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Chapter 174 Long-term issues

So now that the direction is clear, should we just take the money and go to the store to buy jade or jade?

No, even if the market price is lowered, it is still unreasonable to do so. There is a lot of moisture in this industry, and it is still an unprecedented special period.

We have to speak slowly to understand what's going on here.

Indeed, jadeite and jade, as the mainstream varieties of special handicrafts in my country, have always had strong vitality that is unmatched by other industries.

In particular, the jade industry in the capital has a proven history that originated from the Shang and Zhou dynasties. It began to flourish from the Yuan Dynasty. Through the development of the Ming and Qing dynasties, it reached unprecedented prosperity.

During the Qianlong Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, the production status could be known only by the gathering of all kinds of beautiful jade and fine materials in the capital.

At that time, there were Western jasper, Western agate, alexandrite, coral, etc. from abroad, as well as Guandong Xiuyu, Yunnan agate, Jingzhou agate, and Hunan alum crystal.

Moreover, after the rebellion was put down, the road to Beijing for Hotan jade and Burmese jade was also opened, and each year more than two tons of these two varieties are imported.

It is also worth mentioning that although foreign capital invaded during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, these jade industries almost never encountered corresponding "foreign goods" to compete with them.

Therefore, this industry has always maintained a prosperous development trend with more and more famous people.

Especially after the Revolution of 1911, the maritime ban was lifted, and jade articles from the capital became highly prized products that foreign countries were competing for, leading to the phenomenon of "foreign estates".

According to written records from the beginning of this century to the 1920s, there were no less than thirty fairs held around the world at that time, and the arts and crafts industry in Beijing only participated in ten exhibitions. However, the jade wares in Beijing won gold and silver awards time and time again.

Even in the early days of liberation, when all industries were withered, there were only a few jade workshops left in the city.

But as long as it can resume normal production, millions of dollars in foreign exchange can be obtained a year. If this money is used to buy food, it can feed the people of the city for a month.

All of the above are enough to prove that the reputation of "Northern Jade", "Beijing Jade" and "Exquisite Jade" is well-known at home and abroad. Jade products produced in Beijing have been recognized by overseas art connoisseurs and are regarded as treasures with high collection value.

It stands to reason that since the aesthetic value of Jingcheng jade is well known to the world and has been generally recognized, it should not be in sales difficulties. Instead, it should be the main force in earning foreign exchange, right?

Hey, doesn’t this have to be attributed to our planned economic system?

Think about it, rigid policies cannot even develop ordinary industries, and it is difficult to stimulate the enthusiasm of ordinary workers.

Not to mention that this kind of industry has always been inherited by the method of "master to apprentice" and requires spirituality, understanding, perseverance, and meticulousness to learn and do well in this industry.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, there were several problems in the jade industry that existed for a long time and could not be solved.

First of all, there are too few skilled workers, and there is a lack of young workers and apprentices. There are serious problems in the inheritance of skills.

The existing jade craftsmen in the capital are generally old craftsmen who have become apprentices before and after the founding of the People's Republic of China. There are very few young craftsmen, and there are only fifty or sixty people with high skills in the industry.

But although their business is good, they don't want to recruit apprentices.

The reason for this situation is that this industry is too difficult and the threshold required for practitioners is high.

In comparison, the salary and benefits are not attractive, and young people themselves do not like to learn or work.

In addition, from the perspective of a master, teaching disciples is too labor-intensive.

This is not like in the past, where the apprentice had an obligation to support the master.

Nowadays, apprentices are only in name only, and some people don’t really respect their own masters, so who would want to do such a thankless job?

If there is an order in the factory to have apprentices, the old masters will be nothing more than a mess.

When they treat young workers, you fool me, and I fool you. They don't hide their selfish interests, nor do they force themselves. They can learn as much as they want, and just let it happen.

It is no exaggeration to say that it has essentially reached the point where "people have lost their skills and their skills have been lost".

Secondly, the superior units were too short-sighted and had too high expectations for foreign exchange earnings, thus seriously overdrafting the goodwill of the jade industry in Beijing.

This is mainly due to the fact that industry leaders believe that foreign markets generally require high-end products, are not very knowledgeable, and do not want high-quality products.

So in order to earn foreign exchange, we excessively require quantity and do not pay attention to quality.

The acquiring company lacks planning in processing orders and acquisitions, and rushes to complete tasks when necessary.

If there is a slight backlog, purchases will be stopped immediately, and ordering costs will be very tight.

As for the leaders of the production side, they mechanically estimate costs and limit the number of workers based on other industrial production methods.

Even the distribution system is very unreasonable.

There is no implementation of high-quality products and high prices, and remuneration is based on the value of labor.

On the contrary, it is based on efficiency and is calculated purely based on the number of workpieces.

This results in the salary of older skilled workers not being much higher than that of young workers, and they even suffer a lot.

For example, some old masters have a strong sense of responsibility and pay attention to the quality of their work, but they do not pay for additional work even though it is a waste of work.

On the contrary, the young producers who are fooling around benefit from it because they are thinking about how to not exceed the number of workers.

Generally, there is no need to work carefully and strive for perfection. As long as it can meet the general standards and turn in the work, it will be fine.

Naturally, the result is that there is a lack of high-quality products in the overall market, and most of the products are far from "outstanding" and relatively mediocre.

For example, Hong Yanwu once bought some nice-looking small ornaments from the arts and crafts service department in Wangfujing and took them back to his mother to see. He also bought a few jade bracelets, intending to give them to the women at home.

Although the price was high, each piece was almost as much as Tianhuang aniseed, but he was cheated, and his mother's evaluation was really not high.

