The First Warlord of the Republic of China

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spnps: The first update arrives!

Raise the price, raise the price again!

Because of the policy of increasing taxes by the central government, as well as the increase in oil, electricity, water, and freight charges, the prices of various commodities produced by those private companies began to increase, which in turn triggered an increase in the price of raw materials.

For those private enterprises, the continuous rise in raw material prices is a relatively big blow, far inferior to the national tax increase.

The production of many raw materials in China is monopolized by Jiang Yu's consortium. [

In the case of a sharp increase in production costs, they can only increase product sales prices in the hope of passing the cost on to consumers.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Manchu and Qing Dynasties increased commercial taxes, and those merchants did the same.

However, today is different from the past. Behind the various price increases, the market is flooded with consortium industrial products whose prices remain unchanged.

The prices of light industrial products of Huadong Group, Northwest Group, and Huaxia Group hardly fluctuate in the market.

How much it was before, and how much it is now.

Not only has the wholesale price not increased, but the retail price has also not changed.

This made the common people discover that the goods in those department stores are indeed the most affordable, and those civilian goods are old brands, and the advertisements are also fierce.The first feeling is that it is upscale. In the past, the prices of these old brands were more expensive than those of civilian products produced by private enterprises, but now they are not expensive, and even much cheaper.

After discovering this phenomenon, the common people all bought civilian goods under the consortium of warlords in Jiangyu, while the sales of civilian goods produced by private enterprises dropped sharply.

Some are even completely unsalable.

The consortium's light industry and civilian products took the opportunity to seize the market.It didn't take long for daily necessities with lower prices and better quality to flood the country.The sales network has even reached townships in inland provinces.

Immediately, Chinese private enterprises were devastated.

Their tactic of passing the cost on to consumers has had a certain effect, but it has completely driven away consumers.

This is not a seller's market, but a buyer's market.

Under the competition of consortiums and private enterprises, consumers have a variety of consumption choices, and they will buy whose products are more affordable.

What those private capitalists can't figure out is how the few giant manufacturers in the same industry can maintain the current market price under the circumstances of a complete increase in taxation, raw materials, water and electricity, and oil.

The production costs of those light industrial products of the consortium have not increased much because there are subsidies within the consortium.The main force of this price increase is the monopoly industry of the consortium.Although consortium light industries need to pay more taxes to the state like those private enterprises, but in fact there are not many.

Once the internal subsidy of the consortium came to an end, they immediately became full of confidence.

Facing the three-dimensional and all-round encirclement and suppression coordinated by the consortium and the government, those private enterprises were quickly swept out of the market amidst the howling.

The consortium gradually achieved a high degree of monopoly on light industrial products. [

……

After Hou Debang returned to China, it happened to coincide with the period of great development of private industry. Since he studied chemistry, he figured out the formula of washing powder by himself.

Then a washing powder manufacturing plant was established in his hometown.

The result was a success in one fell swoop.His laundry detergent was extremely popular in the surrounding area, and even exported to surrounding provinces. At its peak, Hou Debang hired more than 200 salesmen to help him run orders.

Then Hou Debang's factories successively developed soap, scented soap, shampoo and other products, and in just one year, Hou Debang accumulated assets of more than 100 million yuan.

Just when Hou Debang wanted to continue to work hard and continue to expand the scale of the factory.All kinds of bad news came back.

First, the price of a by-product of refining, which makes detergents such as laundry detergent, has risen, citing higher refining costs.

Then the price of oil went up, and so did the cost of rail freight.

This means that whether it is transported by car or by rail, the cost of transportation has increased.

Then the national taxation has also increased, and the welfare policy has to be thoroughly investigated.

That means overall.The production cost of the factory's washing products has increased by at least 20%, just when Hou Debang also wanted to increase the price.A bigger bad news came.

The products of those detergent giants did not increase in price at all, and some products even dropped in price.

This shocked Hou Debang, but he realized immediately after the shock that the washing products could no longer be produced, and several major washing products giants had already begun to encircle and suppress their "small factories".

After entering this industry, Hou Debang has investigated the market share. Those giant companies occupy most of the market, reaching more than 70% in washing products, and the other 30% are small companies that developed after the European War.

Hou Debang also found that the giant companies that occupy 70% of the market share actually belong to the same company. Although they appear to be divided into different companies, they are all controlled by the same company.

Hou Debang, who has studied in the United States, understands that this is a monopoly enterprise.

But in China, the way of monopoly is more clever than that of American entrepreneurs. The monopoly creates several different companies. You say I have a monopoly?There is obviously competition in the market!

No, several washing products production giants fought a price war.

