Chapter 58 China Fashion Exhibition

  Zhang Zhen's face was flushed with excitement, his spirit revitalized. Since partnering with the Huadong Group to establish a textile company in the trust model, his career had taken off even further.

  Although his shares were relatively small, he was the second largest shareholder outside of Huadong Group. After acquiring more advanced textile technology, the textile company's cotton cloth not only gradually defeated foreign cloth domestically but also began to be exported.

  Especially Jiangsu and Chongqing developed the chemical industry, making Chinese people's clothes gradually wear colored clothes, not only more beautiful, changing the spiritual outlook, but also more durable.

  At the same time, the scale of textile companies was not limited by domestic cotton production. While purchasing cotton domestically, they also imported cotton from abroad and then wove it into cloth.

  After dyeing in the dye house, it was sent to the garment company of Huadong Group.

  Apparel companies directly produce finished garments for export. Many Westerners are rich, and the reputation of Chinese clothing is also gradually spreading.

  Because Chinese clothing is the latest fashion and also of good quality, it uses new fabric developed by textile companies.

  From low-end to high-end, all kinds of clothing are available. Although cotton fabric has a cost advantage for export, it is difficult to squeeze into the already saturated overseas market before World War I, and the profit is not very high. However, finished clothes are easier to enter, especially in countries such as England, France, and Germany. The United States has lower profits due to tariff barriers, but even if there is no profit, exporting to the United States is still a good deal, at least it can support workers' livelihoods.

  As a result, Zhang's personal assets have also been rising steadily.

  This time Jiang Yu came to Shanghai for two reasons: one is to inspect the election planning situation, and the other is for the upcoming China Fashion Show in Shanghai.

  Zhang Jian was a constitutionalist and had high enthusiasm for this election, and his constitutional ideas did not conflict with Jiangsu.

  Jiang Yu doesn't care whether it's a constitutional system or a presidential one.

  After the establishment of the constitution, the emperor actually had no special privileges, so Yuan Shikai was quite wronged in history. The pot of "Yuan Datou" really carried a lot of black pots.

  "Generally speaking, the situation is very good, we have almost manipulated the elections in most areas." Zhang Jue briefly told Jiang Yu about the situation while welcoming him to the Chamber of Commerce headquarters.

  The Hua Dong Building is ten stories high and covers a large area. Although it is also a modern building, it adopts the Chinese architectural style, which is completely different from the Western-style buildings that are common in Shanghai.

  Here is the translation:

  The core departments of Jiang Yu's financial group are gathered here, and every day's decision affects huge revenues and expenditures.

  Entering the second floor of the radio station, one sees a flurry of activity inside. The radio is beeping non-stop as commercial and election intelligence from all over the country pours in continuously. The think tanks of the Huadong Group are constantly analyzing this intelligence, then formulating specific plans based on general principles for implementation.

  "In the 130 constituencies across the country, we intervened in nearly 123 of them. In provinces where our control is stronger, such as Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Outer Mongolia and Chahar, we used administrative departments to secretly manipulate the elections, combined with speeches and propaganda to control the outcome. We directly controlled the primary elections in these provinces, which means that not only did we secure the election of representatives to be sent to the central government, but also the provincial representatives were all taken care of by us. In the future, we can use these provincial representatives to pass local laws and thoroughly pave the way for the expansion of our Chamber of Commerce."

  "Hmm! Not bad, what about other provinces?" Jiang Yu continued to ask.

  "In other provinces, we mainly bribe non-party administrative personnel to manipulate the votes, and directly buy votes with money. In those provinces, we generally do not take care of the primary elections, but focus on responding to the re-elections, striving to elect one of our members of Congress in each district. The price of a vote in the primary election is only two to five cents, generally five cents in the rich Jiangsu province, and two cents in poorer provinces. As for the price of votes in the re-election, it is not clear yet, but it should not exceed 300 yuan per vote. This time, the big election spent 80 million yuan, and the members of the East China Chamber of Commerce raised 200 million yuan, which means that on average, we can allocate 2.2 million yuan in funds for each electoral district, while in the provinces of East China and the Yangtze River Delta region, we don't need to spend much money at all. Those electoral districts that do need to spend money can get more than 3 million yuan in funding on average, which is a very sufficient amount."

  300,000 yuan, should pay for a constituency, who is the opponent?

