祁红创始人胡元龙的商业经营及其困境——以新发现的分家书为中心

Commercial Operation and Dilemma of Hu Yuanlong, the Originator of Qimen Black Tea: Focus on the Newly Discovered Household Division Contract

新发现的分家书显示,祁红鼻祖胡元龙父子商业经营的资本来源于借贷,属于小本起家者。胡元龙创制新的茶叶品种祁门红茶,迎来新的发展契机,在商业经营过程中善于利用民间互助性的会社组织进行融资,形成茶叶、瓷土、山林等多途并举的综合性产业结构,实现了规模化经营。因时代局限及缺乏新的商业经营机制,其商业经营最终陷入困境,未能向现代化工业生产转型。

The newly discovered household division contract showed that the capital of the business of Hu Yuanlong and his son, the originator of the Qimen(Keemun) black tea, originated from borrowing and started their business on a shoestring. Hu created a new tea variety, Qimen Black Tea, ushering in a new development opportunity. In the process of commercial operation, he made use of the community-friendly organizations to finance and form a comprehensive industrial structure combining tea, porcelain clay and mountain forests, achieving a large-scale operation. Due to the limitations of the times and the lack of new business management mechanisms, their commercial operations eventually fell into a dilemma and failed to transform into modern industrial production.