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Another name for Hu Guangyong (alias Xueyan), a famous Huizhou merchant in the late Qing Dynasty. Because of Hu Guangyong's contribution to donations and assisting Zuo Zongtang, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, the Qing court awarded him the title of Chief Envoy, a second-grade civil servant wearing a coral crown, and a yellow mandarin jacket. Known as the "Red Top Businessman". Gao Yang, a famous contemporary Taiwanese writer, published a long historical novel "The Red-top Merchant", which describes the rise and fall of Hu Guangyong's life, making Hu Guangyong's nickname "The Red-top Merchant" well-known to everyone. See [Hu Guangyong], there is also a general term for "red-top merchants" to refer to all large Huizhou merchants who are both businessmen and scholars and wear red-top belts. Character Wang Chi
Wang Chi (1836~1903), courtesy name Xingzhai, male, Han nationality, from Hongxi, Mile County. The only poinsettia-top merchant in China's feudal society. Known as the "King of Money" among the people
When he was young, Wang Chi killed his cousin Jiang Geng in a fight and fled to Chongqing, Sichuan. He jointly operated the "Tian Shunxiang" business with merchants from Chongqing and Yunnan, and traded between Sichuan and Yunnan. Later, he and Xi Maozhi jointly opened the "Tong Qingfeng" store in Kunming. After several years of business, he became a wealthy businessman in central Yunnan. The British "Times" once conducted statistics on the world's richest people over the past century, and Wang Chi ranked fourth. Moreover, he is the only Chinese on the list. The only poinsettia-top merchant in China's feudal society. Known as the "King of Money" among the people.
Wang Chi was "young and talented". However, due to the early death of his father and brother, the family was in dire straits. The young Wang Chi had to give up studying and took the 20 taels of silver that his mother had collected from selling jewelry and clothing. Go out and learn how to do business. He bought homespun cloth from Hongxi, Maitreya, his hometown, sold it in Zhuyuan and Panxi, and bought and sold the brown sugar there. With diligence and agility, Wang Chi soon accumulated more than a hundred taels of silver. Therefore, he expanded his business scope, organized a caravan, and trafficked groceries and general merchandise between the counties of Lin'an (today's Jianshui) and Luxi, Shizong, and Qiubei. By the time Wang Chi was 20 years old, he was already well-known in southern Yunnan.
In the early days of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty, Wang Chi avoided trouble in Chongqing. Seeing that Chongqing was prosperous in commerce and located at the hub of water and land transportation, it was suitable to set up a village and trade here. Therefore, he rented a house facing the street and officially listed the business name "Tianshunxiang". Wang Chi's journey to becoming a giant businessman in the late Qing Dynasty has the inevitable characteristics of a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. However, we can still find that the courage to fight and innovate is an important factor that makes Wang Chi stand out among many businessmen.
After Wang Chi died, he was buried in his hometown. The cemetery was chosen on the upper lip of the giant dragon on the Wumeng Mountain that stretches thousands of miles. It was more powerful than the Yunnan Governor Tang Jiyao on Tongshan Mountain in Kunming Yuan. tomb. Hu Xueyan
Hu Guangyong (Hu Xueyan), a famous Huizhou merchant in the late Qing Dynasty, is a typical red-top businessman. For Hu Guangyong's contribution to donations and assisting Zuo Zongtang, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, the Qing court awarded him the title of Chief Envoy, a second-grade civil servant wearing a coral crown, and a yellow mandarin jacket. Known as the "Red Top Businessman".
A brief introduction to the life of Hu Xueyan Hu Xueyan "from a bank boy to China's largest official businessman", from an economic point of view, his legend is not much mysterious, to put it bluntly, it is just "rent-seeking". In the later period of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Zuo Zongtang led his army to suppress Zhejiang. Hu Xueyan obtained an opportunity to meet Zuo Zongtang through his connections. The meeting gift he brought was one hundred thousand taels of cash, "to serve the army." How much actual profit did this type of "rent-seeking" ultimately win him? During the period of peace in Xinjiang, Zuo Zongtang entrusted Hu Xueyan to borrow foreign money and purchase arms for him due to the lack of military pay. Hu handled six transactions, with a total loan amount of Seventeen million taels, and the accumulated interest amounted to eight million taels. From this alone, he personally made a net profit of about two million taels. Zeng Guofan's son Zeng Jize, based on information from foreigners, directly denounced Hu Xueyan as a "profiteer" who poached the country's corners in his "Diary of an Envoy to the West": "On the second day of December, Ge Deli said that Hu Xueyan's representative borrowed foreign money and the foreigners got interest. Eight centimeters, and Hu Dao (at that time, Hu was the chief envoy's candidate) reported one cent and five cents. After all, it's a good thing!"
Because of his contribution in helping to regain Xinjiang, Zuo Zongtang personally recommended Hu Xueyan to the imperial court and gave him a yellow mandarin jacket and a red hat. According to the practice of the Qing Dynasty, only salt merchants during the Qianlong period wore red hats. Hu Xueyan was the only one in history who wore a red hat and a yellow mantle, so he became a famous "red-top businessman". However, Hu Xueyan was famous for a while, but the ending was not so wonderful. Zuo Zongtang's mortal enemy Li Hongzhang disliked Hu Xueyan very much. Another high-ranking official, Sheng Xuanhuai, who was supported by Li Hongzhang, actively opposed Hu Xueyan and planned a run on Hu Xueyan's bank and bankrupted his raw silk business. After going bankrupt, Hu Xueyan was confiscated and dismissed, lost his red cap, and soon died of grief and anger. Sheng Xuanhuai
Compared with Hu Xueyan, Sheng Xuanhuai's career was more vigorous. He successively helped Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong "assist" in managing Westernization, and was awarded senior official titles such as Minister of Commerce and Secretary of the Ministry of Posts. He almost took over many Westernization enterprises that were related to the lifeline of China's economy. He was known as "making sixteen with one hand." A pearl". His remarkable achievements include: He feels that "Chinese officials and businessmen have not been in contact for a long time, and they do not care about business conditions when they are in government, and they do not care about national finance when they are in business."
"When planning the national economy, we must first consider business conditions", and established an investment promotion bureau under the supervision of government officials; in 1879, he established China's first telegraph office; in 1896, he took over the Hanyang Iron Works; in 1897, he planned and opened China's first commercial bank─ ─Commercial Bank?; served as the supervisor of the National Railway Corporation. In 1911, he planned the "nationalization of the railways", triggering a trend of road protection, which eventually led to the outbreak of the Revolution of 1911. Sheng Xuanhuai was dismissed by the Qing government as "immediately dismissed and never used". He was punished, and his property was confiscated by the newly established Kuomintang. He wrote about the helplessness of businessmen and political forces in modern China in his life.
At the end of 1886, Sheng Xuanhuai wrote to Li Hongzhang in his letter of complaint. He made it clear that he would "exert all my energy in my life to help my Zhongtang develop iron mines, banks, post offices, and weaving." In this way, "a hundred years from now, my name may be appended to the Zhongtang's announcement. I would like to That's enough. "He thinks, "How many people can pass down the name of the governor to future generations every time they think about their professional ethics? Let alone others, because being an official is not as good as doing more. "From these words, we can see that Sheng Xuanhuai aspired to be a businessman. He believed that even if he became a governor, not many people would have their names passed down to future generations, so "being an official is not as good as doing things."