Chapter 606 Don't Be Hu Xueyan for Business 2

Hu Xueyan's wild and extravagant living habits are closely related to his ultimate failure.

There is an old saying: Hu Xueyan has been galloping in the shopping mall for many years, relying on the backstage of the government to reach the peak of his career step by step. The scenery is infinite, but his final failure is also caused by the collapse of the backstage of the officialdom and the rolling of the officialdom. Although Hu Xueyan is a businessman, his fortune and prosperity are closely related to the protection of political dignitaries. Hu Xueyan firmly grasped the essence of good cooling under the tree. First, he opened a money farm with the help of Wang Youling, and then founded Hu Qingyutang with Zuo Zongtang as his backer. He raised foreign funds for the Western Expedition, restored the ox cart that was terminated by the war, and made certain contributions to the people and the country, so as to reach the peak of his career step by step. As a businessman, he was worn by the second grade of the imperial court and rewarded with a yellow coat, which is rare in Chinese history.

But such a man with both fame and fortune and a successful career collapsed within a few days, and his career came to an end. The failure of Hu Xueyan's business was due to his excessive ambition, eagerness to expand, and decision-making mistakes. He tried to monopolize the export of Jiangsu and Zhejiang raw silk business, which angered foreign merchants. The non-stop selling of raw silk made the Qianzhuang run due to lack of liquidity, resulting in the closure of raw silk shops, public pawn, Hu Qingyutang, etc. But another important reason for the failure of Hu's business is the blow of political enemies.

Although Hu Xueyan has been smart all his life and has a close relationship with officials, he has become a victim of the politics and struggle between Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang because he is ignorant of official reason, stubbornness and incompetent and incompetent. He has become a victim of Li Hongzhang's strategy of rowing the left-handed and inverting the left-handed first-handed strategy. What led to the rupture of Hu Xueyan's capital chain was Xi Zhengfu, known as the Dongting Mountain Gang. This man was the founder of the financial buyer in the Qing Dynasty, and he worked for HSBC. Hu Xueyan was caught in the internal and external attack of foreign financial capital forces and domestic financial buying forces, and his failure was strategic and irreparable.

Of course, everyone has his own understanding of Hu Xueyan's failure. In Tang Yu's opinion, it is naturally not so easy to do.

At that time, he cooperated with silkworm farmers to buy silk to fight against foreigners. As a result, he was plotted by Li Hongzhang and lost 20 million taels of silk! If you can't receive silk, foreign businessmen are as anxious as ants on a hot pot. At this time, officials from the Qing Dynasty came to tell foreigners that they could help the British government solve the silk problem. Sooner or later, Hu Xueyan would sell the silk cheaply to British merchants. This led to Hu Xueyan's failure in the end. Li Hongzhang and the Qing government can be said to have made great contributions.

The highest peak of Hu Xueyan's life was brought to him by his great supporter, Zuo Zongtang. Hu Xueyan's fall from the highest peak also began with the defeat of Zuo Zongtang. If Zuo Zongtang does not collapse, Hu Xueyan will not have problems so soon; as soon as Zuo Zongtang crosses, the backer is gone, Hu Xueyan is isolated and helpless, and the problem arises.

Why did Zuo Zongtang collapse? Just because of his words. After Zuo Zongtang took back Xinjiang, he made great contributions to the Qing court. He was awarded the title of marquis, and the marquis was the king again. The Qing Dynasty stipulated that Han people could not be crowned kings, so Zuo Zongtang, who was a Han man, had been sealed to the top. After Zuo Zongtang was transferred back to Beijing, he became the Minister of Military Affairs. The Empress Dowager suddenly died, and Li Lianying went to distribute the sackcloth to be worn for the funeral to each dignitaries. When it was sent to Zuo Zongtang, Zuo Zongtang asked what was going on. Li Lianying told him that the Empress Dowager had died. What did Zuo Zongtang say? He said he shouldn't. How could this happen? Then he shouldn't have said again: I was fine when I saw the Empress Dowager yesterday! It was this sentence that was passed on to the Western Empress Dowager by Li Hongzhang. As a military aircraft minister, Zuo Zongtang is in the palace. It is really inappropriate to say such words. The Empress Dowager is dead. You said it was impossible. What do you mean? The Empress Dowager would naturally think: Do you, Zuo Zongtang, think I killed the Empress Dowager? Therefore, the Empress Dowager Cixi was furious and found a reason to transfer Zuo Zongtang from Beijing. A person kills himself because of his own words. Since ancient times, there have been many such lessons. A lot of words and an unintentional sentence may cause unexpected disasters. Therefore, you must speak cautiously. Li Hongzhang has always wanted to defeat Zuo Zongtang. His first goal is to defeat Hu Xueyan first.

