So why are Shanxi businessmen so rich? This matter has to start with their development history. The rise of Shanxi merchants mainly depended on the Ming Dynasty. Open system? The implementation of the policy made the development of Shanxi merchants find an opportunity. The opening-up system implemented in the Ming Dynasty means that businessmen transport official rice grain in exchange for salt, in other words, businessmen are engaged in simple transportation. The threshold for businessmen to participate in it is very low, only manpower and simple means of transportation are needed, and a lot of capital is not needed. Businessmen accumulate wealth through long-term operation and provide capital for the later development of others.
In addition, Shanxi is rich in coal resources, and handicraft industry and processing and manufacturing industry have begun to take shape in the Ming Dynasty, which provided a material basis for the development of Shanxi merchants and made them gradually grow. In addition, the southern Shanxi area is narrow and densely populated, so people have to go out to make a living and seek development. Shanxi merchants are all over the country, so a popular saying in Beijing. How many Jin people are there in Dajia, Shi Jing? . In addition to Shanxi merchants, chapman and Huizhou merchants were also rising at that time, and the competition among merchants became more and more fierce. In order to strengthen themselves and safeguard their own interests, Shanxi merchants began to appear. Shanxi merchants used their abundant capital to hire local businessmen to operate together, becoming a relatively loose merchant group, and then gradually developing into an eastern group system, which is very similar to our current joint-stock system.
The peak of Shanxi merchants in Qing Dynasty was marked by the establishment of guild halls. At first, the guild hall was established to contact the feelings between local chambers of commerce, and later it gradually became the interests of fellow villagers and associations around the country. In addition to doing business, the most remarkable development of Shanxi merchants is banks, money houses, camel States and ship States. Tuobang and Chuanbang are mainly engaged in transportation-related business, while the bank number and money house provide a guarantee for Shanxi merchants to have strong liquidity.
This is also the reason why Empress Dowager Cixi borrowed money from Shanxi merchants without cash compensation after signing an unequal treaty.