China's comprehensive chamber of commerce first appeared in the late Qing Dynasty, and it was not without similar organizations before, but more often it was limited to a specific industry, such as salt industry, or silk weaving industry.

The reason why Zhao Weiji wanted to get the Chamber of Commerce out in this era was not only because of his advanced knowledge that made him know the benefits of the Chamber of Commerce, but also because the Song Dynasty was the most developed era of commodity economy in ancient Chinese history. This era has the basis for the formation of the Chamber of Commerce.

"What is a Chamber of Commerce?" Seeing that everyone didn't understand the concept proposed by King Wu Yue, Wang Bin took the lead in asking.

"The Chamber of Commerce is a group of us who jointly set up an organization, and then we discuss and formulate a set of normative systems, which we supervise and implement to ensure the common interests of all members of the Chamber of Commerce. Moreover, it can also facilitate industry mutual assistance among members of the chamber of commerce. ”

"Did you make the rules, or by a few people?"

"The rules of the trade are made by everyone, and everyone proposes the rules they want to have, and then everyone votes on what to use and which not to use, but as long as the rules are set, everyone needs to follow them."

"What happens if you don't comply?"

"If you are fined, you will be expelled from the Chamber of Commerce."

"What about expulsion from the Chamber of Commerce? And it won't affect our business. ”

"I'm going to come up with another new thing here?"

The faces of the big businessmen here are all green, how many messy things this guy has in his head, let's hear what new tricks he has first.

"Say it."

"This kind of thing is called brand effect, which is what you call a time-honored brand. Isn't it true that a long-established store is always more profitable than a new store, unless the new store sells something really good. ”

The people at the bottom nodded by default, the business of the old store is generally better than that of the new store, because not everyone who does business can launch any shocking new products, and people are willing to buy the goods of the old brand, after all, it is less risky.

"That's the branding, so what happens if we make our chamber of commerce a huge brand?"

All of you here are old fritters who have been in the mall for many years, so you don't know how powerful this is. Once the Chamber of Commerce becomes a huge brand, all its franchisees will be able to obtain huge benefits. Just like what iso9001 or 3C certification in later generations, although that thing is useless, it makes people feel so relieved.

This is the power of the Chamber of Commerce, the certification of the Chamber of Commerce will reduce the obstacles to sales, once the certification of the Chamber of Commerce is lost, the original consumers will suspect that you have done something unsightly to be removed from the Chamber of Commerce, so naturally there will be doubts about your goods.

"But how can you guarantee that the Chamber of Commerce will form the brand effect you are talking about?" At this moment, Cheng Hui has also become extremely interested.

"First of all, the original founders, that is, all of you here, I think the name of all of you here is a huge brand in itself, and all these big brands are creating a chamber of commerce at the same time, it would be very attractive, right?"

All the businessmen here nodded in agreement, Zhao Weiji invited the best among the Hui merchants, of course they have this kind of confidence.

"Then there are reasonable rules, and I think that the rules that can protect everyone's interests will definitely be agreed to by the people."

"Wait." At this time, Jiang Shao interrupted Zhao Weiji's words. "We must give priority to protecting our own interests when we make rules, why should we estimate the interests of the people who buy them?"

Of course, Zhao Weiji knew that there would definitely be such a question, and he already had the answer.

"Brother Jiang imagines such a scenario, what will happen if we make regulations that can only protect ourselves at the expense of the interests of others. For example, you paper merchants jointly suppress the purchase price of raw materials, or do you jointly suppress the price of commodities that are too high? ”

A complete monopoly by private individuals is impossible in any era, except through intervention at the state level. So, what if a third party suddenly appears when you sell paper and jointly suppress the purchase price of raw materials? Or what happens when a new point of sale emerges outside of your system when the price is jointly raised?

It is the nature of animals to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, and humans are no exception. Even if your chamber of commerce has huge brand benefits, but in the face of huge interests, these are floating clouds.

Thinking of the above scene, Jiang Shao, as an understanding person, couldn't help but shudder.

Although this era is dominated by the natural economy, it is not the absence of a market economy, and it is also a completely free market economy.

If a businessman wants to survive, he must adapt to the rules of a game dominated entirely by market choice.

"Since Brother Jiang has no objection for the time being, I will continue.

