Mr. and Mrs. Trinh Van Bo – financial “midwives” for the Revolutionary government
Revolutionary capitalist Trinh Van Bo (1914 – 1988) and his wife Hoang Thi Minh Ho (1914 – 2017) were both awarded the First Class Independence Medal; posthumously awarded the title “Outstanding Vietnamese Entrepreneur” along with three other famous entrepreneurs, Luong Van Can, Bach Thai Buoi, Nguyen Son Ha – the “first generation” of patriotic Vietnamese entrepreneurs. His name was given to a large and beautiful street in the capital Hanoi.
Mr. Trinh Van Bo and his wife, Mrs. Hoang Thi Minh Ho
Looking back at history, merchant Trinh Van Bo was the youngest of three siblings, from Bai village, Cao Vien, Thanh Oai, Ha Tay (now part of Hanoi). His family had a tradition of doing business, his father was Mr. Trinh Phuc Loi - a successful Vietnamese businessman in the early 20th century, owner of Phuc Loi trading shop. He married Ms. Hoang Thi Minh Ho, daughter of Mr. Hoang Dao Phuong, a Confucian scholar and also a wealthy merchant in old Hanoi. Phuc Loi textile trading shop was managed by Mr. Bo and his wife, located at 48 Hang Ngang. The second floor of this trading shop was once the residence of many high-ranking revolutionary leaders when they returned to Hanoi from the war zone before 1945. Notably, it was here that President Ho Chi Minh drafted and completed the historic Declaration of Independence, giving birth to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
By mid-1940, Mr. Bo was considered one of the richest people in Hanoi, owning a textile factory and doing real estate business. Although he was a wealthy businessman, his family did business based on the philosophy of "Keep 7 out of 10 dong, help the poor and do charity work". In the fall of 1945, the newly established provisional government encountered many financial difficulties. The Central Treasury at that time faced a short-term debt of up to 564 million dong, while the treasury had only more than 1.2 million Indochinese piastres left, nearly half of which was torn money waiting to be exchanged. At that time, President Ho Chi Minh proposed the establishment of the Independence Fund and the "Golden Week" to collect financial and material donations from the people for the Government. Immediately, Mr. Trinh Van Bo's family donated 5,147 taels of gold, equivalent to 2 million Indochinese piastres, to the Government. Not only that, with his prestige, he mobilized the industrial and commercial community and all classes of people to donate 20 million Indochinese piastres and 370 kg of gold to support the Government.
Speaking of Mr. Trinh Van Bo, we cannot help but mention Mrs. Hoang Thi Minh Ho with her simple but philosophical saying recorded in history books: “My husband and I have 4 hands and 2 brains, we will contribute everything and then we will make it happen. National independence cannot be lost, because once lost, when will the next generation get it back?”
In 2014, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Trinh Van Bo's birth and the birthday of Hoang Thi Minh Ho, the Ministry of Finance compiled the book "Businessman Trinh Van Bo and his contributions to Vietnam's finance sector" to honor the family's achievements and contributions to the Party, State and Vietnam's finance sector.
Buy French printing house, donate to Government to print money
Before the August Revolution, Mr. Ngo Tu Ha (1882 - 1973) was a sponsor and supporter of patriotic intellectuals who wanted to print books and newspapers. He was from Ninh Binh, grew up studying in a convent and was very good at French. Historical documents recorded that at the age of 17, Mr. Ngo Tu Ha left his poor hometown to Hanoi to start a business, working as a worker for the French printing house IDEO. Although he was very young, he had a dream of opening a printing house with the aspiration of being a place to print and distribute human knowledge. More importantly, he cherished the desire to serve the revolution of his country by quietly supporting the printing of books, newspapers, documents, and leaflets supporting the Viet Minh in the years before 1945.
Then he built a printing house named Ngo Tu Ha near the Hanoi Cathedral (No. 24 Ly Quoc Su) and he himself was in the top 300 influential capitalists in Indochina. What is especially interesting and proud is that the first banknotes of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, which people used to call "Uncle Ho's silver", were printed at the printing house named Ngo Tu Ha. "Uncle Ho's silver" was printed and issued in time, not only to meet the spending needs of the people but also to affirm the independence and sovereignty of the nation. That pride and responsibility were entrusted to Ngo Tu Ha printing house by the Government.
