizen safety. After paying taxes, French citizens have the right to demand the protection of the government, and the French government has an obligation to protect its citizens everywhere in the world.This principle based on the contract and the system that guarantees that the contract will not fail come from the Enlightenment Movement initiated by Rousseau and others and the subsequent French Revolution.In this sense, what Geely Yangxing sold to Jufu Yangxing was also the result of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, that is, the rights of citizens living in a democratic constitutional system.These things are extremely valuable in China. It is easy to free ride on public goods.The citizens have already paid taxes and paid for these products, and there is no need to pay for the protection of the army and ships. The military expenses have been apportioned by all French taxpayers.Because of this, Geely Foreign Bank can enjoy expensive services as long as it pays regular taxes, and makes a lot of money by selling such services privately.The French government has to strictly control, for fear that the Chinese will pretend to be their citizens and take advantage of the French taxpayers. From 1920 to 1927, Jufu Foreign Trade Co., Ltd. has been buying public services from the French government from French citizens by means of flag-hanging fees. As a result, it has operated smoothly and its capital has doubled. In 1927, the French government noticed their tricks and claimed that their company was not in compliance with the rules and could not enjoy the protection of France. It must be changed into a joint-stock company, and the French side must account for more than one-third of the shares.Thus, the scene described at the beginning of this article appeared: Geely Matheson Co., Ltd. and Jufu Matheson Co., Ltd. signed a charter of a joint-stock company that complied with the rules, and Geely Matheson Co., Ltd. of France accounted for one-third of the shares.At the same time, the two parties signed a secret agreement, declaring that the shares of the French side are false shares, and the flag fee transaction is still maintained in fact. Since the end of the Qing Dynasty, citizens of European and American countries began to sell their civil rights to Chinese ship merchants, which later developed into an industry.According to the "Diplomatic News" report on July 25th (1903) in the twenty-ninth year of Guangxu, "all the Chinese ships in Zhenjiang were recently managed by businessmen from the United States and Japan, and they flew foreign flags to avoid the burden of local officials. Guo Guan, a passerby in Changzhen, heard about it, and sent a note to the American and Japanese consuls, saying that this merchant does not buy or sell goods, but only sells flags, so please order him to shut him down." On February 7, 1905, the "Times" reported from Zhenjiang that American Consul Ge Weibo had reported to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the country for approval, and American businessmen in China would not be protected at all for their "flag-flying industries". By the way, flagging deals are not uncommon outside of shipping either.General Feng Yuxiang of the Northern Army described two passages of knowledge in the early years of the Republic of China in "My Life", which was transcribed as the end of this section: Later, Feng Yuxiang wrote: From this point of view, the Chinese people have no choice but to fly foreign flags and join foreign religions—this is to seek the basic right not to be arbitrarily slaughtered by others, and to seek a government and army that are responsible to the people. When Mr. Huang calculated the income and expenditure accounts of the foreign flag, he took into account the warlords and bandits, as well as the boatmen and boatmen as competitors, but he did not elaborate on the yamen and officials.Jufu Foreign Firm was founded after the fall of the Qing Dynasty. Warlords and bandits ran rampant in China, temporarily stealing the limelight from corrupt officials.Under normal circumstances, this factor has a great impact on the company's profit and loss, and I have to make it up for him. In April of the second year of Xuantong (1910), Dong Bingyan, the censor, said that when paying lijin, merchants would encounter many difficulties in claiming and staying. After finishing the calculation, you have to spend money to ask for it, which is called a number. Otherwise, it is impossible to deduct the boat, and it is a category that needs to be requested. "Another example is that when the goods arrive at the card, since the first card has been sold out, it must be added to the middle card according to the number. The inspection of the pallets will inevitably take a long time, and the damage will be more, it is to make things difficult. "In addition, if you take goods arbitrarily, you call it light. If you pick money for no reason, you call it water. The name is stolen and the penalty is discussed, and the property is confiscated by false accusations. All kinds of extraneous branches are nothing but profit from it." It is not only Lika tax officials