“If we turn the clock back to about 1900, after the Boer War, against the background of the rise of newly industrialized countries, Britain’s exports in the global market have declined, and the decline in exports to its colonies has been particularly huge.

Fourteen years later, China, which had just achieved national freedom, took advantage of the fact that the old colonial countries were busy with wars and began to strengthen economic exchanges with Africa based on its rapidly growing industrial economy. It quickly occupied Africa by using cotton textiles, shoes, clothing and other cheap commodities.

The African market has had a serious impact on the European powers' trade with Africa.

During this war, the "sun never sets" empire gradually declined, allowing the "First Republic" in the East to see a God-given opportunity to achieve the rapid rise of the country's industrial and industrial economy through trade.

The trade between China and South Africa began with the establishment of the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century. The company set up an office in South Africa in 1652 to export animal skins to the Far East. In the following nearly three centuries, the trade volume between China and South Africa was only

To describe it as "tiny", it mainly focuses on traditional products such as tea and porcelain. In the years when the trade volume was at its highest, it was only a few hundred thousand yuan.

But the First World War became a turning point. Under the interlocking wars, South Africa's traditional suppliers of daily necessities, such as Britain and France, were overwhelmed. However, Chinese businessmen were able to seize the opportunity and import textiles to South Africa in large quantities. Since then, they have been in the business field.

It has gained a firm foothold. In 1915, China's exports to South Africa were nearly 4 million yuan, which was nearly 10 times that before the European War. The increase was extremely astonishing, and this was inseparable from its extreme dependence on European goods before the war.

relation.

In Africa, where Britain has many colonies and dependent countries, people have gradually become fond of high-quality and low-priced Chinese goods. Coincidentally, China's main exports to Africa are cotton and rayon products, and the textile exports to Britain on this continent are

It poses a huge challenge, but everyone knows that this challenge is not limited to Africa..."

"Capeton Post"

After the ship "Jishun" departed from Shanghai Port, as soon as it left the Yangtze River estuary, it sailed straight towards the distant Western Ocean. That's right. It was towards the Western Ocean, not the Southern Ocean. Going to the Western Ocean, perhaps it was a new one that had just appeared.

words.

The boat was walking on the sea. There was no wind in the sky, the sky was blue, and there were a few white clouds floating in the sky.

For Huang Haoze, who has never left Anhui in his life, he has never seen such a big ship in his life. But although this ship is big, it is said to be tens of thousands of tons. But for this Anhui, which has never even seen the sea,

For a northerner, he discovered a strange thing. Why was it strange?

Because the boat is bigger than the Zhuangzi in his hometown, the people in the boat have to stand up to several Zhuangzi, but the space is not big. This place refers to the cabin, more precisely, the cabin where he lives.

The third-class cabin is divided into three floors: upper, middle and lower. The height between the floors is not even half a person. People have to bend down to walk in the cabin. Each person is assigned a narrow canvas hammock, which can

When lying down, it is just as wide as one person. However, because the space is too small, it is not easy to sit there.

A total of more than 3,000 men and women crammed into such a ship. Most of those people wanted to go abroad to make a living. Of course, their destinations were very different. More people went to Borneo in the South Seas. Two years ago,

, the central government and the United Kingdom signed the Sino-British Immigration Agreement. The "Sino-British Immigration Agreement" is a treaty for the recruitment of Chinese labor signed by the government of the Republic of China and the British government. Signing time This treaty was signed in Beijing on September 20, 2002. Treaty

Background: The British North Borneo government wanted to develop North Borneo, so it recruited Chinese laborers from all over China to develop the land and gave them preferential treatment. After the treaty was signed, the government of the Republic of China officially sent officials to escort the Chinese laborers and established a new plant in Kota Kinabalu, North Borneo.

Consulate. The main feature of this treaty is that a group of people recruited are Tianjin people, about 800 people...

In the following two years, this immigration agreement was almost in a state of suspension. It was not until May of the fourth year of the Republic of China that the central government signed a supplementary agreement with the British Borneo authorities again to obtain more rights for immigrants and remove the old most-favored nation rights.