Mr. Ngo Tu Ha - owner of the printing house that printed the first Ho Chi Minh silver coins of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
Before the August Revolution, Mr. Ngo Tu Ha (1882 - 1973) was a sponsor and supporter of patriotic intellectuals who wanted to print books and newspapers. He was from Ninh Binh, grew up studying in a convent and was very good at French. Historical documents recorded that at the age of 17, Mr. Ngo Tu Ha left his poor hometown to Hanoi to start a business, working as a worker for the French printing house IDEO. Although he was very young, he had a dream of opening a printing house with the aspiration of being a place to print and distribute human knowledge. More importantly, he cherished the desire to serve the revolution of his country by quietly supporting the printing of books, newspapers, documents, and leaflets supporting the Viet Minh in the years before 1945.
More respectfully, during the 9 years of resistance against the French (1945 - 1954), the patriotic capitalist Do Dinh Thien did not choose to live in Hanoi with all the comforts but left all his property, brought his family to Viet Bac to accompany the young government, accompany the Revolution during the 9 years of long resistance. The Chi Ne plantation in Hoa Binh was assigned by his grandparents to the Party's Finance Committee to manage, in particular, he contributed nearly half of the shares to build the Vietnam Industrial and Commercial Bank (the predecessor of the National Bank of Vietnam). After the victory of the resistance, his family returned to the capital Hanoi, living in a private house at 76 Nguyen Du (Hanoi).
"King of Ships" Bach Thai Buoi
In the early years of the 20th century, when talking about the first Vietnamese billionaires, everyone remembered the "king of Vietnamese ships" Bach Thai Buoi (1874 - 1932) - one of the "four giants" not only in Vietnam but also in the whole Indochina region at that time.
Mr. Bach Thai Buoi was born into a poor farming family, with the surname Do in Thanh Tri, Ha Dong (now Hanoi). His father died early, he helped his mother earn a living from a young age. A wealthy man with the surname Bach saw that he was intelligent and quick-witted, so he adopted him and from then on, he took the surname Bach. Living in a rich man's house, he was raised and educated, was fluent in both Vietnamese and Western languages, and soon revealed his natural talent for business. According to historical documents, thanks to his intelligence, he was sent by the Governor of Tonkin to France to attend the Bordeaux fair. It was his first time in the West, observing and learning about the French way of doing business. Although the trip was short, from the moment he boarded the ship leaving France to return to his homeland, in the mind of the 20-year-old Bach Thai Buoi, many ideas for getting rich were burning. It seemed that everywhere he looked, he saw opportunities to get rich, if he dared and was determined with his business ideas.
Mr. Bach Thai Buoi - King of Vietnamese Ships
At that time, the French began to exploit the colony, expand roads, and build bridges in Vietnam. He quickly found the opportunity to become a partner in supplying materials for the project to build the largest railway in Indochina at that time. The first step was to provide materials for the French to build a 3,500 m long bridge connecting Hanoi with Gia Lam (today's Long Bien Bridge). In 1902, the bridge was inaugurated, which was also the time when he had a significant amount of capital to be able to expand. With money, he spent it to buy a pawn shop in Nam Dinh, open a Western restaurant in Thanh Hoa, a wine dealer in Thai Binh, and at the same time worked as a tax contractor for markets stretching from the North to the Central region.
Long-distance business, it is impossible not to think about means of transport. Inland waterway transport, a business sector mainly dominated by Chinese merchants, was noticed by the businessman Bach. In 1909, he established Bach Thai Buoi Shipping Company - the beginning of the title "King of Vietnamese Ships" or "Lord of the Tonkin River" later. The company initially rented 3 ships Phi Phung, Phi Long and Bai Tu Long to do waterway transport business on two routes Nam Dinh - Ben Thuy (Nghe An) and Nam Dinh - Hanoi.
From renting ships, after 10 years of operating these two inland waterway routes, his company owned nearly 30 large and small ships and barges running most of the northern river routes, running on 17 domestic and international shipping routes, running to Hong Kong, Japan, Philippines, mainland China, Singapore... Notably, in the ship assets that Mr. Bach Thai Buoi owned at that time, there were 6 ships of a bankrupt French shipping company, which he bought back and gave names that bore the mark of Vietnam's history of building and defending the country, including Lac Long, Hong Bang, Trung Trac, Dinh Tien Hoang, Le Loi, Ham Nghi.
