Hu Xueyan's life, merits and demerits mixed, here only analyzes his humanity. An important reason for Hu Xueyan's success is that he is good at employing people, learning from each other's strengths and not seeking perfection. He said that a person's greatest ability is to use people. Gu Sixie, a poet in A Qing, once wrote: A swift horse dares to take risks, and ploughing is not as good as an ox. A strong car can carry a load, but it is better to sail across the river. Give up the length and take the short, although the wisdom is high, it is hard to find. Raw materials are expensive and applicable, so be careful not to demand too much.
My family was poor when I was a child. In order to support his family, as the eldest son, he was recommended by his relatives to be an apprentice in the bank, starting with chores such as sweeping the floor and emptying the urinal. After three years of service, he became a full-time employee of the bank because of his diligence and sureness. It was during this period that Hu Xueyan became a rich man with the help of Wang Youling, a friend in need.
Wang Youling, Yu Xuexuan, from Hougong, Fujian. During the Daoguang period, Wang Youling once donated the Zhejiang Salt Transport Ambassador, but he had no money to go to Beijing. Hu Xueyan took a fancy to pearls, and felt that there was much to be done, so he gave Wang five hundred and twenty pieces of silver and told him to go to Beijing as soon as possible to get an official position. Later, Wang Youling met his good friend and assistant minister He Guiqing in Tianjin, and he recommended him as the general manager of Zhejiang Grain Station. After Wang Youling made his fortune, he did not forget Hu Xueyan's kindness, so he funded Hu Xueyan to open his own bank and named it "Fukang". Since then, under the constant promotion of Wang Youling, Hu Xueyan's business has grown bigger and bigger. Besides banks, many shops have been opened.
Geng Shenzhi became the starting point of Hu Xueyan's great development. During the change, Hu Xueyan was calm, secretly hooked up with the military, and deposited a large amount of recruitment funds in Hu's private bank. Later, Wang Youling was entrusted with the responsibility of "running grain machinery" and "managing grain transportation", and almost mastered the wartime finance and economics of more than half of Zhejiang, laying a good foundation for future development.
Besides Wang Youling, there is another person who has also played an important role in the rapid rise of Hu Xueyan. This person is Zuo.
1862, Wang Youling hanged himself for losing the city. Elected by Zeng Guofan, Zuo succeeded the Governor of Zhejiang. When Zuo was in Anhui, the progress of the project was nearly five months behind, and many people died of hunger and war. This time, the invasion of Zhejiang, food shortage and other issues still plagued Zuo, which made him extremely distressed. Hu Xueyan, who was eager to find a new backer, seized this opportunity again: he gave a timely help. In the war environment, he completed the almost impossible task of raising 100,000 grain in three days, showed his talents in front of the left, gained the appreciation of the left, and was entrusted with an important task. After gaining Zuo's trust, Hu Xueyan, as an official and businessman, often traveled between Ningbo, Shanghai and other trading ports where foreigners gathered. In addition to handling the transshipment of grain tables and receiving military supplies, he also seized the opportunity to associate with foreigners, colluded with foreign officials, and trained about a thousand left "Chang" people, all of whom were equipped with foreign guns. This army attacked Ningbo, Dai Feng and Shaoxing with the Qing army.
Hu Xueyan is a businessman, and businessmen naturally put interests first. During Zuo's tenure, Hu Xueyan managed the affairs of the Disaster Relief Bureau. He set up porridge factories, good halls and righteous mats, restored famous temples and ancient temples, and collected hundreds of thousands of violent skeletons; The ox cart that was once terminated due to the war was restored, which facilitated the people; "Persuade donations" to senior officials and gentry to solve the post-war financial crisis. Therefore, Hu Xueyan gained great fame and credibility. In this way, financial resources rolled in. Since the Qing army captured Zhejiang, all plundered things, big or small, have been stored in Hu Xueyan's money houses. Hu used this as capital, engaged in trade activities, and opened business houses in various towns, which made a lot of profits. In just a few years, his property has exceeded10 million.
The famous Westernization Movement in the late Qing Dynasty was initiated by Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang. In the war with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the three men realized the importance of advanced western military technology and urgently demanded to learn from the West and resist aggression. However, due to their special status, it is inconvenient to deal with foreigners. In this way, Hu Xueyan, who was closely associated with the Left, found his place in the Westernization Movement. Assist Zuo in establishing Fuzhou Shipping Bureau and Gansu Weaving Bureau. Help Zuo introduce machines and use new western machines to dig canals. It is no exaggeration to say that Left contributed a lot to Hu Xueyan's success in his later years.
1880, the capital of Hu Qingyutang reached 2.82 million taels of silver, which reflected the north and south of Beijing's century-old Tongrentang, and was known as "Tongrentang in the north and Qingyutang in the south". Hu Xueyan, the founder of Hu Qingyutang, as a banker who is unfamiliar with the pharmaceutical industry, has also written a brilliant stroke in the history of China pharmaceutical industry, so that Hu Xueyan's reputation will not be diluted by time. This is one good turn deserves another!
Hu Xueyan not only founded Hu Qingyu Hall to help the world, but also borrowed foreign money to explore the West for Zuo, which made a great contribution to successfully recovering Xinjiang for Zuo and ending Agubo's brutal rule in Xinjiang for more than ten years, and wrote a wonderful stroke in his life.
