China's richest man, a title familiar to Chinese, in the last century, this person firmly sat in the position of China's richest man, this person is Chiang Kai-shek's brother-in-law - Song Ziwen.
When it comes to Song Ziwen, everyone may have heard of this name, and his name can be said to be famous all over the country in that era, but few people really know about him, and even how much money he has, everyone may not know.
So how much money does Song Ziwen have? This has to start from his return to China, before Song Ziwen was born, the Song family was already very rich, on December 4, 1894, Song Ziwen was born in Shanghai, and has been studying in Shanghai since then.
In 1912, 18-year-old Song Ziwen went to the United States to study, entered Harvard University, majored in economics, and after graduation, he entered Citibank in the United States.
In 1917, he returned to Shanghai with his sister Soong Meiling, where he opened the road to Soong Ziwen's wealth, and in 1923, on the recommendation of his sister Soong Ching-ling, Soong Ziwen became the preparer of the central bank at that time, and then served as the deputy governor.
Only 19 days later, Soong Ziwen became the acting governor, at that time Guangdong's financial and economic chaos, Soong Ziwen after more than a year of hard work, formulated new economic regulations, on August 2, 1924, Sun Yat-sen officially appointed Soong Ziwen as the governor of the central bank.
In July 1925, the Guangzhou Nationalist Government was established, and Song Ziwen became the Minister of Finance, after which he was in charge of the finances of Guangdong Province.
After the marriage of Chiang and Song, Song Ziwen stood on Chiang Kai-shek's side and became Chiang Kai-shek's "God of Wealth", with the support of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang consortium headed by Song Ziwen, it is not surprising that Chiang Kai-shek was able to defeat all kinds of warlords.
During the Anti-Japanese War, Song Ziwen also publicly stated that he would persist in the War of Resistance to the end, and in 1940, he went to the United States to seek assistance for Chiang Kai-shek, which was also regarded as his contribution to the anti-Japanese war.
However, when providing financial support to Chiang Kai-shek, he himself became the richest man in China, and once controlled the economic lifeline of the country.
We have a general understanding of Song Ziwen's experience, so how much money does he have? According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, Soong Ziwen was "the richest man in the world", and it was rumored in China at the time that Soong Ziwen had made a fortune of more than $70 million.
American reporters revealed that the Song family accumulated a wealth of more than $3 billion in the 40s and 50s, but what is unexpected is that after Song Ziwen's death in 1971, the legacy left behind was only more than $5 million, which is not a huge wealth at all.