It was a day in the late Qing Dynasty. It's raining in Mao Mao outside, and people are coming and going in the general store of Tongfengfeng Bank, a businessman with red top, Wang Chi. At this time, an old man in rags came in with a six-or seven-year-old child in black, his face dirty. In front of the counter, many little guys are busy accounting. When I met them, a well-dressed little guy didn't lift his head. "Do you save money?" The old man's hand trembled like a dead tree skin, holding a copper coin stained with oil. The little guy smiled: "Beggar." The old man said, "I won't live for a few days." I only have one grandson under my knee. I want to save him some money so that he can eat for a few days after I die. " The boy claimed, "One dollar is too little. Come back if you save more. " The old man said, "why don't banks let people save money?" If you are good, have pity on us! " His pale beard and hair trembled and his face was sad. However, no matter how the old man begged in a low voice, the little guy just refused. Helpless, the old man and the children left in tears, looking at the four colorful characters "Faithful to the World" in the middle of the hall.
The next day, rumors against Tong Qingfeng began to increase, causing great shock in the local area. Tongqingfeng's customers also panicked and had a terrible crisis of confidence in the bank, so they flocked to Tongqingfeng to withdraw cash and deposit it in other banks. Things were extremely urgent, and the big boss Wang Chi held a meeting overnight to discuss countermeasures and thoroughly investigate the cause and effect of the incident. After the reason was found, he was saddened: "People can't stand without faith." Finally, he decided to expel the boy who broke the bank law, deduct the supervisor's salary for half a year, and let the servants search the city for two beggars. Wang Chi personally went out and led all the staff of the bank to welcome the old people and children into the store in front of the gate. He sincerely apologized to them, set up a special account for their penny, made a bill, and gave them ten times higher interest than others to show his sincerity. Since then, people's misunderstanding of Qingfeng has gradually dissipated, and they deeply admire Wang Chi's performance and give him high praise, saying that he has increased his credit and is worthy of being a business tycoon. So a lot of money flowed into Qian Ku and Qingfeng. In a society where the rule of law and financial system are hardly guaranteed, Wang Chi's wise move saved his business empire. Many years later, he was listed as the fourth richest man in the world by Time magazine at the end of 19. In fact, honesty in life is a mirror, shining with the brilliance of human nature, and each of us should accumulate a touching savings for our own life. Because the power of honesty cannot be ignored, a little fraud is enough to ruin everything, even our lives. Bad faith is a curse, and honesty is gold. Wang Chi, 1836, was born in Hongxi, Maitreya (formerly known as Chaiquan Village). Because of his poor family, he suffered the loss of his father at the age of 14 and had to study business. When Wang Chi 16 years old, her mother sold her jewels and gave them to Wang Chi. Wang Chi used the money to buy home-made cloth from Hongxi, his hometown, to sell it in Zhu Yuanhe Panxi, and to buy back the brown sugar there. With his talent and hard-working spirit, Wang Chi soon saved more than one hundred taels of silver. This money became the fund for Wang Chi to expand its business, and Wang Chi began to set up its own caravan to transport local groceries back and forth between Jianshui, Luxi, Shizong and Qiubei. Because of Wang Chi's boldness, agility and chivalry, by the time he was in his twenties, he had already become famous in southern Yunnan, and was called "the Four Heavenly Kings of Yunnan".
Different from ordinary vendors, Wang Chi soon understood the essence of this era-what officials want, business never flinches. If you want to develop, you must seek political support. Wang Chi, who is still young, began to actively seek the backing of officialdom, in order to explore a road of getting rich by combining government and business.