As for why Hu Xueyan collapsed, it also has a multi-faceted impact. Hu Xueyan has been involved in many industries. Almost all industries make money. The money is very profitable, and tea is also profitable. The profitability of these industries that operate in a commercial way are very good. We call Hu Xueyan the saint of business, that is, because Hu Xueyan's all commercially operated projects are profitable. However, the silk industry is the only business that Hu Xueyan invests the most money, but does not operate in accordance with business rules. In the current words, it is not in business.

Foreigners have liked our Chinese silk very much since ancient times. Before the Opium War, all countries carried out silk trade in China in a relatively fair manner, and there are still sites of the Silk Road witnessing that glorious history. After 1840, countries famous for their civilization opened the door of the Qing Dynasty with guns and sent opium in. After sending it in, they began to do whatever they wanted. Plunder and take whatever you want. At first, it was the silver of the Qing Dynasty, but later I found that it was better to take silk back, because in addition to the black-hearted profit of opium, the trade profit of silk shipping back to Europe was also considerable. Generally speaking, these two profitable businesses are impeccable, but their desires are endless. Once people lose their constraints, they will be unscrupulous. Therefore, foreign businessmen want to monopolize China's silk trade and make more profits. In this situation, Hu Xueyan stood up and said, "This won't work!" You foreigners bullied us! Therefore, he cooperated with silkworm farmers to buy silk. Foreigners buy four taels of silver, and Hu Xueyan sells five taels, calling on everyone not to sell silk to foreigners. In the early stage, foreigners could bear it, because Hu Xueyan's acquisition scale was still small, but with the increase of his investment, foreigners could not even buy enough silk for their domestic factories to start. Unable to receive the silk, the foreign businessman was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot. At this time, officials from the Qing Dynasty came to tell foreigners that they could help the British government solve the silk problem, and sooner or later, Hu Xueyan would sell the silk cheaply to British merchants.

On the surface, Hu Xueyan's failure was that the silk in his inventory could not be sold, and there was a problem with the capital turnover. He could not withdraw money to return the official money. In the end, he was sued and raided by Li Hongzhang as the leading force. But I think it was because he was single-willed and blindly grandied that he defeated himself.

Hu Xueyan's business involves many industries such as Qianzhuang, pawnshop, silk industry, pharmacy, real estate, etc. His Qianzhuang is the support department of its general group system. Except for pharmacies, other industries are basically interlinked, so it collapsed quickly after there was a problem with his bank. The structure of the Delong series, which had problems not long ago, is similar to Hu's career structure.

When Hu Xueyan was on the verge of bankruptcy, according to Hu, his total assets were nearly 40 million taels of silver, and his total liabilities were only 8 million taels. According to this debt ratio, it can definitely be evaluated by business. However, what we need to pay attention to is that the value of raw materials (raw silk) in its inventory has reached 20 million taels of silver. Under the double suppression of the official forces led by Li Hongzhang and the foreign forces, this raw silk is almost worthless in the end, so that in the rumors, Qianzhuang run broke out, coupled with his backer Zuo Zongtang, was overwhelmed. After being unable to rescue, he could only be raided by officials on the pretext of ensuring the safety of national finances. For raw silk, a commodity that will depreciate over time, it is not a wise choice to store goods worth 20 million taels of silver.

His business group also lacks an effective incentive and restraint mechanism: his pawnshop, money bank, and silk business have all had problems one after another, and they have misappropriated their own money to engage in their own business. There is no doubt about the ability of these people. As mentioned earlier, Hu's acquaintance is good, and Hu's wealth is also created with their efforts. Although Hu is the owner, compared with the owner's wealth, what they get is too small, which creates a psychological imbalance, which is the lack of incentive mechanism. What's more, even if there is a problem with the motivation, if you don't do it, someone will do it. Just change to someone, but you don't find these problems until you are going bankrupt in the end. This is the lack of the restraint mechanism. For this kind of principal-agent relationship between the owner and the general agent, only by establishing a perfect set of incentive and restraint mechanisms can we have long-term stability.

He also excessively intervened in the power struggle within the imperial court, which is the main reason. After his success, he continued to expand his Hu family garden. His original intention was to expand the facade. However, in the era when the feudal hierarchy was deep and strict at that time, there was a difference between the official building a house and a commoner building a house, and its house structure and roof structure paid attention to some taboos. Hu Xueyan built a lot of wood, and the design of the house is designed by the royal garden. Its luxury is comparable to that of Prince Gong's mansion. In addition, Hu's behavior after making a prosperous family, which is bound to cause jealousy and even hatred of some people.

