Financialization of tea: how to make "tea fried without drinking"?

Wu Xian/Courtesy of this edition of the cartograph: officers and soldiers

Securities Times reporter Wu Xian

Walking in the large and small tea markets in Fangcun, Guangzhou, the Securities Times reporter found that the words "investment", "collection" and "recycling" constantly appeared on the signboards of some tea shops. The country's largest tea wholesale market and distribution center has had another resounding name for many years - "Tea Wall Street".

"The thunder of 'Changshi Tea' is unprecedented in Fangcun. In recent years, there are many brands running away in Fangcun, and 'Changshi Tea' is not the first one this year. In the view of a tea merchant who participated in the speculation of "Changshi Tea", there is no difference between roasting tea and speculating in stocks.

As the hustle and bustle of "Changshi Tea" gradually dissipates, Fangcun is restoring calm, but the new "Changshi Tea" is secretly growing and brewing.

Return to the calm Fang Village

At the beginning of December, "the 'post-00s' ran away after harvesting 500 million yuan", "50,000 yuan fell to 3,000 yuan overnight", and "many tea merchants besieged the 'Changshi Tea' store"...... This series of shocking figures has unveiled the tip of the iceberg of Fangcun's "financial tea", and also made many people realize for the first time that the price of ordinary tea can be as high as tens of thousands of yuan, and it is being traded and bought and sold on a scale of hundreds of millions of yuan.

The Securities Times reporter recently visited the Guqiao Tea Street in Fangcun, Guangzhou, where the "Changshi Tea" store is located: there are not many people in the huge Fangcun Tea Market, and the Guqiao Tea Street is quite deserted, and the "Changshi Tea" store has long been covered by plastic sheeting. In this regard, a tea merchant at the scene said, "The main thing is that the impact of this matter is too bad, and many people and self-media have come to take pictures and check in every day in the past few days. ”

However, the extremely ironic scene is that there is also a huge advertisement in an alley of Guqiao Tea Street that reads "Good Tea Selected for the Future", but below the advertisement, there is an anti-fraud and anti-fraud banner pulled by the local street: "Keep a normal heart, high-interest investment 'bait' does not move", in which the word "bait" is particularly eye-catching.

After visiting a number of tea merchants, the reporter found that there are two completely different types of merchants in Fangcun: one is the tea merchant who regards "financial tea" as a beast of the flood, and has been making a living by buying and selling tea for decades, and the unit price of the tea sold is mostly between tens of yuan and hundreds of yuan; the other is that the existence of "financial tea" is reasonable, and while operating the tea business normally, he also speculates on "financial tea" part-time to make money. In addition, others are full-time roasted tea.

"We are with that group of roasted tea is well water and not river water, and I never believe in getting rich overnight, doing things honestly and doing my duty. Lao Chen is a Chaoshan man, and his wife have been running a tea shop in Fangcun for nearly 20 years, and they have never participated in the speculation of "financial tea" over the years, and they have never inquired about "financial tea".

Liu Peng belongs to the second category of tea merchants, and his store is directly opposite the "Changshi Tea" store. He told reporters that he also bought more than 100,000 yuan of "Changshi tea" this time, and after the thunderstorm, he simply admitted to defeat and sold the "Changshi tea" in his hand at a price of 4,000 yuan ~ 6,000 yuan.

For "financial tea", Liu Peng believes that existence is reasonable, what products are used for frying, what products are used for drinking, everyone knows very well that fried tea is no different from the popular fried shoes and fried wine. After the "Changshi Tea" explosion, a considerable amount of public opinion believed that the tea merchants involved in the hype deserved it, and Liu Peng did not shy away from this, "Normal, we see it very thoroughly, it is indeed deserved, of course, there are profits and losses in participating in the hype, and there is no right or wrong in itself." ”

However, another tea merchant, Chen Li (pseudonym), who participated in the hype of "Changshi Tea", was extremely angry at the public opinion that they deserved it. Chen Li also bought the "Changshi Tea" quilt at a high point, she said, "I'm not saying that I must be a victim, but there are indeed many victims around me, and they must have premeditated to do this game." Now the outside world may think that the tea market owners are relatively rich, and it is normal for some people to stare at their money now. If someone does it premeditatedly, they should be punished by the law, not the other way around, to blame us victims. ”

Trading platform

Promoting "financialization"

In addition to the speculation on spot tea, "financial tea" has also developed a futures market. In the futures mode, as long as there is a bill of goods, you can find a tea merchant to pay a deposit, but do not do the actual transaction, and after the price of tea rises, the previous tea merchant will sell it to the next tea merchant, and so on, "tea is fried and not drunk". Among them, of course, it is inevitable that the price increase method of "selling and buying by yourself" has led to the price of Pu'er tea skyrocketing and plummeting, and the reputation of "financial tea" has also come from this.

In a tea market in Fangcun, the reporter saw that the market also clearly wrote on a propaganda board: "Support the establishment of an electronic trading platform, innovate tea auctions, introduce new formats of live broadcasting, build online platform economy, futures and other trading modes ......."

At present, regardless of whether the "financial tea" itself is reasonable or not, after years of development, "financial tea" has formed a complete industrial chain or speculation chain in Fangcun: from the source manufacturers of tea, major tea brands, to a large number of distributors, franchisees, and then to a larger number of retail buyers, as well as various intermediate roles such as tea saucers from time to time, it is they who constitute the main body of speculation "financial tea".

