Apart from gender stereotypes, Zhou Ying's success is not commendable. Her success, in fact, only borrowed the existing power and financial resources of Shaanxi commercial gangs, persisted in doing things and developed moderately. Call her? Ma Yun, a woman in the late Qing Dynasty? Of course, it's a stunt, but is it to promote Zhou Ying or belittle Ma Yun?
The most important thing is that her two most sought-after deeds (which I will talk about in detail below) are precisely the reasons that led to the earliest decline and disintegration of Shaanxi business groups in China, rather than what the public thinks, and are the manifestations of the extremely prosperous Shaanxi business groups.
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I know a little about the history of Shaanxi commercial gangs. It's not because of this drama, but because a Shaanxi native in his college class often boasted about how awesome Shaanxi business gangs were, killing Jin, Hui business gangs and a group of southern business gangs. He felt bad about your uncleanness and went to dig up the black history of Shaanxi business gangs.
As a result, I have read a lot of historical materials about this business gang, but realistically speaking, there are not many historical materials about Zhou Ying, which are nothing more than written about her in Jingyang County Records, referring to her introduction about Anwuhe Academy, as well as two pens written by Wu Mi, a descendant of the Wu family and a great sinologist. The rest are basically circulated locally? Widow Wu An? Legend has it.
This shows that Zhou Ying is only a local celebrity, and his achievements are certainly there, but not so awesome. I haven't heard of her since I left that place. There are thousands of such local celebrities in China, and you can find hundreds if you just open the county annals of a place.
Obviously, Zhou Ying is not the kind of forgotten historical figure. Her current fame does not match her actual achievements, and the TV series is hard-won. In our time, there are too many "Big V" and "Internet celebrities" whose names are disproportionate. What about Zhou Ying? Little historical figures? I also think it's normal to be popular.
Some people will say that your analysis is wrong. Zhou Ying is different from other little people in history. Her popularity is due to scarcity. It is extremely rare in history that a widow revived a family business empire.
Right and wrong. ? Zhou Ying fever? What is the selling point? Ma Yun, a woman in the late Qing Dynasty, was the richest woman in Shaanxi in the late Qing Dynasty? Without gender, she can't be popular. But anyone who knows a little about history knows that in a patriarchal society, there are still some stories about widows getting rich in business. Even before it became famous, Ba Widow Qing in historical records had occupied it? China's richest woman? The title of. Some historical researchers have collected and sorted out 32 businesswomen in the documents of the Tang Dynasty, among which 19 did not describe their family background, and the rest 13 recorded it, and 12 was a widow. You see, widows, businessmen and rich people all have elements, but few people know their names.
To tell the truth, these years are not history, but the film and television entertainment circle. After all, history is small and often not easy. So, if you meet a lover who can talk about history without provocation, please cherish and invite him/her to dinner.
That is beside the point. In a word, Zuijun has acquiesced that everyone has heard of or learned about Zhou Ying's life story, so I won't go into details.
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As a college classmate who loves you most, Shaanxi business gang is really awesome in history. Zhou Ying's life experience is the end of this business gang.
Shaanxi commercial gangs originated in China? The best business gang in the world? . This is not flattery, it is a fact. As early as the early Ming dynasty, they took advantage of their geographical advantages to enter the historical stage and become the imperial court? Special zone policy? Beneficiary of.
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the world was not peaceful. In order to prevent the revenge of Mongolian Tatar forces and the centrifugal tendency of imprisoning frontier ethnic groups, the imperial court put the focus of border defense construction in Shaanxi, and set up four border towns along the Great Wall of Shaanxi, where hundreds of thousands of troops were stationed.
In order to ensure the logistics supply of the border guards, the Ming dynasty creatively implemented it? Salt is made in China? That is to say, the system that the salt trade is monopolized by the state has been reformed, and the state has decentralized its power and allowed private people to participate in salt trafficking. However, it is stipulated that businessmen must sell grain to the border, exchange salt imports from the salt trade, and then use salt imports to sell salt in salt-producing areas.
This is simply tailor-made for Shaanxi? Special zone policy? . Shaanxi merchants took advantage of the trend and transported grain to the border in exchange for the introduction of salt, forming a merchant group with local kinship as the link. Shaanxi businessmen centered on Sanyuan and Jingxian earned their first bucket of gold and became the first group to get rich.
