Wu Bingjian, higher recognized within the west as ‘Houqua’, or generally ‘Howqua’, was essentially the most profitable Chinese language service provider of his day. As chief of the Cohong (gonghang), the guild of Chinese language merchants that had been licensed within the late 18th century by the Qing courtroom to supervise commerce with Western retailers at Canton (Guangzhou), he was directly the richest man on this planet. In 1834, Wu’s private wealth was estimated at 26 million Mexican silver {dollars} (£6.24 million then, round (£680 million at this time). To place this wealth in perspective, the up to date European financier Nathan Rotschild held capital equal to US $5.3 million (round £1.06 million) in 1828. Wu’s extraordinary capability to keep up a fancy stability between his enterprise pursuits, the Qing courtroom and his Western companions, made him essentially the most importnat participant in Western nations’ commerce with China for over half a century.
That’s from the brand new and fairly attention-grabbing Creators of Fashionable China: 100 Lives from Empire to Republic 1796-1912, edited by Jessican Harrison-Corridor and Julia Lovell.
