In recent years, Shanghai's shopping malls have not been quiet, although the trade volume has grown extremely fast, and Chinese and foreign merchants have made a lot of profits, but the conflict of interests has always continued. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

In fact, the dispute itself, interests are only the fuse, and the root cause is actually a struggle for power, a struggle for dominance, and a struggle for the right to speak who has the final say.

Before the foreigners came to Shanghai, there was no doubt that the port of Shanghai was all decided by Chinese businessmen, with the Liuliupu Wharf as the center, which was the distribution center for grain and soybeans, and the accompanying trade was very prosperous.

After the First Opium War, a concession was established in Shanghai, and the trade center was transferred from the 16 shops to the adjacent Bund, and the scale of trade expanded dramatically, and soon shifted from the grain trade in the past to the trade centered on the export of silk tea.

On the surface, the cooperation between foreign businessmen and Chinese businessmen complemented each other, and foreigners were unable to enter the mainland market, so they hired compradors to make purchases on their behalf. But in fact, it is this group of compradors who have the most violent conflict with foreigners, because they have the greatest conflict of interest with foreigners.

After the Second Opium War, the business model of foreign firms and compradors had been established in Shanghai.

This has to be said to be an irony, one of the reasons why the British launched the Opium War was that they believed that the Qing government restricted trade and did not allow ordinary merchants to trade directly with British merchants, so after the end of the Opium War, they forced the Qing government to open the channels for foreign merchants to trade with ordinary merchants.

Historically, the reason why the Qing government chose the Thirteen Banks to monopolize the trade with foreigners was actually for a reason, because there were many trade conflicts between China and foreign countries at that time, and there were often cases where Chinese businessmen deceived foreigners with shoddy goods and deceived foreigners of their payments, and there were also cases where foreigners owed Chinese businessmen huge sums of money.

Once, a merchant owed money to British merchants, and as a result, the British made trouble for Qianlong, and Qianlong felt that he had lost people, so he ordered the Thirteen Banks to pay double compensation, and distributed those domestic merchants who owed money to others. But later, the Americans owed the Pan family a huge amount of money, and the Qing court did not come forward at all, resulting in the Pan family taking the lawsuit to Washington and failing to recover the debt.

As this kind of conflict became more and more frequent, the Qing court invented this way of buying with thirteen lines, only allowing those merchants with strong financial resources and good reputation to do business with foreigners, which proved to be indeed effective, all kinds of conflicts were greatly reduced, and mutual trust was also increased, and the annual balance of the East India Company was often directly deposited in big merchants like Wu Bingjian, and these big merchants often lent money to the East India Company, and even invested abroad through institutions such as the East India Company.

After the Opium War, the Thirteen Lines were disbanded, and the foreigners gained the right to trade directly with all Chinese merchants. But then they found out that the same fraud of the past had reappeared. They don't trust Chinese businessmen, and Chinese people don't trust foreigners, so they still have to rely on middlemen to do business. Only then did the comprador class appear, and in a certain sense, it was the foreigners themselves who followed the path of the past and walked back to the era of the Thirteen Elements. The difference is that the package buyers have changed from thirteen merchants in the past to compradors of all sizes.

In the past, the conflicts between them and the Chinese businessmen have returned, and even with the compradors they have found to cooperate with.

However, it has really developed into the collective confrontation between the two major business groups of Huayang in recent years.

The first major conflict was in 1866, when the largest foreign merchant, Jardine Matheson, and his comprador clashed.

In November of that year, the British merchant Witol brothers purchased 200-300 bales of silk from Jardine Matheson. In mid-December, Qiu Qiyi, a comprador of Jardine Matheson, successively sent 50 packages of goods to the agent of the Witol brothers. Although Qiu Qiyi was a comprador of Jardine Matheson, he was more like an independent businessman, and he would only pay Jardine Matheson to its suppliers after all the goods were delivered to the buyer. Due to the supplier's demand, Jardine Matheson handed over the two banker notes issued by the local bank to Qiu Qiyu, and Qiu paid for the two banker notes through Yiwo Bank, but the bank went bankrupt and the supplier still did not receive a penny.

At this time, Jardine Matheson had a conflict with its compradors, and Jardine Matheson believed that he had paid the banker's bill, and this payment had nothing to do with him. Qiu Qiyu did not want to bear the loss himself, and under the pressure of the supplier, he sued the Shanghai Supreme Court, suing Jardine Matheson, demanding payment of silk.