who need to ask for the refugees to stay.From top to bottom, every yamen and official with the right to harm is trying to exercise this power and grab as much profit as possible. Li Zuodong said in "New Collection of Current Affairs Huitong" that no matter the railway, mining, or inland waterway transportation, the Chinese can't do it, and the foreign businessmen can do it as soon as they come forward, so the Chinese businessmen must rely on the foreign businessmen.Even if the shares are all owned by Chinese businessmen, if the foreign flag is not hung and a foreign businessman is not found to come forward, the work that has been done will inevitably fail: "It may be difficult to retain the governor, or the state or county, or a certain committee member of a certain bureau. If there is a yamen to ask for, Some bureaucrats need to ask, and even the shogunate needs to ask, and officials need to ask. If they fail to do what they want, they will make slanderous remarks. It may be said that their capital is insufficient, or their character is not correct, or their regulations are not appropriate, or they are not suitable for local conditions. Or it may be said that it seizes the interests of the common people, or that it seizes the interests of the officials... sailing on the inland river, or obstructing the people's boats, obstructing the lijin,...everyone treats the Chinese like this." On July 19, 1905, "China and Foreign Daily" published a message, in which there was a paragraph of Chinese businessman Zhu Lixing complaining.He said, I am from Xuzhou, and I trade in oil, wine, cakes, beans, cowhide, pigs, jujubes, pears and fresh fruits. The gangsters are all afraid of it like a tiger, and dare not disturb it... and foreign tickets are donated to the card, and the rules and regulations are discounted. There are no more than foreign merchants. Merchants are willing to fly merchant flags to boost the prestige of our country and eliminate the disadvantages of foreign spillovers. But only flying merchant flags without proof of protection is still not enough to resist foreign merchants." An investigation by the Jiangsu Zhenjiang Merchant Shipping Association also said: "Once the foreign flag is flown, the officials dare not be appointed, the servants dare not be disturbed, and they can make a living freely." Think about it, as long as you hang it high, you can make a living freely, and you can frighten corrupt officials. How can businessmen not yearn for such a banner?Regardless of warlords and bandits, just in terms of the relationship between ship merchants and officials and servants, the presence or absence of foreign flags can determine the profit and loss of an enterprise, and even life and death.With a sum of money from General Manager Huang, he has already bought three things, each of which seems to be worth 30,000 taels. Another account calculated by General Manager Huang involved the relationship with the boat owner and the boatman.He wrote: At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, this story is very representative.Facing the powerful and fast ships, wooden boat gangs all over China waged desperate struggles one after another. From the point of view of modern Western economics, ships should be admired.Ships crush wooden boats. This is a very legitimate and even just market competition.The result of survival of the fittest is technological progress, social development, and consumer benefit.This set of logic is certainly good, but there must be a safety net of social security in order to ensure that the logic of market competition will not be crushed by the logic of survival competition.The Chinese government did not charge less, but it did not weave this net. In 1824, the Qing government tried to change the canal water transportation to sea transportation, and the sailors in the water gang lost their jobs one after another. In 1853, the Taiping Army established its capital in Nanjing, and all water transportation on the North-South Canal was stopped, and the sailors, trackers, and porters on the 4,000 water boats were completely unemployed.In a society with no safety net, what are these people doing?Most of them became salt lords or bandits, and some joined the Taiping Army. Later, some salt lords and bandits transferred to the Nian Army, and some joined the Hunan Army that suppressed the Taiping Army. In 1886, the canal water transport reopened. In 1901, due to the rise of ships and trains, water transportation finally stopped.What did the six major gangs who lost their jobs do?They flowed into the rivers and lakes, gambled and sold drugs, smuggled and extorted, and formed a powerful underworld-the Qing Gang. Volume 41 of "Jing Shiwen Continued" summarizes: "Since the early years of Xianfeng, the rivers have migrated and the water has stopped, the Cantonese atmosphere has been rampant, jobless people, let them be dismissed, formed cliques, and have no means of making a living. Thieves twist." The so-called "the situation has to...", this kind of logic is the logic of fighting for survival resources with life, that is, the logic of survival competition.This is