In 2001, Wu Bingjian, who died more than a hundred years ago, ranked among the top 50 in the world's richest list, this list was promulgated by the Wall Street Journal after careful statistics, among these people, Chinese accounted for 6, but only Wu Bingjian was purely a businessman. In other words, his money is all business income, so he is more concerned than several others.
When it comes to people who are rich and invincible to China, people will definitely think of He yan, Hu Xueyan and others.
(Portrait of Wu Bingjian)
As a businessman, Wu Bingjian has no less wealth than these people. So, what is the final outcome of Wu Bingjian?
Wu Bingjian was born in Qianlong in the 34th year, and his family has been engaged in the tea business for several generations.
In fact, Wu Bingjian's ancestors were Fujianese, the earliest to grow tea for a living, to the Kangxi years moved to Guangzhou, began to operate tea business, to Wu Bingjian's father Wu Guoying, he first in Guangzhou's richest family to do the accounting room, and later accumulated a certain amount of funds and experience after participating in the operation of Yuanshun Commercial Bank.
In the fifty-seventh year of Qianlong, Wu Guoying, due to lack of energy, handed over the trading house to the eldest son Wu Bingjun to take care of. Through the efforts of Wu Bingjun, he finally founded an independent trading house, Jardine Matheson & Co., Ltd.
In 1801, at the age of 35, Wu Bingjun died of a serious illness, and Wu Bingjian, as a younger brother, took over the Jardine Matheson Trading Company.
As early as the reign of Kangxi, the great powers always wanted to open China's trade ports in order to trade.
However, the Qing government regarded itself as a great power in the upper state and disdained to interact with foreign countries. In addition, they believed that opening the door to the great powers would damage their right to rule, so they began to implement a policy of "closing the country behind closed doors" during Qianlong's reign.
After several rounds of communication between the great powers, Qianlong relaxed and agreed to open the Guangzhou treaty port.
Of course, in the face of a steady stream of trade powers in China, the Qing government also made some measures, such as recruiting powerful and well-known traders, trading with foreigners, and collecting customs duties on behalf of the government.
Because Wu Bingjian is honest in business and has a wide range of businesses, he not only accumulated a lot of capital, but also is the most influential person in the local chamber of commerce. Therefore, he not only became one of the 13 commercial firms recruited by the government, but also became the first merchant under the recommendation of everyone.
This means that these trading houses enjoy the legal right to trade with foreigners, and undoubtedly create great business opportunities for them. Tea, silk, porcelain, etc., all the great powers were keen on, had to be purchased from them, and of course, the goods shipped by foreign merchants were also digested by them. In this way, between their hands, the profits are extremely impressive. Therefore, in a very short period of time, many merchants have emerged among these merchants.
(Closed country)
Wu Bingjian, who is good at operation and pioneering, took advantage of this unique condition to grab considerable funds.
Once, an American named Astor heard that Wu Bingjian was a proud man, so he told him that he did not have enough funds and hoped to buy more than 70,000 yuan of tea and silk on credit. He also wrote down ious and agreed to pay off his debts the next time he came to China.
Wu Bingjian had always had economic contacts with Western merchants, so he knew that Astor was a unlucky businessman. But out of pity, he acceded to Astor's request.
As a result, when Astor's merchant ship full of cargo returned to the United States, it encountered a strong wind and wave, and both the ship and the cargo sank to the bottom of the sea. Astor was lucky to get his life back, and instead of fleeing back to the United States, he returned to Guangzhou and told Wu Bingjian the truth. He also said that he would never leave Guangzhou until he paid off the money.
Wu Bingjian took out more than 70,000 IOUs and said to Astor, You are just unlucky. After saying that, Wu Bingjian tore up the IOU and gave Astor a sum of money for the road, indicating that he was willing to return to the United States, not impossible.
Astor was so grateful that he eventually succeeded commercially after several struggles. In order to thank Wu Bingjian for his generosity, he deliberately used Wu Bingjian's name as the name of the merchant ship. At the same time, he also hung a portrait of Wu Bingjian at home, and often told his friends about Wu Bingjian's deeds.
In fact, there are many such stories. Therefore, Wu Bingjian has a great reputation among foreigners and a good reputation.
Because foreigners like to trade with Wu Bingjian, Wu Bingjian's business has gradually expanded from domestic to foreign. On the basis of the real economy such as tea and silk, he also invested in real estate, shops and foreign railways, securities and insurance investment businesses.
By the eve of the Opium War, according to incomplete statistics, Wu Bingjian's wealth had reached 26 million silver dollars, so Wu Bingjian was identified by foreigners as a foreigner." The world's richest man".
(Foreigners trading in Guangzhou)
At that time, foreigners wanted to trade in China and had to find a guarantor. Wu Bingjian has made guarantees for many foreigners out of business needs.
However, the foreigners were extremely greedy, and in order to grab higher profits, they constantly carried opium in their goods. Over time, opium has caused the Chinese people to suffer greatly. Some people of insight were extremely angry about this, and Wu Bingjian became the role of "traitor" in everyone's eyes, which naturally made his reputation among the Chinese people bad.
The Qing government also felt the harm of opium, and under the strong advocacy of Lin Zexu and others, a anti-smoking campaign began.
On the other hand, the foreigners were reluctant to stop sending opium to the Qing Dynasty.
Wu Bingjian is caught in the middle, and he does not dare to offend officials or lose his economic partner for many years. Therefore, he can only try to balance the relationship between the two sides, hoping that war will not break out.
Lin Zexu, as the Minister of Chincha sent to Guangzhou by the Qing government, first made an overt and covert visit and learned that Wu Bingjian had the closest contacts with the great powers.
However, Wu Bingjian, because his persuasion to the foreigners was ineffective, had to pay for 1,037 boxes of opium from the foreigners to be handed over to Lin Zexu, hoping to calm the matter.
However, Lin Zexu believed that Wu Bingjian was colluding with foreign businessmen and deliberately using this opium to deceive the government. In a fit of rage, he tied up Wu Bingjian for interrogation, and then locked him up with foreigners, claiming that if the foreigners did not hand over opium, they would ask Wu Bingjian.
As a result, the foreigners did not care about Wu Bingjian's life and death. A few days later, no foreigners handed over opium. Lin Zexu also understood that in the eyes of foreigners, Wu Bingjian was just a pawn that they could use, so he released Wu Bingjian.
But after all, this made Wu Bingjian lose all his face, and his position in the business bank plummeted.
(Opium Wars)
After the outbreak of the Opium War, Wu Bingjian saw that there was no hope of peacefully resolving the opium problem, so he took out huge sums of money to help build the city wall and buy warships. However, the Qing army was timid and did not dare to fight with the foreigners, and finally ended the war at the cost of 6 million in reparations.
Because the Qing government had already been devastated, it could not come up with so much money at all, so it was apportioned to the heads of various commercial banks, and Wu Bingjian alone promised more than 1 million yuan.
However, Wu Bingjian, who paid the money, still did not get the joy of the Qing government and the people. Everyone believed that he was the "culprit" of the Opium War and criticized him continuously.
Although Wu Bingjian later donated huge sums of money to the Qing government several times, it still did not alleviate the hatred of everyone.
In the end, the 74-year-old Wu Bingjian passed away in the midst of all thoughts, ending his legendary but humble life.
Shortly after Wu Bingjian's death, the Qing government, under the pressure of the great powers, opened the ports of trade in Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo and other places. Coupled with the continuous squeezing of the Qing government, the guangzhou commercial firms that were once brilliant in the end gradually declined, and there was no chance to turn around.
(Reference historical materials: Wu Bingjian, the richest man in the late Qing Dynasty)