This case is a rare occurrence because it is a lawsuit between a foreign firm and its own compradors. Therefore, the local newspapers reported it vigorously, especially the "North China Jiebao", which was published one after another, so it spread very widely.

In court, Qiu argued that he had been acting as an agent for Jardine Matheson for more than three years, and that his procurement was on behalf of Jardine Matheson, so Jardine Matheson was obliged to pay the supplier; Such payment is subject to receipt of real money by the Supplier.

But at this time, Jardine Matheson made an act that broke with the traditional concept of Chinese businessmen, they denied Qiu Qiyi's identity and did not recognize Qiu Qiyi as their comprador.

This greatly stimulated the worldview of the local merchants, who also carried traditional favors with them in their business, which he considered more important than anything else, and for which they rarely signed formal agreements for business. There is no entrustment agreement between Qiu Qiyi and Jardine Matheson, which is completely a gentleman's verbal agreement. But we have cooperated for many years, and not only Qiu Qiyi, but also the Chinese businessman who has business relations with Jardine Matheson, has long determined that Qiu Qitong is the comprador of Jardine Matheson.

However, Jardine Matheson denied its comprador in front of tens of thousands of taels of silver, which in the eyes of the Chinese was a betrayal and a move to abandon the car and protect the commander.

Jardine Matheson has their reasons, they think that they have neither paid Qiu Qiyi's annual salary nor paid him commission, Qiu Qiyi is not their comprador, even if the two sides have cooperated for many years, it is only a cooperative relationship, and Qiu Qiyi cannot represent Jardine Matheson.

As for this batch of payment, Jardine Matheson has already paid the banker's bills, which should be regarded as the completion of the payment obligation, and the accident of the bank's collapse should not be borne by them in the future.

The two sides insisted on their own words, but in the end, Jardine Matheson expressed a compromise: as long as Qiu could withdraw the lawsuit, Jardine Matheson was willing to pay for the goods in real money. As a result, Jardine Matheson lost 80,000 taels of silver in this single business, and the "North China Jiebao" thought that it was still cost-effective, after all, Jardine Matheson thus preserved its reputation in China.

The case ended with Jardine Matheson weighing the pros and cons and recovering its reputation with losses, but the impact was very bad and directly impacted the worldview of Chinese businessmen.

The Chinese businessmen felt that even the "Rothschilds of the East" like Jardine Matheson would refuse to recognize the identity of those compradors who actually served them when needed, which was a dangerous act, which made them full of distrust of foreigners, and they felt that it was necessary to plug this loophole.

The China Silk Guild in Shanghai was the first to act.

The guild issued a new guild rule, which was submitted to the Shanghai Daotai and informed the foreign chamber of commerce.

The Silk Guild stipulated that all transactions must be authorized by the guild to be translated (translation, in fact, that is, compradors), otherwise they were not allowed to be carried out. This regulation deprives those compradors who have not been registered with the Chinese guild and the foreign firms behind them the right to purchase directly from the Chinese commercial banks.

At the same time, in terms of settlement, the guild pointed out that although the Chinese merchants wanted to trade in cash, after all, the amount was huge, and the quality of silk was quite complicated, so cash transactions did not seem realistic. As a result, the guild proposed a compromise: foreign merchants could pick up the goods and pay later, but the payment for the goods had to be settled in full before the silk was shipped overseas. As long as the payment for the goods is not paid in full, even if the silk has been loaded on the ship, it shall not be regarded as the property of the foreign merchant. In the event of an accident, such as the collapse of a foreign bank during the period, or the bankruptcy of the accepting bank or bank, the Chinese businessman can get back the goods. Previously, as long as the goods were in the hands of foreign merchants, even if they did not pay a penny, foreign merchants regarded them as their own property.

This regulation of the Shanghai Silk Guild obviously avoided the risks of Chinese businessmen, so the foreigners were extremely dissatisfied. But they had no choice, because the Chinese merchants at the port of Shanghai were very united, and anyone who dared to do business with foreigners without going through the guild would be resisted by all the merchants. As a result, foreign merchants could only succumb in the end, after all, in this era, it was still a buyer's market for Chinese merchants. The British merchants did not cooperate with these guilds, the French Chamber of Commerce cooperated, and the Belgian merchants cooperated. In short, they encountered the dilemma of the Thirteen Elements era, that is, the flocking foreign merchants could not confront the Chinese merchant group that had been twisted together with various Chinese-style relationships.

