In doing so, the Jin merchants made effective use of the informal restraining force of society, but the role of this restraining force required certain conditions. First of all, there must be a value standard that is commonly recognized and observed within the group, and secondly, the information that the individual observes and violates this value standard will quickly spread within the group, and with the spread of information, there will be evaluation and judgment of this information in the group, and finally unified action will be taken to play the role of incentive and punishment from the informal constraints of society.
Take this standard to judge, Jin merchants hire fellow villagers, it is precisely based on the common value standards within the group of fellow villagers, and most of the Jin merchants are strong businessmen, most of them are also Jin merchants, they build Guan Gong Temple in various places, set up guild halls, is not only to contact the villagers, the way to communicate information, but also to accelerate the dissemination of information, an effective way to publicize the society, Jin merchants like to do things in a bright and honest manner, that is, to put themselves under the supervision of the society, relying on the society to regulate and guide the behavior of all the staff of the Jin merchants, If such a criterion persists for five years, ten years, one hundred years, or five hundred years, there will be some conventional situations in which a common value judgment is made on a certain behavior and a situation in which common action is taken, then such an incentive and punishment mechanism will naturally play a role, and the maintenance of the circle of fellow villagers is the maintenance of this mechanism.
According to the fifth volume of the "Qing Barnyard Banknotes" agricultural and commercial class summary of the internal organization and management of Shanxi ticket number, it is mentioned: "The ticket number is its method, and the huge amount of money is used to select the letter and the author, especially the number of managers, the investor is the silver stock, and the contributor is the body stock, which must be determined by the foundation, and then engaged in development." And the young who chooses the tooth and the weak crown and knows how to write the calculation make Xi as a partner, after several years, check that it can be made, and give the body stock, not the salary, but the age to prepare the clothing. After three years of settlement and distribution of surplus profits according to shares, the more prosperous the business, the thicker the surplus profits, and the increase in body shares. In this way, everyone seeks his own personal interests, is diligent without accountability, and thrifty without censorship The initiator and the person who has served for a long time will give his body shares to support his family after his death. Children and grandchildren can still be enrolled, and they cannot be returned before they get their shares. If there is a slight difference, he will not be hired, so there are few traitors. ”
As a deacon of Wei Fenghou, Li Hongling attaches great importance to the selection of talents, and advocates the selection of talents who can adapt to the situation and arrange them in various docks, so he pays attention to the search on weekdays and invites them at any time. He heard that the Mao Lanting of the Baichuan Pass number returned to the main number Pingyao from work by the semicolon, because the top body did not meet his own wishes, and wanted him to go, so he immediately wrote to the general number, introducing "his people are quite capable of doing things", hoping to invite him to Weifenghou. Later, Li Hongling reported through the people who inspected the situation of the sub-numbers in various places, and learned that Mao Lanting's opium smoking "is too heavy and many things are not appropriate", so he immediately suggested that the general number send the Hankou branch Ji Qiwen to investigate, and if it is true, he can send another appropriate person to go there. He said: "The main thing is to be proper, and you can't protect your ancestors just because I introduced you", "You don't have to be fair in everything, you don't have to show favoritism", "No matter who recommends it, you can't tolerate it." Later, Li Hongling repeatedly urged the general number to send someone to investigate the matter, in order to get to the bottom of it.
Gauge constraints
In addition to the deterrent power of the society, in order to prevent the slightest problem and prevent it from happening, the Jin merchants have set strict "rules" to restrain their behavior.
For example, during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the regulations on the behavior of employees in the "Regulations" of Da Shengkui were: "All employees of the head office and branches, from the general manager to the clerks, are not allowed to bring their family members; The personnel in the number shall not be long or short; The property in the number shall not be diverted for other purposes; The seal shall not be used as security; The personnel in the number shall not be concurrently engaged in other businesses; prostitution, gambling and opium smoking are prohibited; Do not receive personal relatives and friends; The personnel in the number are not allowed to visit the door because of the affairs in the number; During the period of going home and vacation, the personnel in the number are not allowed to sit idle with the treasurer and the shopkeeper; The personnel in the number are not allowed to give gifts to the treasurer and the shopkeeper; All weddings and funerals of the personnel in the number shall be given gifts by the number, and the personnel shall not give gifts to each other; The personnel on the number are not allowed to borrow money from each other; Do not cause trouble outside; All the mistakes of the staff in the number shall not pass the buck to each other, and they shall not be deceived and covered. Personnel in the number shall be immediately dismissed from the number if they have any of the following circumstances, namely: those who fight and brawl, those who stir up trouble, those who form gangs for personal gain, and those who do not obey orders. ”
Guild constraints
The internal rules are different, and it is inevitable that they will be loose and tight; Patriarchal constraints will not take care of everything, involving the interests of peers, it is inevitable that there will be things that affect others for their own profits, so they also need peer constraints to standardize the code of conduct between firms and ensure the integrity of the industry order, which is also an important role of the guild.
