Return To 1977 Chapter 727: Long-term issues
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So now that the direction is clear, should we just take the money and go to the store to buy jade and jade?
No, even if the market price is reduced, it is still unreasonable to do so. There is a lot of moisture in this industry, and now is an unprecedented special period.
We have to speak slowly to understand what's going on here.
Indeed, jade and jade, as the mainstream varieties of my country's special handicrafts, have always had a strong vitality that is unmatched by other industries.
In particular, the jade industry in the capital has a proven history that originated from the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and began to flourish from the Yuan Dynasty. Through the development of the Ming and Qing dynasties, it reached unprecedented prosperity.
During the Qianlong Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, the production status could be known only by the gathering of various beautiful jade and fine materials in the capital.
At that time, there were Western jasper, Western agate, alexandrite, coral, etc. from abroad, as well as Guandong Xiuyu, Yunnan agate, Jingzhou agate, and Hunan alum crystal.
Furthermore, after the rebellion was put down, the road to Beijing for Hotan jade and Burmese jade was also opened. Each year, more than two tons of these two varieties are imported.
It is also worth mentioning that although foreign capital invaded during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, these jade industries almost never encountered corresponding "foreign goods" to compete with them.
So this industry has always maintained a thriving development trend with more and more famous people.
Especially after the Revolution of 1911, the maritime ban was lifted, and jade articles from the capital became highly prized products that foreign countries were competing for, leading to the phenomenon of "foreign estates".
According to written records from the beginning of this century to the 1920s, there were no fewer than thirty fairs held around the world at that time, and the arts and crafts industry in Beijing only participated in ten exhibitions. However, Beijing's jade wares won gold and silver awards time and time again.
Even in the early days of liberation, when all industries were withered, there were only a few jade workshops left in the city.
But as long as it can be restored to normal production, millions of dollars in foreign exchange can be obtained a year. If this amount of money is used to buy food, it will be enough to feed the people of the city for a month.
All of the above are enough to prove that the reputation of "Northern Jade", "Beijing Jade" and "Exquisite Jade" is well-known at home and abroad. Jade products produced in Beijing have been recognized by overseas art connoisseurs and are regarded as treasures with extremely high collection value.
It stands to reason that since the aesthetic value of Jingcheng jade is well known to the world and has been generally recognized, it should not be in sales difficulties. Instead, it should be the main force in earning foreign exchange?
Hey, doesn’t this have to be attributed to our planned economic system?
Think about it, with rigid policies, even ordinary industries cannot develop well, and it is difficult to stimulate the enthusiasm of ordinary workers.
Not to mention this kind of industry that has always been passed down from master to disciple, and requires spirituality, understanding, perseverance, and meticulousness to learn and do well.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, there were several problems in the jade industry that existed for a long time and could not be solved.
First of all, there are too few masters, and there is a lack of young workers and apprentices. There are serious problems in the inheritance of skills.
The existing jade craftsmen in the capital are generally old craftsmen who have become apprentices before and after the founding of the People's Republic of China. There are very few young craftsmen, and there are only fifty or sixty people with high skills in the industry.
But although their business is good, they don't want to recruit apprentices.
The reason for this situation is that this industry is too difficult and the threshold required for practitioners is high.
In comparison, the salary and benefits are not attractive, and young people do not like to learn or work.
In addition, from the perspective of a master, teaching disciples is too labor-intensive.
This is not like the past, where the apprentice had an obligation to support the master.
Nowadays, apprentices are only in name only, and some people don’t really respect their own masters, so who would want to do such a thankless thing?
If there is an order in the factory to bring apprentices, the old masters will be nothing more than a "trouble".
They treat young workers like you fool me and I fool you. They don’t hide their selfish interests or force them. They just learn as much as they can.
It is no exaggeration to say that it has essentially reached the point where "people have lost their skills and their skills have been lost".
Secondly, the superior units were too short-sighted and had too high expectations for foreign exchange earnings, thus seriously overdrafting the goodwill of the jade industry in Beijing.
This is mainly due to the fact that industry leaders believe that foreign markets generally require bulk products, are not very knowledgeable, and do not want high-quality products.
In order to earn foreign exchange, we excessively demand quantity and do not pay attention to quality.
The acquiring company lacks planning in processing orders and acquisitions, and rushes to complete tasks when necessary.
If there is a slight backlog, the purchase will be stopped immediately, and the ordering cost will be very tight.
As for the leaders of the production side, they mechanically estimate costs and limit the number of workers based on other industrial production methods.
Even the distribution system is very unreasonable.
There is no implementation of high-quality goods and high prices, and remuneration is based on labor value.
On the contrary, it is based on efficiency and is calculated purely based on the number of workpieces.
This results in the salary of older skilled workers not being much higher than that of young workers, and they even suffer a lot.
For example, some old masters have a strong sense of responsibility and pay attention to the quality of their work, but they do not pay for additional work even though it is a waste of work.
On the contrary, the young producers who are fooling around benefit from it because they are thinking about how not to exceed the number of hours.
Generally, there is no need to work carefully and strive for excellence. As long as it can meet the general standards and turn in the work, it will be fine.
Naturally, the result is that there is a lack of high-quality products in the overall market, and most of the products are far from "outstanding" and relatively mediocre.
For example, Hong Yanwu once bought some nice-looking small ornaments from the arts and crafts service department in Wangfujing and took them back to his mother. He also bought a few jade bracelets, intending to give them to the women at home.
Although the price is high, each piece is almost as much as Tianhuang aniseed, but he was cheated, and his mother's evaluation was really not high.