Just then, disaster came. In the early years of Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty, Wang Chi, who was already a minor celebrity, came back to his hometown and had a conflict with his bitter cousin. In a fight, my cousin was killed and Wang Chi ran away in a hurry. After several twists and turns, he dodged a bullet in Chongqing. When Wang Chi saw that this place was prosperous in business and located at the crossroads of land and water transportation, he came up with the idea of building a trade village. He thought that earning meager profits by selling goods by the caravan was to make wedding clothes for others, so he rented a street shop and hung up a "Tianshunxiang" firm to sell the goods shipped by the caravan. At that time, Wang Chi's money was only four or five hundred taels, so he couldn't make much money in small business, and he felt that there was a shortage of funds in big business. So he looked around for financing channels, trying to cooperate with powerful local businessmen in Chongqing and Yunnan, and the partners invested to expand their business, while Wang Chi organized a caravan to buy cigarettes, salt and soil in Chongqing and sell them to Yunnan, and then bought and transported Yunnan's fur and medicinal materials to Chongqing. This caravan consisting of thirty or forty mules and horses, under the banner of "Four Kings of Southern Yunnan", also has business, making a lot of profits while selling. It is said that on one occasion, Wang Chi's caravan loaded with Sichuan goods went south from Zhaotong to Aoli, and met more than 100 robbers. The grooms all fled for their lives in fear, but Wang Chi was as cool as a cucumber and fearless, saying that he wanted to see the bandit leader. The mob boss greatly appreciates Wang Chi's bravery and wit. He not only let Wang Chi go, but also returned half the goods and all the caravans. After the news spread, the "Four Kings of Southern Yunnan" gained great fame, and thieves from all walks of life also treated Wang Chi's caravan with courtesy, and Wang Chi's business became more prosperous. Wang Chi seized this great opportunity. On the one hand, he took the opportunity to establish his reputation. On the other hand, he seized the opportunity to set up a branch in Xufu, and set up a "Tongqingfeng" firm in Kunming in partnership with Xi Maozhi.
Wang Chi-Fu, who was not lazy, set an example, personally drove the horse to send the goods to Yunnan, and then moved the goods from Yunnan to Chongqing, and gradually established a scientific management model with the characteristics of Tianshunxiang private enterprises. Under this new management system, Tianshunxiang has made great progress.
With the development of the store, capital turnover has become an urgent problem, so Wang Chi thought of opening his own bank. But opening a bank not only needs official approval and a lot of money, but also needs to build people's trust in Tianshunxiang Bank. At this time, the opportunity appeared.
At the beginning of Guangxu, Tang Jiong, an official in Yunnan for many years, was ordered to supervise Sichuan Salt and was appointed as a salt tea ceremony worker. At that time, in order to increase Sichuan salt production, salt tea ceremony was in urgent need of two thousand silver. As the Chief Secretary had no silver to distribute, Tang Jiong had to borrow it from the business community. However, because most businessmen think that the development of salt affairs can not be effective in three to five years, they are unwilling to take this risk, and no one is willing to lend money to the government. On the one hand, Wang Chi thinks that raising silver can solve the urgent need of salt tea ceremony, thus making friends with Tang Jiong and finding a backer in officialdom. On the other hand, if Tianshunxiang collects102,000 silver in ten days, it can show the strength of Tianshunxiang to the world and encourage people to deposit and exchange silver in Tianshunxiang.
So Wang Chi took risks and promised to collect 100,000 pieces of silver within ten days. Within ten days, Wang Chi collected enough silver, and specially arranged 100 porters, under the name of "Tianshunxiang", to March around the city and beat drums several times before sending the silver to the government. At that time, the whole city was sensational, and women and children all knew that "Tianshunxiang" had raised huge sums of money. The success of "Tianshunxiang" makes Wang Chi more valuable. More importantly, Wang Chi found Tang Jiong, a political backer, and thus embarked on the road of "officials have no choice but to do business". With the support of Tang Jiong, Wang Chi opened a foreign exchange number to handle salt transportation, and the business was handy. Subsequently, Wang Chi and Xi Maozhi operated separately, and established their own "Tongqingfeng" firm in Kunming, and reorganized it into "Tianshunxiang", with "Tongqingfeng" as the general number and "Tianshunxiang" as the semicolon. "Tongqingfeng" became the first choice for the people and the government to undertake foreign exchange because of its good credit in foreign exchange business. Soon, Qianzhuang took the Yangtze River as the line and gradually added semicolons in major cities in China, including Chengdu, Hankou, Jiujiang, Nanjing, Shanghai, Guiyang, Guangzhou, Chengde and Beijing. In its heyday, it also set up offices in Hong Kong and Haiphong.
In addition, Wang Chi has set up a semicolon "Tongqingfeng" in large commodity distribution centers in Yunnan counties and cities. From then on, all merchants or private exchanges in the country can withdraw money from banks along the way with tickets. Every year, Yunnan is coordinated with Qingfeng, and the provincial constitution pays the court millions of dollars. Tongqingfeng also handled salt transportation in Sichuan, set up Xingwen Gongdang in Kunming to manage real estate, built Tongren Street in Kunming, bought land in Maitreya and Yiliangguang, and rented more than 1,000 stones annually.
