Hu Xueyan, a famous red-topped merchant in the late Qing Dynasty, was at his most brilliant time, wearing a yellow coat, and set up a Semicolon of Fukang Qianzhuang throughout the country, known as the God of Living Wealth, who crisscrossed shopping malls and officialdoms all his life, and was an iconic figure of that era.
Hu Xueyan
His life is an inspirational legend, but he has only a few days from peak to bankruptcy, and many people say that Hu Xueyan was defeated by local bureaucrats, defeated by the collapse of the gold lord behind him, and defeated by the suppression of Li Zhongtang. And is the real history really inferior to Li Hongzhang's hand as described in the online Shuangwen?
Hu Xueyan's fortune was adopted as an apprentice by the owner of Hangzhou Xinhe Qianzhuang. After three years, he became a guy at Shinwa Money House. At the age of 19, Hu Xueyan was accepted as an apprentice and treasurer by the Hangzhou Fukang Qianzhuang, who regarded Hu Xueyan as his own and entrusted the Fukang Qianzhuang worth 5,000 taels to Hu Xueyan before his death.
Hu Xueyan has the first bucket of gold in his life, if the story ends here, then Hu Xueyan, with his five thousand taels of silver Fukang, can at least mix in the middle class.
However, the turning point of fate came in 1848, when the 26-year-old Hu Xueyan met Wang Youling, the alternate ambassador of Zhejiang Yan.
Hu Xueyan also began to act as an agent for the Huzhou public treasury because of this layer of relationship, and ran four lines in Huzhou. Soon after, Wang Youling was appointed as the prefect of Hangzhou, and Hu Xueyan conveniently had money from the public mouth of Huzhou to raise silkworms. Then buy Huss to hangzhou to sell and realize, and then return the silver from the Huzhou public treasury, this time, without paying half an interest.
Then he persuaded Zhejiang Inspector Huang Zonghan to set up a pharmacy and arrange to undertake the public key business in 1860.
Wang Youling was promoted to inspector of Zhejiang, Hu Xueyan's business was booming, and the silver in Fukang Qianzhuang was growing like a snowball. Then at this time, the Taiping Army attacked the city of Hangzhou, which was killed by Wang Youling himself, and the first gold lord behind Hu Xueyan collapsed.
At this time, the nobleman who really made Hu Xueyan embark on the peak of his life appeared.
Tso
By chance, Hu Xueyan became acquainted with Zuo Zongtang, who was then the governor of Zhejiang and was fighting against the Taiping Army.
Later, when Zuo Zongtang was at the most difficult time in suppressing the Taiping Army, Hu Xueyan sent him 100,000 quintals of grain. Hu Xueyan gained the trust of the governor Zuo Zongtang and was appointed as a Caiyun official, presiding over the aftermath of the siege of Hangzhou City, as well as the money and food and military salaries of Zhejiang Province. Hu Xueyan became Zuo Zongtang's money bag.
In 1864, after the Qing army captured Zhejiang, the general stored all the looted things, no matter how big or small, in Hu Xueyan's money house. After the Taiping Army was destroyed, Hu Xueyan's Fukang Qianzhuang marched into the city of Hangzhou. After specially organizing military salaries and arms for Zuo Zongtang, Hu Xueyan relied on his status as a businessman and friend to set up businesses in various provinces and at the same time to engage in medicinal materials and silk tea business.
Hu Xueyan assisted Zuo Zongtang in opening the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau in Fuzhou, establishing the first new shipyard in Chinese history. Hu Xueyan experienced great winds and waves, and before he died, he told the descendants of the Hu clan not to do business first, the second endless eunuch, and the third lake for generations of unmarried. After saying these words, Hu Xueyan quietly broke off in a broken thatched hut in Hangzhou.
When a person reaches the top, if there is no way to maintain it, then it can only start to decline.
At that time, Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang had different political ideas, and the friction became more and more large. Later, it came to the point where old and dead did not interact with each other.
Sheng Xuanhuai
At that time, Li Hongzhang had the support of Sheng Xuanhuai behind him, and Zuo Zongtang could be said to be on a par with Zuo Zongtang. Li Hongzhang understood that if he wanted to overthrow Zuo Zongtang, then he must first kill Hu Xueyan.
In 1882, he finally waited for this opportunity. At that time, Hu Xueyan spent nearly 20 million taels of silver to buy raw silk on the market.
However, this batch of raw silk also became Hu Xueyan's catalyst. Hu Xueyan originally wanted to use these raw silk to rectify the market, but he did not expect that the production of raw silk in Europe was very good, and he lost in this game. Later, Sheng Xuanhuai inserted a foot, and in just a few days, Hu Xueyan lost ten million taels of silver.
In 1872, more than 20 branches of Fukang Bank and more than 20 million grains in Jiangnan were distributed all over the world.
In 1873, Zuo Zongtang, then governor of Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, was awarded the Sichuan Yellow Jacket for his public sacrifice as a backup road for Jiangxi Province. Zuo Zongtang, then governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, prepared to send troops to retake Xinjiang, but at this time the imperial court's finances were also captured.
Lady Zheng promised to go all out to recover Xinjiang, but Zuo Zongtang only received five million taels of military expenses, and the rest was borrowed by Zuo Zongtang himself. Therefore, Hu Xueyan played this role again. He borrowed 18.7 million taels of silver six times, guaranteed by the taxes of the Customs of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong, to solve the problem of funding the army in western China. But at the same time, he has enough rebates and commissions.