Commercial competition, to put it bluntly, is still a competition of financial resources, and it is true that the scattered Western retail merchants cannot compete with the Chinese merchant groups that have monopolized for centuries in this era, but the times are changing.

The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 shortened the shipping schedule from London to Shanghai from 120 days to 55 to 60 days. The opening of the telegraph also allowed them to keep up with the European market situation, greatly avoiding the risk of purchase, and the progress of technology made their power stronger. Chinese businessmen have local advantages, but they have the advantages of the world market.

Under the influence of the other, foreigners felt that they were stronger, and they were more and more reluctant to accept the unequal regulations of the Chinese merchant organizations.

The first counterattack of the foreigners was in the field of tea trade, and after the opening of the Suez Canal, only steamships were allowed to pass. A large number of steamships quickly replaced clippers and put them into shipping between the East and the West. The UK, which accounts for 70-80% of China's exports, has halved the direct flight from London to Shanghai, making freight rates and insurance premiums cheaper. Chinese tea is faster and fresher by steamer, so it is no longer necessary to maintain six to twelve months of tea stocks in the London market.

In addition, the Ming Dynasty expanded the production capacity of tea on a large scale, resulting in the production was already saturated, so in 1872, the price of tea in the London market began to fall, and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai still tried to control the price of tea, this time the foreigners did not accept, even the best Huizhou Qihong, the foreigners refused to import for a while. This time the foreigners won, and in the end they offered Shanghai tea only half the price of the past two years.

At a time when foreigners were slowly gaining the upper hand in the field of tea, in the field of silk, Chinese merchant organizations still monopolized trade prices.

Because the silk industry in recent years has been a seller's market. Since the Franco-Prussian War, the world silk price has jumped up, although the rapid development of Guangdong's machine weaving industry has caught up with the east wind, but the impact on the Shanghai market is not great, because Guangdong silk is mainly low-end, while Shanghai's silk is high-end.

The high-quality white silk produced in the Suhu area of the south of the Yangtze River, and the silk woven by handicraft workshops, are still exported to the Western market in large quantities. But for two years in a row the fine silk grew at a rate of 7 to 8 percent, allowing merchants to export the goods in large quantities. After the great acceleration of shipping, the speed and frequency of silk transactions accelerated, and silk exports were completed in the first 2-3 months of the season.

The Shanghai market, stimulated by various positive stimuli, exceeded the load capacity. The quality problems of silk have been exposed under the pull of the rapid increase in export demand. In order to catch up with the work, the quality of silk reeling and textile links has seriously declined. In May 1872, the Lyon Silk Chamber filed a written complaint with the Shanghai Xishang Office, complaining about the quality of Chinese silk and false labeling. They warned that if Chinese silk is not improved, it may be driven out of the French market by European silk, mainly French and Italian.

At this time, France, which had already come out of the chaos after the Franco-Prussian War, under the impetus of the new bourgeois government, began to quickly restore their silk production capacity, the international price of silk fell sharply, and foreign merchants began to lower the purchase price of silk in Shanghai.

However, at this time, the Chinese merchants believed that the foreigners intended to fight the price of silk, and formed an alliance and refused to reduce the price. The foreigners believed that prices in the international market were falling, and they rejected the quotations of Chinese businessmen. In the face of nationalism and ignorance of the international market, Chinese businessmen did not budge an inch, linked up with each other, and issued a statement in the newspaper that they must maintain last year's high prices, otherwise they would absolutely not ship to foreigners.

The silk merchants of the Ming Dynasty were also unwilling to accept low prices, and in response to the call of the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce, they also began to unite to resist the offer of foreigners, and a Sino-foreign business war broke out in the field of silk.

Zhu Jinglun saw these news in the newspaper, and he suddenly smelled a smell of economic crisis.

He knows very well that foreign businessmen are more affected by the world economy than Chinese businessmen, and the world market has begun to become sluggish this year.

In the end, this business war is not a question of who wins or loses, but whether the market will collapse.

Zhu Jinglun remembers that in 1873, an unprecedented capitalist economic crisis broke out in the world, which lasted for more than five years, and was more serious than any previous crisis, until the crisis of 1929 exceeded the scale of this crisis.

He felt as if he had to prepare for the economic crisis.