It has been more than ten days since Zhang Zhidong arrived in Shanghai to take office as county magistrate. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

In the past ten days, according to his father's teachings, he first went to Fucheng to visit Liu Kunyi, the prefect of Songjiang, and then ran the entire Shanghai city inside and outside, and ran around the entire Shanghai city, especially the French Concession, the British Concession, and the American Concession in the north of the city.

However, Zhang Zhidong is a little at a loss for the factory in Shanghai to be set up and how to start.

Originally, there were many middlemen of tea and raw silk in Shanghai, who bought tea and raw silk from all over the country and shipped them to Shanghai, sold them to foreign companies, and acted as compradors for foreign companies. Unexpectedly, after the uprising of the Little Knife Society, these compradors were either robbed or fled, and when the soldiers of the captured army entered Shanghai, even the remaining dozens of comprador merchants hid in the concession and refused to come out.

Later, the captives occupied the entire concession, and many foreigners fled Shanghai one after another, heading to Hong Kong Island and Xiangmen, preparing to transit back to China. And those compradors fled with the foreigners. However, a few months ago, the captive army unified the whole of Jiangnan and sent troops to the north, and as soon as the news of the occupation of Beijing spread, some foreigners returned from Hong Kong Island and Macao. They were surprised to find that the captives did not seize their shops and factories, but only announced the resumption of the concession and the termination of the lease.

As a result, although it was not as prosperous as usual, the entire original concession area along the Huangpu River began to be lively again, and foreigners and compradors began to be active and do business again.

Zhang Zhidong visited more than 30 well-known compradors outside Shanghai one by one, but as a result, no one was willing to open factories at all, and they all shook their heads and refused, which made Zhang Zhidong very discouraged.

On this day, he was thinking about whether to write to his father to ask him to scrape together some silver taels and ask his cousin to come to Shanghai to open a factory.

"My lord, what a great event!" He Yangyuan came to Zhang Zhidong with a fluttering eyebrow, holding a thick stack of edicts in his hand, and said eagerly: "The day before yesterday, the Ministry of Commerce of the Imperial Court issued a "Commercial Law of the Chinese Empire", which clearly stipulates all kinds of business operations, trading, and the establishment of factories and mines within the empire, and the "Commercial Law of the Chinese Empire" contains many sub-laws, such as "General Regulations for Merchants", "Concise Articles of Association of the Chamber of Commerce", "Company Law", etc., and also set up a trademark office, an industrial and commercial bureau, an industrial and mining bureau, a post office, and a higher industrial school under the Ministry of Commerce, which dazzled He, he has not yet figured out these laws, but, in short, one thing, in the future, with these laws, the interests and status of businessmen, compradors and street vendors are fundamentally protected. ”

Zhang Zhidong took the order, and the first thing that caught his eye was the general outline of the "Commercial Law of the Chinese Empire".

He looked at it quickly, and the more he looked at it, the more frightened he became, and he became more and more excited. Such brilliant ideas for the development of industry and commerce can be come up with. If this can be carried out, I dare to conclude that within three and a half years, the empire will inevitably flourish in commerce, and a new class of 'gentry' will emerge, which will not only be not weaker than the 'gentry' of today, but may well replace all of them in the near future. ”

He Yangyuan couldn't help but be surprised: "What? How do you think so much about these merchants? ”

Zhang Zhidong sighed: "Sir, you know that before the student came to Shanghai, he was summoned by His Majesty, and I saw that he valued these merchants much more than the gentry. His Majesty once said that the world in the future will be the world of these 'merchant gentry', and the order of the four major classes of scholars, farmers, and industrialists will actually become scholars, merchants, workers, and peasants, and even merchants, workers, and peasants in the future. ”

He Yangyuan suddenly realized.

Zhang Zhidong hurriedly ordered the scribes in the county government to quickly copy several copies of the "Commercial Law of the Chinese Empire" and the corresponding sub-laws, stamp the seal of the county government, and send people to post them in the county seat and various places outside the city.