In addition to remuneration and other benefits, they also secured a settlement allowance of 150 yuan, ownership of 100 acres of land, and five years of free rent. Subsequently, under the guidance of the government, they began to increase their investment in British Borneo.

Due to the intensity of immigration, nearly 50,000 immigrants were transported from various parts of China to British Borneo in one year to reclaim land.

At this time, when the ship was like a movable island, slowly leaving the Guangzhou pier, leaving the southernmost port in China, and continuing to sail towards Southeast Asia, almost everyone was still there.

They stayed on the deck and did not want to go to the cabin. The mood was very strange. Although everyone was full of expectations and excitement for the life to come, and although everyone usually had more or less resentment and dissatisfaction with their hometown, now

When it was time to leave her, everyone felt particularly reluctant to leave her.

Many people knelt on the deck facing the direction of the pier for a long time and refused to get up. They all cried. Although they had never cried before, perhaps because of this emotion, Huang Zehao also burst into tears and sobbed loudly.

When he started crying, he looked at the distant river mouth and the rivers and mountains of the motherland slowly disappearing into the sea level, he suddenly understood in his heart why the teacher told them to remove a bag when leaving China.

Outside the countryside, a national flag should be carried. At least, it can remind them of something.

As soon as the "Jishun" ship left the Pearl River Estuary, the wind became stronger. The waves kept beating on the side of the ship. The waves blown by the wind fell on everyone's faces like rain and flowed into their mouths, making them salty and astringent.

Yes, the people on the deck returned to the cabin one after another.

"You know, at that moment just now, it was as if my heart had been cut away, and I felt completely empty."

Huang Zehao, who was alone, said nothing, but when he heard others say this, he knew that his mood was the same as theirs.

Otherwise, why would you say it’s hard to leave your homeland?

While sighing in his heart, he also knew that in fact, most people were forced by life. If life could go on, who would be willing to go to such a far place?

Huang Zehao looked at the compatriots who immigrated to Borneo with their families. From now on, there will no longer be Anhui Province, Zhejiang Province, Fujian Province, and Guangdong Province. There is only one term - Chinese.

When the ship sailed on the sea, what Huang Zehao was thinking about was his longing for the future. He was not a landless farmer. He did not need to be tempted by "more than a thousand acres of land" to go to Borneo.

For him, he has a more distant dream, a gold mining dream. That dream had never occurred in his mind a few months ago. Even for him, it was his only dream before.

It means that one day I will become a worker, and then what will I become? I don’t seem to have thought about it.

But now, a few months ago, the teacher from the night school at the station took out a map for the first time, told him in class how big the world was, told him that there was also the term "voyage", and told him to sell a pair of shoes.

From the day he could earn a fortune, his dream seemed to have changed.

He began to dream of becoming Zheng He, becoming...

At this time, he heard a song sung by a little boy sitting opposite him. Although he couldn't quite understand the little boy's words, after more than ten days of sailing, he still understood a little bit:

When a fire ship sails into the Qizhou Ocean, whether it is good or bad depends on its fate. Sometimes gold and silver are carried on the ship, but if it is bad luck, even life is lost...

"The fire ship sails into the Qizhou Ocean. Whether it is good or bad depends on life. Sometimes gold and silver are carried on the ship, but if it is bad luck, even life is lost..."

The heroic and rough songs echoed in the wilderness, and the scorching sun was in the sky. The scorching sun had no sympathy for this desolate land, but it seemed that it was not interested in Huang Zehao, who was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and had a tanned skin like a black man.

As far as I'm concerned, he's already used to all this.

The scorching sun in southern Africa has already changed this nineteen-year-old farm boy. Now he wears a Boer-style cowhide soft hat on his head, holds a Western-style riding crop in his hand, and has American-style jeans on his legs.

He is driving a double-drawn carriage. If you don’t look carefully and listen to his singing, it’s hard to believe that this is the shy country boy half a year ago. Well, in fact, he is still a country boy now.

Boy, or rather - country salesman.

That's right.

Now Huang Zehao is a country salesman. Six months ago, he took the "Jishun" to the Cape of Good Hope and South Africa. Then he started his "Sail to the West" journey, and many young people who went to the West with "the dream of getting rich"

Like other people, after arriving in Cape Town, he went to the local Chinese Chamber of Commerce. At that time, the chamber of commerce was not big, with only a few dozen people, and he was just one of them.