Wang Yunlin only said that the materials were acceptable, but the subject matter was rigid and the workmanship was far from good. It was far inferior to previous works.

This is buying a "good job".

Third, due to the monopoly of the handicraft export system and acquisition mechanism, producers have long been at a disadvantage in terms of product pricing, and corporate income is very low.

However, because the seller controls the pricing power, it enjoys huge profits. The contradiction between the two is becoming increasingly serious.

We might as well give a practical example. According to survey data, the "Shenlu Baochai Bottle" produced by the Beijing Arts and Crafts Factory in 1972 was priced at 11,000 yuan by the factory.

However, the price for foreign trade acquisitions was only 6,000 yuan, and after many negotiations, the price was finally negotiated at 8,000 yuan.

Later, before the price was agreed upon, the product was sent to the Huacheng Export Products Fair, referred to as the "Canton Fair", and the actual sale price on site was 27,000 yuan.

The acquirer was then willing to open a purchase order and purchase the property for 8,000 yuan.

So in fact, this kind of bargaining and wrangling is very serious.

This results in manufacturers having to set two price standards for the same high-end product.

But even so, if companies can't even reach the lowest price, how can they not dampen production enthusiasm?

For example, in the spring of 1973, there was a pair of hollow jade bottles at the Canton Fair. The manufacturer priced each pair at 3,000 yuan based on cost plus an appropriate profit, but foreign trade was only willing to pay 2,000 yuan, resulting in "loss of money upon opening" for newly developed products.

But conversely, for this pair of jade bottles, the foreign trade price at the trade fair was 8,000 yuan per pair. The profit was as high as three times the acquisition cost.

Of course, the things in the "Friendship Store" are also very expensive.

For example, in a jewelry store, a jade pendant must cost more than 1,000 yuan in foreign exchange notes, and a jade bracelet must cost more than 1,500 yuan. Larger jade carvings and ornaments over 1,000 yuan are also very common.

Real high-quality products can even cost hundreds of thousands to millions.

This is because the raw material grade and workmanship level of jadeite and jade are difficult to clearly define. Unlike seal stones, which can be clearly calculated using the unit value of grams.

Even if there is a policy, the Price Bureau cannot control it.

In order to pursue the quota of foreign exchange earnings, the seller adopts the practice of false reporting and inflated prices at every level, which is naturally very "black".

But foreigners are not fools, and people who don’t understand are not interested in these things.

Those who know how to do it will naturally refuse to suffer this loss and be cheated when compared with the goods they have in the past.

This is called a disconnect between production and sales, killing the goose to obtain the eggs, and destroying your own brand.

What's more, this industry is relatively large in the arts and crafts category. With the application of electric drilling and grinding machines in the 1970s, the production speed of products has become faster.

Then it becomes inevitable that production exceeds sales and sales stagnate or even decline.

In this case, isn't this industry dead? Doesn't it mean that you can't buy good and cost-effective products? Then why is Hong Yanwu still wasting so much effort on this?

Actually, that cannot be said. This matter must be looked at separately.

In terms of craftsmanship, after all, there were real famous craftsmen teaching at this period, and there were knowledgeable experts controlling quality.

Whatever is produced is purely handmade, and you must meet the basic shape and production standards.

The dragon has to be a dragon, the phoenix has to be a phoenix, and the God of Wealth has to ride a tiger and use his mace, and he has to work hard, and he can't do anything whimsical.

This includes someone's ideas and techniques, not the crude manufacturing that was later almost entirely dependent on machines.

The second one is from the perspective of raw materials. Generally speaking, the texture of raw materials in this era is much better than in the future.

For example, the Tianhuang stone in Shoushan has not yet been quarried, and aniseed materials such as red jade, green emerald, suet, field jade, and pink hibiscus can still be seen.

So no matter what, this time is better than the evil era in the future when fakes and shoddy products appeared one after another, and merchants made up the concept of colorless "ice species" just because they couldn't find high-quality jadeite.

It is better than unscrupulous merchants misleading the public, deliberately avoiding mentioning the well-preserved fine products handed down from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and making generalizations based on ancient inferior jade artifacts with imperfect craftsmanship.

It is better to have an investment environment that makes up the fallacy that "old jade is not as good as new jade, and new jade is not as good as buying raw materials."

To put it bluntly, what is sold is the real thing after all.

The above two points guarantee that even a piece of "business" in this era can appreciate and maintain its value.

There will never be a situation in the future where you buy something for hundreds of thousands or millions, and one day you want to resell it and send it to auction only to find that they won't accept it at all.

Third, under this system, since old artists no longer have any hope of getting rich through their skills, they turn to seeking fame and pursuing their technical realm and interest.

Most of them no longer make ordinary products, but focus on the production of specialized gifts for state guests.

After the reform and opening up, due to the resumption of skills competition and certification activities, they all worked hard to create works with obvious personal styles that can reflect their own artistic achievements.

I hope I can win a few more awards before retiring, and also win more honors for the factory.

Therefore, during this period, the true pursuit of artistic standards, immersed in personal emotions, and national treasure-level masterpieces that were not seeking profit emerged one after another, like a hundred flowers blooming.

If we really want to objectively describe the current jade production and sales market situation, we can only say that the products are out of touch and out of touch with the market.

In addition to the proliferation of ordinary products of average quality, there are also top quality products beyond ordinary people's imagination.

There are no outright shoddy products or fakes, and there are no excessive levels of varying levels in between.

So how to catch the last train and buy the rare and rare high-quality goods at a relatively affordable price has become a problem for Hong Yanwu to consider, and it is the goal he strives to achieve.

The second group is open, group number: 608640021


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