Li Songchen said with a smile: " That's not placed, but now we are decentralized procurement, not only consumes time, but also waste, we have to deal with the war with all our might, so we can't afford to spend, so we plan to set up a Liaodong military supply joint supply association, referred to as the military supply association, the materials we need for unified procurement, unified pricing, joint settlement, and you are also according to their own supply of materials, each has its own responsibilities, of course, the operation mode of the club will have a detailed arrangement, and we will send the printed information to you later, in short, we can save time and effort, simplify the intermediate links, improve efficiency。 ”

After Li Songchen finished speaking, there was a burst of discussion in the restaurant, because this suggestion was a bit unexpected, but it was reasonable to think about it, now is a time of war, naturally we can't disperse procurement like before, and organize all the businessmen who supply goods to the East China government to carry out unified procurement, so that the efficiency is indeed much higher, and for businessmen, it is not a bad thing, at least I can't see any disadvantages to businessmen.

Zhang Zhenxun was the first to stand up in support and said: "I support it, as long as this 'Military Supply Federation' is established, I will definitely participate." ”

Li Songchen said: "Don't be in a hurry to express your position, listen to me first." First of all, whether or not to join the 'Military Supply Federation' is entirely up to you, we will never force it, even if you do not join the 'Military Supply Federation', you can still provide us with materials, but to make it clear first, our Cai Yang will definitely give priority to the merchants who join the 'Military Supply Federation', and then the non-'Military Supply Federation' businesses. ”

Zhang Zhenxun said with a smile: "This is natural, otherwise there is no need for the Shanghai New Area to set up this 'Military Supply Federation', and there is no need for us to join." ”

Li Songchen nodded and said: "In addition to the benefits I mentioned just now, there are several requirements for us to establish this 'Military Supply Federation', one is to formulate uniform rules, and all members who join the association must respect these rules, so as to avoid malicious competition between you, and once there is a commercial dispute between the members, the 'Military Supply Federation' will organize personnel to arbitrate, and the rules formulated in accordance with the same will be ruled on right and wrong and punished. After a pause, Li Songchen said again: "You are all businessmen, shopping malls are like battlefields, so it is inevitable that there will be competition, but shopping malls are not completely like battlefields can do everything, if there is no reasonable rule, it is inevitable that there will be malicious competition, such as depressing each other's prices, slandering and smearing opponents, and even borrowing gangs or government forces to suppress opponents. Of course, this is not our business, but now the war on the front line is urgent, if you fight each other, I am afraid that our major affairs will be delayed, everyone respects certain rules and acts, there will be no such thing, so we are also forced to do so, only such a rule. ”

After Li Songchen finished speaking, the restaurant was silent for a while, and soon a small voice of discussion sounded, some people agreed, some people opposed, and some people were very worried about it. In fact, in the hearts of the vast majority of people, they do hope to be able to be in a unified, Operating under fair rules, although the people present have a wide range of connections, but during the operation, it is inevitable to encounter the other party's malicious price reduction, or with the help of other forces to suppress, and in order not to lose the business operation, they have to accompany to the end, the other party lowers the price, and they will press it even lower; the other party looks for the Qing to help the array, and they will find Hongmen to help; the other party takes the governor's doorway, and he votes in the name of the governor, but all this is not in vain, a lot of money is spent, at most, even if the business is won down, it is also a loss-making operation, and can only lose money and make money。

Now the East China Government wants to come forward to formulate a set of rules, but many people are hesitant to question whether the rules formulated are fair? Arbitration is fair, and most people have no bottom in their hearts. The supporters are all people who have close business contacts with the East China government and have already set up factories and shops in Shandong, so they have paid for the sweetness of doing business under fair rules, and of course they hope to extend this set of rules to the Shanghai area, and they also have full confidence in the execution ability of the traversers.

At this time, Zheng Yingguan said: "Dare to ask District Mayor Li how these rules are formulated." ”

Li Songchen said: "Naturally, it is formulated by everyone working together, and the principle is 'fairness and justice', which not only takes care of the interests of big businessmen, but also takes care of the interests of small businessmen. ”

Zhang Jian said: "District Mayor Li, the merchants who join the club must abide by the rules, but the merchants who have not joined the club do not need to abide by it, so the competition is not good for the merchants who join the club?"

