"Alcohol Level" fell from the peak of success to the bottom. What did Hu Xueyan, the richest man in the Qing Dynasty, do wrong?

"Red-top businessmen" usually refer to businessmen with official backgrounds. They take advantage of the support and privileges granted by the government to dominate the fierce market competition, become a club of rich people, and become the ebb and flow of the business ocean. Hu Xueyan is one of the most representative members. What's the secret to his success? Can his success be replicated? Why did he fall from the heights of success so quickly? After the setback, why didn't he get back up and make a comeback? During the Tongzhi and Guangxu years of the Qing Dynasty, there was a house with an area of ??more than ten acres in the southeast corner of Hangzhou. Locals all know that the owner of this house is the famous Hu Xueyan. Hu Xueyan's original name was Hu Yongguang, and Hu Xueyan was his given name.

Hu Xueyan was the richest man in China in the late Qing Dynasty. Once upon a time, his family property was worth 30 million taels of silver, which is equivalent to 6 billion yuan in today's purchasing power, exceeding the silver stored by the country at that time. Hu Xueyan was also an official in the late Qing Dynasty. The imperial court awarded him the title of "ambassador", a red hat and a yellow coat, and the treatment of riding a horse in the Forbidden City. The official position is equivalent to the deputy provincial level and enjoys high honor and treatment. In business, opportunity and environment are very important, but the human factor always comes first. Hu Xueyan attaches great importance to "humanity". As a red-crowned crane businessman, he was familiar with officials. As a boss, he has a lot of experience in dealing with employees. His experience is a vivid example of human resource management.

When employees go to work in a company, the first thing they consider is salary. Whether the salary is generous and whether it is worth paying, with the increase in vacant houses, is the motivation for employees to work hard. Resources for employees who are familiar with the business are always scarce. They are both skilled workers and insiders of corporate secrets. In the late Qing Dynasty, due to underdeveloped communication methods, many businessmen paid high salaries to poach competitors and hired employees who were familiar with their own business to gain access to internal information about their competitors. If you want to survive in the fierce business war, you must win people's hearts, protect talents, and avoid brain drain. There are three main ways to win Hu Xueyan's heart: first, high salary; second, friendship; third, equal win.

Let’s talk about salary first. Hu Xueyan’s salary is absolutely unambiguous. He believes that employees' wages are the same as buying things. "One price, one product." If the goods are good, the price will naturally be expensive. Those who are worth paying the heavy price must be loyal and effective talents. Hu Xueyan's salary is very contractual. He will not deduct employee wages because his business has decreased and his money has decreased. Even if he doesn't make a penny, he will give as much as he can. When Fukang Bank hired Liu Qingsheng as its agent, the funds had not yet been received. Hu Xueyan paid Liu Qingsheng an annual salary of 220 taels of silver and advanced one year's salary. You know, at that time, a dozen taels of silver could enable a family of eight to live a good life in Hangzhou. This really touched Liu Qingsheng's heart.

Talk about friendship. Hu Xueyan is keen on winning people's hearts by giving out New Year's gifts to his employees. In his early years, he worked as a waiter in the Jinhua ham trade in Hangzhou. The New Year's product was Jinhua ham. Hu Xueyan has very high requirements for ham. Because the upper part of the ham has many bones and the lower part of the meat is too fat and tastes bad, only the middle part is the most delicious. So he tastefully gave the middle part as a New Year's gift to employees at all levels, leaving the upper and lower parts for himself and his family. Before delivering the New Year goods, Hu Xueyan personally inspected the ham with a silver needle to see if the ham was fragrant, if the heat was sufficient, and if the texture and color were good. In doing so, Hu Xueyan was very moved by the staff. Everyone is willing to reciprocate with a hundredfold loyalty and effort.

Finally, equality wins. Do you still remember Hu Xueyan’s mansion in Hangzhou? When the building was being built, there was a noodle shop in the northwest corner and they refused to move out no matter how much money they paid. Hu Xueyan was a great man of his time, but he did not ask the officers and soldiers to push him down, nor did he go to the local gangsters to throw bricks to scare him. In his view, the rich and the poor have equal rights to survive; if you win, let others win. Therefore, until Hu Xueyan's death, the nail house remained unscathed. This is a small thing, but it reflects Hu Xueyan's wit and open-mindedness in dealing with people. What he lost was a small piece of land and left some defects in the building, but what he gained was social reputation, which is an intangible wealth and one of the secrets of his career success.

Salary is not important, reputation is important. Pay high wages, employees are respected, bosses are praised, and both labor and management win-win. Ham is a small thing, but it is heart-wrenching. People are united and overwhelmed by mountains, but people are scattered and do nothing. Shaving your head is a small matter, but social reputation is a big deal. Gold cups and silver cups are not as good as word of mouth. The strong who know how to respect the weak are more worthy of respect.

Many doors to success are not actually locked.

