Vietnamese feudal society was based on the foundation of a self-sufficient economy, in which agriculture was the mainstay; industry was almost unremarkable, handicrafts were closely linked to agriculture; foreign trade was monopolized by the state, so there was only domestic trade (small domestic trade). In terms of society, Vietnam followed the Chinese model, valuing scholars, mandarins and the path to mandarinhood, so only a political and social elite was formed (and associated with literature and culture). In the countryside, the elite were dignitaries and elders - those who held political power in the village and were often from one or two powerful families. In terms of economics, the landlord class could be considered the "elite"; As for craftsmen and traders, they had a low position among the "four classes - scholars, farmers, workers, and merchants". It can be said that in feudal times, rural society did not create the conditions and premises for the formation of an economic elite class, nor did it form a team of bosses.
In the modern period (1884-1945), the colonial exploitation policy of the French colonialists invisibly created the premises for the Vietnamese business class to form and develop. Many successful businessmen became patriotic capitalists, such as Bach Thai Buoi, Nguyen Son Ha, Luong Van Can, Nguyen Quyen, contributing to the development of the national economy and awakening the national spirit in economic activities, thereby enhancing the patriotism of the people... This business class - the economic elite - was only formed in urban areas; in the countryside, because the feudal economic structure had not changed, production remained the same; no businessmen were formed.
In the North from 1954 (South from 1975) to 1986, there was a subsidized bureaucratic mechanism. The socialist economy was dominant, the private economy was not respected.
The Renovation and development of the market economy returned the private economy to its place, creating momentum for this economic sector to develop, and everyone was given the opportunity to get rich and become an owner. A series of companies and enterprises were born. Therefore, the Law on Companies and the Law on Private Enterprises issued in 1990 paved the way for the birth of private enterprises and along with that, the revival and development of the Vietnamese business class. Entrepreneurs were recognized as a social class and
Maybe you are interested!
-
Impact of tourism on the cultural and social life of Thai people in Mai Chau - Hoa Binh and development solutions Case study of 4 villages: Lac village, Pom Coong village, Van village, Nhot village - 1 -
Impact of tourism on the cultural and social life of Thai people in Mai Chau - Hoa Binh and development solutions Case study of 4 villages: Lac village, Pom Coong village, Van village, Nhot village - 18 -
Preserving and Developing Cultural Activities of the Central Highlands Ethnic Communities, Maintaining Social Order and Security and Protecting the Ecological Environment -
Management Ensures the Requirements for Teaching Cultural Heritage Education Content in Social Science Subjects in Secondary Schools -
The Impact of Social Circumstances on the Life and Literary Career of Nam Cao and Akutagawa.
was promoted. In 2004, the Government decided to take October 13 as “Vietnamese Entrepreneurs Day”.
However, the Doi Moi process, which has created a strong change in the socio-economy, is only a necessary condition for the formation of a class of entrepreneurs. The formation of this class in each village, that is, sufficient conditions, depends on geographical factors, the history of the residents of each village and the dynamism of the people involved. The emergence of business owners in Phuong La - representing the "elite" of the village during the Doi Moi period - is also due to the village's convenient trading location, long-standing tradition of doing the job, Phuong La people are attached to the job, are adventurous, and have the desire to rise up and get rich...
B. The role of business owners in Phuong La in the socio-economic and cultural aspects of the village
In economic life, business owners in Phuong La have created jobs for thousands of workers. According to statistics from the Department of Industry and Trade of Hung Ha district, the number of textile workers in communes in the district, factories and enterprises is up to 78,000 people. The towel sewing, bleaching, dyeing, inspection and packaging industries also need to employ 7,000 - 8,000 workers. The number of workers serving the textile industry is also up to 15,000 people.
The development of the profession led to a series of rich and developed commercial and service activities in the village, including services for raw materials for production and consumer services when the villagers' lives became better.
The development of the weaving profession creates favorable conditions for additional income for workers when farming is idle. People in communes in the district and province become satellites who come to receive goods for processing at home (maybe weaving, hemming or "picking up" scarves...) and then submit the products to companies and businesses in Phuong La village.
Businesses have contributed money and labor to build schools, bridges, roads and village welfare facilities.
Box 3.2 : Contributions of enterprises to build welfare facilities
Mr. Bui Van Ha - Vice Chairman of Thai Phuong Commune People's Committee: "The total amount of money invested by business owners in building medical stations and other public works in the past 10 years is up to 34 billion VND. Typically, Mr. Tran Van Sen's family donated 1.2 billion VND to build the village memorial, 510 million VND to build village roads and alleys. Mr. Tran Quang Huy's family invested 7 billion VND to build the commune's kindergarten, 3 billion VND to build the cultural house of Phuong La 3 village and the cultural house of Phuong La 4 village".
[ Source: Interview of NCS (2014)] .