Soon, the entire city of Shanghi learned that the empire encouraged the development of industry and commerce and attached great importance to merchants.

"Shopkeeper Zhang, now it's okay, don't you want to set up a pig iron shop? The government issued a notice that all the current workshops, as long as they are filed with the government, can get the government's tax reduction subsidy, invest 100 taels of silver, you can enjoy a subsidy of 20 taels of silver, and in the next three years, you can pay less 20 taels of silver. That's a great thing! ”

"yes, yes! Shopkeeper Li, I've heard the news about it, but I don't know if it's true! ”

"How could it not be true? Notices have been posted outside the north gate of the city, and they are also stamped with the big red seal of the county government and the county commander! ”

"Really? Then I'll have to take a look! Hey, shopkeeper Li, in this case, your raw silk shop has to pay thousands of taels of silver in taxes every year, so can't you save hundreds of taels? ”

"Yes! Entrusted to the shopkeeper of your Hongfu, Li's raw silk shop, can also reduce half of the miscellaneous taxes, can save seven or eight hundred taels of silver every year. Hey, not much to say, I have to go to the county office quickly, register my raw silk shop for the record, and apply for a tax reduction. ”

"Okay, this is all thanks to Your Majesty's blessing! I hurried away. ”

This kind of discussion is happening everywhere.

……

Zhang Zhidong looked at He Yangyuan with a happy face, and said in surprise: "Sir, what you said is true?" In just these two days, there are dozens of shops and workshops to declare for the record? ”

"My lord, it's true! Since the "Regulations of Chinese Merchants Handling Agricultural and Industrial Industries" and other documents from the imperial court were posted, there has been an endless stream of businessmen who have come to the county government to handle industrial and commercial registration. He Yangyuan replied: "If it goes on like this, it will soon be able to reach hundreds of families." There has finally been some improvement, but most of them are shops, and a few are small workshops, small workshops, and factories with more than 1,000 taels of capital still haven't appeared. ”

When Zhang Zhidong heard this, he said, "It's a pity that there is no big factory. When he first met the saint, His Majesty once said that Shanghai was a concentration of foreigners, and besides Guangzhou, it was the best commercial port in the whole of China, and it was the most conducive to the establishment of large-scale factories. A few days ago, I went to the concession area to investigate and found that in the concession outside the city, near the Huangpu River, there were several ship repair shops run by foreigners. Two of them were run by the British, and because of the clash between the captives and the British fleet, the owners of the two ship repair shops fled, heard that they had returned to the West, and commissioned other British merchants to help sell them. It would be nice if we could find a Han merchant and take over these two ship repair shops. ”

"Your Excellency is talking about two ship repair shops called Xiangsheng and Jesson? These two are both large factories, I heard that they cost tens of thousands of taels of silver, how can ordinary businessmen have such strong financial resources? What's more, no one understands how to undertake business with these ship repairs? He Yangyuan sighed, he followed Zhang Zhidong, and he was also aware of the situation.

However, after thinking about it, an idea suddenly came to him, and said: "My lord, why don't you try to let several or dozens of businessmen join together to set up a Shanghi Chamber of Commerce as stated in the "Concise Constitution of the Chamber of Commerce". Then they hired the original foreign workers, or recruited them from other repair shops, and at the same time sent Chinese hired workers to learn the skills, and then stipulated that in the future, Chinese ships must be repaired in this repair shop and bring some business, so that someone would inevitably be willing to take over. ”

Zhang Zhidong was overjoyed and laughed: "Mr. Dacai, this strategy is very good!" That's it! ”

So, three days later, after Zhang Zhidong's downward movement, dozens of people gathered in Shanghi County, and the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce was established.

Immediately afterwards, the two largest foreign-funded ship repair factories in Shanghai were bought by the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce and merged into one repair shop: Jiangnan Ship Repair General Factory.