Now Zhuxian Town, Zhoukou, Luoyang, Chengqi Town and other Shangfu ports in Henan Province all preserve the Guandi Temple built by Shanxi people in those years, and it is also their guild hall. Guandi Temple in Credit Banner Town, the building is majestic, there are two iron flagpoles weighing nine tons in the front yard, and there are iron lions below, and there are three buckets on the iron flagpoles. The main hall of the middle courtyard, enshrine Emperor Guan Shengjun, the main hall upstairs is Guan Yun long night reading spring and autumn, in front of the main hall is the stone archway carved by white marble, more than ten meters high, there are carved blessings, Lu, longevity three stars in the middle. At that time, the hall propagated: businessmen used scales, 16 taels per catty, weighed one or two stars on the pole, and 16 stars were one catty, that is, the Big Dipper, six stars in the south, and 16 stars in Fu, Lu and Shou three stars. The homonym of the star is "integrity". Honest business, there are scales full of buckets, absolutely not short of catty two, lack of one or two folds of blessing, lack of three or two folds of blessing, Lu, longevity, more than three taels, not only no blessing, Lu, longevity, even the north and south are gone, you are not a normal person. If you are not honest, the scale star is insufficient, and you are deceived and coaxed, Master Guan is watching you from behind, Master Guan is a god, and he will definitely punish you. In those days, this form of education was used to educate businessmen to be honest and not to deceive, and to restrain employees. Now, Nanyang City, Henan Province has officially listed the "Nanyang City Integrity Education Base" in Guandi Temple, Chengqi Town.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, lawbreakers in the market privately made sand board money and circulated it as legal money. In order to maintain economic order, all guilds in Guihua City actively cooperated with the authorities and sorted out the currency. After consultation between the heads of the guilds and the authoritative elders, it was decided to set up an exchange house in the Sanxian Temple, so that people could exchange the same weight of sand money for enough money, and melt down the sand money, cast it into a bronze tablet, and stand in the Sanxian Temple, with the inscription "Strictly prohibit the sand money tablet", and the inscription reads: "If there are lawbreakers who still follow the same mistakes, the officials will investigate and deal with them, and they will never be forgiven." "The manager of the monument is the 15th Society of the Naturalization City and the 15th Society of the Outer City. This was in 1889 (the fifteenth year of Guangxu). Similar to this kind of account, there is also the situation on the handling of the problem of the use of short 100 coins by merchants in the "Inscription of the Reorganization of the Four Peasant Societies" in the Longwang Temple of the Sea Cave, and the extraction and sorting of the short 100 coins of the Baofeng Society of the Money Industry Guild as described in the "Preface to the Rectification of the Money Law" in the Guandi Temple of the South Tea Fang, etc. The Jin Commercial Bank has done a lot of useful work to maintain the normal circulation of money. [24]
With the constraints of fellow villagers, regulations, and guilds, as well as the cultivation of ethics and morality of Jin merchants, this regulates and guides the daily behavior of Jin Shang colleagues from both internal and external aspects, so that Jin merchants never deviate from the road of integrity, righteousness and profit.
Ethical Enlightenment of Jin Merchants
At present, Chinese businessmen are facing a market environment similar to that of Jin merchants, that is, due to the rapid development of domestic and foreign markets, the huge development of the market economy. In such an environment, the market not only urgently needs to facilitate transactions and maintain the social ethics of market order, but also needs a way of neutralization to reduce the friction between the interests of all parties to the transaction and establish a harmonious society; At the same time, the development of the market economy has also made the status of businessmen have been rapidly improved, businessmen from all walks of life out of the maintenance of their own interests and the responsibility of social roles, have generally called for the return of business ethics and business civilization, therefore, the ethical philosophy of Jin merchants undoubtedly has important reference significance for the construction of modern business civilization and market order.
"Integrity, righteousness and profit" is not only the ethical concept that Jin merchants should actively follow in response to social needs, but also the social value standard that all societies have respected since ancient times, this value standard has been summarized by the sages of the past dynasties, ancient and modern famous businessmen, and is deeply embedded in the soil of Chinese traditional culture, and Jin merchants have drawn rich literacy from these traditional cultures. Contemporary businessmen should also draw reasonable content from traditional culture to enrich and develop the formation of a new generation of business ethics.
Although there are certain conditions for the formation of business ethics of Jin merchants, such as Guan Gong worship, strict family rule education, Confucian culture, restraint and incentive of fellow villagers, and restraint of rules and regulations. It is impossible for us to replicate the environment in which Jin merchants lived, but we can build this environment in a modern way, such as through extensive social moral and civilized education, bit by bit family education, and humanized vocational education, to guide people to establish the concept of integrity, righteousness and benefit, and promote the formation of the overall value standard of the society; Through information disclosure and sharing, the use of the Internet, radio, television, newspapers and other propaganda to promote the formation of social consensus and the achievement of unified social action; Through clear, fair and strict laws, regulations, and various collective organizations, we can restrain and motivate the behavior of individuals and enterprises.