  Taking 300 yuan per vote as an example, you can buy 1,000 votes and concentrate these votes on a few people, so it's not a problem to be elected to the National People's Congress.

  Jiang Yu then searched online and found that in general, if you get over a hundred votes, you can usually become a member of the National Assembly.

  Zhang Jue continued to say to Jiang Yu: "And we have been in contact with some scholars and gentry who are interested in participating in politics. Due to your high prestige, General, most of the scholars and gentry are willing to cooperate with the Huadong Chamber of Commerce. In addition, we have also won over many members of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. The organizational ability of the Republican Party is relatively low, although they have a large number of people, but internally they are at odds with each other, and we have taken advantage of this to infiltrate them. The leader of the Democratic Party, Tang Hualong, also has the intention of cooperating with us, and we are currently in detailed negotiations with him. If we can win him over, then controlling the members of Congress will be a done deal."

  "Ah! Not bad, not bad, let Zhang Lao take care of the election matters." Jiang Yu was very happy and manipulated the House of Representatives to grasp the legislative power. "In addition, in the first session of Congress, our controlled members only need to listen and support some who can actively participate in politics and are relatively upright. In the second session, we will screen out those who occupy the position but do not contribute, and elect new members to supplement."

  "Hmm! This method is bound to be implemented. If the National Assembly is composed of some idle and incompetent people, I'm afraid they will be criticized by the people." Zhang Jianyuan fully agreed.

  However, listening is always a prerequisite, and as long as you listen, the Huadong Chamber of Commerce will secretly provide an annual subsidy of 1,000 to 5,000 yuan.

  A nicer way of putting it is "subsidy", a less nice way is "bribery".

  Special interest groups control Congress, which is almost universally acknowledged in America.

  In the United States, no matter what party you are in, without the support of financial groups, you can't go far. The struggles between the Republican and Democratic parties are actually just political performances.

  The East China Chamber of Commerce had just intervened at this time and was not thoroughly controlled by the parties, but this was only a matter of time.

  On that day, Jiang Yu inspected the East China Mansion and then went to attend the Chinese Fashion Exhibition held in Shanghai County.

  This fashion exhibition has invited media, institutions and businessmen from all over the world to participate, and it is held on a large scale.

  And this exhibition will be held under the name of Estee Lauder, which is now a leader in global fashion and cosmetics. Since Estee Lauder is holding a fashion show in Shanghai, China, it's naturally a top event in the fashion world, receiving high attention from the industry, with many sending representatives to attend.

  In terms of venue, scale, stage and lighting, this fashion exhibition has reached the world's top level, making foreigners from various countries who came to participate in this fashion exhibition feel very surprised.

  On the day of the exhibition, Jiang Yu arrived on time.

  When the lights came on and the models walked out in their new outfits, there was a flurry of flashing cameras. The clothes they wore were extremely fashionable, all designed by Jiang Yu from online packages. In front of these clothes, people felt that their previous clothes were somewhat outdated.

  Apart from models' catwalks, a large number of garments are directly displayed for selection and purchase by clothing merchants from various countries.

  After attending the fashion exhibition, those fashion comment media all gave high praise, and businessmen from various countries also saw business opportunities and immediately started purchasing these garments produced by Chinese people.

  This fashion exhibition was a huge success, directly leading to a sharp increase in China's ready-made garment exports, quickly making China the world's largest garment exporter.

  The China Fashion Show, held every two years since then, has become a major event in the fashion world. The scale of the exhibition has been expanding with each session, and the Chinese textile and garment industries have also been thriving.

  Don't underestimate textiles and clothing, after all, everyone has to wear them. It's a very large industrial chain.

  Perhaps in this era, not everyone buys ready-made clothes, and many people buy cotton cloth to make their own or have them tailored, especially in China. However, with the development of the times, wearing ready-made clothes has become an inevitable trend.

  The textile and garment industries belong to light industry, which is easy to develop, especially for Jiangsu and Sichuan. China's textile technology has been continuously improving and has far surpassed that of other countries. Moreover, the return on investment in light industry is very fast, and it does not require a lot of capital. If developed well, it can not only improve the quality of life of the local people but also bring a large amount of foreign exchange to the country every year, so Jiangsu and Sichuan are very concerned about this.

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  The second update is here! Calling for collection and votes!

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