Cover image| "God of Gamblers"
The content of this article is excerpted from Uncle Feng's new program "Wind Horse Cow Study"
Dictation | Feng Lun (WeChat public account: Feng Lun Feng Ma Niu)
There are two books that I have been particularly impressed by after reading them. One book is called Dangerous Relationships and the other is Called The Godfather of Asia.
The author of "Dangerous Relationship" is Xue'er. He was a Chinese and later went to Australia, so his research perspective is slightly different from that of some researchers in Chinese mainland, and he will look at the characters and history of the late Qing Dynasty from the perspective of cultural comparison. The author of "The Godfather of Asia" is the American Joe Stawell.
Both books have a subtitle, Dangerous Relations is titled "Political and Commercial Gambling in the Transition period of the Late Qing Dynasty" and "The Godfather of Asia" is subtitled "Money and Power in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia." After reading these two subtitles, we can also get a rough idea of what the book is about. Of course, there's a more colloquial version of The Godfather of Asia — it's about the history of the super-rich.
The two books tell the same story, that is, from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, the stories of some successful businessmen in chinese circles in Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia. Moreover, both books study the relationship between government and business in China's modern history from the perspective of foreign researchers.
If you only read one of these two books, such as Dangerous Relations, you may feel that this kind of political and commercial gambling in the late Qing Dynasty has a certain contingency. However, when you look at "The Godfather of Asia" again, you will find that even though many Chinese have arrived in Southeast Asia, their methods of doing things are actually the same as those of these mainland merchants in the late Qing Dynasty.
You will find that this is obviously not accidental. That is to say, in the history of the Chinese people and the culture of the Chinese people, a view of the relationship between government and business, as well as the mode of interaction between government and business, are actually a common trajectory to be found. These precipitated laws have become the "genetic code" of government-business relations in Chinese culture.
Let's start with Dangerous Relationships. From this book, we can see that in the relationship between government and business in the late Qing Dynasty, how hard it was for businessmen to work, how difficult it was to be difficult, or how strong contacts and judgment businessmen needed to deal with such a complicated matter. That's why this relationship is called a "dangerous relationship."
"Dangerous Relationship" is actually about a biography of a character. This person's name is Liu Xueyuan, and he was an entrepreneur in the late Qing Dynasty. His origins are particularly interesting. Why did he get caught up in a complicated political and business game? It has something to do with his origin.
First of all, he was a fellow countryman with Sun Yat-sen. Of course, their hometown is not far from Kang Youwei's hometown. Because of the relationship with the same village, although Sun Yat-sen and Kang Youwei took different paths, Liu Xuexun was able to move between Sun Yat-sen and Kang Youwei.
Secondly, Liu Xueyuan participated in the imperial examination, passed the entrance examination, and then became a small official, and met many later big figures in the official field. Because he had the experience of entering the official arena, in the eyes of the top brass of the Qing government, he was a person within the system.
Such an experience determines his complexity. In this regard, he is very similar to Zhang Xiao. Zhang Xiao also participated in the imperial examination, won the title, did Hanlin, and then returned home and started a business.
In that era, the people who could intervene in dangerous relationships were really not the bottom, especially reckless people, but people like Liu Xueyuan. Xue'er is to study such an entrepreneur with special experience as a particularly typical sample in the "political and commercial gambling game".
As an entrepreneur, Liu Xuexuan has two of the most powerful businesses in his life.
The first was to set up a casino to help solve local financial problems while benefiting himself, and he almost became the richest man in Guangdong at that time.
Casinos are his most successful business. The business itself has its own peculiarities. His casino needs a government license, and his business can make money because the license to do business is unique. At the same time, a large part of the money he earns is given to the government.
In fact, even in modern times, the relationship between many private enterprises and the government is also like this. What enterprises want to get are special licenses and special resources, and what the government wants is "since you are given a license, you must make money for the government, pay money to the government, and then help the government solve the problems of finance, employment and social stability..." In the interaction with the government, businessmen focus on the government's monopoly resources. Liu Xuexuan's commercial success is actually as simple as getting a license.
Second, he also does some real estate. The real estate he did, the most famous is Liu Zhuang in Hangzhou, now called the West Lake State Guesthouse. The manor that Liu Xueqian built in Hangzhou is called tourism real estate in our words today, of course, he also lives in it himself. He also has some real estate in Beijing and land in Tianjin.
Let's look at Southeast Asia again. In the book "The Godfather of Asia", why can southeast Asian businessmen rise? In fact, like Liu Xueqing, they are doing the same thing, that is, constantly deepening their relationship with the government and power to obtain some special licenses.
Therefore, in China at the end of the Qing Dynasty, or in Southeast Asia, the core of the relationship between government and business is one thing - to take care of the government and to get a license. Later we called it power rent-seeking. This is a special government-business relationship gene that China has left to private enterprises before.
Most of these families in Southeast Asia did the same, establishing close relationships with the powerful people of the time and relying on this relationship to do business. They place particular emphasis on establishing close, long-term, low-key, and unknown relationships with people in the power sector, and then reaping special benefits through this.
