One story told that in the Ming Dynasty, a merchant from Huizhou started his business in East China Jiangsu Province. He offered low-interest loans to the local people. And he paid the same reasonable price for grain to farmers even during years of abundant supply. When natural disasters broke out, he in turn sold grains to the local people at the same normal price.
When asked why he did not make big money in a disaster-hit year, the well-respected merchant said his interests came from the local people. If they managed to get through the disasters, his business would prosper in the future.
Usually, Hui merchants had a long-term view of their business. They knew that benefits came ultimately from customers, so they emphasized serving the customers. Hu Yude, an ink merchant from Huizhou, once found the ink he had purchased was not in good quality. So he bought back, at a higher price, all the ink that was sold to the market, destroyed the rest of the bad ink and purchased again good quality ink for sale.
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