The Wall Street Journal in the United States once ranked the 50 richest people in the world in nearly a thousand years. Among them, 5 people in China have entered the list, these world's richest people in their era are rich and invincible, their status is prominent, at the same time high and powerful, even Shen Wansan, who is known as the "richest man in the Ming Dynasty", has not been on the list, which shows the high threshold of wealth and the thickness of the family foundation of the list!
Fifth place, Wu Bingjian
It was in 1834, and China produced one of the world's richest men. The man's surname was Wu, his name was Bingjian, and according to his family's estimates, his assets had reached a staggering 26 million silver dollars (worth 5 billion yuan).
Wu Bingjian and most ancient merchants started in a striking way, they already had a very thick liquidity in their hands, and then purchased a large number of fixed assets such as land, real estate, shops, etc., which is actually the so-called landlord in ancient times. But he didn't stop there, the business wizard, who also turned the silver dollars into "capital" in his hands, and he went to the United States to invest in railroads, securities and insurance businesses. This layout also made its Jardine Matheson Bank once a world-class multinational consortium. At that time, Wu Bingjian, who was rich and invincible, also had another identity as the largest creditor of the East India Company.
Wu Bingjian's wealth did not make him blindly arrogant. The genius of business acumen coupled with the influence of traditional Chinese culture has made him have a very bold personality, so he has also won the title of "Shen Haoguan" in the business world. A Boston businessman with whom he had many business dealings owed Wu Bingjian a debt of 72,000 silver dollars due to poor management. The businessman has not been able to return to China because he has not been able to repay his debts.
After Wu Bingjian learned about this, he asked people to bring the IOU, to which he said: "You are my number one "friend" and the most honest person, and now it is just bad luck. After saying that, he tore the IOU in his hand on the spot. Wu Bingjian's move also spread abroad, and the heroic deeds of this Chinese businessman were spread in the United States for half a century.
Among the 5 richest people in the world, Wu Bingjian is the only pure businessman, so he is also worshipped by Chinese and foreign business people in ancient and modern times, and some Western scholars even call him "the richest man in the world".
Fourth place, and The Sun
The rise of every richest man is an extraordinary legend, and Washu is no exception, and his life experience, if written as a book, will surely be regarded as a treasure by future historians. There is a saying in the Barnyard History that describes Washu, "When Heyan falls, Jiaqing is full."
As for the wealth of Washu, it is not possible to describe it in two words. His means of hoarding wealth are astonishing and astonishing. As early as he concurrently held the post of Chongwenmen tax collector, he had a way to make money, and he used this official position to collect taxes from foreign officials and merchants entering Beijing, and at the same time, he used the name of the imperial court to confiscate the property of the princes and ministers, and earned fishing profits from them. Later, even if Hezhen was promoted, in order to hold this "money bag", he let his son FengShen Yinde continue to manage.
He Yan was no longer a "little white" who had just become an official, and he used the emperor's favor to pull down all the civilian officials who had tripped him, and at the same time, he also enriched themselves when dealing with their property. In the case of embezzlement by Li Shiyao, a university scholar and governor of Yungui, which was investigated and punished by Hezhen, most of the property of Li Shiyao and his associates was embezzled by Hezhen. At the same time, due to the merits of the investigation, the Qianlong Emperor rewarded He yan with a lot of gold and silver.
Not only that, but he was not only an official, he relied on the power and wealth in his hands to buy a lot of land and real estate in the private sector. According to the statistics of the archives at that time, the Hezhen family owned "a total of 1,266 hectares of leased land", of course, these were only "leased land", and if he added some of his own unleased land and manors, it would be countless.
At the same time, in the later period of his service as an official, he was particularly fond of money, and every year when officials from all over the world offered gold and silver treasures to Qianlong, they would also prepare another copy for Hezhen. At that time, there was such a saying: if there is any treasure that the palace does not have, it may be in the palace of the lord.
It is through such corrupt means and business methods. The wealth owned by Hezhen is valued at more than 800 million taels of silver. If you add some of his antique calligraphy and paintings, rare treasures, it is more than the sum of the 15 years of income of the Qing Dynasty.
Third place, Liu Jin
The Wall Street Journal was still very objective, and the reason for its selection of Liu Jin as the richest man at that time was the same as that of Hezhen, which was derived from embezzlement. Liu Jin was a legendary figure during the Ming Dynasty, an enigmatic eunuch, and the richest eunuch of the Ming Dynasty.
According to records, Liu Jin was a native of Xingping, Shaanxi, whose original surname was Tan, and was adopted by the eunuch Liu Shun at the age of 6, and then became a eunuch and changed his surname to Liu. When Liu Jin served as the crown prince of the Dynasty, he was promoted several times, and finally climbed to the position of the eunuch of the Imperial Household. After Emperor Mingwuzong Zhu Houzhao ascended to the throne, Liu Jin would offer games such as eagle dogs, song and dance, and wrestling to the emperor almost every day. Therefore, Zhu Houzhao also paid more and more attention to Liu Jin.
Liu Jin's authority in the dynasty was great. It can be said that in addition to the current emperor Zhu Houzhao, Liu Jin was the most powerful person. Even in the end, there is a title of "Emperor Li" in the folk, which shows that its authority is monstrous! After Liu Jin's downfall, his family property was found to have nearly 6.8 million taels of gold and 146 million taels of silver, but at that time, the silver of the Ming Treasury was only 17 million to 40 million taels of silver. This kind of corruption also makes people take a breath of cool air!
The second, BoErjin Kublai Khan
The reasons for Kublai Khan's selection as the world's richest man are complex. One is because he is the grandson of Genghis Khan, a relatively successful founder of the order, and he also greatly respected Han culture during his reign; the other is the impression of foreign people, when the world-famous traveler Marco Polo called Kublai Khan "the great monarch of kings" in his biography, and at the same time recognized him as "a powerful monarch with people, land, and goods that has never been seen in the world since adam, the distant ancestor of mankind."
Kublai Khan was the founding emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, although he was a conqueror and brought havoc to the conquered regions. However, he was one of the few Mongol rulers who valued Han culture. During his reign, he revered Confucianism and successively appointed Han Confucians to administer prefectures and counties. Although it destroyed the Great Song Dynasty, it still retained the original institutions of the Song Dynasty and the officials of the dynasty. In terms of laws, Kublai Khan still followed the Han law, established provinces in various localities, and established Zhongshu Province in the central government, which also created the provincial system in our country.
The first, Genghis Khan
The honorific title of "Genghis Khan" means "to have the four sides of the ocean", which shows the reverence that future generations have respected throughout his life. Genghis Khan spent his life in the complete unification of Mongolia, and then fought for the unification of China. From Genghis Khan to his grandson Kublai Khan, three generations of grandchildren fought on the battlefield for more than 60 years, and more than 720 peoples were conquered during this period.
Genghis Khan is the well-deserved richest man and the richest of the five. If land can be converted into wealth (as the Wall Street Journal may have estimated), his wealth can be said to be "unparalleled in the world".
In the eyes of Westerners, Genghis Khan was once on a par with Alexander the Great. He was revered by many and was the greatest national hero in the minds of the Mongols. His life began with the unification of the scattered, unstable Mongol tribes, and then again brought 5 million square kilometers of land under his jurisdiction, including today's China, Burma, Iran, most of North Korea, and Russia.
【Reprinted for reflection only!】 Copyright belongs to the original author, such as copyright issues, please leave a message in the background, delete it immediately】