In this industrial chain, there is also an extremely key role - the market trading platform. According to the tea merchants in Fangcun, there are currently several market trading platforms in Fangcun that specialize in tracking the price trend of various tea brands - each tea has a number like a stock code, and you can track the price rise and fall of related products in real time by entering the number or name, and the price trend of related products can be tracked in real time.

At the same time, these platforms can also provide speculators with interactive communication and trading modules, so that buyers and sellers who "find tea" and "come out of tea" can check the rise and fall of products and find counterparties very smoothly. Even on the trading platform, you can see a lot of introductions to some new brands or some "financial teas", market trend analysis and many other contents.

These platforms also have a key function, which can provide "strict inspection, authenticity identification, and professional warehousing" services for both parties to the transaction, which completely eliminates the uncertainty and trust problems in the "financial tea" transaction, and greatly promotes the rise of the "financial tea" transaction.

A Fangcun tea merchant who often uses the relevant platform told reporters, "The information on the platform is quite accurate, and generally their salesmen are running around in the market to understand and collect the transaction prices of related products, so their price information is a very good reference price, and the authenticity is also quite high." ”

Walk on the edge of the law

In the "financial tea" drama of beating drums and passing flowers, once you are careless, you may be doomed, and the lesson of the "Changshi Tea" explosion has been extremely profound.

"As far as I know, in the hype process of this 'Changshi Tea', some people invested more than 20 million yuan in real money, and even more people participated in it on a scale of several million yuan. In terms of the source of funds, some of them use their own funds, some of them make up with relatives and friends, and some use the money from cashing out credit cards and swiping online loans for investment, and these people may be the worst. A tea merchant in Fangcun said.

But after encountering these scams, tea merchants often have a hard time "defending their rights". The above-mentioned tea merchant said, "For the traders, it is difficult to file a case and convict at present, because they will not leave such an obvious handle for you." In the process of participating in the speculation, the relevant traders are also getting smarter and smarter, and will not openly promise to repurchase, insurance price, etc., but often through various other ways to 'increase credit' for themselves, and there are tea saucers to raise prices, in the atmosphere of Fangcun, it is difficult to control yourself not to participate. ”

In this regard, Jiang Huaqin, a full-time lawyer at Zhejiang Baihe Law Firm, said that in this "game" of "financial tea", if there is no thunder, as long as the participants abide by the rules of the "game", it should be allowed by the principle of autonomy of civil legal will. If the "Game" trader violates the rules of the game and causes actual losses to other participants, other "Game" participants may have to bear civil legal liability for compensation for losses if they make a claim. If the failure of the "game" leads to the loss of the participants' losses (that is, the so-called thunderstorm), then it depends on the subjective intention of the trader and the flow of funds to judge the nature of the case, which may be suspected of the crime of illegally absorbing public deposits or the crime of fund-raising fraud.

"For this kind of case, I personally tend to be suspected of fundraising fraud. Because the 'game' traders operate the 'game' for the purpose of illegally appropriating other people's money from the beginning, they have no intention of making investors get a return or be paid off. The end result of the 'game' is the loss of all or some of the participants. If the funds obtained are used for squandering, then all the constituent elements of the crime of fund-raising fraud are fully satisfied. Jiang Huaqin said.

It is not difficult to find that no matter how gorgeous the tea packaging is by the trader, in the entire "financial tea" trading link, it will inevitably touch some legal red lines or gray areas, and even begin to spread to a wider range.

In this context, the regulatory authorities have also repeatedly disclosed the risks of "financial tea" products. In the second half of 2021, regulatory authorities in Guangdong, Yunnan and other places and tea industry associations issued documents to warn of the risks of "financial tea" products. On June 30, 2023, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province, held a symposium on "Rectifying the Chaos of Pu'er Tea 'Financial Tea'", denouncing the chaos of "financial tea" for its great harm and deep impact, harming the interests of consumers and undermining the order of market circulation. In October 2023, Fujian Province issued a risk reminder on preventing illegal fundraising in the name of "financial tea" and "wealth management tea". On December 6, Liwan District, Guangzhou City also released an article entitled ""Financial Tea" and "Financial Tea": Gambling Trap!", which mentioned that individual tea companies promised to repurchase it in the form of principal and interest after a certain period of time in the name of selling high-end tea, in order to defraud illegal profits.

But it is a pity that in recent years, the "financial tea" explosion has been common, and some speculators have lost all their money, but there are still a large number of people who are happy to participate in it. Liu Peng said frankly, "The speculation of financial tea, on the one hand, is that the traders exploit legal loopholes, and on the other hand, they take advantage of people's greed." From the victims' point of view, some may also obviously know that something will happen to them, but watching the skyrocketing tea prices along the way, it is difficult not to be moved and not get involved. ”

In fact, the thunder of "Changshi Tea" is not the end. In Fangcun, there is also a big drama that is being staged: some people are buying "Changshi Tea" with the "floor price", hoping that "Changshi Tea" will make a comeback and make a comeback...... Under the chaos of "financial tea", the thunder of "Changshi Tea" is not the first, nor is it the last, on the relevant trading platform, dozens of tea brands are still active in it, and the next "Changshi Tea" is also secretly growing and brewing.