Once we have established this rule that is acceptable to many people, we need to do a lot of publicity so that all stakeholders know about it. From the supply of raw materials to the sale of finished products, all links are as comprehensive as possible. Let everyone accept and feel that this is a good thing, so that when someone violates these rules, they will inevitably be questioned and despised by those who are in this kind of process. ”

"It's so ruthless." This is the unanimous idea of all the businessmen present now.

"In the end, it is to insist on and impartially enforce, once this set of rules is established, we must unswervingly enforce it, and anyone who violates the rules will inevitably be punished and there will be no forgiveness. I think everyone knows the story of Shangjun Ximu Lixin, and this is our best example. ”

At this time, all the businessmen in the audience were caught in a fierce ideological struggle, because this set of things is not just said to be done, just the step of formulating rules is not so easy to take, although it is said that it is to take care of the interests of all aspects, just that inevitably means that there are some of their own interests to be sacrificed, and conflicts of interest are inevitable.

Seeing that everyone fell into contemplation, Zhao Weiji took a sip of the tea bowl very leisurely, he was not in a hurry, but understood this group of people very well, after all, this is an idea that surpasses too much in this era, although the development of the commodity economy in the Song Dynasty has made this idea have the soil to be realized, but it is not easy to accept it ideologically.

About a stick of incense passed, and finally someone spoke: "I agree with this idea of the prince, and I join." ”

As Zhao Weiji expected, the first person to speak was indeed Wang Bin. From the way this man has spoken and the questions he has asked, it is clear that he has extraordinary foresight and courage. Moreover, this person's business is large and the breadth of fields is also the first among all of you. If he can join, it's basically half of the story.

Sure enough, after he joined, other people also chose to join the cause.

In the end, Zhao Weiji united the leaders of almost the state-run private industries, including the grain industry, the silk cotton textile industry, the four treasures of the scholar's house, the tea industry, the wood industry, the pawn industry, the Qinglou industry, the fishery industry, etc., which represented the Great Song Dynasty at this time, and a total of fifteen people established the world's first chamber of commerce.

The principle of the firm is fair competition, mutual help, mutual benefit and win-win results. All firms that join the Chamber of Commerce must pay an annual membership fee in addition to abiding by the rules of the association, but the founders have no objection to this, because Zhao Weiji put forward a point, that is, any businessman will encounter a time when the turnover is not working, and this money will play a role.

In Zhao Weiji's words, in addition to fulfilling the obligations, joining the Chamber of Commerce can of course obtain corresponding rights or preferences. The Chamber of Commerce does not only provide interest-free loans from membership dues when members' cash flow is not working.

In addition, you can enjoy mutual discounts between members, for example, when a member restaurant wants to purchase ingredients, you can enjoy certain discounts at the grain store that is also a member. Members of the pawnbroking industry can also enjoy certain discounts when they go to the member restaurant for a banquet. In short, any two industries may intersect, and at this time, the benefits between members will be very beneficial.

Moreover, due to the provisions of fair competition, members of the chamber of commerce in the same industry can only compete with their own real materials, so as to ensure that everyone's credibility is not lost, and at the same time, they can also tap the potential internally to promote the growth of the entire industry.

Moreover, in order to ensure the fairness of the chamber of commerce, Zhao Weiji implemented a set of principles, first of all, a committee composed of fifteen people was originally established to be responsible for the operation of the chamber of commerce.

Then, for the sake of disagreement, one president and two vice presidents were selected among the fifteen people to lead.

However, in order to avoid corruption and defeat due to the long-term concentration of power, the leadership of these three people is re-elected every two years and can be re-elected.

At the same time, as the Chamber of Commerce continues to expand and more and more members join, the 15-member operating committee will also be re-elected every six years.

That's right, this means of operation will look familiar to future generations. This kind of thing is called folk cooking.

Of course, Zhao Weiji knows that there are drawbacks to people's cooking, but it is better than a group of people who occupy the pinnacle of power # profit for a long time, and absolute power # profit will inevitably bring absolute corruption # defeat.

When this set of rules was constructed in a rough outline, all the participants had to admire what kind of head this King Wu Yue had grown, and all possible loopholes were taken into account by him.

Of course, they didn't know that these things proposed by Zhao Weiji were not what he thought alone, but were summed up by countless sages of several generations or even more than ten generations in later generations. He is nothing more than a shameless plagiarist who stands on the shoulders of giants.

But this did not prevent Zhao Weiji from being elected as the first president. And Chairman Zhao is about to start his next step.