Business owners in Phuong La also attach great importance to supporting humanitarian and charitable funds; this is the main factor supporting the restoration, renovation and construction of relics. Mr. Tran Van Quyen - Head of the Dong Communal House Relic Management Board said that Phuong La people believe that contributing funds to restore, renovate and rebuild relics is a spiritual matter, everyone has the virtue to contribute according to their ability "the rich give a bundle, the poor give a tael" : but without "a bundle", it is impossible to make a large amount, enough to restore or renovate a relic or do something "properly". Here, the decisive role of business owners in terms of money in the restoration, renovation and construction of relics is affirmed. Business owners also actively sponsor organizations, associations, etc. to have operating funds.
The positive aspects of the business owner class have been affirmed as an important driving force to maintain and promote the development of craft villages. They play a role in the village in many different aspects of life, can take the lead and resolve relationships and conflicts between their village and surrounding villages. They are the ones who organize common activities of the village such as village festivals, rituals and build common works. They are also the ones who have the role of resolving internal conflicts of the village; contributing ideas and building policies of local authorities. Therefore, there is a close relationship between business owners in Phuong La and the village, promoting each other.
The emergence of the business owner class reflects the increasing polarization between rich and poor, the formation of different social strata, leading to the formation of separate lifestyles, different from the common lifestyle of the community; creating different needs for cultural enjoyment, as well as different evaluations of traditional cultural values and new cultural values and phenomena... easily leading to the mixing and distortion of spiritual culture. In the activities of the clan, there have been cracks and conflicts leading to the separation of the clan originating from some business owners, which we will present in the following section.
3.1.1.2. New social relationships emerge during the course of employment
The previous relationships between villagers were kinship, blood relations and village community relations. The expansion of occupations and the formation of concentrated industrial zones made Phuong La village form new social relationships that had not existed before.
- Relationship between business owners
In a market economy, competition is fierce; therefore, the relationship between business owners is a “whoever wins” competitive relationship. Competition is clearly shown in finding cheaper sources of raw materials, finding better places to sell them, and especially attracting workers, especially skilled workers who work seriously, to their production facilities. However, in Phuong La, business owners are all from the same village, many of whom are relatives, in-laws, etc., so competition is much less fierce, as shown by the phenomenon of workers leaving one business to work for another that pays higher prices, which is relatively common, but there is no dispute or competition between business owners. In Phuong La, workers are considered “ common workers, workers of the craft village” - that is, they can be ready to work for this business today, and work for another business next month. Even the business owners here always support and help each other when necessary to organize the production process well, share workers when receiving large orders, creating conditions for your business to have products in time to meet the receiving place.
Business owners in Phuong La have an “unspoken” agreement to respect each company’s autonomy and not “interfere” in each other’s production processes and product consumption locations. They have discussed, supported, and coordinated in production as well as agreed to make recommendations to authorities at all levels to promptly resolve production sites, discuss directions and ways of doing business, build product brands together, organize human resources, manage and operate businesses towards professionalism and efficiency, etc.
Thus, although the market mechanism has deeply influenced and dominated the craft village, the spirit of helping and supporting each other in the production process is still respected by the owners in Phuong La, still showing the village spirit, respecting bloodline, community cohesion...
- Owner-worker relationship
The scale of production is increasingly expanding, leading to the number of people coming to work for hire in Phuong La, not only in neighboring villages but also in many communes in the district and province. In addition, there is a large number of people weaving satellites, sewing scarves, and "picking up" scarves for businesses in many different places. This helps Phuong La people in general and business owners in particular to expand their exchanges and openness in communication.
Workers here work on a daily basis or on a piece rate basis depending on the production facility and the nature of the work... These workers can be from the same clan, village or relatives, so they already have a relationship with each other; and they are hired by the production owners themselves, so there is not too much of a gap between the owners and the workers. If a business wants to develop stably, it must care about the material and spiritual life of the workers, and also care about the family life of the workers. That relationship still shows closeness and mutual sharing. Many businesses organize lunch for workers to encourage them and also to improve labor productivity; on holidays and Tet, there are gifts and bonuses for workers... In Phuong La, the phenomenon of firing or conflicts between employers and workers rarely occurs. There has never been a case of late payment of wages or discord between employers and workers here.
Box 3.3 : Owner-worker relationship
Mr. Tran Van Dung - Director of Thao Nguyen Company Limited: "The important thing is that we understand the thoughts and aspirations of the workers, share with them and more importantly, create stable jobs with relatively good income, then they will stick with us and work for us. On Tet and holidays, we also prepare some gifts for them: a package of cakes, a kilo of sugar... to encourage and motivate them."
[ Source: NCS Interview (2014)].
