Chapter 373 Shabby Hong Kong
"Brother Wei, we are doing well in Shanghai, why do we want to go to Hong Kong?" a follower asked curiously on the boat.
"Even if I make money doing business in Shanghai, people will say that it's because of my father's reputation. Why should a real man bear such a reputation? I just want to show them that even without my father and grandfather, I, Zhang Guowei, can still become a millionaire!" Zhang Guowei acted like a rich young man. Of course, he couldn't reveal the real purpose of his going south, so he used this excuse to deal with it.
"As expected of him, he is Brother Wei. He is much better than those useless young masters from other families!" These followers had no doubts, because this was indeed the character Zhang Guowei displayed on a daily basis. They cheered on the surface, but they were jealous in their hearts. If I had such parents and grandfather, I would definitely be willing to stay in Shanghai and live a life of debauchery. Why would I go to a poor place like Hong Kong to suffer?
Hong Kong? A poor place? These two words put together may seem very incongruous to future generations, but it is an indisputable fact that Shanghai is now the most prosperous place in the East. Not to mention Hong Kong, even Guangzhou, Tianjin and Harbin are more prosperous than Hong Kong.
As the passenger ship entered the waters of the Hong Kong River, a small boat immediately approached. The people on the boat were dressed very fancy and were making a lot of noise with the beating of gongs and drums. Zhang Guowei was very curious and quickly called the sailor to ask.
The sailor did not answer directly, but kept the question a secret, "Master Wei, if you have any change, you can throw a few in."
Hearing this, Zhang Guowei became even more curious, "Who of you has change? Give it to me."
He took the change and threw it down as the sailor said. Immediately, a mermaid on the boat jumped into the sea. After a few flutters, he was under the banknote. He raised his neck and opened his mouth in the water, and the banknote fell right into his mouth. At the same time, he clasped his hands together and bowed to Zhang Guowei to express his gratitude.
At this time, the sailor explained the reason. "Hong Kong's economy depends on the re-export trade of mainland imports and exports, but only foreign merchants can make money from re-export trade. Most Chinese people rely on low-level coolie work to make a living, and also try to please passengers in exchange for tips."
"How can we make money here? Are we going to be compradors? Brother Wei, we can't do this!" Even the followers looked down on compradors. They had no good feelings towards these guys who worked as lackeys for the foreigners.
"Of course not. Don't make a decision in a hurry. Find a good hotel to stay in after getting off the boat, and then go to Hong Kong for a few days to figure out the situation there before making a decision!" Zhang Guowei appears to be careless, but he is very cautious in doing things.
The next day, he took his followers to stroll around Hong Kong. They visited the two busiest department stores here, Sincerely and Wing On, but felt that compared with the big department stores in Shanghai, the stores were small in scale and had nothing special in goods, and were simply not on the same level.
Looking at other places, it is indeed no different from what the sailors said. Almost all ways to make money are monopolized by foreigners. Apart from being compradors, Chinese people have few opportunities to make money and can only barely make a living.
Foreign merchants who controlled trade and shipping were enjoying the golden years brought by the entrepot trade. The garden-style European residential communities in The Peak and Kowloon Tong were magnificent, and they also emphasized the "British countryside-style green vision", which grandly displayed the wealth accumulated by the entrepot port.
Ordinary Chinese people, however, generally live in crowded "tenement buildings" without separate toilets, shared chimneys and kitchens, small windows with poor lighting and poor air circulation. Living space is extremely compressed, with units of 30 to 90 square meters generally partitioned by wooden boards, and one household can accommodate dozens of people.
Walking along Queen's Road, you will see foreigners wearing cloth clothes and leather shoes, while the Chinese are mostly barefoot coolies, hawkers and rickshaw pullers. The slightly better ones just run small grocery stores and restaurants.
The main reason for this is that the re-export economic policy of the British Hong Kong authorities was completely tailored to the interests of a small group of cutting-edge foreign businessmen.
The re-export economy that made foreign merchants rich started with shipping and trade. Foreign goods from all over the world were shipped across the ocean to Hong Kong, and then re-exported to major commercial ports and deep into the interior using the "inland navigation rights". Local raw materials were then collected in the interior and re-exported to the world via Hong Kong.
The fleets of foreign companies represented by Jardine Matheson not only dominated East Asia, the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, but also competed for China's inland rivers. They established huge docks, warehouses and shipyards in 15 major inland commercial ports as trading bases. They could fully utilize the low tax advantages caused by unequal treaties, spread out a dense distribution network, and dump foreign goods.
From large factory machines to small needles, thread and buttons, foreign goods are everything. Even in the most remote and impoverished areas, one can buy Indian cloth for tailoring clothes and Mobil kerosene for lighting.
The distribution network changes direction and becomes an export base for purchasing local products from all over the country, stretching from Niuzhuang, Liaoning in the north to the provincial capital of GD in the south, fully controlling the export of goods from the north and south of the mainland.
Soybeans from Northeast China, eggs from North China, tea from the Yangtze River Basin, furs from Northwest China, tung oil from Southwest China and raw silk from Guangdong were purchased in large quantities and shipped to Europe and the United States. With one hand grasping ocean, near-shore and inland shipping, and the other hand controlling mainland imports and exports, Jardine Matheson became the largest merchant in Hong Kong.
From shipping, trade, dock warehousing, ship repair and shipbuilding, finance and insurance to investment companies, Jardine Matheson has created a complete industrial chain of the re-export economy. The Chinese can only survive by doing hard labor in this industrial chain.
Earlier, influenced by Guangdong's industrial development, some people in Hong Kong tried to set up factories. Chinese in Hong Kong could earn more money working in a factory for a month than they could earn working on the farm in a year in their hometown.
As industry and commerce grew prosperous, the service industry flourished. A rickshaw pulled on the street could earn 6 to 7 cents a day. The agricultural and mineral raw materials needed by the factories came from the countryside. As industry and commerce flourished, farmers also became rich.
However, the foreign trading companies that monopolized Hong Kong's economic policies were not willing to set up factories in Hong Kong. The Chinese were desperately setting up factories in order to drive out foreign goods. The foreign trading companies in Hong Kong made money by importing foreign goods, so setting up factories in Hong Kong would be shooting themselves in the foot.
Therefore, these factories gradually declined. Not only were Chinese not allowed to run them, but foreigners rarely set up factories in Hong Kong. Nowadays, only the products of the Swire Sugar Factory and Watsons Soda Factory are produced in Hong Kong. All others, even a needle, have to be imported.
Zhang Guowei recorded these situations in detail, attached a lot of photos, and mailed them to Zhang Xingjiu. After receiving them, Zhang Xingjiu browsed through them and couldn't help shaking his head, "The British have occupied Hong Kong for nearly a hundred years. In a hundred years, this place is still so poor. If China hadn't developed in the future, Hong Kong would have taken the opportunity to become the only window to the outside world, how could it have prospered in the future!"
These photos should really be shown to those who claim that "China should be colonized for three hundred years before it can achieve prosperity". The colonizers would never have any good intentions.
(End of this chapter)
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