Due to the different histories and cultures of various countries in Southeast Asia, the close relationship between them also contains a private interest exchange relationship, that is, what license you help me get, what land you take, and what benefits I give you. This is no longer rent-seeking, or even an exchange of benefits. This exchange of interests is either public or private, but Chinese companies throughout Southeast Asia are very good at doing it.
"The Godfather of Asia" is about such a thing. How to deal with the official, how to do things for the imperial court, how to get special care for the court, and then get special benefits, get special licenses, land, accounts.
This also reminds me of a passage by Fairbank. Fairbank, who has also studied this phenomenon, said, "Chinese businessmen have a different idea than the West: the Chinese tradition is not to make a better mousetrap, but to obtain the privilege of catching rats from the authorities."
In the eyes of American researchers, the reason why these rich people in Asia have become rich people, even "godfathers", is because of their deep relationship with power, bringing some rent-seeking possibilities and special care.
Therefore, this book reveals to us that for a long time in the past, the code for Chinese business in Southeast Asia is still what we call the old-style political and business relations.
"In the Name of the People" | the change in the relationship between government and business, and the old logic has not worked
Let's take a look at what changes have taken place in the relationship between government and business today. Forty years of reform and opening up, I think in the first thirty years, the relationship between government and business almost continued the logic of Liu Xueqian and these Southeast Asian godfathers. In other words, private enterprises will spend a lot of time dealing with the government and dealing with the authorities to obtain resources. Then these businesses grow rapidly.
But in the past decade, China's enterprises, entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurs have undergone a particularly important change.
In the past, there was a lyric called "Only the new people laugh, and who hears the old people crying.". In the relationship between government and business, who is the old person? Rely on power to rent-seeking. Liu Xueqing, the godfathers of Southeast Asia and their private entrepreneurs who have similar business logic and genes.
Why can newcomers laugh? The newcomer got rid of this gene.
The roadmap for the old people to make money is like this: have an idea, find a leader to approve something, and then start at a low price, it is best to get a loan, get the thing and then sell it at a higher price. If it is not done well, the government will give some compensation. This is the basic road map for the old man to do business, after he has an idea, find a little money, and then find resources with the government.
Compared with the old people, the genes of the new people have changed. What is their logic? Especially simple, have an idea, first find capital. Capital would ask him one thing, "What is your product?" What is the service? What is the business model? What is business logic?" So the new person studies the product, the research model, then provides the service, and finally the capital gives money, and when he has the money, he improves his products and services. Then there are more and more users, and they go public. After going public, I successfully got the money and then invested it back, and that's it.
You will find that they are products, customers, capital, markets, and they have not directly gone to the government, nor have they obtained any special licenses with the government.
In the past decade, we have entered a new stage of development, and the logic of government-business relations has changed. General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed that "the relationship between government and business should be friendly and clean." Therefore, the new people correspond to the new era, new pattern, new ideas, and new development. Only then can new people succeed.
Therefore, now we have to use the method of new people and new patterns to deal with the relationship between government and business, and we spend more time on the logic of products, customers, and capital, so as to get rid of the logic of the old people's "no products, only ideas, relying on government resource arbitrage".
This reminds me of a passage in which Lee Kuan Yew commented on Li Ka-shing. Li Ka-shing was also a godfather in the old political-business relationship. Lee Kuan Yew commented on Lee Ka-shing that he was a rich man, but he did not make a commodity that marketed the world.
In other words, he didn't have Bill Gates or Musk, or like Jobs, to create a technologically world-changing product, and his achievements were only in the distribution of wealth. Therefore, the results of the old political and commercial gambling game are all the distribution of wealth, not creating new technologies, not bringing about change and innovation.
Dark Flower | The winners of the gamble, the godfathers should be called "dangerous godfathers"
In fact, the traditional set of logic of government-business relations is called "dangerous relations", and in traditional political and business relations, the winners of the gambling game should be called "dangerous godfathers".
I think when we look at these two books, we interpret the old code of political and business relations. And we know that this political-business relationship ultimately hurts not only itself, but also society, and only a small number of people gain temporary benefits in the distribution of wealth. However, it has not contributed much to the system of the economy as a whole, and to scientific and technological progress in particular. I think that's one of the inspirations these two books gave me.
I also especially share such negative stories to let everyone get a positive, positive judgment.
In the new era, we must use a new type of government-business relationship to solve problems. We simplify the problem, that is, to make products, pay attention to users, and then directly let the capital market test their own business model and their own intelligence, the growth of the company. Through such a cycle, get rid of such a trap and gamble in the traditional political and business relationship. At the same time, do not be the godfather of the old political and business relations in the old era, but be an entrepreneur and innovator in the new era.
Therefore, the purpose of reading these two books is to let us know that we must change the code of this past government-business relationship, and then enter the open, competitive, transparent, and innovative market system, do a good job in our business, and do a good job in our services.