There is no denying Hu's patriotic complex, and his courage to fight against foreign businessmen with one person is more admirable. But from another perspective, is the resulting sacrifice worth it? Why can't you take a step back and wait for the opportunity to fight back? Before the final collapse, his friends and subordinates had repeatedly reminded him that there was a problem with the capital chain. He could only throw away the raw silk of the inventory as soon as possible, and Hu only ignored other things to fight with foreigners. In the end, he could no longer support this huge inventory and the whole system collapsed in an instant. Hu made brilliant achievements, but when his achievements reached the peak, his conceit also reached the extreme, which laid the groundwork for the prosperity and decline and eventually became a tragedy. A lesson from the front car!

After Hu Xueyan went bankrupt, he called all his aunts to him, and each of them gave them hundreds of silver to find another home. At the same time, he also divided the creditors into three levels. Those who have power and officials are first-class - these people can't afford to offend and live in poverty. They only have a few silver per month - they are third-class, and third-class creditors are also necessary every month. Finally, it's the second class. Their silver is one hundred taels a month. At the same time, they don't have to worry about the money to live, but they can't return it. Those who stay with the Hu family, in addition to the main room, there is also a ninth aunt. Why do they keep the ninth aunt? Jiutong "long" sound, expected to last for a long time. Relying on the meager collection of Hu Qingyutang, Hu Xueyan spent his old age desolately and passed away in the eleventh year of Guangxu.

Hu Xueyan, a prominent generation of rich businessmen, was finally poor. The wealth and flashy life he once had failed to leave a foundation and yearning for future generations.

However, Hu Qingyutang, who was carefully created by him, still stands on Hefang Street, Hangzhou with his fine tradition of "aware of bullying" and "true price". Although he helped Hu Xueyan take over Hu Qingyutang in order to preserve this national medicine treasury. The kind people still remember his surname Hu, and praise Hu Xueyan's name because of Hu Qingyutang.

In the Qing Dynasty, there were Wang Xikun in the north and Hu Xueyan in the south. Personally, I think Hu Xueyan should be the idol of Chinese businessmen at present. There is no doubt that he is an official and businessman, and at the same time, it is admirable that he is black and white. At that time, the power of China and the government was infinite and the authority was great, so if enterprises wanted to be big, they must find this backer.

Hu Xueyan's personal charm is even more amazing. Although he has so many wives, his family relationship is handled very well, and different wives have played a very important role in different periods. Under the premise of lack of credit contracts at that time, having a wife's help is even more powerful!

Tang Yu is still recalling. Shen Ruihong pulled the stool and asked him to sit down. "Xiao Yu, tell me, what do you think of Hu Xueyan's life? Of course, don't say anything about the success. The three of us will listen to you today. Let's see what you think of his failure. Maybe, if you can see clearly. If you think about him, you can see the situation you are facing clearly.

Tang Yu took the opportunity to sit down and frowned slightly. " Uncle Shen, I understand what you mean. It's nothing more than officials and businessmen. I have also considered the reason for Hu Xueyan's failure before, which can be roughly summarized into six points."

"Oh? Xiaoyu has summarized six points? Then I'd like to listen to it." Shen Ruihong said with a smile.

Tang Yu continued to frown, "First of all, Hu Xueyan acted as a victim of Zuo Li's politics and struggle. Hu Xueyan lived across the shopping mall all his life and had a close relationship with officials. Through the backstage of officials and businessmen, it has made a country. He first took Wang Youling as his backer, and then Zuo Zongtang as his backer, and gradually moved towards the glory of his career. However, "Blessed is the place of misfortune." The reason why Hu Xueyan's business can spread all over the country and overseas depends on the protection of officialdom, but its failure also stems from the struggle of officialdom. The officialdom achieved Hu Xueyan's career, and the officialdom also destroyed Hu Xueyan's career. As the saying goes, "Closion is also Xiaohe, failure is also Xiaohe." At that time, after Zuo Zongtang successfully used troops in Shaanxi and Gansu, he entered the military plane and released two rivers. Liangjiang turned out to be Li Hongzhang's territory, and most of the officials were Li's cronies. As a rookie in politics, Li Hongzhang disagrees with the gradually aging Zuo Zongtang. For example, on the issue of the war against France, the left main battle, Li Zhuhe. The contradictions between the two factions are becoming increasingly heated. In this way, as soon as Zuo Zongtang takes office, he must first remove the power of Li Hongzhang in his jurisdiction and quickly put it into action. At that time, Li Hongzhang and Ding You returned home, and Zuo Zongtang took the opportunity to attack Li's power, which aroused the strong dissatisfaction of the Li faction. However, the situation has changed suddenly. Due to the national crisis, the imperial court used Li Hongzhang, who was still in the mourning period. After Li came to power, he formulated the strategic policy of "falling the left must first". Hu Xueyan, as Zuo Zongtang's right-hand man and right-hand man, made the spearhead of Zuo Li's conflict directly at him, and he was unconscious and did not take any defensive measures, which was inevitably careless.

