It took Zhou Lang 40 years, first to use the East India Company, which was both political, economic, and military, and then to promote it to the railway company and the canal company, which were relatively pure commercial concession companies, and finally allowed the local government to approve the establishment of local companies, creating a system of commercial companies from international to domestic to local. Let this kind of large-scale business organization become the main force of Chinese business and promote China's business culture. In this process, Zhou Lang half took the initiative to explore, half went with the flow, and it can be regarded as a matter of course. Basically, this system is adapted and integrated with Chinese culture.

What surprised Zhou Lang the most was that the emergence of commercial companies began to impact the traditional idea of valuing agriculture and suppressing business. The social elite still discriminates against ordinary businessmen, but they do not discriminate against commercial companies. This is an irrational phenomenon, but a cultural compromise and adaptation.

Many scholars, officials, and large landowners not only do not discriminate against commercial companies, but also actively buy shares or bonds of commercial companies. Seeing it as a good investment is significant, and it means that the traditional elite is beginning to transform. The revolutionary elimination of the old elite can indeed produce immediate results, but the price to pay for the new elite to grow up and lead the country forward is too great. The French Revolution is an example, this revolution is indeed thrilling, it is really exciting, it makes ordinary people very happy, and it is very happy to see the heads of the powerful people who used to be proud and ride on top of their heads being cut off by guillotines, and the crowd of cheers is countless.

However, the consequences brought about made France completely lose the qualification to compete with Britain for world hegemony, and even reduced France to a second-rate country in Europe, which could only be with Prussia, Austria and Russia, and was no longer on the same level as Britain.

If this kind of revolution breaks out in China and cleans the traditional landlord class, bureaucratic class and scholar class, the price paid by China will be countless times higher than that of France, because China's traditional culture and ideology are more serious than France's, at least France is pro-commerce, mercantilism has long been rooted, and the merchant class has become the backbone of society. In addition to these elites, China is a group of peasants, and letting the peasants rule the country is indeed above board in principle, and the common people have gained power, but it is not necessarily a good thing for the common people.

With China's national conditions, if 100 million people do not die, don't try to find out the experience and mysteries of rule. As for the opportunity cost, I am afraid that it will be reduced to a hundred years, or even longer. Zhou Lang didn't want to pay the price of 100 million lives, nor did he want to pay the opportunity cost of sinking, so he could only cooperate with the traditional elites and slowly transform them.

Zhou Lang found that this situation was started through the newspapers of the people, and he found that the information disclosed by most commercial companies was quite arrogant, and there was no such condescension as the traditional merchant class. The official documents of these companies are quite official, as if they are the government.

So Zhou Lang began to personally inquire with many people, and found that ordinary people also regarded these commercial companies licensed by governments at all levels as an organization with an official nature, rather than shops run by ordinary businessmen or workshops run by craftsmen.

Zhou Lang was surprised at first, this was not his original intention at all, this kind of commercial joint-stock company has a Mao relationship with the government, and the operation of all companies is not official, they pay taxes like ordinary businessmen, except for the limited liability brought by the shareholding system, there are no privileges.

But it is not surprising that new things always have to be formed to adapt to his culture. It is as if many people in later generations regarded enterprises and institutions as the same nature as government civil servants. The new always has to find a place in the old system. This kind of concession company is neither a government-run nor a thirteen-line commercial organization that was closely monitored by the government in the past, but an enterprise that operates completely in accordance with the market, but because it can only be licensed because it must meet the government's conditions, they consciously or unconsciously position themselves as a non-government-run and non-non-governmental organization.

The social elite did not regard such enterprises, which everyone could hold shares, as the nature of ordinary merchants' shops, but regarded such freely traded companies as a kind of public affairs outside the government. There is no shame in their investment in this kind of asset, which is why there is a traditional elite competing to buy shares in the company.

And this phenomenon is what Zhou Lang is most satisfied with, which means that the traditional elite has begun to transform. The transformation may not have been as quick and as thorough as the creation of a new elite, but it was steady. Countries that have not experienced revolutions in history and have succeeded will inevitably undergo this transformation of traditional elites. The English aristocracy transformed into a new aristocracy that ran traditional industry and commerce, and the German aristocracy transformed into the Junker landlord class of agricultural and industrial capital. Japan's samurai, successful industrial and commercial entrepreneurs, are all in this kind of transformation. These three countries are relatively stable. Not as turbulent as France, and less tortuous than China.

The bad thing is that these commercial companies are too close to the government, and something will definitely happen. They are not bureaucratic capital, but they are still attached to the bureaucratic class to a certain extent. All commercial companies rely on government concessions, which are time-limited, half of which are 10 and 15 years, so maintaining a good relationship with the government has always been the foundation of their successful business.

