Speaking of Li Hongzhang, everyone may know that he signed a series of unequal treaties with the great powers, such as the Maguan Treaty. However, these treaties may not all be signed by his will, but the Qing Dynasty always needs someone to be this historical sinner, and Li Hongzhang has always "duty-bound" to assume this "responsibility". In addition to "liking" the signing of unequal treaties, Li Hongzhang's other identity is that of the minister of foreign affairs and sports.
The Western Affairs Movement was a movement put forward by some Chinese people of insight in the face of china's attack by the great powers, and the main purpose of this movement was to arm China at that time by learning western artifact civilization and use it to resist the invasion of Western colonizers.
The foreign affairs movement can probably be divided into two stages, the first stage is "self-improvement", simply put, it is to learn Western military science and technology, manufacturing weapons, like the Anqingnei Ordnance Institute belongs to the scope of "self-strengthening". Later, military enterprises found that there was not enough money, and even if there were fields for the production of weapons, they could not produce weapons, so they launched the slogan of "seeking prosperity" and set up a large number of civilian enterprises to "seek prosperity."
It was at this stage of seeking wealth that Li Hongzhang set up a company called the Steamship Merchants Bureau. China Merchants Bureau was established in January 1873, under the auspices of Li Hongzhang, got a starting capital of 200,000 yuan, and began its vigorous growth.
Why would Li Hongzhang think of doing such a merchants bureau? In addition to seeking wealth, that is, making money, it is to see that China's Yangtze River inland shipping at that time was basically controlled by three foreign companies, Qichang, Swire and Jardine Matheson - what is the place where the inland river is, that is, the economic bloodline of the country! Since foreigners can drive boats to civilian use in inland rivers, of course, they can also drive boats without feeling that a large number of soldiers will be transported in.
Based on concerns about various situations, Li Hongzhang opened the steamship Merchants Bureau and began to develop China's own national enterprises in this regard. After operating for a period of time, it also acquired a large number of americans' Qichang Steamship Company's property, and obtained a lot of profits.
In 1882, with the profits obtained from its own operation, China Merchants bureau created the Kaiping Mining Bureau, which is the largest coal mining enterprise in modern China. In 1883, the steamship Merchants Bureau had a total of 2 million taels of shares. In 1896, China Merchants Bureau, which gradually became capitalized, created China's first bank: China Merchants Bank
In 1897, the Steamship Merchants Bureau increased the capital by converting the surplus of the previous year into a capital increase of 4 million taels. Later, due to the social turmoil in the Xinhai Revolution era, profits gradually decreased, but during the First World War, because foreigners were busy with European affairs and had no time to look east to China, they did not have the opportunity to strike at China's economic development, and China Merchants bureau obtained a lot of profits during this period. However, because of the warlord melee of the Republic of China and the Japanese invasion of China, the operation of the China Merchants Bureau was not as good as before, and even deteriorated.
After the founding of New China, China Merchants Bureau gained a new life under the care of the party and the people. After the Liberation War, China Merchants Bureau was reorganized into the Chinese Min steamship corporation. In 1985, after considering various factors and obtaining permission from relevant departments, China Merchants Group Co., Ltd. was established. Immediately after 1987, China Merchants initiated the establishment of China Merchants Bank, which was the first joint-stock commercial bank after the founding of New China.
In 2012, china Merchants Group, which is associated with the rise and fall of modern China and witnessed the great historical turning point of China from backwardness to "standing up", "getting rich" and "getting strong", has become one of the world's top 500 companies, once again adding bricks and tiles to China's economic construction, adding bricks and tiles to the self-improvement and seeking prosperity of the Chinese nation, which can also be regarded as "not forgetting the original heart and keeping the mission in mind".