While he was learning English, he worked as a clerk in a chamber of commerce. After five months, the shopkeeper told him that he was ready to leave.

This is not because he learned how to do business, but because he learned one thing - unity.

We are all brothers within the four seas.

There is such a saying in the general associations, branches, trading stations, and trading houses of the "Chinese Chamber of Commerce" distributed all over the world, but this sentence does not really refer to the "four seas", but to compatriots who treat each other like brothers.

Protecting each other is the only requirement of the Chamber of Commerce. Even the first clause formulated by the Chamber of Commerce is - "We Chinese must unite overseas, otherwise, there will be no place for us to establish ourselves!"

Unity is a new word.

As for what unity is? That is, all Chinese people must stick together, form a knot, and never fight among themselves. If we can make our business bigger and stronger, of course, the more important thing is that everyone is united.

The foreign devils no longer dared to bully him.

For this reason, the Chamber of Commerce also has a rule that if one person fights among themselves, they should attack in groups. How to attack?

The Chamber of Commerce will cut off his goods, and the transportation company will refuse to transport his goods. In short, there are various ways to punish him. Finally, the consulate will cancel his passport, and even after returning to the country, he will be labeled "blacklist".

List", I am afraid that the only thing waiting for him is "committing suicide to atone for his mistakes".

In this regard, the Chamber of Commerce's explanation is very simple - shopping malls are like battlefields, and it is not easy to expand overseas business. If there are internal conflicts, they will undoubtedly collaborate with the enemy in wartime. We will have no mercy for such despicable people.

Is this just lip service?

Of course not. Huang Zehao has seen with his own eyes that a small businessman from Wenzhou, Zhejiang, colluded with outsiders in order to occupy a certain market and tried to crack down on other local Chinese businessmen. The chamber of commerce recovered all the credit and the bank withdrew the loan.

The consulate canceled his passport and deported him back to his country. On the ship back to his country, he committed suicide by jumping into the sea.

Did he really jump into the sea by himself?

No one knows. Anyway, everyone knows one thing. If he had not jumped into the sea, the fate waiting for him would be even more tragic after returning to China. He would not get even a penny of bank loans, and there would be no more

Anyone who does business with him will have his reputation ruined.

Strict rules prevent people like Huang Zehao from going overseas. The reason is very simple. Starting from the fourth year of the Republic of China, "overseas business expansion" was founded by the Prime Minister of the "Chinese Chamber of Commerce" in the second year of the Republic of China.

The chamber of commerce organized the effort to promote it. Domestic commodity exports are handled by the China Trading Company and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. They have always maintained a "zero tolerance" attitude towards internal behaviors that "damage the reputation and interests of national businesses"...

It is precisely this kind of "commercial self-discipline" shared by the country and the business community that has enabled Made in China with an "a" label to quickly gain popularity in many foreign markets in just one and a half years. Of course, among them, Li

It is "travelers" like Huang Zehao who have made great contributions.

But for Huang Zehao, of course he doesn't know, and he doesn't necessarily agree with the so-called "a" in the newspaper that relies on quality to establish its reputation. The more important reason is price.

"a!"

Almost as soon as the carriage entered the town of New South Wales, the residents of this small town noticed the large characters written in paint on the carriage carriage. Then, the Boers and even black people in this inland hinterland. Then they saw the carriage

The person driving the carriage was a dark-skinned Asian. At the same time, they saw that this Asian was dressed very neatly. There was not even a trace of dust on his white shirt. Maybe he had just changed it before.

When the carriage stopped at the square in the town, Huang Zehao first wiped off some floating dust on his face with a wet towel, and then with a sincere smile on his face, he nodded to the white people with surprised expressions.

"Oriental?"

"a?"

To people's surprise, Huang Zehao quickly opened his stall. According to the "Business Guidelines" of the Chamber of Commerce, he could set up a stall here without worrying about the police coming to collect the stall. The city hall did not prohibit setting up a stall here.

"Shocking price - 0.3 pound shop!"
To be continued...