Because the Fan family was confiscated and declined during the Qianlong period, the remains of the original place no longer exist. According to the investigation by the Jiese County Chronicle Office, Fan's original home was Fanjia Street in Zhangyuan Village, which was nearly 100 meters long. There was a courtyard in the west section, which was said to be the "Little Golden Palace". It can be imagined that the architectural style at that time has disappeared. . Fan's ancestral hall is located in the southeast corner of Zhangyuan Village. Its buildings have been destroyed and only some rubble remains. Currently, only the tomb of General Bing (Fan Liuqi) is preserved in Fan's tomb, which contains stone carvings and double Chinese watches, with a diameter of about five feet and a height of two feet.

The Fan family in Jiexiu is a prominent Shanxi business family with a relatively special identity, status and business activities among the Shanxi business community in modern times. Its business activities have a strong official color. According to today's standards, Belongs to the nature of typical bureaucratic capital.

His ancestor Fan Yongdou was engaged in trading activities in Zhangjiakou at the end of the Ming Dynasty, entering and leaving Liaodong. He was one of the eight famous Shanxi merchants in Zhangjiakou at that time. According to the "Wanquan County Chronicle" compiled by Qianlong, the eight merchants The merchants were all from Shanyou (that is, Shanxi). They came to Zhangjiakou for trade in the late Ming Dynasty, and they were named Wang Dengke, Jin Liangyu, Fan Yongdou... Since the beginning of this dynasty, when Longxing was in Liaodong, people were sent to carry out trade transactions, and they were all headed by these eight families. Dingding (the designated capital of Beijing) later accepted the imperial edict and entered the capital, where he held a banquet and was given food from above... According to the "Manuscript of the History of the Qing Dynasty", Emperor Shunzhi said: After knowing Yongdou's name, he summoned him and appointed him an official. However, he was not familiar with the public opinion and spoke hard. He ordered Zhangjiakou to be granted housing and land, and he was assigned to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

It can be seen that before the Qing army entered the customs, Fan was already dealing with them. Not only did they deal with them, but they also established a relatively special credit relationship. Subsequently, the Qing Dynasty established its rule over the country. Fan Yongdou, with the help of his son Sanba, took advantage of the authority of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to not only serve the Qing court, but also use his privileges to make profits in business. From then on, he embarked on the road of "official business" and became A big official merchant (emperor merchant) with millions of wealth, the leader among the eight great families.

The Fan family’s business efforts actually went through two channels. One was to serve the Qing government to the best of their ability in exchange for certain privileges; the other was to use the privileges granted by the government to obtain Certain operating profits.

For example, when Emperor Kangxi put down the Junggar rebellion, they used their own expenses to sell grain and sell troops. Later, the Fan brothers gave their best support in Yongzheng's military deployment against Junggar and in transporting grain with the army during Qianlong's reign. According to Volume 317 of "Manuscripts of the History of the Qing Dynasty": "In the middle of Kangxi, the army conquered Junggar, and sent rice to feed the army. The rate was one hundred and twenty gold for one stone. When the army was sent out again in the 60th year, Yuqi's brother Yubin asked him to use his family wealth to transfer his salary, and he was lucky. During the reign of Emperor Yongzheng, when the army left the Northwest Second Road, Prince Yi Yunxiang recommended Yu Bin to be paid. Taking into account the number of grains and the distance of the journey, he was paid according to the order. Every stone and rice ranged from eleven to twenty five cents. There was a difference of five liang, and more than one million shi of rice were transported every year. Emperor Shizong specially awarded him the title of Taipu Temple Minister, with the same title. 1.44 million."

The Fan brothers transported military rations for the Qing government, which not only saved the Qing army from worries, but also saved a lot of military expenses, and the cost was only one-third of the national freight. , and after the army lost 130,000 shi of food, Fan used all his family property to replenish it. Therefore, the Qing government wanted to reward him with his position as a second-rank official in the country. Fan was the only one among all the Shanxi merchants to receive this honor for doing business.

In return, the Qing government handed over the business of importing copper jins to the Fan family.

The copper catty was a very special commodity at that time and was mainly used to cast copper coins. In the early Qing Dynasty, China's copper production areas were mainly in Yunnan, which was called "Yunnan Copper". With the relative stability and prosperity of the social economy, the amount of copper coins needed to circulate in the market was increasing day by day, and gradually could not meet the needs. Therefore, the Qing government implemented the policy of "simultaneous development in Yunnan and the Yangtze Ocean", from Nagasaki, Japan's famous copper producing area to the east. A certain amount of copper was imported, which was called "foreign copper" at that time, as a supplement. By the time of Kangxi, there was a serious shortage of copper jins in the country, so the imperial court allowed merchants to go to Japan to purchase copper jins. At that time, those who handled this kind of business were called "foreign copper merchants."