Originating from the “meaningful and affectionate” treatment between business owners and workers, the relationship between employers and workers becomes even closer, workers respect and are grateful to their employers, work with a high sense of self-awareness and awareness. Good workers are very much cared for by their employers, given both material and spiritual conditions, and can even be called “pampered”. Therefore, workers are basically very attached to the business, and have a good relationship with the business.
- Relationship between workers
As mentioned above, workers in Phuong La can be from the same village, neighboring villages, or in the district or province. But once they come here, they have to maintain their jobs and have stable incomes, so they always respect each other, have close relationships and unite. Thai Binh is not a large area, most workers go home after work, and usually everyone does their own thing, busy with work, so there is little conflict.
Working together in the same company, the same business, they do not distinguish between villagers or outsiders, they all identify as colleagues, so they help and encourage each other when the family has happy or sad events...
In general, the relationship between workers, whether inside or outside the village, is very close, attached and sharing.
- Relationship between producer and product consumer
For a business to survive and develop, its product output must be consumed well. Businesses in Phuong La consume their products both domestically and internationally.
and abroad. Domestically exported goods must go through a distribution system throughout the provinces. Exported goods to foreign countries such as Japan, European countries, etc. have very strict requirements on quality, so businesses must pay close attention to marketing, expanding product consumption agents and listening to product feedback from the agent owners. Phuong La people are very good at marketing, each business has different ways to create a connection between the business owner and the agent owners, the product consumption partners.
Every year, on the occasion of Tet, businesses send Tet greeting cards to stores and agents selling their products, along with gifts and lucky money, to create interest and maintain business relationships. This relationship is well maintained by Phuong La people, which is also the key to helping Phuong La people develop production.
3.1.2. The phenomenon of separating families and building new churches
3.1.2.1. Reasons for family separation
The Vietnamese clan is a group of people with the same bloodline, or a common ancestor, which has long ceased to be an economic unit, an ownership unit (because it has been divided into many small families - nuclear families, with separate economic and social status). However, with great psychological and emotional cohesion, thanks to the common awareness of origin (having a common ancestor), reinforced by the ancestral tomb, genealogy (family tree), family temple (or branch), ancestor's death anniversary, the clan has created a mentality of clan cohesion ("Nine generations of the clan are better than strangers", "Nine generations are better than outsiders" ...). This awareness and mentality of cohesion has many positive meanings, helping people in the clan help each other when facing difficulties, misfortunes, and when there are great achievements (funerals, weddings ...), in organizing land reclamation, developing production, encouraging education, fighting the enemy, and even in building revolutionary bases and revolutionary movements later on. However, the above consciousness and mentality of solidarity also brought about many negative impacts such as clan parochialism, jealousy and conflicts between pairs of clans in the village (clans with many members - few members; clans with main residence - temporary residence; clans that came first - came later, clans with power - white members). In many cases, large clans oppressed small clans; or between large clans there was a situation of "rivalry" with each other that lasted for many generations, even breaking off marriage relations with each other. Even within the clans in many places, there were conflicts and disputes between branches and branches, leading to the phenomenon of "going to village affairs to defend the clan's affairs, going to clan affairs to defend the brothers' affairs".
From 1960 to 1986, the collectivization and establishment of agricultural cooperatives in rural areas made families no longer autonomous economic units. Land was confiscated and distributed to farmers (from 1955), then nationalized. The economic foundation of the family no longer existed. The family economy was closely dependent on the cooperative economy. Life was very difficult. The organization of the family and its worship activities were therefore significantly reduced. Many family temples were degraded or no longer existed for various reasons.
The Doi Moi process and economic development have created conditions for the revival of clans. The movement of "returning to the source, finding the roots" has appeared in most localities and clans, through the re-establishment of Clan Councils (or Liaison Committees, Clan Celebration Committees), collecting documents to re-translate, re-establish and supplement genealogies, family trees or genealogies; rebuilding or renovating clan temples, repairing ancestral tombs, reorganizing rituals... Clans still have a great influence on the psychology and emotions of their members, still have a certain positive effect in social management, contributing to economic development in the villages. However, the negative effects of clans are still very strong, shown through the phenomenon of "clan party cells" and "clan government" occurring in many localities. Over time, in many localities, some clans have had disputes over succession because they no longer keep their genealogies; leading to conflicts, not being able to organize common activities of the clan, even in some places from disputes over succession and "severing" this relationship leading to disputes over the clan's church, forcing the government to resolve.
In the general context of the villages in the Northern Delta, the clans in Phuong La also have the above positive and "negative" characteristics and manifestations. However, because Phuong La is a craft village, the economy is developed, there is a group of wealthy businessmen, among them, there are some people who like to show off, "like to show off", so the above negative characteristics of the clan lead to an extreme situation. If in agricultural villages, conflicts and "separation" within the clan only lead to not organizing common worship, but organizing at the house of the "ringleaders", due to not having enough conditions to build a separate church, then in Phuong La, an economic base