1866, the left was transferred from the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang to the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, and was ordered to go to the western expedition. As the saying goes, "the soldiers and horses have not moved, and the grain and grass come first": although the funds of the Western Expedition Army are jointly raised by the provinces, the amount is small and often in arrears. In order to solve the problem of funds, Zuo had to invite foreign funds for emergency.
The heavy responsibility of dealing with foreign debts naturally falls on Hu Xueyan's shoulders. Hu Xueyan intends to borrow money from Standard Chartered Bank through the arrangement of Gu Yingchun, a friend who works as a deputy in Shanghai HSBC. The first interview between Hu and the bank manager ended in discord because they could not reach an agreement on issues such as interest and loan term. Later, under the careful planning of Hu Xueyan, the general manager of Standard Chartered Bank in China, who claimed to be China Connect, was completely persuaded, and the two sides quickly reached an agreement on details such as interest, term and repayment method. Hu Xueyan raised the first loan for the Western Expedition.
Since then, in order to help the Western Expedition, Hu Xueyan has borrowed money from foreigners for six times, and the accumulated juice amount is18.7 million taels of silver, with interest accounting for at least half, which can be said to be a very amazing usury. But judging from the situation at that time, it was worthwhile to take advantage of the situation.
Of course, profit-seeking is the nature of businessmen, and Hu Xueyan can't be free from vulgarity. He used the difference between the interest paid by the loan and the interest paid by Ai to get a "kickback". But on the whole, when the army of the Western Expedition was short of food at that time, and all parties shirked each other, Hu Xueyan was able to stand up and take the trouble to shoulder the heavy responsibility of raising foreign funds and help Zuo Zongtang keep Xinjiang in the Western Expedition, which still showed his patriotism. Although we often associate the word "rape" with "business", there is even a saying that "no rape, no business", but in fact, all business people have temperament, and Hu Xueyan is one of them. After his success, he never forgot his birthplace-Hangzhou, and did many good deeds for the people of Hangzhou. He opened the Qiantang River Yidu. It has facilitated the connection between the "Upper Eight Houses" and the "Lower Three Houses", and set up boats to provide convenience for passengers waiting to cross the river, thus winning the reputation of "Hu Da Good Man". He is also very enthusiastic about charity, and has donated money and materials to flood and drought areas such as Zhili, Shaanxi, Henan and Shanxi for many times. To 1878, together with the medicinal materials donated by Hu Xueyan to the Western Expedition Army, it is estimated that he has donated 202,000 silver for disaster relief. What is even less well known is that in the case of Yang Naiwu Cabbage, which caused a sensation in one's hand and in one's hand, he used his reputation to organize Beijing officials and sponsor money, which finally made a great contribution to the case and made his reputation more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. In addition, he went to Japan twice to buy back China cultural relics lost in Japan at a high price. From these actions, we can see his kind heart and patriotic heart.
There is an old saying: "Blessed people are bound to be in trouble." Hu Xueyan galloped in the shopping mall for many years, relying on the official background, and gradually reached the peak of his career, with infinite scenery, but his final failure was also due to the collapse of the official background and the feud of officialdom. Although Hu Xueyan is a businessman, his prosperity is closely related to the protection of political dignitaries. Hu Xueyan firmly grasped the essence of "enjoying the cool under a big tree". He first started a bank with the help of his friends, and then founded Hu Qingyutang with the support of the left. He borrowed foreign money to explore the west and restored the ox cart that was terminated because of the war, which made certain contributions to the people and the country, thus reaching the peak of his career. As a businessman, he was given a top hat and a yellow jacket, which is rare in the history of China. But it is such a man with fame and fortune and a successful career that he collapsed in a few days and his career came to an end. On the surface, the failure of Hu Xueyan's business was due to his ambition, eagerness to expand, and mistakes in decision-making, which led to the bank being run on because of insufficient liquidity, leading to the closure of its raw silk shop, Gongdang and Huqingyutang. However, the underlying cause of Hu's failure is the attack of political opponents. Although Hu Xueyan was shrewd all his life and kept close contact with officialdom figures, he was a "victim" of the political struggle between Left and Li Hongzhang because he didn't understand bureaucracy, was headstrong and inflexible, and became a victim of Li Hongzhang's strategy of "Left is the top, left is the bottom", which really made people lament. After the bankruptcy of Hu Xueyan, the beautiful concubines who had previously married Hu Gulai for money changed their old ways of scrambling to marry Hu Gulai, lost their warmth and asked to leave with their own private money. Only Mrs. Luo Si stayed with Hu. Accompanied by Mrs. Luo Si, with Hu Qingyutang's meager income, Hu Xueyan spent his old age alone and died in the 11th year of Daoguang (AD 1885).
Hu Xueyan's life is very dramatic. In just a few decades, he changed from a banker to a famous red-topped businessman in the Qing Dynasty. He takes "benevolence" and "righteousness" as the core of his business, is good at improvising and never opportunistic, which makes his business flourish; He has money but never forgets his roots, knows the true value of money and does good deeds. While winning a good reputation, he is also satisfied. In his career, he did not forget to worry about his country, assisted in the left-west expedition and safeguarded the territorial integrity of the motherland; In the Westernization Movement, he also contributed his own strength and made outstanding contributions. Of course, he also failed to get rid of the stereotype that businessmen put interests first, and his life was extremely luxurious. However, after all, no one is perfect, and there are many places worth learning from Hu Xueyan, a big businessman.