Donation activities carried out by local government offices in the Tang Empire were often organized by official organizations, or even by top local officials, to raise funds for building roads and bridges, for relieving victims, or for other livelihood projects.
It is related to the development of a place, and it is also related to the performance of officials.
It’s okay not to donate, but you can’t make local officials happy, how can they make you happy?
Wear your little shoes in minutes!
If you have a good temper, the police will come today to check for gangsters, tomorrow to check the fire protection, and the day after tomorrow to check the sanitation. These are all pretty good. If you encounter a small-minded person, all kinds of methods can directly destroy your store.
Therefore, even if it is not to offend the parents and officials above their heads, the gentry and businessmen will donate part of their money.
Not to mention, if you gave your parents official face today, they will also give you face. This donation is a favor, and favors can be big or small.
As for donating more or less, it all depends on the situation!
This time the situation is similar, and it is a more serious flood. This is when the government, big households, and the people need to cooperate with each other to overcome the difficulties.
If the money they donated does not meet Xiao Baoguan's psychological expectations, then don't expect to live in Henan in the future!
So he sat down and said to a group of gentry and wealthy people: "Now tens of thousands of people and military officers are working hard to fight the floods on the front line, and all of you in Kaifeng and other places have families and businesses. The people who are fighting against the floods are here.
Your property!”
Xiao Baoguan did not talk too much nonsense with them. If they were just ordinary prefects and county magistrates, they would probably have some scruples. But Xiao Baoguan was the governor of Henan and a feudal official, so he was not in the mood to talk to them.
What nonsense.
So he said directly from the beginning: "The flood is coming, and this is the time when we need to work together to tide over the difficulties!"
Although it was not explicitly mentioned to donate money, everyone present was not stupid. They already knew why they came before they came, and everyone was mentally prepared.
Immediately, an old man who was about sixty years old said: "During this time of crisis, our Tang family will naturally not remain indifferent. Although our Tang family is weak, we are still willing to donate 10,000 taels of silver, 5,000 sets of clothes, and tents."
One thousand taels, and there will also be food and medicine worth three thousand taels for flood relief!"
Hearing this, Xiao Baoguan nodded slightly. Since this old man Tang dared to be the first to start, he was naturally a respectable person. His family's wealth was among the best in Henan Province.
Although the cash he donated was only 10,000 taels of silver, he still had 5,000 sets of clothes and 500 tents. These 5,000 sets of clothes were worth several thousand taels of silver, and the tents were also worth almost several thousand taels of silver.
Taken together, the total value of the cash and materials donated by the Tang family has exceeded 20,000 taels of silver.
This number is not too small. Although the Tang family has a large business, it is still their best effort to spend such a sum of money.
The Tang family has many industries and owns a lot of land and shops. Like most gentry families in the country, it has gradually become involved in industry and commerce, especially industry. It has become a trend for gentry families to open factories, and the Tang family has also
No exception. In the early years, we invested and established Jifeng Textile Company.
However, their company has the name of a textile company, but in fact it is not engaged in the upstream industries of the textile industry such as reeling, spinning, and weaving, but is engaged in the downstream industries, that is, directly producing various products directly for consumers.
Finished products, such as clothing, quilts, etc.
They purchase machine-made fabrics, woolen materials and other raw materials directly from large textile companies, and then hire a large number of workers to cut and sew various types of garments and other textile products.
In addition to high-quality and affordable clothing, its products also produce various other textile products, such as quilt covers, mosquito nets, tents, etc.
Don't underestimate their textile products. In fact, their strength is quite good. Their clothing can be found in several northern provinces. Although clothing is affected by the traditional small-scale peasant economy in China where men farm and women weave,
Therefore, just like cloth, it is difficult to open a market in rural areas, but there is still a certain market in cities.
In addition to clothing, other products produced by the Tang family's Jifeng Textile Company are also good, especially their tents!
In the beginning, the tent they produced was actually just an add-on product, because it was originally a niche product with very small market demand, but its quality was good, and its cost control was also very good. It was of high quality and low price and won the military reputation.
Tang's clothing factory became a national defense cooperation enterprise and a supplier of military supplies.
The various industries combined have allowed the Tang family to make a lot of money in the past few years. Old Man Tang said that his family didn't have much money, but he was just being modest. In fact, among everyone present, he was the richest.
Xiao Baoguan was quite satisfied with his donation, which was a good start!
