Top Ten Businessmen in the Late Qing Dynasty

During the more than 100 years since the Qing Dynasty slid from its peak to its collapse, there was a group of people who were sharper than the court and more realistic than history books. They used silver, account books and contracts to write another "business history" of the late Qing Dynasty. From Wu Bingjian, who "made the world's richest man in one breath" in Guangzhou Thirteen Banks, to Qiao Zhiyong and Wang Chi, the "godfathers of bank accounts" who sit in Pingyao and regulate the world's money; From Hu Xueyan, who wore a red hat and dominated the officialdom and the financial world, to Tang Tingshu and Sheng Xuanhuai, who were ups and downs in the wave of Westernization; Then Xu Run, Ye Chengzhong, Zhang Bishi, and Zhang Jian, who staked their country's future on the Shanghai real estate market, Nanyang Industrial, and Nantong Cotton Mills—these ten people held up the last "money-making space" of the precarious Qing Dynasty. This book takes the "Top Ten Businessmen of the Late Qing Dynasty" as the main line. It not only tells how they made their fortune, but also how they bet on the court and got involved in power. Here you will see: How does the world's richest man do global business in a closed system? How did the bank account turn a remote Shanxi province into the "financial center" of the Qing Empire? Will the red-top businessman and the Minister of Foreign Affairs cooperate to achieve win-win results, or are they each other's pawns? Is "saving the country through industry" an ideal, or is it a forced last resort? By understanding these ten businessmen, you can understand the ruptures and transformations of the late Qing economy, and understand the tortuous path that Chinese businessmen took from "valuing righteousness over profit" to "surviving through profit" and then "surviving through industry." The rise and fall of the late Qing Dynasty is not only written in politics, but also on the backs of banknotes, the sound of ship whistles, and every "bet" transaction.