While others were raising prices, several giants started a price war. Although the price did not drop very much, the momentum was full.

The shareholders in the factory were in a mess and arguing in the face of several menacing washing industry giants, and they couldn't find a way to deal with it.

But Hou Debang immediately decided to purchase new production equipment immediately to reduce the production price of products and improve product quality at the same time.

And vigorously develop new products, try to avoid head-on confrontation with several industry giants. [

Although the monopoly enterprises have begun to make efforts, Hou Debang does not think this is a dead end.

The shareholders in the factory have different views. Many shareholders are clamoring for Hou Debang to invest their funds in the stock market. The current stock market is very hot. Instead of supporting the factory, it is better to invest in the stock market to make a fortune.

For this reason, Hou Debang had to let them withdraw their shares.

In the next few years, under Hou Debang's exhaustive management, this small factory miraculously survived. Because of the development of many new products, it was injected capital by the bank, and he was also absorbed into the "East China Chamber of Commerce". Officially becoming a national businessman, at that time Hou Debang knew how powerful China's national monopoly capital is.

……

However, the vast majority of private enterprise bosses do not have the perseverance of Hou Debang. When they saw that their products were completely defeated in the market, many of them shut down their factories and invested their funds in the stock market.

And those factories are basically people interested in, and the consortium does not buy them.

Because the production equipment of those factories is backward, after the consortium completes the nationwide distribution, even if the price is raised in the future, those factories will not be successful even if they resume production, and they will not even be able to squeeze into the market.

Instead, those factories with advanced production equipment have become the acquisition targets of the consortium.

Under such a general trend, private enterprises have been wiped out in large numbers.The commodity market was highly monopolized by ethnic monopoly capital, and soon the consortium monopolized 81% of light industrial products, and the remaining 19% of the market share was mostly occupied by ethnic capital merchants from the East China Chamber of Commerce.

The reason for the monopoly to such a degree is largely due to the fact that private enterprises have not developed for a long time these days, and many enterprises have no experience and background. Under the operation of the consortium, they are like melting ice and snow, and quickly destroyed.

In the field of light industry, the consortium basically chooses to operate in partnership with ethnic businessmen, that is, the consortium occupies most of the shares, and then the enterprise is managed by the ethnic capital businessman.

Because the light industry has undergone relatively large changes, and the consortium is too large, it is not possible to manage everything. If you manage the operation of light industry enterprises yourself, you may not be able to adjust market policies so quickly.

The consortium has a comprehensive monopoly in heavy industry, and private enterprises basically cannot enter this field. This field requires a lot of investment, requires relatively high technical requirements, and the construction period is relatively long.

But in the field of raw materials, the consortium has lost a lot of monopoly shares.

For example, mining and coal mining, although the consortium monopolizes most of them, mining and coal mining can develop without any technology.

The advent of the First World War made China's mining industry and coal mining industry blossom everywhere, which created many upstarts.

Jiang Yu's encirclement and suppression of these small mines and small coal mines is also in full swing.

……

In July 1917, the Republic of China dispatched special departments such as the Commercial News Bureau, the Military Intelligence Bureau, and the Tax Police, and with the cooperation of the army, more than 7 Shanxi merchant coal bosses were arrested in one fell swoop.

In addition to Shanxi, more than 5000 mine and coal mine owners were arrested in various parts of the country. The reasons for the arrest were bribery of government officials, random mining, damage to geological structures, and groundwater decline.

The scale of the arrest this time is really too big, and the scope of influence is too wide.

Nearly one-third of private mines and coal mine owners in the country have been arrested.

The ROC was shocked up and down.

When the media followed up, the common people became angry when they learned that the owners of the upstart mines and coal mines obtained mining rights by bribing officials.

At this time, one of the thoughts that the Republic of China wants to instill in the common people is to abide by the law. The principle of the law is to protect the interests of the nation as the supreme pursuit.

Violation of the law is tantamount to harming national interests.

After arresting those mine and coal mine bosses, the government also discovered that some bosses even kidnapped their compatriots to obtain labor.

Some missing persons were found in the mines. When they were found, many of them had been enslaved to the point of insanity.

In addition, in order to obtain more benefits, some mine owners dig indiscriminately regardless of safety, resulting in the death of many workers due to mining accidents, and many of them were concealed.

As soon as this news was reported, it was like adding fuel to the fire, and the people all over the country were outraged.

Many ordinary people demanded that the government shoot those unscrupulous bosses, and prevent this kind of situation from happening again by killing them as an example. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to the starting point to vote, monthly tickets, your support is my biggest motivation.)