From the beginning of the Ming and Qing dynasties, Shanxi merchants walked in groups to the west entrance, crossed the desert, trekked thousands of miles, went deep into the hinterland of the Mongolian steppe and traded with various nomadic tribes, and at the same time accumulated tens of millions of taels of gold and silver, they also broke out of the "Jin merchants" This piece of gold and silver has stood for a hundred years. But behind this signboard, it is not only the hardship of thousands of miles of trekking and braving the wind and snow, but also the continuous accumulation of local customs and active learning.
Da Shengkui, who has been firmly in the top position of the merchants in Mongolia and Jin for a long time, not only requires the guys in the number to learn Mongolian, Russian, Uygur, and Kazakh languages, and is familiar with Mongolian customs, but also requires the guys to learn traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture and simple common sense of medicine to facilitate communication. According to the records of "Qing Barnyard Banknotes, Agricultural and Commercial Goods", many young men of Shanxi merchants are also proficient in foreign languages, "those in Mongolia are proficient in Mongolian, those in Manchuria are proficient in Manchu, and those in Russia are fluent in Russian." Every day at dusk, the friends are all hand-made, learning the language and writing, and the village school teachers and apprentices are not diligent."
When the Ming Dynasty opened up the grassland trade, although the Shanxi merchants were the first to cross the Great Wall with the advantage of being close to the grassland, they were the first to cross the Great Wall outside the Saiwai, but when trading with the nomads, the language was not understood and the communication was not smooth, so they had to be handled through the middleman, that is, the so-called "general affairs".
To this end, the major business companies in Shanxi have begun to set strict rules and regulations for the training and use of specialized business talents, on the one hand, they have invested heavily in recruiting business, finance, and dental talents who are familiar with the social customs of the nomadic people outside the country and are good at doing business, and they have given special preferential treatment to those who can speak Mongolian and other languages; on the other hand, they have carefully selected apprentices who are not more than 12 years old, have a strong physique, bear hardships and stand hard work, are literate and literate, and have a certain cultural knowledge base. When these apprentices entered the firm, they were required to learn one or two other languages, in addition to business skills such as planning and writing, writing calligraphy, keeping account books, and memorizing business and economics.
Taking Da Shengkui as an example, "in the first ten years of an apprenticeship, in addition to learning the general knowledge of doing business for three years in the General Ship of Naturalized City, he must also study three years each in the former camp cabinet (Uriya Sutai) and the back camp cabinet (Kulun or Kyakhta). First learn the Mongolian language, adapt to the local habits, and then learn how to do business in Mongolia. In addition, Da Shengkui also asked employees who go to the steppe to do business to take Mongolian names, wear Mongolian robes and Mongolian boots, so as to get close to the Mongolian nomads and create favorable conditions for doing business.
In the Shanxi trade on the Sino-Russian border, the Shanxi merchants Fusheng Gong, Yusheng Gong, Jinyintang, North Hengli, and West Hengli stipulated that in addition to learning Mongolian, apprentices should also learn the languages of the Oroqen and Daur ethnic groups in the nearby areas, and understand their customs, communication etiquette, and wedding and funeral ceremonies. In addition to doing business, the employees of these firms often conduct social surveys in different parts to understand the number of households and population of the princes and nobles of various ethnic groups, ordinary herdsmen, and hunters who do business with them, as well as their consumption habits, property, and the number of livestock.
It is also by virtue of this kind of honing talents in practice, making up for what is needed, learning what is needed, and constantly forging ahead and constantly pioneering spirit, the Jin merchant group continues to grow and develop, and the business scope and geography are also expanding, so that "where there are sparrows, there are Shanxi businessmen".