We should also avoid the limitations of the ethical philosophy of Jin businessmen, and reconstruct a virtuous circle, sustainable development, and business ethics that can withstand the test of social evolution. The biggest flaw in the ethics of Jin merchants is that their ultimate goal is "profit", and "righteousness" is only a means to achieve the ultimate goal. Because the enjoyment of "profit" has the characteristic of "diminishing utility" for individuals, and at the same time, in the case that "profit-seeking" is closely related to "survival", it has the characteristic of "maximum utility". Therefore, in the face of the changes of the times, the Jin Chamber of Commerce was divided in the test of the relationship between "righteousness" and "benefit", and finally embarked on a different way of return, and some results are not conducive to social development from the perspective of society. For example, in the later stage of the development of Jin merchants, there was an obvious differentiation phenomenon. When the wealth of the Jin merchants accumulated to a certain extent, and at the same time there were various extravagant influences in the society, some of the descendants of the Jin merchants began to squander, waste, arrogant and lascivious, completely forgetting the hardships of the ancestors to start a business, which is actually in the "profit" after the ultimate goal is achieved, some Jin merchants lose their goals, do not know what to do. In order to "profit", some Jin merchants will abandon certain ethical principles, such as the relationship with the government at any cost, and the expansion of commercial power through marriage, which is not "righteous" to the disadvantaged groups from a social point of view, and does not conform to the principles of a just and fair market economy.
1] (Ming) Li Mengyang: "Empty Tongji" volume 44, "Epitaph of the Late Ming Dynasty Wang Wenxian", 2] (Ming) Li Mengyang: "Empty Tongji", volume 44, "Epitaph of the Late Ming Dynasty Wang Wenxian".
3] Ge Xianhui, 500 Years of the Long Business Road, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press, 1996, p. 175.
4] (Ming) Li Mengyang: "Empty Tongji", vol. 44, "Epitaph of the Late Ming Dynasty Wang Wenxian".
5] Zhao Rongda, "Interpretation of Ticket Numbers and Business Gangs", Knowledge Publishing House, 2004, pp. 117-118.
6] Zhao Rongda, "Interpretation of Ticket Numbers and Business Gangs", Knowledge Publishing House, 2004, p. 119.
7] Zhao Rongda, "Interpretation of Ticket Numbers and Business Gangs", Knowledge Publishing House, 2004, p. 119.
8] Wang Yangming, "Jie'an Fang Cemetery Table", quoted from Ge Xianhui, "Five Hundred Years of Long Trade Road", Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press, 1996, p. 179.
9] Tongzhi "Hequ County Chronicles" volume 7, Zhang Zhengming, Xue Huilin: "Selected Materials of the Ming and Qing Dynasties and Jin Merchants", Shanxi People's Publishing House, 1989, p. 181.
10] Quoted from Ge Xianhui, "Five Hundred Years of Commercial Roads", Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press, 1996, p. 175.
11] Shao Bowen, Shaw Brothers Wenjianlu, vol. 8.
12] "Shanshan Hall Guan Sheng Emperor Jun Honor Guard", Literature and History Research, No. 26, No. 26, 1995, p. 15.
13] "Donghualu" in the twenty-eighth year of Kangxi.
14] "The Secret of Kangxi's Southern Tour".
15] Ge Xianhui, "Five Hundred Years of Long Business Road", Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press, 1996, p. 181.
16] Zhang Zhengming, Xue Huilin, Selected Materials of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Shanxi People's Publishing House, 1989, p. 108.
17] Zhang Zhengming and Xue Huilin, Selected Materials of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Shanxi People's Publishing House, 1989, pp. 108-109.
18] Ge Xianhui, Five Hundred Years of the Long Trade Road, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press, 1996, p. 181.
19] Quoted from Ge Xianhui, "Five Hundred Years of Long Business Roads", Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press, 1996, p. 142.
20] Hao Ruchun, "Qiaojiabao Qiao Family in Qixian County", Jin Shang Historical Materials, Jin Zhong Volume, Shanxi People's Publishing House, 2006, p. 95.
21] Kong Xiangyi, "History of Finance", China Financial Press, 1998.
22] Refer to Ge Xianhui, Five Hundred Years of the Long Business Road, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press, 1996.
23] Quoted from Huang Jianhui, "Gao Yu, the Ticket Manager Known for His Steadiness", Historical Materials and Research of Jin Merchants, Shanxi People's Publishing House, 1st edition, 1996, p. 536.
24] Kong Xiangyi, "Jin Commercial Guild - Autonomous Self-Restraint and Self-Defense Merchant Institutions", Financial History, China Financial Publishing House, 1998.