The richest man in the late Qing Dynasty, Sheng Xuanhuai: took refuge in Li Hongzhang and crushed the red-top businessman Hu Xueyan

Sheng Xuanhuai, the richest man in the late Qing Dynasty

In the history of the late Qing Dynasty, there was a person who did not hold the highest official position nor the greatest power, but his influence was greater than that of Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang, etc. People are more profound. He successively established 11 firsts in China, including the first university and the first telegraph office. His assets amounted to 13.49 million taels of silver, ranking first on the wealth list in the late Qing Dynasty. Nowadays, people prefer to call him the father of Chinese industry and the father of Chinese business. Seeing this, many people must have guessed his name - Sheng Xuanhuai.

But what everyone didn’t know was that this wizard who dominated the four major industries of steamships (ships), electricity, coal, and textiles was actually a failure at the beginning and failed to pass the provincial examination three times in a row. In 1911, Sheng Xuanhuai forcibly promoted the state-owned railways, which directly led to the road protection movement in Sichuan and indirectly triggered the Revolution of 1911. He fled to Qingdao for refuge. He failed the three provincial examinations and took refuge with Li Hongzhang

Sheng Xuanhuai, courtesy name Xingsun, was born in Changzhou Prefecture (now Changzhou City), Jiangsu Province. The Sheng family was a famous local official family. His grandfather Sheng Long once worked in Zhejiang Province. Haining Zhizhou, his father Sheng Kang was a civil servant in the late Qing Dynasty. He served as an official in Yanfa Road, Wuchang, Hubei Province, and was a candidate for Zhejiang Road. Sheng Xuanhuai, who was born in 1844, is the eldest son of the family. The family has high hopes for him, so he has been shouldering the heavy responsibility since he was a child. He must obtain fame and honor his ancestors in the future. The excellent environment gave him many advantages over others. He often visited literati with his father and listened to their high-minded talks. Sometimes he worked together with his father to keep abreast of the court's developments. Once there was any local book editing work, Sheng Xuanhuai would also take an active part in it. Participate in it and improve your literary talent... Being smart since he was a child, he has already known the eight-part essay well. Given his current conditions, he would definitely be a candidate for admission to Peking University and Tsinghua University.

But God played a joke on him, and he failed in the provincial examination three times in a row. The rural examination is the most basic test for entering the official career. Only after passing the rural examination can you have the opportunity to take the following examinations. However, in the eyes of people, he was talented and failed repeatedly. Sheng Xuanhuai was desperate. Seeing this result, his family no longer forced him. They used their connections to find him a job and went to work with Li Hongzhang. This was the strength of the Sheng family at the time. Even if he failed to pass the exam, Sheng Xuanhuai would still have the opportunity to enter an official career.

At that time, Li Hongzhang was still the governor of Huguang, and he was working hard to reach the peak of his career. As a typical representative of the Westernization faction, Li Hongzhang happened to lack someone who could help him handle foreign business. Sheng Xuanhuai's ability gradually came here manifest. Because he was the son of a good friend, Li Hongzhang initially asked him to be his secretary to handle some trivial matters. Unexpectedly, Sheng Xuanhuai, who had been pampered since childhood, was able to endure hardships and stand hard work in the workplace, which was highly praised by Li Hongzhang. In addition, his writing is good, many documents were written by him, and he has gained a reputation that has been established for thousands of years. After the Tianjin religious incident occurred, Sheng Xuanhuai followed Li Hongzhang to Tianjin. During this period, he was mainly responsible for purchasing military supplies and successfully completed the tasks.

Soon, Li Hongzhang discovered Sheng Xuanhuai's talent. This young man was not simple. He was good at dealing with people and even better at doing business, so he slowly gave him the task of organizing a Westernization enterprise. In 1874, when Sheng Xuanhuai successfully completed the negotiation task of buying back the Wusong Railway, Li Hongzhang gave him this evaluation: he is loyal in heart, has great talents, and should be able to show his greatness in the Chinese and foreign negotiation agencies. After that, Sheng Xuanhuai's wonderful life officially began. He set 11 firsts and became the richest man in the late Qing Dynasty

As a newcomer in the business world, although Sheng Xuanhuai was smart, he also experienced many twists and turns at first. For example, in 1872, when China's first shipping company, the Steamship Merchants Bureau, was established, many merchants chose to wait and see when faced with such a new venture. If people can't wait for people to come and join the company, the company won't be able to operate. Sheng Xuanhuai saw that others were afraid of the risk, so he took the stock himself first, which not only set an example but also reassured the businessmen. This method was used throughout his subsequent career.