At that time, Shanxi merchants who later overtook Shaanxi merchants got the policy earlier, but they almost made a fortune after Shaanxi merchants. Japanese scholar Hiroshi Fujii said that in the management of salt, for a long time, the influence of Shaanxi businessmen was above that of Shanxi businessmen. Another big business gang of later generations, Huizhou merchants, didn't even have a trace at that time. Their rise in the reform of salt introduction in the middle of Ming Dynasty was equivalent to the first wave of policy dividends enjoyed by Shaanxi merchants and the second wave enjoyed by Huizhou merchants.
At that time, Shaanxi businessmen were very similar to Cantonese in the early days of reform and opening up. They all have natural political sensitivity and are good at using policy dividends to get rich. While preparing the northwest frontier by force, the Ming Dynasty also actively carried out bilateral trade, especially tea-horse trade, in order to ease and strengthen relations with northern ethnic minorities. Shaanxi businessmen once again smelled business opportunities and became pioneers of the Shaanxi-Gansu tea-horse ancient road, from which they earned a lot of money.
Since then, salt tea trade has become two major industries of Shaanxi businessmen. Many famous businessmen in Shaanxi sold salt and tea in one hand, and started a group and diversified trade operation. In Zhou Ying's time, these two industries were still her main businesses, so she didn't break away from the business model of her ancestors.
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▲ Wu Manor, which was invested heavily in that year, has now become a tourist attraction.
After the early Shaanxi merchants became rich, according to the policy changes, other trade industries were widely distributed, eventually covering eight industrial fields. Besides salt and tea, it also involves cloth, medicinal materials, tobacco, wine making, wood and pawn.
When the eight major industries were taken down, they were woven into a huge commercial network of Shaanxi merchants. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Sanyuan, Jingxian and Weinan were called the Wall Street in the west of China. There are more than 300 pawn shops and 70 money houses in Hejianwa, Weinan. At the peak, a word from his family, He Shiying, can influence the interest rate in the northwest money market.
Such a large-scale, diversified and cross-industry commercial capital game is basically the first time in the history of China. What is even more rare is that Shaanxi businessmen have created a series of modern? Class enterprise system? Its advanced nature makes people suspect that they are a group of people who have crossed the past from modern times.
Like what they created? Wanjin account? , is the earliest partnership joint-stock system in China. In the case of insufficient funds, Shaanxi people cooperated to raise funds, and all the investors' shares, dividends and debts were clearly recorded. The account books are all made of cloth and paper, beautifully packaged and locked in the cabinet for a long time. In case of withdrawal or dispute, they will be taken out. Wanjin account? .
The fund-raising form stipulated in this account book became the most extensive capital organization mode of Shaanxi firms in Ming and Qing Dynasties. The teahouse opened by He Dating, a great pawnbroker in Weinan in Qing Dynasty, and Huxian merchants? Detai and? Other big companies have adopted it? Wanjin account? Business models have grown from small to large, with semicolons all over the country.
What about the things they created? East-west system? . Because Shaanxi merchants are mainly engaged in large-scale trafficking and wholesale trade, and also implement the capital operation mode of integration of production, supply and marketing, semicolons are spread all over the country, and investors are often limited in manpower and beyond their reach. In order to adapt to the ever-changing market and strengthen the flexibility of enterprise management, they began to implement the entrusted management system of separating the ownership and management of funds, that is? East-west system? .
The investor is the owner, also known as Cai Dong, who only invests and does not interfere in the operation. Composed of a rich man? Fairy club? (That is? Hire experienced and honest professional managers? Boss? , responsible for management. All business activities of an enterprise must obey the dispatch of the shopkeeper, and the chief financial officer shall not interfere. It's called. Only shopkeepers are flying everywhere, and no shopkeepers are flying everywhere? , the implementation of enterprise ownership and management rights completely separated.
Look, Wang Shi is proud of Vanke's management system. Isn't that the general direction? No wonder Shaanxi merchants are called in history? Xiqin, everyone? This? Big? Words, when not only refers to its abundant capital, but also refers to its leading system and larger pattern.
In a sense, the rising Shaanxi businessmen were Ma Yun in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, not only rich, but also innovative and leading the trend.
As for Zhou Ying, or? Female ma yun? Might as well give up the title. The industry she played was left by her husband Wu Weiwen. Her skill is to stop its decline and expand its business, and she acts as a qualified heir. The fields she set foot in and the management mode she adopted were all played out by the ancestors of Shaanxi merchants, not groundbreaking. In today's words, Zhou Ying is still doing traditional business, not new business.