In 1874, Hu Xueyan founded the Huqing Yutang Medicine, and in just a few years, the capital of Hu qingyutang reached 2.8 million taels of silver. There is Tongren Hall in the north, Qingyu Hall in the south, and echoing from north to south, Hu Xueyan has become a poison in Jiangnan. Title of Emperor.
William Sanders' sitting photograph of Li Hongzhang in 1860
In 1881, Hu Xueyan was awarded the title of Third Grade Chief Division for his exploits in helping Zuo Zongtang recover Xinjiang. Wearing a yellow jacket and a second-class red tunic, he was responsible for the public finances of four provinces. At this time, Hu Xueyan was the highest peak in his life. He had a large amount of official capital and could be said to have ranked first in the late Qing dynasty business community. However, people's greed is endless.
Hu Xueyan was a businessman who was characterized by a gambler. For decades, Hu Xueyan leaned on the gecko in the official arena, and his stomach grew too fast, a little swollen, and his appetite grew bigger and bigger. At that time, due to the establishment of mechanical reeling factories in Shanghai by various countries. The productivity and quality of traditional Chinese handicrafts in the South simply cannot compete with mechanical reeling mills. In order to further plunder China's cheap labor, the Mianyang people tried to lower the price of new singles and increase the number of sessions, thereby grabbing huge profits from export prices.
It is forgivable that in the South, the industry is booming, which has also dropped the acquisition price to half of what it was, which is a very anomalous market phenomenon. At this time, Hu Xueyan, who had a huge amount of money, keenly discovered this business opportunity. In addition, it is reported that in the past two years, the production and hardness of capital in Europe have been seriously reduced, Hu Xueyan decided to play a high-profile role with his own financial resources, and the hoarded silk has gained the ability to bargain with foreign investors, he sent people to the peasants to buy a large number of deep shi, so he took all the funds that could be transferred, monopolized almost all the silk that could be monopolized. There was no room left for them, and when they wanted to buy one or two, they couldn't. In desperation, Yang Chang lowered his head and expressed his willingness to buy silk from Hu Xueyan's 10 million grains, but Hu Xueyan killed him and had to ask for 12 million grains.
Just as the trade war was about to be won, the results took a sudden change, Europe suddenly harvested Italian raw silk, the boss of the Chinese production department began to waver, not to mention the sudden change in Vietnam's political situation, and the news that the French army was going to attack Shanghai blossomed everywhere in Shanghai.
Foreign banks and Shanxi Ticketing Banks have withdrawn short-term loans, and the financial crisis around the market has suddenly erupted. Faced with this situation, Hu Xueyan had to start selling, and the price plummeted all the way. Even more deadly, banks fled for fear of war.
All other private capital followed suit, and at this time, Zuo Zongtang, who was behind Hu Xueyan, was also transferred to Liangjiang.
Li Hongzhang, a political elder, acted decisively, demanding that Sheng Xuanhuai cut off the source of Shanghai's official chief operating officer, cut off the largest source of funds for Hu Xueyan Qianzhuang, and then encouraged bureaucrats everywhere to withdraw their deposits.
The group extorted and extorted, and the left must first pour Hu, and Li Hongzhang did not want to give Hu Xueyan half a chance to breathe.
He sent someone to report to the imperial court that the two silver deposits in the Fukang Qianzhuang by Shangshu Wenyu of the Punishment Department were of unknown origin, and for Cixi, this was the best time to overthrow the general.
Finally, the imperial court ordered that the amount of money be recovered in full for public use, and the personal claims of the officials became the claims of the government. This method came and went, and finally Fukang Qianzhuang apologized for the payment of 12 million vehicles.
Fukang Qianzhuang declared bankruptcy in just a few days. Subsequently, the Qing court ordered the seizure of Hu Xueyan's assets to cover debts. A few days later, the Qing court again issued an edict to dismiss Hu Xueyan and ask Zuo Zongtang to recover Hu Xueyan's arrears.
Two months later, the Qing court once again issued a decree urging Zuo Zongtang to step up the liquidation of all Hu Xueyan's money, the scriptures were confiscated, the merchants suffered heavy losses in this battle, and at the same time, Xu Rui, the richest man who was engaged in real estate in Shanghai at the time, also went bankrupt in this crisis.
Good Fukang Money House
Unfortunately, the Qing government at that time did not try to maintain the credit base of the financial market, but tried to give priority to compensation and ensure that its immediate interests were not damaged.
In 1885, Zuo Zongtang died of illness in Fuzhou. In November of the same year, Hu Xueyan was depressed in the balance of balance, and his coffin was buried by his family in a pile of rocks under the mountains in the western suburbs of Hangzhou, and it was not discovered until a hundred years later. And his business empire was ultimately left with only Hu Qingyutang.
Strictly speaking, under this economic crisis, if Hu Xueyan had not suddenly run on the situation, if the dragonfly had not been paid first after the fact, Hu Xueyan would not have been defeated so badly. And the dragonfly will be stirring at this time, and it is difficult not to suspect that there is no one behind it. After the collapse of drum studies, Sheng Xuanhuai, a foreign affairs cadre under Li Hongzhang, rose with it.
Conclusion: For businessmen, the issue of taking sides is of paramount importance, not to mention that Sheng Xuanhuai, a person who has changed from politics to business, the forces behind him, which are comparable to those of private wild merchants, are really becoming official businessmen and defeating official businessmen.