In 1842, the 2-year Opium War finally ended, and the Manchu Qing government compensated British imperialism with 21 million silver, which is equivalent to half a year's national financial revenue.
This year, Hu Xueyan was 19 years old, and he came to Hangzhou from his hometown in Anhui Province several years ago to work, working as a zero-hour worker in a bank, and the specific work was to pour urine pots and so on. But he never expected that in the days to come, his family property would reach 30 million taels of silver. In this way, he began to pour the urinal pot for 3 years with joy, and soon after he turned into a regular worker, he had a stable income from then on, and the family also gained a firm foothold in Hangzhou City. However, at work, Hu Xueyan knew a down-and-out literati Wang Youling. He thought that he had helped Wang Youling now, and would repay him when he stepped straight into the clouds one day. So he made up his mind to gamble and gave the 500 taels of silver he had earned to the other party to help him go to Beijing to buy officials. At this time, God really opened his eyes, and Wang Youling successfully entered Beijing to buy officials and became the deputy director of the Zhejiang Shipping Bureau. But Hu Xueyan here was expelled, so he went to a brothel to continue pouring urinal pots. At this time, by chance, Deputy Director Wang Youling met Hu Xueyan, in order to repay him, Wang Youling helped him open the Fukang Bank, and then he followed Wang Youling to continuous promotion, his business became bigger and bigger, in addition to the bank also opened many shops. In this way, his reputation grew and his banking business continued to flow.
However, in the early stage of entrepreneurship, Hu Xueyan gave yunxiang sold into the brothel to Wang Youling as a Shunshui favor because of his father's imprisonment, at this time Wang Youling was more important to him, and at the same time, he also got the loyal eyeliner of ruexiang, and from then on grasped Wang Youling's deeds! This transaction can be described as a seamless transaction for Hu Xueyan, and since then, Ruexiang has become his first chip to success. Time flies so fast! During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Second Opium War, Hu Xueyan hooked up with the military circles again, and a lot of military expenses began to be deposited in his bank. In 1861, when the Taiping Army attacked Hangzhou, he began to purchase and transport 100,000 stones of grain and ordnance from Shanghai to receive the troops of Zuo Zongtang, the commander-in-chief of the Zhejiang Theater, and Zuo Zongtang also entrusted him as the general manager, serving as the grain and ordnance of the province. Therefore, he mastered more than half of Zhejiang's wartime economy, and this also laid a good foundation for his later development.
Then around 1866, Zuo Zongtang was ordered to go west to xinjiang to fund the problem, Zuo Zongtang had no choice but to borrow foreign money from foreign banks, so the task of borrowing money fell on Hu Xueyan's shoulders, he lived up to expectations, successively loaned 18.7 million taels of silver, of which the commission he received in the process of loan was about 2.88 million taels of silver, although he ate some kickbacks, but in general, he made great contributions to the country's successful recovery of Xinjiang and the completion of Agubai's rough control of Xinjiang! Just when he was 60 years old, Hu Xueyan came to Shanghai to open a silk factory, consuming 20 million taels of silver. At first, he collected millions of cartons of domestic new silk at a high price, but what he did not expect was that the Sino-French war triggered the financial crisis in Shanghai, so he had to start selling at a low price, and the result was a loss of 10 million taels of silver.
However, when the roof leaked overnight, Zuo Zongtang's political enemy Li Hongzhang intervened, and finally crushed the last straw of the camel. Li Hongzhang then approached The Mayor of Shanghai, Shao Youlian, and ordered him to delay for 20 days the 800,000 taels of silver that the government had given to Fukang Bank. As a result, Shao Youlian really complied, and then Li Hongzhang also went around saying that Hu Xueyan was about to go bankrupt. The news came out, and soon a large number of bank withdrawals came one after another, and as a result, Beverly Wilshire Bank began to fail. At this time, the Qing government also began to intervene in the investigation after hearing about this matter, and the Qing government found that the Beijing branch of Fukang Bank only owed 12 million taels of silver, but at this time, Hu Xueyan had already sold all his family property for repayment. Moreover, when the Qing government came to raid his home at this time, he already had no family property. In 1885, Hu Xueyan also died at the age of 63, and his descendants buried his coffin in a pile of rocks in the western suburbs of Hangzhou. The so-called Hu Xueyan has never spent money in his life!