Actually, call Zhou Ying? Zhang Yin in the late Qing Dynasty? More appropriate. Just the king of the paper industry, Zhang Yin, once the richest woman, has lost popularity in recent years, and no one has labeled her and made headlines.
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I don't mean to be hard on Zhou Ying. Zhang Yin in the late Qing Dynasty? It's good, too. Why do you have to add one to Ma Yun's hot spot? Woman? Words, how to see how awkward.
Zhou Ying's business and management were not innovative, but at that time, the whole Shaanxi Commercial Group was like this. No one is better than anyone else, so no one can save the decline of a business gang better than anyone else.
Zhou Ying lived in an era when Shaanxi businessmen were at home and abroad.
Including the Shaanxi-Gansu-Hui uprising that spread to five northwestern provinces, almost destroyed the social wealth accumulated in Shaanxi for many years. In the turmoil, Shaanxi businessmen, who have always had a tradition of rural life, suffered a catastrophe in their hometown. It was a piece of cake that all the property in the house was looted. More seriously, some wealthy businessmen were killed. Even if they survived, due to the situation, a large amount of operating capital was converted into military expenditure, and the economic strength of Shaanxi merchants was seriously weakened.
Abroad, after the Opium War, foreign goods gradually entered the inland, squeezing the living space of Shaanxi merchants' advantageous industries step by step. For example, the popularity of foreign fabrics has led to a sharp decline in the sales of Hubei and Henan home-made fabrics by Shaanxi cloth merchants. During the Tongzhi period, the annual sales volume was still 4 million and 2 million, and later it has shrunk to less than a quarter. Cigarettes made by western machines in the late Qing Dynasty quickly became popular in China, and the hookah industry of Shaanxi merchants became a thing of the past because of their delicate taste, convenient smoking and novel propaganda methods.
Of course, this is not only a crisis faced by Zhou Ying and his business groups in Shaanxi, but also a crisis faced by all traditional businessmen and business groups in China. Different crisis responses ultimately produce different results. Shopping malls are like battlefields, and cruelty is certain. For traditional business gangs, some turned around gorgeously, while others declined and collapsed.
The coastal business groups of Ningbo, Dongting and Guangdong not only avoided the decline, but also ushered in the second spring because of the timely transformation of modernization. These businessmen have a keen sense of touch and are quick to accept new things and introduce new technologies. 1894- 1895 After the Sino-Japanese War of 1895, they invested heavily in new enterprises and achieved overall success.
For example, among its pillar industries, Ningbo businessmen actively adopted advanced science and technology of capitalism, and developed China's garbage transportation industry with low efficiency, slow speed and small capacity into a shipping transportation industry at the earliest, and on the other hand, transformed the traditional banking industry into a modern banking industry. These two changes are enough to put them in the lead again.
At the same time, what is the leader of Shaanxi business gang doing?
Zhou Ying did two of the most famous things in her life. Yes, that's two things that everyone is talking about now: First, Empress Dowager Cixi, who fled to the west, paid a tribute of 102,000 silver; Second, follow the pattern of the Forbidden City in Beijing and build a huge mansion.
These two things just reflect the attitude of traditional Shaanxi businessmen.
First, I despise the identity of businessmen in my bones, and strive to shape my position beyond businessmen by moving closer to power and donating officials. Zhou Ying's family and her husband's family have spent a lot of money to donate officials. She also won the honor of being named Mrs. Second Class and Mrs. First Class, and sang happily for three days and three nights.
Second, huge commercial profits will be used for unproductive activities such as building houses and land and extravagant consumption. Modern Shaanxi businessmen are said to be? One hundred dollars for a meal, one thousand dollars for a dress, and one million dollars for a house? . Zhou Ying's daily life is also extremely rich and luxurious, with more than 2,000 servants and annual expenses of more than100000 silver, which is a typical local tyrant.
Vision determines the pattern. We can't ask Zhou Ying to do better, but we shouldn't hold her too high.
The popular words are used to explain the behavior of Zhou Ying and his representative Shaanxi businessmen, that is, Shaanxi businessmen's strong concern for social status and extravagant consumption, which made them almost indifferent to the changes in modern China and still adhered to traditional business operations. When the capitalist industrial civilization was invincible, Shaanxi merchants eventually declined and disintegrated because of the strong color of feudal conservatism.
Everyone praised Zhou Ying for pushing Wu's commerce to the peak, but no one knew what happened to Wu and Shaanxi merchants behind him after Zhou Ying. This may be the once famous? The best business gang in the world? The fate of.
Zhou Ying, a legendary widow, happened to sing an elegy.