Su Muru nodded, "Your summary is good, which is also the reason why you need to pay attention to the most. If you can figure this point, you must know that we urgently handed you back this time. What is the purpose? Go on, we can also listen to your business experience and see if we can make progress."

Tang Yu smiled shyly, "Secondly, Hu Xueyan's approach at that time was against the trend of the times, and he was bound to fail. The wheels of history rolled by, and it was not so easy to be blocked. The practice of hoarding silk cocoon makes the capital turnover unsufficeable. When Watt invented the steam engine in Britain, which led to the industrial revolution, it was only a matter of time before the handicraft industry fell. At that time, the first industrial revolution had ended, and it had become an inevitable trend for machine production to replace manual production. The coastal trade areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang also introduced advanced Western production machines. However, it is inevitable that machine production instead of manual production will bankrupt the vast number of handicraft families that used to engage in this production. Hu Xueyan was unwilling to succumb to the strong economic power of Western capitalist countries. In order to protect the interests of China's vast number of small farmers, he did not hesitate to buy silkworm cocoon at a high price and hoard it for a period of time, so that the foreign factories engaged in silkworm cocoon processing closed down because there were no raw materials. In this way, the raw materials could be sold to small peasant families of silkworm cocoon processing. However, this move undoubtedly angered foreign merchants. Therefore, when Hu Xueyan's Qianzhuang's rushing trend urgently needed to get out of the present, foreign merchants took the opportunity to suppress prices, and under the isolated struggle of anti-monopoly, it led to the dilemma of poor turnover. His failure can be said to be a tragedy of the times.

"This is very simple, but it can really be combined with you. You boy, you are worthy of being born to do business."

Tang Yu touched his head and said, "The third is that the social status of ancient merchants restricted the development of Hu Xueyan. For more than 2,000 years, China's policy of "heavying on agriculture and suppressing business" has formed a hierarchical order of "sentertainers, farmers, industry and merchants". China has always been not a business-oriented society, but an official-oriented society. The feudal government imposed various restrictions on merchants. For example, heavy taxes are imposed on commercial activities. Merchants are not allowed to be officials, participate in imperial examinations, or marry people of other classes. Merchants cannot wear luxurious clothes or take luxurious carriages..."

"But Hu Xueyan's business is very big and wide, and for the convenience of his business, he also donated officials to the four-grade Taoist platform, and wants to be on an equal footing with the officials. Hu Xueyan is not unaware of the status of businessmen in China. He once said, 'Foreigners, especially in the UK, business is first class. Here, we, farmers, industry and commerce, do business. It's called the end of the four people. Now it's better. It's called no business, no treacherous.' He also said, 'I want to tell you that no matter how big it is, it is no bigger than foreigners, especially the British. Why? He is a country doing business with you. The government helps businessmen talk everywhere. What about us?' It can't be said that Hu Xueyan is very sober, but more importantly, he has been involved in the officialdom and can't extricate himself. With the rise of the official situation and the down of the official situation, Hu Xueyan is actually involuntarily. It is also for this reason that when Hu Xueyan was on the verge of bankruptcy, the court did not pay for his credit and help him through the difficulties. On the contrary, it had to pay the money owed by the court within a time limit and buy the family to pay off the debt.

"This is also a reason," Tang Tianhong nodded. "It's up to you."

"Hey hey, this is the fourth, the backwardness of China's Qianzhuang system is also the reason for Hu Xueyan's failure. At that time, Western capital had been grouped, banks had become the main form of Western capital financing, and the world's largest banks had branches in China. And China is still a money bank in this period. In the final analysis, Qianzhuang is still personal capital and family capital, and its scale can never be compared with that of banks. Hu Xueyan is actually a person competing with some groups. Therefore, when there was a run in Fukang Qianzhuang, it was soon on the verge of bankruptcy.

"As for the fifth, Hu Xueyan's historical business philosophy has an adventurous nature close to gambler gambling. The sentence he often talks about is 'eight jars and seven covers, and it's a good thing to cover and cover them.' But 'not afraid of ten thousand, just in case'. In the end, his 'eight jars and seven covers' business behavior was helped, resulting in a serious decline in his reputation. When Fukang Qianzhuang was maliciously redeemed, it soon formed a run situation, which can be said to add fuel to the flames. Hu Xueyan originally made a fortune by relying on Wang Youling, and he used a huge sum of 500 taels to help the downtrodden Wang Youling himself was a bet. The sixth is that Hu Xueyan's career has been in a smooth state for a long time, which makes him have a fluke mentality. From the first day of his business, even if the business encountered obstacles, such as shortage of funds, no way out of relationship, etc., it was quickly lifted by his power. This is bound to form a strong sense of self-inflation, thinking that you can do everything. The reflection of his later personality is that he does not listen to people's advice and continues to take risks without leaving a way out.

Shen Ruihong laughed and said, "You have summed up a lot. What do you think about putting it on yourself?"