Immediately, other wealthy gentry families also spoke one after another. Most of them were wealthy local gentry families in Kaifeng. Some had richer families, some had weaker families, some had already turned to industry and commerce on a large scale, and some were dead.
Relying on the output of the land, individuals donated more or less cash and materials based on their own strength and the special circumstances of the whole.
Most of the materials can be used directly for disaster relief, mainly food, medicine, clothing, tools, etc. As for other unused items, no one dares to donate them foolishly.
For example, the Xu family, who is engaged in the porcelain industry, wisely did not donate even one piece of porcelain, but directly donated five thousand taels of silver in cash.
In addition to the local gentry, there are also several people who are the management of several large domestic companies stationed in Kaifeng.
Although Henan's industrial development is not very good, it is still the hinterland of the Central Plains and a traditional grain-producing area. Kaifeng is also the provincial capital, so many companies have opened branches or factories here.
However, these management authorities have limited authority, so naturally they cannot donate too much. They can only donate one or two thousand taels of silver.
This is not to say that the companies they belong to are stingy. In fact, these large companies are not stingy. Even if it is for the sake of corporate reputation, they will donate large sums of money when encountering such a major disaster.
North Zhejiang United Textile Company, a private textile company jointly established by many traditional merchants in Zhejiang who are engaged in the silk industry, is engaged in the business of a series of raw silk products such as cocoons, raw silk, and silk.
When the prefectures and counties in northern Zhejiang were hit by floods, they donated 200,000 taels of cash and disaster relief materials at once.
This is also the largest amount of charity donated by many private enterprises since the founding of the Tang Dynasty.
For this reason, the Tang Dynasty Daily gave them a focused report for the first time. Of course, the subject is not them, but the social responsibility of contemporary social enterprises. United Textile Company is only used as a typical example.
The focus of this article is that the reputation of North Zhejiang United Textile Company instantly spread across the country. This donation not only reflects the company's social responsibility, but also highlights their company's financial strength.
Think about it, the total assets of an ordinary company are less than 200,000 taels of silver, but someone made a one-time donation of 200,000 taels of silver. What does this mean?
It shows that they are not short of money!
When businesses choose partners, they always like to cooperate with companies that are not short of money, so that they can cooperate smoothly and avoid various troubles. The raw silk industry is inherently an asset-heavy industry. Although profits are high, costs are also high and risks are high.
Also big.
Those silkworm farmers naturally prefer to sign silk cocoon purchase contracts with such raw silk companies that are not short of money. Those traders also like to cooperate with such companies to purchase and sell their raw silk and finished silk products as agents.
The donation of two hundred thousand taels of silver has doubled the company's business growth, and it is still growing at a high speed. If it continues to develop like this, in a few years it will challenge Jiangnan Textile Company, the leading enterprise in the raw silk industry.
status.
These 200,000 taels of silver are actually not donations, but advertising fees. They are nationwide advertisements with good results.
However, a donation of this amount definitely requires the approval of the corporate headquarters and even the board of directors. Ordinary managers do not have such great authority. The several management personnel present only donated a certain amount on behalf of the branch.
After everyone reported their donation figures, Xiao Baoguan showed a satisfied look!
These people are quite decent. The seventeen people here, representing seventeen families or businesses, have donated a total of 110,000 taels of cash or useful disaster relief materials, which is not a small amount.
With such a sum of money, coupled with the funds from the local finance, at least in the short term, there is no need to worry about the cost of flood fighting. As for the cost of subsequent disaster relief, it is also part of the cost, but it is definitely not enough. When the time comes, we will need to mobilize
The strength of the province and even the country.
However, that is no longer an issue that Xiao Baoguan needs to consider now.
Now, his focus is to ensure the needs for flood control and strive to prevent the Yellow River from bursting its banks and causing large-scale floods.
Otherwise, we don’t know how many people will be affected by disasters this year and how many will starve to death.
When Xiao Baoguan worked hard to lead the officials, soldiers and civilians to fight the flood, he ran all the way from Jinling City, barely taking a day's rest on the way. The Henan Flood Control and Flood Control Supervision Team finally arrived in Kaifeng!
Their arrival also made Xiao Baoguan breathe a sigh of relief, because in this supervision team, in addition to the supervisory censor, there are also several professional talents, all officials selected by the cabinet with rich experience in flood fighting and disaster relief. These
People have much more experience in flood fighting and disaster relief than ordinary officials.