According to the "Eastern Japan Examination", "The price of land in the mainland is usually one, and when it comes to Japan, it can be exchanged for five; and when the goods are returned, one can get ten. Therefore, the richest copper merchants are in Nanzhong." Fan, who was quite business-minded, keenly seized this opportunity and joined forces with Shanxi businessmen in Zhangjiakou to petition for an arrangement and offered to deliver the goods to the Qing court at a certain price reduction based on the market price. Emperor Kangxi naturally approved it, but also added a clause: "If a businessman receives silver but is late in repaying copper and owes money, he will be punished as usual."

This is actually the same nature as Fan's self-funded grain sales and military sales, and he was also serving the Qing government. At the same time, it also means that the biggest buyer of Fan's business has always been the Qing government, which has a strong say. Therefore, although we do not intend to raise doubts about Fan's dedication and integrity, we still cannot conclude that when the Fan brothers transported military rations for the Qing government, the cost was only one-third of the national freight, and after the army lost ten percent, After 30,000 shi of grain, Fan used all the family property to supplement it. When Fan did such things, there was as much voluntariness as there was helplessness.

In other words, equality between the two parties doing business is out of the question, let alone mutual benefit. In fact, when the strong party can still speak of fairness, the other party can still continue to do business; when the strong party can no longer speak of fairness, the other party has no choice but to break its teeth and swallow it.

Subsequently, because the Qing government imported six to seven million kilograms of copper from Japan each year, Japan's domestic copper sources became tense. The Japanese government began to restrict the export of copper and stipulated that the annual export should not exceed three million kilograms. As a result, the Fan family's arrears with the Qing government's copper quota increased day by day, which directly affected the copper raw materials required by each mint. A situation emerged where "money prices became increasingly expensive, private transactions were made with money, and resources were very difficult to use." In this case, Emperor Kangxi did not follow what he said: "If a businessman receives silver but is late in repaying copper and owes money, he will be punished as usual." Instead, he canceled the policy of letting Fan and other "imperial merchants" monopolize the business and changed it to It is organized by local governments to ensure the amount of copper required by the government. This is because the emperor must have always remembered Fan's contribution to the court, and he was also able to correctly deal with the market problems and practical difficulties that Fan encountered in operating "Tong Jin". While Fan withdrew from the copper business for a time, it was actually Kangxi who took advantage of his privileges to build a protective net for Fan.

However, this kind of gratitude experienced Yongzheng and then Qianlong. The court had entered a period of peace, and Fan's contribution to pacifying the border wars had been passed down by generations and diluted. Therefore, during the Qianlong period, when the local government was unable to prepare enough copper and the national "copper shortage" became further tense, Fan was re-appointed and stipulated that two million kilograms of copper should be imported from Japan every year. Fan, who was protected by Kangxi, was pushed to the fire again.

At the time of Fan Qing's note, in view of Fan's practical difficulties in operating copper imports, the Qing government changed the annual quota to 500,000 jins of copper. Due to the sharp decline in Japan's copper production and rising costs, Qingzhu was still unable to make ends meet and was in deep debt even though it worked hard. Later, Qingzhu's brother Qinghong took over the copper industry. Seeing clearly the bleak prospects of the copper trade with Japan, Qinghong planned to "abandon production, change prices, resign and attract investment" and completely abandon this business, but the Qing government did not allow it.

This actually means that you have to continue with this loss-making business, because the other side of your business is the powerful Qing government, and you have no choice.

Two years later, Fan Qing's Ministry of Economic Affairs and Internal Affairs petitioned to take over Fan's copper trade. Qingji sold off the Hedong salt business to subsidize the deficit in the copper industry. The Japanese government further reduced the export volume of copper and began to impose tariffs, which made the copper trading business with Japan become more and more huge, forcing Fan to rely on borrowings to survive. This means that as a Shanxi merchant, the Fan family has actually completely lost its nature as a merchant in a purely economic sense, and has become a vassal and a tool in the hands of the supreme ruler of the Qing Dynasty.

In the forty-eighth year of Qianlong's reign, the supreme ruler of the Qing Dynasty, who had a strong voice, finally issued an order that because Fan's "losses were getting deeper and deeper, so much so that he had miscarried money and missed classes the previous year, and was in arrears with his official duties." to as much as 15.6 million taels." Fan was dismissed from his official positions in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Household Affairs and other government offices, and ordered to strictly interrogate Fan's brothers and seize their family property.

Looking at the business history of the Fan family, it is actually a history of constantly serving the rulers of the Qing Dynasty, constantly giving, and giving again; it was also a history of constantly being used by the rulers of the Qing Dynasty, until it reached the highest level in the Qing Dynasty. The history until the ruler completely lost its use value. Undoubtedly, during the Qing government's war to stabilize the frontiers, Fan's efforts and contributions were of unparalleled merit and will go down in history. However, due to specific historical reasons, Fan gradually lost the nature of his purely commercial operation and blindly turned his business into The business was limited to doing business with the most powerful Qing government at the time, thus losing the basic equality and mutual benefit between the two parties, and ultimately losing the instinct of self and independent management.

The rise and fall of the Fan family, from one aspect, reflects the lack of business philosophy and the limitations of business operations, and how much restriction and impact it will have on the enterprise. This is undoubtedly a very worthy consideration for today's enterprises and economic circles. and learn from historical experience. (Tian Xiaoshi)