Nanxun Business Group refers to a regional business group with both traditional and modern commercial civilization characteristics in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, with the silk merchants in Nanxun Town, the former Huzhou Prefecture as the main body, the international metropolis Shanghai as the central stage of business activities, and blood, geography, and industry as the link. This business group can also be called "Nanxun Business Group" or "Huzhou Business Group". It is an important part of Zhejiang Business Group, which has the reputation of "Oriental Jews". They became rich by relying on the export trade of Jili Lake Silk (Jili Village, Qili in the southwest of Nanxun Town). After the opening of Shanghai as a port, they did not go to Guangzhou for trade, but shipped silk goods to Shanghai, shortening their journey by about ten days. A large number of Jilisi were purchased from farmers around Jili at super low prices, but they were quickly sold to foreign firms in Shanghai at high prices, and then exported to Europe by foreign firms. The data shows that at that time, the export volume of Jilihu silk accounted for more than one third of the national raw silk export, so a regional commercial group with strong financial resources - Xunshan merchants rose rapidly.

In the first four years of Shanghai's opening, Nanxun Jilihu Silk accounted for more than 55% of Shanghai's raw silk export trade, and in 1847, Jilihu Silk even accounted for 63.3% of Shanghai's total export silk trade. According to the "Ten Years of Guangzhou Customs (1882-1891)", "until 1870, the silk exported from Shanghai was all Jili Lake silk." At that time, more than 50 silk (classics) shops and silk stores were opened on the Silk Xingdai Street alone in Nanxun Town. Silk merchants loaded the purchased silk onto ships and transported it to Shanghai through the Grand Canal.

Because of the great profits, a large number of silk merchants in Nanxun went out of Qingshiban Road to sell silk in Shanghai and rose up in Shanghai. For example, Gu Fuchang, known as one of the "Four Elephants", arrived in Shanghai at the age of 30. At that time, the Bund had not yet opened a port. But soon after Shanghai opened a port, Gu Fuchang seized the opportunity to open a Fengsheng Inn on the Fourth Road in Shanghai, which was later renamed Shoutai Silk Inn, becoming the first silk merchant in Nanxun to start business in Shanghai. Chen Xiyuan, one of the "Eight Bulls", opened the Yuchang Silk Stack in Shanghai in the 1850s, which is known as the "Silk Road" in Shanghai. In the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860), Chen Xiyuan participated in the establishment of Shanghai Silk Industry Hall, and was the first director. Then came Zhang Songxian, one of the "Four Elephants" (the leader of Henghe Silk Sutra), Qiu Xiancha, one of the "Eight Cattle" (the leader of Qichang Silk Sutra), and so on.

Xunyang merchants became quite famous in the middle and late Qing Dynasty. By the 1920s, they had declined and remained silent for a hundred years. During this period, the representative figures of "Four Elephants, Eight Cattle and Seventy two Dogs" (arranged according to the wealth of businessmen) appeared. Those with more than one million yuan of assets are called "elephants" (Liu's assets of the "top four elephants" are more than 20 million liang), those with more than 500000 yuan but less than one million yuan are called "cattle", and those with more than 300000 yuan but less than 500000 yuan are called "dogs". According to historical data, in 1894, the financial revenue of the Qing government was 81.83 million taels, while the total assets of the Xun merchants exceeded 60 million taels. A regional merchant group was extremely rich, and these wealth was not in the hands of the above-mentioned 84 merchants, but had a great mass base.

The prosperity of Xun merchants is mainly due to the trade of Jilisi, and part of it comes from their new industries. For example, the merchants in the "Eight Bulls" established a large number of early modern national enterprises in Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuxi and Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou in Zhejiang Province, such as Kangqian Silk Factory, the largest silk factory in Shanghai at the beginning of the 20th century The first silk mill in modern Hangzhou - Tongyi Cotton Mill, etc. However, the production and trade of Lake Silk has highlighted the "crisis" from time to time: first, the foreign trade volume and price of Lake Silk are in the hands of foreigners, and the merchants can not control the price of Lake Silk at all. Second, the trade of Lake Silk is extremely fierce with the change of international political and economic situation, and the risk is difficult to control. In this case, many merchants began to retreat from other industries, such as salt industry, pawnbroking and bank, and finally saved some capital. By the 1920s, China had experienced a series of wars at home, while Japan's machine reeling industry had risen rapidly abroad. In 1913, Japan's silk export volume exceeded China's 1.87 times. In addition, rayon had occupied a large number of market shares, and the play of Xunli merchants in silk trade and processing had come to an end.

The hundred years' vicissitudes of Xunyang businessmen have left us a heavy enlightenment: the consortia and businessmen who started from resource advantages can dominate for a while, but cannot continue. Jilisi has made Xunyuan merchants pay for it, but they ignored one of the most basic problems, that is, Jilisi has not formed an industrial advantage in the end; Xunyang merchants later opened some factories, but from the perspective of the world, they found that most of these factories were outdated in technology and could easily be replaced by Japanese machine reeling. The substitution of rayon for silk lining is the result of industrial elimination. The upgrading of products is the "iron rule" of the industry, but the experience of Xunyang merchants is superficial. Most of them only know how to use their earned money to donate officials to buy nobles, build gardens and buildings. They do not study the market and industry at all, and do not rush to the forefront of the industry. Instead, they respond to changes with the same attitude, and eventually can not stop the flood of industry, but be overwhelmed by the flood.

(The author is a researcher of China Academy of Small and Medium Enterprises)