On September 7, 1919, Bach Thai Buoi Shipping Company brought glory to the Vietnamese maritime industry when it launched the Binh Chuan ship, designed and built entirely by Vietnamese people, at Cua Cam (Hai Phong). The ship was 42 m long, had a tonnage of 600 tons, and a 400 horsepower engine. It arrived at Saigon port more than a year later, on September 17, 1920. This event shook the business community in the South, who cast a bronze plaque with the proud inscription: “Presented to the Binh Chuan ship, the first Vietnamese ship at Saigon port”. From then on, the title “King of Vietnamese Ships” was born.
Doing big, thinking big, communicating with many foreign merchants, but the mind of the capitalist Bach Thai Buoi always turned to his roots. His great national pride was shown in the way he chose to name his ships. It is said that once, speaking up to defend the people's rights at an economic and financial conference, Mr. Bach Thai Buoi was threatened by Governor General René Robin: "Where there is Robin, there will be no Bach Thai Buoi". Undaunted, he replied: "Without Bach Thai Buoi in this country, there will be no Robin".
His contemporaries and later generations always considered him a national capitalist, a businessman with a strong will, a great businessman and especially a person with a high sense of national pride, a great example for future generations of businessmen to learn from. He was one of the patriotic capitalists, and also the one who laid the first bricks for the country's maritime industry.
“The founder” of Vietnam’s paint industry – Nguyen Son Ha
One of the leading Vietnamese businessmen during the French colonial period, Mr. Nguyen Son Ha (1894 - 1980) was considered the pioneer of oil paint production in Vietnam, or the "father" of the Vietnamese paint industry. He was born in Quoc Oai, Son Tay (now Hanoi) in a family of 7 siblings. His father died early, he had to drop out of school to work as a desk assistant for a French trading company, then moved to work for the Sauvage Cottu oil paint company in Hai Phong. Coming from an apprentice background, but bright and eager to learn, he began to learn how the French made paint. So he worked for his boss during the day, and at night he found a teacher to learn French, gradually reading the entire bookshelf of the paint company owner.
Mr. Nguyen Son Ha - the founder of Vietnam's paint industry
When he had mastered the basics of paint making technology and had accumulated some capital, in 1917, he decided to quit his job and open his own paint shop.
In 1920, at the age of 26, Mr. Ha became the owner of the large paint company Gecko, located in the port city of Hai Phong, covering 7,000 m2, supplying customers from Hanoi to Saigon, selling across the border to Cambodia, Thailand, Laos... and was consumed so quickly that production was not enough to sell. Not accepting that the Annamese could produce good paint at a lower price than the French, the French tried every way to oppress them. However, with the courage of a businessman, he overcame many difficulties to maintain the prosperity of the fledgling indigenous industry.
However, Nguyen Son Ha's business career took a different turn when he met patriot Phan Boi Chau - who was under house arrest by the French government in Hue - in 1939. The meeting had a profound impact on the life philosophy of the capitalist Nguyen Son Ha. Returning to Hai Phong, he ran for the city council and participated in many patriotic associations and committees. He fought with the French and Japanese to demand the opening of the bran warehouse to relieve hunger; he established schools to educate orphans... During the "Golden Week", he and his family donated all their jewelry, about 10.5 kg, to the Revolution. Then, his eldest son died in the early days of the national resistance war, and Mr. Nguyen Son Ha decided to follow the path of national liberation revolution, leaving behind all his assets from factories, plantations, money...
After the August Revolution, Mr. Nguyen Son Ha was elected to the first National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in Hai Phong. With a businessman's mindset, he came up with many ideas to support the new Government in making insulating plastic fabric, producing carbon paper, printing ink, rain cloth, making dry food, cough medicine, etc. After the resistance war against France, he returned to Hanoi and continued to be elected to the National Assembly of Vietnam for 4 consecutive terms and in 1980, he died in Hai Phong.
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Intelligent, determined, daring and with a high national spirit, Vietnamese merchants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries not only had brilliant careers, devoted themselves to and lived fully for their country, but also received the admiration of the French, who were invading and ruling Vietnam at that time.
Thanhnien.vn
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nhung-doanh-nhan-yeu-nuoc-doi-dau-185241009000654848.htm
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