The good thing is that because the whole society gives the joint-stock commercial company a lofty impression, all classes are enthusiastic about this new business model. The merchant class dug up hollow ideas to form joint-stock companies, and other classes enthusiastically bought shares and bonds of new companies. The development momentum of commercial companies is very strong, and the power of business is growing rapidly among the various forces in society.

In order to continue this good atmosphere, Zhou Lang found that a large number of officials had invested in commercial companies, and the commercial companies in turn used the shares of some high-ranking officials and dignitaries to publicize, endorse their own companies, and attract more funds. Officials are not allowed to do business, which is a rule in many countries in later generations, in order to prevent job-related crimes. Zhou Lang did not object to the participation of officials in industrial and commercial investment, acquiescing to the status quo. However, job-related crimes must be eradicated, so he began to strictly investigate the phenomenon of various commercial companies giving officials shares in order to win them over, characterizing them as corruption and punishing them as the crime of corruption.

At the same time, in order to avoid the scarcity of commercial companies due to the concentration of power to authorize commercial companies in national and provincial government agencies, Zhou Lang continued to decentralize power and stipulate that county-level governments also have the power to approve the establishment of commercial companies; In order to crack down on commercial companies that rely too much on government authorization, waste paper has imposed restrictions on the concessions of commercial companies, as long as there are no crimes and no tax evasion during the operation period, then all authorizations can be automatically extended.

Originally, a large number of businessmen wanted to set up their own commercial companies, but this decentralization instantly gave tens of thousands of counties across the country the power to set up commercial companies, greatly increasing the number of commercial companies. Zhou Lang also abolished monopoly privileges, in the past, a province could only approve one monopoly company, such as the Shanxi Mining Company, only one, and other companies could not mine in Shanxi, but now there is no limit on the number of companies, and the government can authorize multiple companies.

These measures have multiplied the number of commercial companies in China, and in just a few years, the number of new commercial companies has reached more than 100,000. Such a large number of companies, such as the mixed phenomenon of good and bad, greatly affects the overall credibility of commercial companies, but investors are also beginning to value the company's performance more than investing in commercial companies as a surefire business.

The result is that competition is becoming more and more intense, the commercial character is becoming more and more obvious, and the official nature is becoming less and less. However, the social atmosphere is still more tolerant of companies and more discriminatory against businessmen. This is inevitable, and this is still the case in later generations, for example, two people go out, one says that he is a company, and the other says that he is an online store, some online stores may be profitable, and the company is in debt, but when you first hear it, the first feeling is that the person who opened the company is very high, and the person who opened the online store is very low. China that has experienced reform and opening up, one billion people and eight hundred million merchants is still like this, let alone this era.

In the last decade, commerce in China has developed in its own unique way through the widespread establishment of commercial companies.

But after the fierce competition, many large companies began to establish their own operations across the country, and the scale was huge. Let the government dare not underestimate them, such as canal companies, railway companies and other large companies that often involve the livelihood of millions of river workers, and the government has to weigh them if they want to move. This is also a sign that business is beginning to contend with politics, and only such mega-corporations can protect their power and not be too passive in their interactions with a very powerful government.

This made Zhou Lang can't help but think, is it because of this reason that if the Eastern society with a relatively high political degree wants to enter the commercial society, it is inevitable that the plutocracy will be turned into a chaebol? Both Japan and South Korea have entered the commercial world under the impetus of the chaebol.

But it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter if it's a chaebol type, a financial capital monopoly, or a free business type, as long as the goal is achieved.

What Zhou Lang values more is that with the rapid development of commerce, a class that profits from business has begun to appear. Zhou Lang believes that the more such people, the better, and these people are related to the success or failure of their own commercial reforms.

The reason why the Shang Dynasty reform succeeded and why Wang Anshi's reform failed is not because the Shang Dynasty reform created a vested interest group, and although Wang Anshi's reform was the same as the Shang Yang reform, it damaged the power of a large number of old elites, but it failed to cultivate a vested interest group.

The Shang Dynasty reform not only dealt a blow to the old aristocratic forces, but also cultivated a large number of new powerful forces that benefited from military merits.

Wang Anshi's reform of the law harmed the interests of merchants, landlords, and peasants, and the purpose was only to increase the state's financial and military strength. Merchants were unwilling to accept the state-mandated law of equal loss for purchase and distribution, landlords were unwilling to accept the Seedling Law, which prevented them from making profits by lending money to peasants, and peasants did not want to accept the Baojia Law, which might allow them to become soldiers.

Wang Anshi did not have the idea of cultivating any vested interest group, he was dedicated to the public, so he failed. The Legalists represented by Shang Ying insisted on the inherent evil of human nature, but on the contrary, they succeeded, which has to be said to be a challenge to human morality. It's like eating a big pot of rice, as long as everyone is willing to work hard, they won't go hungry. But after the land was divided, not only was there more grain handed over to the state on the same land than before, but there was also more surplus grain for the common people's families.