The history of the late Qing Dynasty is a heavy history, which is beyond doubt, the invasion of the Eight-Power Alliance, the fainting of the imperial court, and the scuffle of warlords everywhere, for the Chinese, it is really unbearable.
At that time, the Qing court was an embarrassing existence in the eyes of the people, but more importantly, the Qing court was faced with powerlessness, and in the face of the aggression of the great powers, there was quite a smell of eggs touching stones, but what people could not deny was that the self-help that the Qing court could do was, to a certain extent, the maximum scope within its reach, and the "foreign affairs movement" by Li Hongzhang Zhang Zhidong and others in 1861 was the best proof.
It is worth saying that in 1872, Li Hongzhang founded a company, which has now ranked among the world's top 500 companies, and the name sounds very familiar, it is - steamship Merchants Bureau.
Just the two words "China Merchants", I believe everyone is already very familiar with it, after which it developed the "China Commerce Bank", and now it is officially renamed "China Merchants Bank", and the credit card of China Merchants Bank must be the most common credit card, probably not one of them.
So what is the story behind this "steamship investment bureau"? First of all, let's talk about Li Hongzhang, who played a major role in this, historians have always commented on Li Hongzhang as mixed, first of all, do not evaluate the right and wrong of these views, the point that cannot be ignored is that some historians are still relatively paranoid about Li Hongzhang as the savior of the Qing court, this view is still relatively one-sided.
In a word, it can be summed up: Even if Li Hongzhang really had the ability to reach the heavens at that time, he could not save the situation of the Qing court at that time, but Li Hongzhang could really do his best in the place where he could do it.
On the eve of the establishment of the "Steamship Merchants Bureau", Li Hongzhang discovered the business opportunities of coastline transportation under the consultation with friends, because people who have played the "real-time strategy" game know that the coastline is absolutely a pure natural highway for a country, and it is not difficult to find that as long as the country near the sea is basically a country with a relatively high GDP.
What is even more poignant is that most of China's merchant ships at that time were leased from abroad, and as long as foreigners announced that they would no longer charter ships to Chinese, China's steamship industry stagnated for minutes.
Li Hongzhang just felt this sense of crisis, put a paper "Trial Investment Steamship Folding" in front of Cixi, and finally this request was approved by the Qing court, on December 26, 1872, the "Steamship Merchants Bureau" officially began to operate, and it did not take long to open a branch in Singapore and Japan, and then we can also say Chinese: "In the future, how many ships will be needed." ”
Fortunately, the "Steamship Merchants Bureau" developed quite well, and until the death of Li Hongzhang, it was still a giant beast on the chinese commercial map.
In 1985, the "Steamship China Merchants" was officially renamed "China Merchants Group Co., Ltd.", and finally in 1987 in Shenzhen city officially established "China Merchants Bank", only more than 20 years, China Merchants Bank has successfully ranked among the world's top 500, as of March 2020, the "China Merchants" brand has been the world's top 500 74th, must be regarded as one of the fastest growing enterprises, and is in the world.
Business is a process of circulation, which can be regarded as an eternal law, "Steamship Merchants Bureau" to today's "China Merchants Bank", from seniority and annual turnover, have made it a business giant, of which Li Hongzhang must be a person who has to be thanked, if there is no unique vision of the year, there may not be today's "China Merchants Bank", no matter how to say, in the western affairs movement, Li Hongzhang is definitely a rare hero.
Perhaps, Li Hongzhang is really a person born in the wrong era, if he was born a hundred years late, he did not have to deal with the disturbances of the late Qing Dynasty, it would really be a good thing for him.