Camel Team
Camel teams, one of the important Shanxi merchants groups, specialized in transportation by camel, and tea was their main product. The merchant's specialty was that they were in charge of every aspect from buying, processing, and transporting fresh tea, to selling the tea in different destinations.
Shanxi merchants purchased several tea mountains along Fujian, Hunan, Hubei, Zheijiang, andJiangsu provinces, acquired fresh tea, and processed into brick tea, and then by road or river delivered the products to their franchise stores. Their tea mainly went to Mongolia and Russia. The transport of tea was quite a dangerous job at that time.
Ship Team
Ship teams emerged in the middle of the Qing Dynasty. With the development of business and commerce, there was an increasing demand for copper, which was used for minting. Shanxi merchants then began to organize ship teams to import cooper from Japan. Jie's and Fan's were all famous "merchants of foreign copper."
Even though camel and ship teams enjoyed a good reputation, the greatest applause went to another industry: Shanxi draft banks.
Shanxi Draft Bank
Rishengchang Draft Bank/ China Draft Bank Museum
The first draft bank in Chinese history was the "Rishengchang Draft Bank" established by Li's inPingyao, which has now become the China Draft Bank Museum. Later, other draft banks arose inPingyao,Qixian, and Taigu. They all were regarded as the leaders of the nation's financial industry at that time.
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