Zuo Zongtang opened the prelude to the large-scale development of the western region. On September 16, 1880, Zuo Zongtang presided over the preparation of the Gansu Weaving Bureau, and announced the start-up production in Lanzhou. Gansu Weaving Bureau is the first wool textile factory in the mainland, and its completion is a major event in the history of the modern industrial development of the mainland. The Gansu Weaving Bureau is also the first Sino-foreign cooperative factory in the history of the mainland.
After Zuo Zongtang recovered Xinjiang, he believed that the task of the northwest had been changed to improving people's livelihood
In order to create the Gansu Weaving Bureau, Zuo Zongtang entrusted Hu Xueyan, a red-top businessman, to purchase machinery and equipment from Germany, and it took more than a year to transport it back to Lanzhou, Gansu Province. When these machines arrived, they were packed into 4,000 boxes, including steam engines, automatic textile machines, scrubbers, dryers, calenders, and so on. Zuo Zongtang hired several German technicians, and selected a group of ten-year-old young people from the pro-military branch to learn production skills and train the first batch of industrial workers for the country.
The front hall of the Gansu Weaving Bureau
When the Gansu Weaving Bureau opened, Zuo Zongtang inspected military affairs in Hami, Xinjiang. On the third day of december, Zuo Zongtang was ordered to return to Beijing from Xinjiang and stay for one day while passing through Lanzhou. On this day, Zuo Zongtang went to the weaving bureau to visit the production and operation status. He reported to the imperial court: "The Lanzhou Weaving Bureau has a grand structure, with twenty machines and ten weaving machines, and the weaving is becoming more and more exquisite, and Chinese and foreign masters and local apprentices are doing things. ”
The Yellow River runs through the city of Lanzhou
The products of Gansu Weaving Bureau are thin and fine, beautiful and durable, and do not have to import poor products. Zuo Zongtang bought a batch of finished products, brought them back to the capital, and gave them to his colleagues, and everyone was very happy. The Gansu Weaving Bureau has attracted the attention of European and American countries. The British consul in China said in a business report that the weaving bureau created by overcoming various difficulties has begun production, which can produce 24 blue tweeds per day at a very low cost. The information held by the Americans is that Zuo Zongtang founded the opening of the Gansu Weaving Bureau, which cost 300,000 taels of silver.
On September 5, 1885, Zuo Zongtang died of illness in Fuzhou. Soon, the Gansu Weaving Bureau was suspended. The reasons for this are first: difficulty in cultivating technical personnel; second: lack of professional management personnel; third: product quality is good and timeless, very unstable. China's first wool textile enterprise came to an abrupt end.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Lanzhou was already extremely prosperous
More than 30 years later, someone restored the Gansu Weaving Bureau.
This man was Ma Yuanzhang (1853-1920), a famous scholar in Gansu. Ma Yuanzhang married a niece of Ma Hualong, Ma Hualong, who was Ma Hualong of Jinjibao in Gansu, and Zuo Zongtang's rival during the Tongzhi period. Ma Yuanzhang, a person with extremely deep thoughts, good at communication, advocating Confucian culture, he has long thought about the plight of his ancestors, and believes that it is necessary to harmonize the relations between all parties and take the initiative to change the status quo. He ran a sizable business, and the money he earned was used for charity, regardless of ethnicity, thus earning the reputation of the Mashan people. In the summer of 1919, Ma Yuanzhang came to Lanzhou at the invitation of Zhang Guangjian, the overseer of Gansu.
In Lanzhou at the end of the Qing Dynasty, a postman who was a servant of the wind and dust
When Ma Yuanzhang visited the Weaving Bureau, he saw that the plaque of "Gansu General Bureau of The System of Wool" with a red background inscribed by Zuo Zongtang was hanging on the lintel, and the factory building and machinery had been abandoned and idle. He said to the gentry with great regret: "Zuo Zongtang really took a lot of effort to establish the bureau when he founded the bureau, and now he has abandoned the machine like this, it is a pity!" So, the proposal was revitalized. After several twists and turns, the overseer Zhang Guangjian decided to raise a company and announced the establishment of gansu system co., LTD. Ma Yuanzhang himself, holding capital into the shares.
Lanzhou is picturesque at night
ShiRen recounted the restoration process of the Gansu Weaving Bureau, saying: "In the seventh year of the Republic of China (1918), the director of the Gansu Industrial Department asked the Chamber of Commerce to take over the prospectus, and no one dared to respond. In the eighth year of the Republic of China, Ma Guanglie (Ma Yuanzhang) was abolished in Jin Province, which was a pity. In consultation with the Industrial Department, the government and businessmen jointly organized and asked Deng Long to prepare for it. At that time, people still thought that Zuo Zongtang's founding of the Weaving Bureau was prescient. They said: "To revitalize Gansu's economy, we must first start with the development system. ”
Lanzhou Yellow River Mother Sculpture
In 1919, the Gansu System Joint Stock Company successfully operated, mainly producing crude woolen, which met the needs of the northwest market. On August 26, 1949, Lanzhou was liberated, and the Lanzhou Municipal Military Control Commission sent military representatives to take over the factory. Zuo Zongtang led Lanzhou to the threshold of modernization and sowed the seeds for this industrial city. (Text/Fan Forward)
References: (1) Deng Long: "The Founding of the Gansu Weaving Company", "Respectful Sangzi Record", vol. 1, p. 29. (2) Lin Jing: "Mengxin Ganning Expedition", Gansu People's Publishing House, 2003, p. 79. (3) Reviewed by Liu Baohou: The Collected Works of Liu Erzhuo (Part 2), 2014, p. 168.