a harder and more primitive logic than the logic of a market economy. The above-mentioned historical facts all happened within the life cycle of a generation, and even happened right before our eyes.For the society and the government, is it more cost-effective to help an unemployed person, or is it more cost-effective to force people to make a living for robbery?The answer is obvious.In practice, Qing officials also adopted a policy of reducing unemployment, but their method was more trouble-free. They only needed to draw a circle, approve a few words, reject the application for the operation of the ship, and forbid them to "compete with the small people for profit."This is the old way of giving policy instead of relief.The problem is that the policies given by the Chinese government have compressed the rights of shippers, and according to the rules of European and American countries, the rights of shippers must be fully protected.The two conflict, who has the final say? The establishment of all rules, in the final analysis, follow a fundamental rule: the most violent has the final say.This is a "meta-rule", a rule that determines the rules.The Qing government couldn't beat the foreigners, so they had to let the foreigners have the final say and let the steamers take jobs from the wooden boats.And the wooden boat gang couldn't beat the government, so if they didn't come to rescue, they had to go to war with the steamship. The Chinese ship gangs have their own tradition of wharf building and a set of wharf rules for fighting for jobs.Jobs belong to the victors of violent competition.Facing the ship, they fought as usual, smashed the boiler, killed the pilot, and turned the civil dispute that the government didn't care about into a criminal case or even a fatal case.According to the old experience, after risking their lives and making a big fuss, the competitors are attacked by both sides of the ship gang and the lawsuit extortion.The life-payers of the gang can make arrangements in advance by drawing lots or other methods. One life is exchanged for everyone's jobs and livelihoods. The risks and benefits are not difficult to calculate.However, the world has changed, and this old method has attracted negotiations from French warships and diplomats.Behind the opponent is a government that is completely different from the Chinese government. General Manager Huang’s narration is relatively brief, without explaining the process and outcome of this incident, but we can see the routine in a similar incident that occurred in Wanxian, Sichuan in 1924. Du Zhixiang wrote in "The Wanxian Incident in 1924: Despite the big fight, after a few months of transition, the job of tung oil transportation was allocated by market rules.Xiong Dengzhou wrote in "The Evolution and Development of Wooden Ship Transportation in Wanxian Port": "In that year (1924), according to the ruling of Wanxian Governor's Yamen, cotton cloth, kelp, and oil, salt, sugar, and paper in Shangshui were all carried by wooden boats. Soon, the Governor’s Yamen also stipulated that the ship should be shipped in early April and the wooden ship in early October. Later, due to the advantages of speed, safety and low price compared with wooden ship transportation, and the addition of oil tanks on ships, shipments have been achieved. The advantages of bulk tung oil, and in 1925, Zhang, the governor of Wanxian County, and Liu, the commander of the city defense, wrote to the customs, saying that there will be no more restrictions in the future, whether it is loaded on wooden ships or ships, it is up to the owner of the goods.” If we say that in terms of the relationship between ship merchants, warlords, bandits, and corrupt officials, what the foreign flag protects is only the national treatment promised by Chinese law, then in terms of the relationship between ships and wooden ships, what the foreign flag supports is the citizens of European and American countries. Treatment, treatment beyond the treatment of Chinese subjects.This kind of citizenship treatment accompanied by technological advantages has brought additional business and profits to the ship, which is really the so-called icing on the cake.From the point of view of the Chinese ship gang, this kind of protection beyond the convention is unfair, and the foreign flag is very privileged. The income and expenditure accounts of Yangqi have basically been calculated, and the conclusion that General Manager Huang came to is completely correct.The question now is: How should the value of the foreign flag be characterized?In other words, what kind of money does the money brought by the foreign flag belong to?Is it labor compensation?Does it belong to the rent of land and factory buildings?Is it interest on investments or deposits? In my opinion, this money should be called legal remuneration - the benefits caused by regulations or systems. Rights and obligations are legal terms from the West. In ancient Chinese, the synonym for this meaning is "fen".Ordinary people have the desire to increase rights or reduce obligations. In this sense, people have attempts to legislate.If we can't