Another time was when I was opening a coal and iron mine in Hubei, and I almost went bankrupt. At that time, because he had no experience, the progress of the project was very slow. Someone complained to Li Hongzhang that he was not working diligently and suggested that he be abolished and suspended. Sheng Xuanhuai felt aggrieved and wrote a letter to explain himself, but his superiors thought he was exonerating himself from responsibility. Li Hongzhang, who originally had high hopes for Sheng Xuanhuai, was also disappointed. In the end, not only did he abolish the Mining Bureau, but he also asked Sheng Xuanhuai to make up for the deficit with his own money. In order to compensate for the 116,000 strings of money, Sheng Xuanhuai finally had to sell his family property and became an unfilial son in the eyes of his neighbors.

There are many more things that happened one by one, so I won’t go into details here, but it was in these twists and turns that Sheng Xuanhuai grew rapidly and was able to be at home no matter what situation he faced in the business world. From 1870 to 1897, he created 11 consecutive firsts in China: the first civilian joint-stock enterprise Steamship Merchants; the first telegraph office; the first bank; the first main railway line Beijing-Hankou Railway; the first The iron and steel conglomerate Hanyeping Company; the first university Beiyang University (Tianjin University)... spanned shipping, mining, railways, banking and education and other industries, becoming a solid backing for the Westernization movement, and the assets owned by the Sheng family also skyrocketed. .

How much money did Sheng Xuanhuai have at that time? The outside world doesn't know, but there are some rumors circulating in the market: He has a son who likes gambling, and he bets 100 houses at a time; his wife's monthly living expenses can be tens of thousands of taels of silver, and the noble people in the palace at that time Women only had a few thousand taels at most... It wasn't until Sheng Xuanhuai's death that after two and a half years of cleanup, the Sheng family's property was finally calculated: 13.49 million taels of silver. He became the veritable richest man in China in the late Qing Dynasty. He crushed the red-top businessman Hu Xueyan

Sheng Xuanhuai quickly became a miracle in the business world of the Qing Dynasty, and there were more opponents around him. What I want to talk about here is his wonderful duel with the red-top businessman Hu Xueyan. Before Sheng Xuanhuai, Hu Xueyan, who had a fortune of more than 20 million yuan, was the richest man in the Qing Dynasty. At that time, people praised his wealth with the words "rich enough to rival the country". The two people belong to different interest groups. Sheng Xuanhuai is Li Hongzhang's right-hand man, and Hu Xueyan is from Zuo Zongtang's faction. Li Zuo already had deep conflicts, so these two business giants became bitter enemies. I'll poke you today, and you'll poke me again tomorrow. Finally one day, Sheng Xuanhuai seized the opportunity and crushed Hu Xueyan.

It was 1883, France provoked war, and Zuo Zongtang was sent to the front line to fight. In the past, it was difficult to deal with Zuo Zongtang, but now that only Hu Xueyan is left, it is much easier to handle. Hu Xueyan is mainly in the raw silk business. Every year, he buys and hoards raw silk in large quantities to monopolize the market, and then sells it at a high price. The difference in price allows him to make a lot of money. After Sheng Xuanhuai learned this inside story, he began to operate in secret: on one hand, he bought raw silk from everywhere and sold it to Hu Xueyan's merchants, and on the other hand, he contacted merchants and foreign compradors not to buy Hu Xueyan's raw silk this year, so that he could not sell it. The warehouse was full of raw silk, and Hu Xueyan was sitting proudly on the Taishi chair, preparing to open business. Unexpectedly, no one came to the door. At the same time, the bank came to press for payment! Because Hu Xueyan was very courageous, he once successively borrowed 10 million taels of silver from banks using the provincial rates as guarantee. He would top up the money as soon as the annual rates came up. At this time, the 800,000 taels of silver he had raised for Zuo Zongtang's march and war had expired. The bank kept calling him for payment, but this year Shanghai Daotai did not give him any money. Hu Xueyan sent people to ask many times, but they all said that the salary had not been paid. In fact, the money had already arrived, but Daotai received a secret letter from Li Hongzhang and had to delay the payment for 20 days!

