Chapter 48 Series of surveys: Coal bosses start-up cost survey

Coal bosses have tens of thousands of fortunes, they are as rich as the sky, and they are as rich as the enemy. So, how did their wealth accumulate? Today, their start-up costs and the road to prosperity have always been the focus of attention. There is a saying, "Don't ask about the origin of a hero." Wang Bilin from the coal-producing mountains in western Shanxi is one of the most representative coal bosses. Speaking of the beginning of his small coal mine business, Wang Bilin, a coal boss who walks a little bit, is still full of sighs and emotions. Counting nine days of cold weather, he had to search for coal seams through sand and gravel layers tens of meters thick in the crevices of rocks in the wild mountains and ridges.He and the hired workers dug rocks into the mountains, and then carried the soil and stones to the entrance of the cave in baskets that were used to feed animals.That coldness, in his own words, he never thought it would be today.

Later, he saw the "coal line" and then the "coal". At that time, he was poor and had no money to pull lighting wires, let alone a "power supply".He can only light a kerosene lamp and carry it on his shoulders in the dark world. If the "ceiling" under the pit is relatively high, the workers will carry the coal to the entrance of the cave one by one. If the "roof" is too low, they have no choice but to learn "dog-pull sledges": workers crawl on the ground with four limbs, put ropes on their shoulders, and hang "special" coal baskets behind their buttocks. There are four small wheels at the bottom of the coal baskets.While crawling forward, the workers held wires in their mouths. In order to save money on candles, they hung kerosene lamps underneath. The tops of the oil lamps were surrounded by white linen paper to prevent them from being blown out by the wind, and the tops were covered with paper. , to prevent the smoke from directly burning the face.Workers often take a break after crawling more than 30 meters, because no one can bear the smoky smoke.

Later, as the excavation face gradually moved forward, the height of the "roof" of the coal seam gradually increased, reaching a height of more than two meters in some places. At this time, the local people thought of using livestock raised at home instead of manpower to pull coal trucks in the pit, so a new "industry" emerged: "The pit pulls livestock", and a shift can earn 20-30 yuan. Prepare water by yourself. Soon, the cattle, donkeys, horses, and mules in the nearby villages were brought to earn money. For a while, the narrow pit became a "Mule and Horse Conference" in the rural market.After one shift, these special "miners" are covered with scabs of coal dust on their heads, faces and nasal passages just like the coal diggers under the pit.

This is the general situation of the small coal mine of the coal boss in the "initial stage of entrepreneurship". Since the productivity is basically "primitive", the coal boss does not spend much money during this period.In general, wages, meals, cigarette money for hired workers, steel drills, sledgehammers and explosives for construction, as well as "animal pullers" in the pit, etc. all cost money. about ten thousand.If this number is pushed forward another five years, considering the social price factors at that time, it may become 50,000. Later, today, in order to make money faster and more directly, some wealthy coal bosses simply "chop the head and tail" - directly pay money to "buy the hole".

"Buying a hole" is to buy a pit mouth where coal seams have been found and the mining output has a certain scale. The price is comprehensively evaluated by the buyer and the seller based on many factors such as coal quality, reserves, construction conditions under the pit, coal transportation status, and pit product procedures, and finally negotiated. A price agreed upon by both buyers and sellers. It is understood that this kind of "buying hole" behavior of "frying and selling now" has become a trend in the coal mine market in some local coal-producing areas due to "fast food", "quick money" and "quick sales".Therefore, in this market environment, a nascent industry has emerged—specializing in finding coal seams and then selling pits, which the locals call "sellers".