As a businessman, Wu Bingjian's wealth is not less than these people. So, what is the final outcome of Wu Bingjian? Wu Bingjian was born in the thirty-fourth year of Qianlong, and his family has been engaged in tea business for generations. In fact, Wu Bingjian's ancestors were from Fujian. He first made a living by growing tea. He moved to Guangzhou during the Kangxi period and began to run a tea business. Wu Bingjian's father, Wu Guoying, first worked as an accountant in Guangzhou's richest man's home, and later accumulated some funds and experience to participate in the operation of Yuanshun Commercial Bank. In the fifty-seventh year of Qianlong, Wu Guoying gave the business to his eldest son, Wu Bingjun, for lack of energy.
After Wu Bingjun's efforts, he finally established an independent firm-Jardine Matheson. 180 1 year, 35-year-old Wu Bingjun died of a serious illness. As a younger brother, Wu Bingjian took over Jardine Matheson. As early as the reign of Kangxi, the great powers always wanted to open the trading ports of China for the sake of trade. The Qing government regarded itself as a big country and disdained to communicate with foreign countries. In addition, they thought that opening the country to the great powers would damage their sovereignty, so they began to implement the policy of "closing the country to the outside world" when Qianlong was in office.
After several times of communication with the great powers, they relented and agreed to open the Guangzhou trading port. Of course, in the face of the great powers who came to China for trade, the Qing government also took some measures, such as recruiting powerful and reputable hong merchants, trading with foreigners, and collecting tariffs for the government. Because of his honesty in business and all kinds of business, Wu Bingjian not only accumulated a lot of capital, but also was the most influential figure in the local chamber of commerce. As a result, he not only became one of the 13 firms recruited by the government, but also became the first among the merchants under everyone's recommendation.
This means that these companies have the legal right to trade with foreigners, which undoubtedly creates huge business opportunities for them. Tea, silk, porcelain, etc. What the great powers are keen on cannot be bought from them, and of course, the goods shipped by foreign businessmen are also digested by them. In this way, between them, the profit is extremely considerable. Therefore, in a very short period of time, many businesses have emerged among these businesses.
Wu Bingjian, who is good at management and development, took advantage of this unique condition to grab considerable funds. Once, when an American named Astor heard that Wu Bingjian was generous, he told him that he was short of funds and hoped to buy more than 70 thousand yuan of tea and silk on credit. And write down the IOUs and agree to pay off the debts when you come to China next time. Wu Bingjian has always had economic contacts with western businessmen, so he knows Astor is an unlucky businessman. But out of pity, he agreed to Astor's request.
As a result, Astor's merchant ship loaded with goods encountered a big storm when it returned to the United States, and both the ship and the goods sank to the bottom of the sea. Astor was lucky enough to save his life. Instead of fleeing to America, he returned to Guangzhou and told Wu Bingjian the truth. And said that he would never leave Guangzhou until he paid off the money. Wu Bingjian took out more than 70,000 IOUs and told Astor that you were just unlucky. With that, it is not impossible for Wu Bingjian to tear up the iou and give Astor a sum of money, indicating that he is willing to go back to the United States.
Astor was very grateful and finally succeeded in business after several struggles. In order to thank Wu Bingjian for his generosity, he deliberately used Wu Bingjian's name as the name of the merchant ship. At the same time, he hangs Wu Bingjian's portrait at home and often tells his friends about Wu Bingjian's deeds. In fact, there are many such stories. Therefore, Wu Bingjian is very famous among foreigners and has a good reputation.
Because foreigners like to do business with Wu Bingjian, Wu Bingjian's business has gradually expanded from home to abroad. On the basis of tea, silk and other real economies, he also invested in real estate, shops and foreign railways, securities and insurance. By the eve of the Opium War, according to incomplete statistics, Wu Bingjian's wealth had reached 26 million silver dollars, so Wu Bingjian was recognized by foreigners as "the richest man in the world".
At that time, foreigners wanted to trade in China and had to find a guarantor. Wu Bingjian has guaranteed many foreigners for business needs. However, foreigners are insatiable, and in order to obtain higher profits, they constantly carry opium in their goods. Over time, China people suffered greatly from opium. Some people of insight were extremely angry about this. Wu Bingjian became a "traitor" in the eyes of everyone, which naturally made him have a bad reputation among Chinese people. The Qing government also felt the harm of opium, and under the strong advocacy of Lin Zexu and others, it launched a campaign to ban smoking.
On the other hand, foreigners are unwilling to stop sending opium to the Qing Dynasty. Wu Bingjian was caught in the middle. He didn't dare to offend officials and didn't want to lose his economic partner for many years. So he can only try to balance the relationship between the two sides and hope that war will not break out. As an imperial envoy sent by the Qing government to Guangzhou, Lin Zexu learned through unannounced visits that Wu Bingjian had the closest contacts with foreign powers. However, Wu Bingjian had to buy 1037 boxes of opium from foreigners and give them to Lin Zexu, hoping to calm the matter down.
However, Lin Zexu decided that Wu Bingjian colluded with foreign businessmen and deliberately deceived the government with this opium. In a fit of pique, Wu Bingjian was bound by many flowers and then locked up with foreigners, claiming that foreigners would ask Wu Bingjian if they didn't hand over opium. As a result, foreigners don't care about Wu Bingjian's life and death at all. A few days later, no foreigners handed over opium. Lin Zexu also knew that in the eyes of foreigners, Wu Bingjian was just a pawn they could use, so he released Wu Bingjian. But after all, this made Wu Bingjian lose face and his position in the firm plummeted.
After the Opium War broke out, Wu Bingjian saw that there was no hope for a peaceful solution to the opium problem, so he took out huge sums of money to help build the city wall and buy warships. However, the Qing army was too timid to fight foreigners at all, and finally ended the war at the cost of 6 million reparations. Because at that time, the Qing government was riddled with holes and could not come up with so much money, Wu Bingjian alone promised 1 10,000. But Wu Bingjian, who gave money, was still dissatisfied with the Qing government and people. Everyone recognized him as the "chief culprit" of the Opium War and criticized him constantly.
Although Wu Bingjian donated huge sums of money to the Qing government several times later, it still did not alleviate everyone's hatred for him. Finally, 74-year-old Wu Bingjian died suddenly in despair, ending his legendary but humble life. Shortly after Wu Bingjian's death, under the pressure of foreign forces, the Qing government opened trading ports such as Xiamen, Fuzhou and Ningbo. Coupled with the continuous squeezing of the Qing government, the once brilliant Guangzhou firm gradually declined and there was no chance to turn over. (Refer to historical materials: Wu Bingjian, the richest man in the late Qing Dynasty)