When it comes to the famous "red-top merchants" of the Qing Dynasty, many people will think of Hu Xueyan for the first time. This genius former folk richest man, from a young man to start from scratch, to the founding of "Hu Qingyutang" medicine mixed with the wind, and then step up to the sky to wear a second official uniform, until finally bankruptcy within three days, his life is full of legends, and Hu Xueyan's business philosophy and the situation of his descendants have also been relished by future generations.
In 1885 AD, Hu Xueyan died, until his death he was not willing, at the peak, the capital of the Hu family was almost rich and invincible, but the disillusionment of this huge economic empire was also like a bubble, and the red-top merchants who had been able to see the sky eventually lost to politics, and also lost to the cold guns and dark arrows, and died in poverty. At the time of his death, Hu Xueyan had been chanting that the silver of the white flowers was the most terrible. On his deathbed, Hu Xueyan left 3 ancestral precepts that his descendants would follow for generations to come.
The first is "Don't do business", the second is "Don't get close to officials and eunuchs", and the third is "Don't intermarry with Li Shi", so why did Hu Xueyan leave such ancestral teachings? Did his descendants do it?
Hu Xueyan, born in 1823, a native of Anhui, his family was very poor, and when he was a child, he could only herd cattle for others. By 1835, Hu Xueyan was 12 years old and had a hard time understanding things, the top pillar of the family, and his father died again. Handling his father's funeral, Hu Xueyan, who was only 13 years old, decided to go out alone, he had been a buddy in the grain industry, Jinhua Ham Trading Company had run errands, and was still an apprentice in Qianzhuang, he never shouted bitterness and never shouted tired, once he finished his work, he would study and observe everywhere, his goal was very clear, learn the skill, make a lot of money! At the age of 19, Hu Xueyan was fortunate to become an apprentice to the treasurer of Fukang Qianzhuang in Hangzhou.
In 1842, at the age of 19, Hu Xueyan was accepted as an apprentice by the treasurer of Hangzhou Fukang Qianzhuang, and Hu Xueyan knew that his opportunity had come. Yu Treasurer has no heirs, looking for the heir of the money house can only be selected from these apprentices, Hu Xueyan is everywhere in front of the treasurer to show his flexibility and agility, and also to the treasurer to ask for warmth. The elderly can withstand this kind of warm offensive, Yu Treasurer regards Hu Xueyan as his own son, Hu Xueyan left this money house worth 5,000 silver after the treasurer died, and Hu Xueyan had the first bucket of gold in his life.
Since then, Hu Xueyan officially opened the "open and hanging mode", he first continued to operate the money house, met a lot of rich people, and then acted as an agent for the Huzhou public treasury, ran a silk shop in Huzhou, used the cash of the Huzhou public treasury to help farmers raise silkworms, and then purchased these lake silks to transport them to Hangzhou and Shanghai, and sold them to others, almost without paying any investment.
At the same time, he saw the business opportunities of the drug store, so he persuaded Zhejiang Inspector Huang Zonghan to join the stock to open a pharmacy, everything was entrusted to him to take care of, and the loss was also responsible for him, and with the support of Huang Zonghan, the pharmacy developed rapidly. Self-made Hu Xueyan did not forget his original intention and often helped others, so he formed a lot of relationships and fates.
Wang Youling, who had once received his help, later became the inspector of Zhejiang, and immediately helped Hu's "Fukang Qianzhuang", Hu Xueyan's business became bigger and bigger, and the branches opened more and more, but at this time, he began to take a crooked road, Hu Xueyan secretly colluded with the military circles, and almost mastered more than half of Zhejiang's wartime finances.
With the advent of the war, Wang Youling hanged himself because of the loss of the city, and Hu Xueyan, who had lost his patron, immediately looked for a new way out, at this time Zuo Zongtang became the new inspector of Zhejiang, Hu Xueyan immediately sent grain and arms, and even funded Zuo Zongtang to organize the "Changjie Army", Zuo Zongtang was very satisfied with him, and Hu Xueyan actually became a second-class official and wore a yellow coat, which was an unprecedented height for businessmen.
Hu Xueyan's business was completely laid out by relying on the heavy ministers as a backer, and Li Hongzhang also knew the truth of "lining up hu first, turning left first and turning hu first", so in 1882, Hu Xueyan's investment failed, the silk business was hit hard, and when he lost 1,000 taels of silver, he immediately mobilized officials to take out the assets stored in the Fukang Qianzhuang, so that Hu Xueyan could not turn around normally, and the business was further seriously frustrated.
Later, he sent someone to hand over the fold to Cixi, asking for an inventory of Hu Xueyan's assets, and Zuo Zongtang was also implicated and had to send someone to seal Hu Xueyan's business name. When Zuo Zongtang died in 1885, Li Hongzhang immediately reported to Cixi that Hu Xueyan had secretly taken kickbacks when he helped Zuo Zongtang before. Without zuo Zongtang's protective umbrella, Hu Xueyan could not return to heaven, and a generation of great wealth came to an end.
In September 1885, Zuo Zongtang died of illness in Fuzhou, and in November, Hu Xueyan died of poverty. After a lifetime of hard work, Hu Xueyan deeply realized that the officialdom is a place of cannibalism, even if you can do business again, you will eventually be gnawed to the bone, the so-called businessman, but a chess piece of politics, so he tearfully told future generations, absolutely do not have anything to do with the two.
According to incomplete statistics, there are now about 200 people from Hu Xueyan's direct descendants, most of whom are overseas, because after Hu Xueyan's death, his sons sold their last property, sent their children and grandchildren to study abroad, and told them not to engage in business or politics. Nowadays, these descendants of the Hu clan are basically engaged in education, culture and other related work, far from the public eye.