Someone once calculated an account for Tongqingfeng, saying that in the 25 years from the 13th year of Guangxu to the 3rd year of Xuantong, the bonus of the whole number reached 3.89 million yuan, which did not include the heavy losses suffered by the whole number. At that time, there was a saying that "Celebrating the rich all over Yunnan". Wang Chi has become a famous "king of money" in the north and south, and is known as the originator of Yunnan's financial industry. And "Tongqingfeng" and "Tianshunxiang" are known as "Southern Heroes". Some people think that the banks in Wang Chi can compete with those in Shaanxi. Although Wang Chi is rich, he is not a mercenary businessman. He values morality and does business with morality. He has a unique understanding of "business ethics": "Say me, insult me, insult me, scold me, destroy me, cheat me, cheat me and hurt me. What should I do? " Let him, rely on him, follow him, do his best, let him, let him help him, and see you in a few years ... "Wang Chi is not complacent in business, and is good at learning advanced world experience and striving for a strong country; In his personal life, Wang Chifu is rich but not extravagant, and always maintains a frugal family style. Honesty and virtue have won the respect of everyone, including competitors, and become a model of business.
Not only that, Wang Chi also relies on prospering its wealth, saving money for the country, taking the revitalization of local economy as its own responsibility, developing local industries and being enthusiastic about public welfare undertakings. In the 9th year of Guangxu reign (A.D. 1883), the French army invaded the territory, and Yunnan Governor Cen Yu Ying went to the rescue. At that time, the military situation was urgent and the amount of reimbursement was huge. At the critical moment when funds can't be raised, dignitaries are busy avoiding disasters, and mercenary businessmen are doing small cowards. Only resolutely borrowed 602,000 yuan for reimbursement, which was called "being anxious for public interests and being righteous".
Wang Chi also spent huge sums of money to buy back the road rights of Yunnan-Vietnam Railway from the French, so that the road rights in Yunnan were not dominated by the French. In order to protect local industries from foreigners, Wang Chi risked winning the bid, paid hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in advance, and jointly organized the copper and tin mining in Yunnan with the government.
The drought in Shanxi and Shaanxi cut off the Yellow River, and Wang Chi donated one million taels of silver to the Ministry of Industry to build water conservancy projects, which Li Hongzhang called "the library of the Qing court".
1900, Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, Cixi fled in a hurry, and the brigade was short of clothes and food. Wang Chi believed that patriotism must be loyal to the monarch, so he died in a hurry. The "Tongfengfeng" branch must fully support the places where Cixi and his party passed. After Cixi returned to Beijing, the national treasury was empty and there was a shortage of funds. Wang Chi launched overseas and domestic branches to raise funds to help. If the Hongxi Academy is damaged, it will donate money for expansion; Seeing that there was no food for local famine relief, they set up a volunteer society to prepare for disaster relief; Seeing that students are out of school, they will build schools to teach; Seeing that there is no accommodation in the Cross Township Examination, donate the accommodation in Hongxi Examination Hall; Seeing that some of them didn't have the money to take the exam in Beijing, they contracted all the expenses for the exam in Yunnan. Seeing that ships that have seen the Dadu River often drown people, they donated huge sums of money to build 13 iron cables to bridge the river for pedestrians. In order to cultivate talents and revitalize local education and culture, Wang Chi and the local rich gentry jointly organized "Xingwen Dang" (later renamed "Xingwen Bank"), and used it as a "fund bank" to donate to the development of local education. Yunnan Zheng Jing University and Yunnan University have received financial support.
1903, Yuan Jiagu from Shiping won the first prize, and Wang Chi was ecstatic. He took out all the public funds of "Xingwen Dang", half of which was awarded to Yuan Jiagu, the first first prize winner in Yunnan, and half was built on Tuodong Road.
In addition, Wang Chi also founded the Kunniu Epidemic Bureau, which saved many sick babies. According to Wang Chi's various righteous acts, the Qing court awarded him four titles, rewarded Dr. Rong Lu with two top hats, and sealed the seal of "Three Generations and One Product" with zirconium, allowing him to ride horses in the Forbidden City. Wang Chi became the only red-crowned businessman in China feudal society. There are not many businessmen who value righteousness over morality, not to mention Wang Chi's honor far exceeds that of Hu Xueyan, a famous businessman in the late Qing Dynasty.
1February 28th, 903, 1903, Wang Chi died suddenly in the "tongqingfeng" firm he founded in Kunming, covering 68 spring and autumn periods of his life. The coffin of the wealthy businessman was escorted back to his hometown-Maitreya Hongxi by his family, and was buried in Shibuya Village with green mountains and green waters. With the passage of time, his life has already turned to dust. However, his entrepreneurial story, business strategy, ups and downs, and lofty sentiments have spread among the people and become the most vivid record in the commercial history of China, which is thought-provoking.