Li Songchen also nodded, and said: "Elder Jian asked very well, although the detailed rules of the rules have not yet come out, but these rules are only applicable to the competition between the merchants who have joined the club. ”

"Boom!", the restaurant became lively again, and the businessmen understood what Li Songchen meant, that is, to gather the strength of the plenum to deal with the merchants who did not join the union and viciously competed. In this way, it naturally has a great advantage, and there is no need to be afraid of malicious competition from merchants who have not joined the club. The vast majority of these businessmen are only suppliers, and there are many small and medium-sized businesses or production workshops below, and the future material demand of the East China government will be extremely huge, and the requirements are quite urgent, and the downstream merchants or production workshops will inevitably threaten to raise prices, and now there are faint signs. If the Military Supply Federation is established, then as long as the merchants of the plenum join hands to squeeze out the merchants who raise prices below, they must force those merchants to go bankrupt, which is naturally beneficial to these merchants.

At this time, Zheng Yingguan suddenly said: "What if foreigners compete with us?"

Li Songchen said: "No matter who it is, if the foreigners want to use malicious competition to destroy the supply of materials on the front line, we must also unite to deal with the foreigners." ”

At this moment, there was a sudden silence, and everyone was stunned by Li Songchen's words, because since the Opium War, China's national door has been opened widely, and foreign businessmen and foreign capital have poured into China, and all competitions between Chinese businessmen and foreign businessmen have almost invariably ended in failure. First, foreign businessmen have a large number of political privileges in China, and undoubtedly occupy an extremely advantageous position in commercial competition, and second, foreign businessmen have abundant capital and a unified organization, and when necessary, the government will provide help, while Chinese businessmen are basically single-handed, and the imperial court not only does not support, but will also fall into the ground, and make a stir behind the back, so even in fair competition, there are very few defeats.

The most typical example of business war is in the eighth year of Guangxu (1882), the red-topped merchant Hu Xueyan and foreign businessmen engaged in a silk war, which consumed more than 2,000 taels of silver to collect millions of quintals of domestic new silk, resulting in the rupture of their own capital chain, and at this time, the Qing court not only did not give Hu Xueyan enough support, but connived at Shao Youlian of Shanghai Daotai to deliberately delay Hu Xueyan's salary for 20 days, and bureaucrats from all over the country competed to withdraw deposits from Hu Xueyan's bank, resulting in a run, resulting in Hu Xueyan's money bank closing down one after another. The Qing court also ordered Hu Xueyan to be dismissed from his post and secretly checked Hu Xueyan's assets in order to pay off his debts, causing Hu Xueyan to be in debt, completely bankrupt, and finally depressed.

Of course, in this era of Sino-foreign commercial wars, China is not without examples of victory, that is, after the establishment of the steamship China Merchants Bureau organized by Sheng Xuanhuai, the British Swire, Jardine Matheson, the United States Qichang and other steamship companies joined forces and adopted the means of greatly reducing freight in an attempt to squeeze the steamship China Merchants Bureau. At this time, Li Hongzhang, who was behind Sheng Xuanhuai, decisively gave favorable support to the China Merchants Steamship Bureau, and borrowed official funds, increased the allocation of grain, and carried official goods to protect the business of the China Merchants Bureau, but as a result, the Qichang Company was run on and bankrupt, and Swire, Jardine and other companies also had to compromise with China Merchants and sign contracts at the same price, which became a rare commercial victory in modern Chinese history. It also illustrates how important state support is when it comes to commercial competition with foreign countries.

It's just that this business war is just a special case, and Sheng Xuanhuai's opportunity to get the full support of the government is also unavoidable. On the whole, Chinese businessmen basically lost one-sided in the competition with foreign businessmen, so in this era, China's national capital could only survive in the monopoly of foreign businessmen, and could not develop and grow at all.

At this time, Li Songchen said again: "Foreign businessmen are not terrible, this is our territory in China, as long as you can unite and unite with the outside world, it will not be a problem to defeat foreign businessmen at all." It's hard for you to be willing to be suppressed by foreign businessmen all the time, don't you want to raise your eyebrows!"

At this time, some shrewd businessmen had generally understood the intention of the East China Government, that this was not just the materials needed to prepare for the war, but also to unify the business circles in Shanghai, because according to the rules mentioned by Li Songchen, even if the war was over, it would still be possible to continue to operate with only a small adjustment.

In fact, similar chambers of commerce have not appeared in ancient China, and various localities have organized and established chambers of commerce, but because ancient China has always implemented the policy of suppressing business and promoting security, the social status of businessmen is low, and the chamber of commerce organization either relies on the power of the gang, or simply is a gang itself, but this has become the object of government suppression, and it is difficult to become bigger; or it can only be dependent on the government, but this is affected by the replacement of officials, and it is difficult to maintain it for a long time, and even if it can be maintained for a long time, it does not have the ability to be autonomous, and often becomes a tool for officials to accumulate wealth or create political achievements for themselves, and even to suppress dissent。