make a big law or a national law, then we should make a small law, a family law, village regulations, industry regulations, special zones, land policies, and unspoken rules.It’s fine if these small laws are consistent with the Dafa. If they are not consistent, if the Imperial Dafa allocates 100 yuan worth of rights to the ship merchants, the warlords and corrupt officials only agree to 50 yuan, and the other 50 yuan is distributed in private, then there will be a good show. up.This article describes exactly such a play. As mentioned earlier, the winner of violent competition has the final say. This is a meta-rule, a rule that makes rules.The emperor has the strongest force, and the imperial laws are also the most authoritative.However, in the deep mountains and deep swamps where the royal minions cannot reach or are unwilling to reach, in the dark prison rooms where the royal ears and eyes cannot see clearly or do not want to see clearly, in the troubled times when the imperial power declines and the warlords are arrogant, the imperial "points" must be re-divided. .All kinds of strong people with the ability to harm openly or secretly squeeze out the share of the weak or other people who are taken advantage of. The real power boundary is far from what is depicted on the imperial map. In fact, when General Manager Huang bought the foreign flag, the official rights of ship merchants had already become a dead letter.For example, after warlords, bandits and corrupt officials carve up and erode rights worth 100 yuan, there may not be 50 yuan left.The 50 yuan lost by the ship merchants was the legal remuneration brought to them by the evil laws of the warlords, the horizontal rules of the bandits, and the unspoken rules of corrupt officials.At this time, the ship merchants hoisted the foreign flag and obtained strong military support, so they dared to despise the evil laws, horizontal rules and unspoken rules.At that time, the governments and armies of European and American countries were already under the control of the bourgeoisie. It was the bourgeoisie's own force. They could use it confidently to recapture the 50 yuan that the warlords, bandits, and corrupt officials carved up and ate away, and used it to protect themselves. The 100 yuan deserved was even used to fight for more rights. The nature of the regained rights worth 50 yuan is the legal remuneration of the imperial law, that is, the part of the value that has long been divided and eaten away by horizontal rules and unspoken rules, so it cannot be realized.Fundamentally speaking, all legal rewards are exchanged for bloody sacrifices, therefore, legal rewards are also a form of blood rewards. Finally, explain the fate of Yangqi and Jufu Foreign Bank. Around 1905, the Qing government attempted to take back the "rights" and replaced the foreign flag with the dragon flag.Many chambers of commerce emerged at the historic moment, hoping to take the opportunity to earn a sum of money for hanging the dragon flag.However, the corrupt officials and arrogant soldiers at various checkpoints refused to accept Longqi's account, and the extortion continued as before, while those who had collected the fee for hanging the flag were powerless to deter them. Therefore, this movement seemed to be blown by a cool breeze. disappeared. In 1911, before and after the Revolution of 1911, among the ships in the inner port registered by the Chinese Customs, ships with foreign flags accounted for 16-17%. In 1924, that number nearly doubled to more than 32%. In 1941, Hitler occupied France.Jufu Foreign Company was repeatedly made things difficult by the government, but the French side could do nothing, so General Manager Huang decided to find another backer, and got acquainted with Xu Kan, Minister of Food Department of the Kuomintang government.With the support of Minister Xu, General Manager Huang drove away the French and reorganized Jufu Foreign Trade Co., Ltd. into "Qianghua Industrial Co., Ltd.". General Manager Huang donated one fifth of the shares to Xu Kan and his assistants. Back is not a "false stock". With the help of the power of senior officials of the Kuomintang, Qianghua Company wanted money, goods, and ships, and once developed at a high speed.In order to strengthen control, Xu Kan appointed his confidant Wang Mengfan as the general manager of Qianghua, and Huang Jinying retired to the position of vice president.After Wang Mengfan took office, a large number of private individuals were deployed, the organization was bloated, the expenses were huge, and the company was heavily in debt. In 1949, the Kuomintang was defeated and fled.After the founding of the Communist Party of China, Qianghua Company was rectified in the anti-five-drug campaign. In May 1952, Qianghua Company applied for a public-private partnership and was reorganized as Chuanjiang Shipping Company. In 1956, Chuanjiang Shipping Company, a public-private joint venture, was merged into the Yangtze River Navigation Bureau.The company founded by national capitalists has undergone several facelifts during its 36-year voyage, and finally completed a complete transformation.