These short 20 days were enough to destroy Hu Xueyan's wealth in one fell swoop. Raw silk still cannot be sold, and banks are still pressing for payment. As a last resort, Hu Xueyan could only use his money from Fukang Bank to make up for the hole. Unexpectedly, news soon came out that Hu Xueyan was hoarding raw silk and borrowing money from banks, and that Fukang Bank was about to collapse. As soon as the news came out, all the big customers of Fukang Bank couldn't sit still and went to withdraw money one after another. Fukang Bank was founded by Hu Xueyan after many years of hard work, and this is his old foundation...

This is the so-called taking money from the bottom of the cauldron, not giving the opponent any chance to buffer and counterattack! It's a pity that only then did Hu Xueyan realize that someone was trying to mess with him! The man behind the scenes is his old rival Sheng Xuanhuai. Hu Xueyan was sitting on the Taishi chair, looking at the ceiling in despair, and suddenly shouted: Sheng Xuanhuai, I'm not done with you! Soon, he died in depression. When the Revolution of 1911 broke out, he hid in Qingdao

Li Hongzhang once commented on Sheng Xuanhuai: with official seal in one hand and abacus in another, he was both an official and a businessman, and he had both sides. He knew his talents and his ambitions even better. After Li Hongzhang's death, Sheng Xuanhuai relied on his own abilities and means to finally become the Minister of Posts and Communications in 1911 (the Posts and Communications Department was established in 1907 to mainly manage postal services, banks, and railways), reaching the pinnacle of his political career. Some people say that this official position was actually bought from Prince Yina of Qing Dynasty. Yi is a veteran at selling officials, and he has a good reputation. Every official has a price, so bribery is not an option. At that time, there was a vacancy in the post office, so Yi bid a price of 300,000 taels of silver. The position of Minister of Posts and Communications was a lucrative one, and everyone wanted to compete for it, including Sheng Xuanhuai. Of course, Yi knew his strength, so he temporarily increased the price: others were 300,000, and you had to pay 600,000.

Sheng Xuanhuai, who had climbed to the highest point, was a little carried away with his pride. Shortly after he became the Minister of Posts and Communications, he made a public announcement, which read: It was proposed to nationalize the road construction rights of the Sichuan-Han and Guangdong-Han railways! If Li Hongzhang was still here, he would definitely find a way to stop Sheng Xuanhuai. However, Sheng Xuanhuai had passed away. At this time, Sheng Xuanhuai's heart was filled with passion, and he wanted to make good use of the power in his hands. At that time, the railways were initially owned by the private sector. Everyone could see Sheng Xuanhuai's little plan. If they were taken over by the state, they would actually be in his hands, and then sold out to a group of banks from Britain, France, Germany and the United States, so that he could make money from the railways. More silver. This incident aroused strong opposition from the masses, and soon road protection movements broke out across the country. Against this background, the epoch-making Revolution of 1911 came, and the Qing Dynasty's rebellion reached its final moment.

Sheng Xuanhuai became the target of attack by the Qing cabinet. They believed that if it had not been for Sheng Xuanhuai's proposal to state the railway, it would not have caused such a big disturbance, and a Sheng Xuanhuai trial was officially held. As the protagonist, Sheng Xuanhuai was not allowed to be present and was not given any chance to explain. He could only wait for the result at home. The conclusion of this trial was written in the "Manuscript of the History of the Qing Dynasty": Xuanhuai violated the law, deceived the emperor, slandered the policy, and caused chaos.

Sheng Xuanhuai was dismissed from his post and will never be used again! He himself has already thought of this result, but he still has a lot to say, and some key issues have not been explained clearly. He has some faults of corruption and perversion of law, but when it comes to the railway issue, he does not just want to make money. It's so simple, he wants to widen the railway and solve the burden for the people...

However, in the face of the imperial edict that will never be implemented and the anger of the national road protection movement, these explanations are in vain. In October 1911, 67-year-old Sheng Xuanhuai had to flee with his family. Where to go? Qingdao became his first choice.