In the 1860s, the Western Affairs Movement began, and countless industrialists took advantage of this gust of wind to rise rapidly and became rich merchants and magnates in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, and among these countless gentry, the one with the most wealth and the deepest background had to be Hu Xueyan and Sheng Xuanhuai.
For Hu Xueyan, compared with many people, he is a famous red-top businessman in modern history, with an official and business background, and has a deep friendship with Zuo Zongtang, the minister of foreign affairs and the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu. At the height of his value, his personal assets reached more than 20 million taels of silver, thus stabilizing Sheng Xuanhuai and sitting on the position of "China's richest man" at that time.
However, it was such a rich and enemy of the country's richest man, but in the end he was defeated by the up-and-coming star Sheng Xuanhuai, so that in his old age he could only live in poverty and die in the midst of poverty and hatred. So who was this Sheng Xuanhuai who actually had such a huge amount of energy to bring down a big tree like Hu Xueyan?
Sheng Xuanhuai was born in 1844, 21 years younger than Hu Xueyan. He grew up in a family of scholars and eunuchs in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, his grandfather was a Qing Dynasty official, his father was a Qing Dynasty jinshi, an official to an envoy, and he also had an old relationship with Li Hongzhang. Sheng Xuanhuai, who grew up in such a family, naturally received a very good education since he was a child, and was influenced by Li Hongzhang and was very supportive of industry to save the country.
Therefore, in 1870, Sheng Xuanhuai, with his outstanding ability and his father's recommendation, entered Li Hongzhang's mansion and began to help Li Hongzhang handle the foreign affairs movement. Li Hongzhang also had a special appreciation for Sheng Xuanhuai, and the following year he raised Sheng Xuanhuai to the official rank of prefect to facilitate Sheng Xuanhuai's supervision of foreign affairs.
With the support of Li Hongzhang, Sheng Xuanhuai was able to show his fists. In 1875, Sheng Xuanhuai established the Hubei Coal and Iron Mine, and the following year set up the General Bureau of Coal and Iron Mining in Hubei, and in the following year explored the Daye Iron Ore and set up an iron smelting plant. In this way, Sheng Xuanhuai began to rise to fame and became a new star in the foreign affairs movement.
But even so, Sheng Xuanhuai could almost be regarded as an unpopular businessman compared to Hu Xueyan at this time. Because at this time, Hu Xueyan had become the richest man in China at that time, and had also received the top wear and yellow coat rewarded by the imperial court, and his wealth, prestige and background were simply unmatched.
Of course, this does not mean that Hu Xueyan is unshakable. The foundation of Hu Xueyan's establishment lies in the fact that Zuo Zongtang supported him in the dynasty. At this time, although Sheng Xuanhuai's wealth or seniority could not be compared with Hu Xueyan, he also had Li Hongzhang behind him, a big tree that was not weaker than Zuo Zongtang, and from this point of view, the gap between the two was not large.
At that time, Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang had not dealt with each other, and Hu Xueyan's gain of power gave Li Hongzhang tremendous pressure, so Li Hongzhang ordered Sheng Xuanhuai to decide to overthrow Hu Xueyan and cut off Zuo Zongtang's powerful arm. And this opportunity, in 1882, came.
In 1882, Hu Xueyan opened a silk factory in Shanghai, spending 2,000 taels of silver, which was almost equivalent to a desperate commercial adventure for Hu Xueyan, so he could only succeed and could not fail. Just at that time, the raw silk industry was in a slump, and the price began to gradually fall, so Hu Xueyan spent a lot of money to buy raw silk, trying to increase the price of raw silk by monopolizing the reduction of market stock and making the market warm.
However, Hu Xueyan's move caused many foreign merchants to lose raw materials, so foreign merchants also began to buy raw silk in large quantities, and started a price war with Hu Xueyan. At the beginning, Hu Xueyan bought millions of tons of raw silk with a generous family foundation, thus occupying the advantage of the foreign trade war, but the situation suddenly changed, and the Italian raw silk was suddenly high, resulting in Hu Xueyan's inability to increase the price of raw silk through monopoly, and the raw silk purchased at a high price during the price war with foreign merchants could only be sold at a low price, which made Hu Xueyan's assets evaporate in half instantly.
But even so, for Hu Xueyan, who has a big family, there is still the capital to turn around, and at this time, Sheng Xuanhuai gave him a fatal blow. In order to monopolize raw silk, Hu Xueyan once borrowed money from many foreign banks, and at that time, most of Hu Xueyan's money was invested in the silk factory, and other working capital evaporated in the trade war, and the only thing that could make up for this hole was the salary that the imperial court should pay him every year.
Sheng Xuanhuai was well aware of this, so he found Shao Youlian, the Shanghai Daotai who was responsible for paying Hu Xueyan. Shao Youlian knew that behind Sheng Xuanhuai was Li Hongzhang, behind Hu Xueyan was Zuo Zongtang, these two big figures were something he couldn't afford to provoke, so whether he did it or not, he was bound to offend someone. At this time, Sheng Xuanhuai put forward a condition that Shao Youlian could accept—to postpone the payment of salary to Hu Xueyan for 20 days.
In this way, Shao Youlian could nominally deal with Zuo Zongtang in the past, and he could also sell Li Hongzhang a favor, so Shao Youlian agreed. After accomplishing this, Sheng Xuanhuai found all the patrons in Hu Xueyan's money house and spread the news that Hu Xueyan was about to fall, so that they could quickly take out all the money in the money house, so that Hu Xueyan's last retreat from embezzling other people's money was cut off.
As a result, Hu Xueyan's capital chain was completely broken, and he could not mobilize any money to make up for the debt hole at that time, and finally had to declare bankruptcy and mortgage the silk factory. Fortunately, with zuo Zongtang's care, Hu Xueyan's final life would not reach the point of exhaustion.
After the overthrow of Hu Xueyan, Sheng Xuanhuai became the leader of the industrialists, and successively opened the Hanyang Iron Works, Pingxiang Coal Mine, China Commerce and Commerce Bank and other industries, becoming the next Hu Xueyan. Although he later resigned his official position and seized his knighthood because of the Wuchang Uprising, and his wealth was reduced by 70% or 80%, before Sheng Xuanhuai died in 1916, he still left his descendants with assets close to the current 10 yuan, which was only half of his assets at that time, and the other half was donated by him as a charitable fund.