Bai Gui
As the saying goes, "no business, no adultery", people have always scorned businessmen, and in the sayings of the three religions and nine streams and "scholars, peasants, industrialists, and merchants", they also list merchants last, which shows how low the status of merchants in the hearts of the ancients was. However, there was a merchant who was named zushi by the merchants of the past, and was also named "Shang Sheng" by the emperor during the Northern Song Dynasty, which also shows the great influence of this merchant. Who is this businessman? Why did he have such influence? What is his way of doing business?
Bai Gui (370 BC – 300 BC), known as Dan, was born in Luoyang, the capital of eastern Zhou. Bai Gui was in the state of Wei during the reign of King Hui of Wei, during which time he exerted his ability to control water and relieve the flooding of the Yellow River in the Wei capital City, but because of Wei's political corruption, Bai Gui was discouraged and wanted to stay away from the political whirlpool, so he abandoned politics and business.
Unlike other merchants, Bai Gui mainly targeted commercial activities on agricultural products and raw materials for rural handicrafts. Instead of following the trend of the time, doing a jewelry business that seemed to be relatively profitable (the big merchants Tao Zhugong, Yi Dun, Lü Buwei and others all had a fondness for the jewelry business). Bai Gui called his own unique business philosophy as "people abandon me and take, people take me and me".
For example, during the harvest season or in a good year, when farmers sell grain in large quantities, they will buy grain in large quantities; at the same time, he will also sell silk, lacquerware and other necessities of life to farmers who are more abundant at this time. If he encounters an apologetic or a bad time, he will sell grain and buy unsalable handicraft raw materials and products. In this business process, Bai Gui has always been trading at a more reasonable price, and there are still some philanthropic concepts in Bai Gui's business process, which is also incomparable to other businessmen and Bai Gui. Just like Bai Gui said, "People abandon me and take, people take me and" in the "and" is to give people affordable and convenient meaning. For example, in a good year, when the people have some rich grain in their hands and want to sell it, so that they can use the money from the sale to buy some necessities of life, at this time, many merchants who buy grain will deliberately reduce the price, or simply pretend not to want to buy. The people had no choice but to sell the grain in their hands at a very low price, so that those traitors hoarded a large amount of grain with a small amount of money. However, if it is a time of dissolution, or if there is a disaster year, these profiteers will sell grain at a high price, so that they will make huge profits and pit the good and ignorant people, which is also an important reason why the merchants are not liked. On the contrary, Bai Gui was not like this. He was fair and reasonable in his purchase of grain in good years, so that the people could sell it at a better price; in the year of disaster, he sold the grain at a low price so that the people could afford it, and he also earned a lot of money because of the small profits and high sales. Bai Gui's business method not only ensures that he can obtain the initiative in business and obtain rich profits, but also objectively regulates the supply and demand and price of commodities, and protects the simple peasants and people to a certain extent, so some people call this kind of commercial operation "benevolence".
Bai Gui's "benevolence" is also manifested in his support for farmers. He once supplied the peasants with excellent grain seeds and scientific planting techniques, which not only improved the quality of the peasants' grain, but also increased the yield of grain, making countless peasants grateful to Bai Gui. In fact, Bai Gui did this not only to gain a good reputation among the vast number of peasants, but more importantly, he won for himself the abundant food supply of these peasants. Imagine that he helped the peasants improve the quality and yield of grain, and didn't the peasants sell them to him at a relatively low price? Bai Gui based his business operations on the basis of developing agricultural production, promoting agricultural production through commerce, and promoting commercial operations through the development of agricultural production. In contrast, this is much more clever and civilized than the policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce during the shang martingale transformation law. This is also the reason why Bai Gui occupies an irreplaceable position in the hearts of future generations.
In addition, because Bai Gui was erudite and versatile, and the knowledge of the Hundred Sons, Astronomical Geography, Calendar Yin and Yang, Astrological Medicine, etc. was omniscient, omniscient, and omniscient, he summed up a set of laws of agricultural harvests and good fortunes, and traded according to this law. The purchase of grain at a low price in a good year and its sale when the price of grain rises in a bad year can be multiplied from the price difference between a good year and a bad year. For example, when the moon is in the position, the grain harvest will be abundant, but the year will be bad; when the moon is in the noon palace, there will be a drought, and the new year will be very good; when the moon is in the unitary position, the grain harvest will be abundant, and the new year will become bad; when the age is in the sub-position, the world will be in a drought, and the new year will be very good... Bai Gui used this relatively scientific theory of agricultural knowledge to purchase and sell some agricultural products such as grain, which not only enabled him to gain great benefits, but also helped the circulation of commodities, so that the people of various localities and occupations could communicate with each other and complement each other,000 deficiencies, which can be said to have greatly promoted economic development and social progress.
Bai Gui also put forward the idea of "if you want to grow money, take down the grain, take the long stone bucket, and take the seed", that is, if you buy grain to save money and eat it yourself, you will buy poorer grain; if it is for the next year's harvest, then please buy the best seeds. Moreover, as a merchant of rich princes, Bai Gui not only did not enjoy a luxurious life with little fish and meat, mountain treasures and seafood, loutai palaces and pavilions, and brocade clothes, but also strongly advocated frugality and cherished blessings, which was also a point that was extremely difficult for an ancient merchant to do.
Gold Motobao
Bai Gui, a great merchant, was not only loved and respected by the people of that time, but also was named as the grandfather by the merchants of later generations. In the fourth year of the Northern Song Dynasty Zhenzong Jingde (1007), he was also personally named "Shang Sheng" by the emperor. Bai Gui's idea of "people abandoning me and taking me, people taking me and me" has always been cherished by future generations of businessmen, and rong Zongjing, a famous national capitalist in modern times, is the best example of the success of following Bai Gui's business principle of "people abandoning me". The business idea of "people abandon me and take what people take, and people fight for me to avoid" pursued by Chen Jiageng, the most famous overseas Chinese entrepreneur in Nanyang, is also the inheritance and development of Bai Gui's management theory.
What regrets does a businessman have such a profound impact on future generations?