Ximen Qing is a shrewd businessman, but what makes him far ahead among his peers is entirely the unfair competition he uses!
Colluding with the government to obtain preferential business conditions is his usual method. For example, Cai Yiquan, the number one scholar in the new school, passed through Qinghe County when he returned to his hometown to visit relatives. He was invited to Ximen's house for an autumn breeze. Later, Cai Yiquan was appointed as the salt inspector of Huaihe River and Huaihe River, and introduced Song Qiaonian, the inspector of Shandong Province, to Ximen Qing, which gave Ximen Qing more ways to collude with the government. Later, Ximen Qing sold salt and ran the salt transportation industry. Cai Zhuangyuan exercised his power to transport salt from the Huaihe River to Huaihe River and allowed Ximen Qing to grab the salt one month earlier than other salt merchants. This made it easy for Ximen Qing to obtain the salt in just one month. A huge profit of twenty thousand taels of silver! Other salt merchants could only stare blankly, watching as others took their money. Because Ximen Qing bribed Song Qiaonian, the governor of Shandong, from time to time, he was able to use the power of Song to monopolize the 20,000 taels of ancient artifacts business sent by the imperial court. How much profit was there! Colluding with the government to obtain business privileges is Ximen Qing's main method of obtaining huge profits.
Striving for monopoly and attacking peers are also Ximen Qing’s successful experiences in doing business. Monopoly means huge profits, and Ximen Qing knows this very well. Originally, there was only one pharmacy in Ximenqing in Qinghe County. Later, doctor Jiang Zhushan also opened a traditional Chinese medicine store with the help of Li Ping'er. Logically speaking, Jiang Zhushan is both a doctor and a pharmacy operator, and he is also kind and kind. He will undoubtedly attract many customers and the business will be prosperous. . The appearance of two pharmacies in a county is like the appearance of two suns in the sky, which is absolutely unacceptable to Ximen Qing. So he instigated local gangsters to make trouble in Jiang Zhushan's drug store many times. They also forged bills and accused him of not paying back the debt and sued the government. He beat Jiang Zhushan half to death and forced him to demolish the drug store. In this way, Ximenqing's pharmacy business is still booming.
This kind of unfair competition is also reflected in other aspects. For example, he is good at opening up joints, paying off money and principals, and evading taxes on a large scale; for another example, from the perspective of Ximen Qing’s business methods, he His business activities mainly rely on family members, slaves, or in partnership with others, or in the name of others, while he hides behind the scenes and operates, so it is difficult for others to catch his illegal business.
It is undeniable that Ximen Qing also has a "way" in doing business. When he analyzed money for the Count, he said, "That thing is very active and restless. How can it be buried in one place? It is also designed to be used by humans." Marx once said, "Capital, as a kind of value that increases... it It is a kind of movement” and “cannot be understood as a static object” (Volume 2 of Capital). There are surprising similarities between the two understandings of capital. In other words, Ximen Qing knows how to make money with money. He is good at expanding reproduction. For example, the satin shop he opened together with Mr. Qiao initially invested only one thousand taels. Later, with the money he earned from selling salt, he imported more than ten thousand taels of goods from Hangzhou and Nanjing. The satin shop sold out soon after it was opened. Six thousand taels of silver were earned, which were purely altruistic and used to purchase goods from Huzhou and Songjiang respectively. In this way, the profits are getting bigger and bigger. By the time Ximen Qing died, the satin shop had "a capital of fifty thousand taels of silver."
Not only did he expand reproduction, he was also good at seizing opportunities and dared to purchase unsalable goods from foreign customers for future profits. He was also good at diversifying businesses, lending usury, opening pawn shops and various satin shops. At the same time, he sailed on the rivers and lakes, combining shop operations with long-distance trafficking, so the scale of his business became larger and larger.
Ximen Qing’s business has many similarities with many modern people’s business. Sectors such as television and telecommunications would not be able to achieve higher profits if they did not rely on market monopoly. Another example is the celebrity business that is popular nowadays. If the celebrity effect is not used to open up joints, it would be very difficult. Just imagine, if we stand on the same starting line, Liu Xiaoqing may not be more successful in business than all of us. Without unfair competition and tax evasion, many companies would go bankrupt, and Xiamen's Lai Changxing would not be so arrogant. If you examine carefully, nine out of ten celebrities engage in illegal activities when doing business. This is a fact that has been confirmed by the media in the past.