Wang Yunlin only said that the materials were acceptable, but the subject matter was rigid and the workmanship was far from satisfactory. Far inferior to what came before.
This is buying a "good job".
Third, due to the monopoly of the export system and acquisition mechanism of handicrafts, producers have long been at a disadvantage in terms of product pricing, and corporate income is very low.
However, because the seller controls the pricing power, it makes huge profits. The contradiction between the two is becoming increasingly serious.
We might as well give a practical example. According to survey data, the "Shenlu Baochai Bottle" produced by the Beijing Arts and Crafts Factory in 1972 was priced at 11,000 yuan by the factory.
However, the price for foreign trade acquisitions was only 6,000 yuan, and after many negotiations, the price was barely reached at 8,000 yuan.
Later, before the price was agreed upon, the products were sent to the Huacheng Export Products Fair. Referred to as the "Canton Fair", the actual price on site was 27,000 yuan.
The acquirer was then willing to open a purchase order and purchase it for 8,000 yuan.
So in fact, this kind of bargaining and wrangling is very serious.
This results in manufacturers having to set two price standards for the same high-end product.
But even so, the company cannot even reach the lowest price, how can it not dampen the enthusiasm for production?
For example, in the spring of 1973, there was a pair of hollow jade bottles at the Canton Fair. The manufacturer priced each pair at 3,000 yuan based on cost plus an appropriate profit, but foreign trade was only willing to pay 2,000 yuan, resulting in "loss of money upon opening" for newly developed products.
But conversely, for this pair of jade bottles, the foreign trade price at the trade fair was 8,000 yuan per pair. The profit was as high as three times the acquisition cost.
Of course, the things in the "Friendship Store" are also very expensive.
For example, in a jewelry store, a jade pendant must cost more than 1,000 yuan in foreign exchange coupons, and a jade bracelet must cost more than 1,500 yuan. Larger jade carvings and ornaments over 10,000 yuan are also very common.
Real high-quality products can even cost hundreds of thousands to millions.
This is because the raw material grade and workmanship level of jade and jade are difficult to clearly define. Unlike the seal stone, which can be clearly calculated using the unit value of grams.
Even if there is a policy, the Price Bureau cannot control it.
In order to pursue the quota of foreign exchange earnings, the seller adopts the practice of false reporting and inflated prices at every level, which is naturally very "black".
But foreigners are not fools. People who don’t understand are not interested in these things.
Those who know how to do it will naturally refuse to suffer this loss and be cheated when compared with the goods they have in the past.
This is called a disconnect between production and marketing, killing the goose to get the eggs, and you are destroying your own brand.
What's more, this industry is relatively large in the arts and crafts category. With the application of electric drilling and grinding machines in the 1970s, the production speed of products has become faster.
It is inevitable that production will exceed sales and sales will stagnate or even decline.
So, isn’t this industry doomed? Doesn’t this mean you can’t buy good things with high cost performance? Then why is Hong Yanwu still wasting so much effort on this?
Actually, you can’t say that. This matter needs to be looked at separately.
In terms of craftsmanship, after all, there were real famous craftsmen teaching in this period, and there were knowledgeable experts controlling quality.
No matter what you say, the things you make are purely handmade, and you must meet the basic shape and production standards.
The dragon must be a dragon, the phoenix must be a phoenix, and the God of Wealth must ride a tiger and use his trump card. He must do his job and not do anything whimsical.
This is the result of someone’s ideas and techniques, not the crude manufacturing that was later almost entirely dependent on machines.
The second one is from the perspective of raw materials. Generally speaking, the texture of raw materials in this era is much better than in the future.
For example, the Tianhuang stone in Shoushan has not been completely mined yet. Aniseed materials such as red jade, green emerald, suet, field jade, and pink hibiscus can still be seen.
So no matter what, this time is better than the evil era in the future when fakes and substandard goods appeared one after another, and merchants made up the concept of colorless "ice species" just because they couldn't find high-quality jadeite.
It is better than unscrupulous merchants to mislead the public, deliberately avoiding mentioning the well-preserved high-quality products handed down from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and making generalizations about ancient inferior jade artifacts with imperfect craftsmanship.
It is better to have an investment environment that makes up the fallacy that "ancient jade is not as good as new jade, and new jade is not as good as buying raw materials."
To put it bluntly, what we are selling is the real thing after all.
The above two points guarantee that even a piece of "business" in this era can appreciate and maintain its value.
There will never be a situation in the future where you buy something for hundreds of thousands or millions, and one day you want to resell it and send it to auction only to find that they won't accept it at all.
Third, under this system, since old artists no longer have any hope of getting rich through their skills, they turn to seeking fame and pursuing their technical realm and interest.
Most of them no longer make ordinary products, but focus on the production of specialized gifts for state guests.
After the reform and opening up, the skills competition and certification activities were resumed. They all strive to create works with obvious personal styles that can reflect their own artistic achievements.
In order to win a few more awards before retiring, and to win honors for several factories.
So during this period, there was a real pursuit of artistic standards, immersed in personal emotions, and national treasure-level masterpieces that were not seeking profit one after another, like a hundred flowers blooming.
If we really want to objectively describe the current situation of the jade production and sales market, we can only say that the products are out of touch and out of touch with the market.
In addition to the proliferation of ordinary products of average quality, there are also top quality products beyond ordinary people's imagination.
There are no outright shoddy products or fakes, nor are there any excessive levels at different levels.
So how to catch the last train and buy rare and rare high-quality products at a relatively affordable price has become a question that Hong Yanwu has to consider, and it is the goal he strives to achieve.