The Western Affairs Movement was a self-salvation movement carried out by the Westerners in the late 1860s and 1890s to introduce Western military equipment, machine production and science and technology to save the qing dynasty's rule. At the beginning of today, let's first look at some of the "First in China" born in the foreign affairs movement: this is the first joint-stock enterprise- the General Bureau of Steamship Merchants; the first telegraph bureau - The General Administration of China Telegraph; the first bank- China Commerce and Commerce Bank; and the first railway trunk line - Luhan Railway. But you know what? These "China Firsts" were all founded by the same person, who is Sheng Xuanhuai.
Sheng Xuanhuai
Sheng Xuanhuai was born in 1844 in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, and has countless halos in the business world, and is known as the "Father of Chinese Merchants". Although Sheng Xuanhuai had countless auras in the business world, in fact, he was initially an aide to Li Hongzhang's mansion, who was then the governor of Directly Subordinate to the Governor and Minister of Beiyang, so how did he seize the opportunity and become Li Hongzhang's most powerful assistant in the foreign affairs movement? How did he have assets of up to 13 million taels of silver and topped the wealth list at the end of the Qing Dynasty? Start today and we'll decrypt it for you!
Sheng Xuanhuai was born in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, to a famous eunuch family, his grandfather Sheng Long once worked in Haining Zhizhou, Zhejiang, and his father Sheng Kangguan went to Wuchang, Hubei Province. However, when Sheng Xuanhuai became an adult, he was not on the list of three township examinations, just a show talent. In 1870, Yang Zonglian, a close friend of his father Sheng Kang and a subordinate of Li Hongzhang, recommended Sheng Xuanhuai to join Li Hongzhang's shogunate and serve Li Hongzhang.
At that time, Li Hongzhang was still the governor of Huguang, and there was a lack of someone around him who could help him deal with "foreign business". At first, Li Hongzhang just let Sheng Xuanhuai be his secretary and deal with some trivial things, but soon Li Hongzhang found that Sheng Xuanhuai was not simple, he was good at dealing with people, and he was better at learning Western studies.
Li
Sheng Xuanhuai was very active in introducing and learning advanced Western science and technology and learning advanced knowledge from the West; he had never learned Western knowledge since he was a child, nor had he read Western books, so he bought his own chemistry and physics books to read by himself.
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And Li Hongzhang, who is running foreign affairs, needs such talents. Soon, Sheng Xuanhuai, with his style of striving for practical results and shrewdness and training, was appreciated by Li Hongzhang, and directly skipped the civil service examination at that time, the imperial examination, and was promoted to an official. In this way, Sheng Xuanhuai's second year of entering the government had already been promoted to the position of Sipin official.
In 1872, Li Hongzhang, who had already made achievements in the foreign affairs movement, intended to be involved in shipping, so he called in Sheng Xuanhuai and wanted to ask his opinion. After hearing this, Sheng Xuanhuai thought about it a little and said bluntly: "This great profit must not be unhappy!"! This means that of course, such a way to make money should be vigorously developed!
At that time, the imperial court used sand boats to transport grain on the Grand Canal every year, but the sand boats carried a small load and traveled slowly, during which there were also corrupt officials and corrupt officials who plucked their hair, and the cost remained high. Not only that, at that time, China's coastal and inland waterway shipping was monopolized by foreigners' steamships, who not only took passengers and goods, but even pulled away the imperial court's water transport business.
Sheng Xuanhuai considered that if we had our own steamship company, we would not only be able to solve the problem of water transport, but also take back this money-making business from the hands of foreigners! After listening to Sheng Xuanhuai's impassioned statement, Li Hongzhang, who was scheming and calculating, naturally understood. This Sheng Xuanhuai was proposing himself to lead the establishment of a steamship company. Finally, Li Hongzhang said slowly: Then you should first write the founding charter of a steamship company!
After carefully studying the business model of foreign steamship companies, Sheng Xuanhuai decided to learn the method of foreign investment and shareholding, and to establish a steamship company through the way of businessmen's funding and official supervision. In this way, it will not increase the burden on the imperial court, but also can reap dividends. Only when money is not scattered can a rich country and a strong army be strengthened. Soon, he drew up the charter.
The core content of this charter is to establish a joint-stock steamship company run by the government and the governor! For the Chinese people at that time, the imported product of the joint-stock system had never been tried. The joint-stock company run by the official governor and commercial office is even more unheard of, and this Sheng Xuanhuai is definitely the first person to risk eating crabs. Because of this, Sheng Xuanhuai's plan was firmly opposed by conservatives.
Sheng Xuanhuai of course knew that this first person was not very good, and in order to dispel Li Hongzhang's concerns, he even made a "military order": "Exhausting my life's energy, I will help my zhongtang to do several things such as iron ore, banking, postal services, and weaving, and after a hundred years, I may be able to attach my name to the zhongtang after passing on the strategy, I wish it is enough." ”
Sheng Xuanhuai led the establishment of the Steamship Merchants Bureau, but why did Li Hongzhang not let him be the person in charge? For more exciting content, please pay attention to tomorrow's "Hubei Satellite TV Big Reveal" headline number.