As long as we knock on the door bravely and walk in bravely, there may be a whole new world. Relying on "timing" and "geographical advantages", especially "harmony with people and people", Hu Xueyan reached this step and obtained the key to success. But his career failed quickly, which was also related to "humanity". At the end of the 19th century, 60% of raw silk produced in Jiangnan was sold overseas. However, for a long time, Western powers had monopolized China's raw silk trade. This makes China’s rising national capitalists unconvinced. In order to compete for market share, they launched a "business war" with Western powers. Hu Xueyan is one of the protagonists in this business war. Red businessman Hu Xueyan

In the eighth year of Guangxu's reign, new silk from Suzhou and Hangzhou was shipped to Shanghai. Hu Xueyan spent two thousand taels of silver to buy them all, preparing to make arbitrage so that Western merchants would not be able to buy raw silk at all. Foreigners who want to do the raw silk business should discuss with Hu Xueyan and be willing to spend an extra ten million taels of silver to buy the raw silk stored in Hu Xueyan. Hu Xueyan was also unambiguous, bidding 32 million taels. Negotiations failed because of the extra $2 million and $2,000. The next year, new silk was shipped from Suzhou and Hangzhou to Shanghai. This time, when Hu Xueyan ran out of funds, he invited other Chinese businessmen to raise funds to purchase in order to control the raw silk market and force foreigners to make concessions. However, this time, he accidentally discovered "harmony between people." Because a mortal enemy appeared, his name was Sheng Xuanhuai.

The red-crowned crane businessman Sheng Xuanhuai is a popular person around Li Hongzhang. After the China Merchants Bureau, Jingmen Mining Bureau, and Tianjin Telegraph Bureau were established, Sheng Xuanhuai was secretly reported by Hu Xueyan and lost his official position three times. Someone asked, why did Hu Xueyan have a hard time getting along with Sheng Xuanhuai? In fact, they are all used as guns. It is the overt and covert struggle between Li Hongzhang's Huai family and Zuoxiang family. In any case, the two caused trouble and Sheng Xuanhuai deliberately sought revenge.

In order to raise the salary of Zuo and Xizheng, Hu Xueyan borrowed more than 10 million silver dollars from HSBC Bank many times and agreed to repay it every six months. Although the money was borrowed in the name of the imperial court, when banks demanded repayment, they always asked Hu Xueyan because he was the handler. When the money was originally borrowed, the imperial court approved the guarantee of the copper tax revenue of each province, and the tax would be paid to Hu Xueyan's account on time every year. This time, Sheng Xuanhuai told Su Songtai and Shao Youlian that Tang Zhong requested a 20-day extension of the copper tax this year. Shao Youlian felt that since Li had spoken, it would not be a delay to Mao, nor was it a problem, so he did so.

Fresh silk has just arrived in Shanghai. Sheng Xuanhuai took the lead and bought them all together with foreign businessmen, and then sold them to Hu Xueyan's old customers at a low price. This year, there was an economic crisis in Europe and the United States, and external demand for silk dropped sharply. In the past few years, there was a shortage of small houses in the country and the economic downturn was severe. The domestic demand for silk also dropped significantly. The raw silk that Hu Xueyan hoarded the year before could not be sold, and the price could not be paid. It also took up a lot of funds and could not be cashed out. At this time, Hu Xueyan was at his most vulnerable moment due to insufficient liquidity.

What are you afraid of, what will happen. In this year, the Sino-French war broke out. French warships sailed to the coast of Fujian and Zhejiang, threatening to bombard Shanghai. Right now, the Shanghai market is in chaos. Sheng Xuanhuai immediately asked someone to withdraw money from Hu Xueyan's Fukang Bank. He took the lead and others came to withdraw the money. Fukang Bank's bank deposits were quickly withdrawn and it faced bankruptcy.

Faced with the sudden crisis, what did Hu Xueyan do? He did three things: First, he asked for help. Creditors came to the door, so Hu Xueyan had to ask Shao Youlian for help and quickly called this year's copper tax for emergency relief. But Shao Youlian lied that the clerk was not there and deliberately delayed him. He sent a telegram to Zuo, asking for help, but it was detained by the telegraph office controlled by Sheng Xuanhuai and could not be sent to Zuo in time. Hu Xueyan was a winner before, but this time he was really in trouble.

Second, sell the property. In order to cope with the run and repay the loan, he sold the raw silk he had hoarded at a low price, losing 8 million taels of silver principal. He mortgaged the land and properties he bought over the years and exchanged them for silver. However, due to the financial panic in Shanghai, housing prices and stock prices plummeted, and these properties that had been speculated at sky-high prices could not be sold at all. Third, dismiss family members. Hu Xueyan is a hedonist. The mansion he built in Hangzhou was magnificent and luxurious, and he had more than a dozen beautiful concubines. Now, I'm going to be poor. I can no longer afford to support these rich women. Why not give each person two thousand taels of silver and let them all be fired and support themselves?

Hu Xueyan passively did these three things. Not only failed to make up for the debt, he also lost a lot of family property and the ability to continue to repay the debt. Now, he realized that it was Sheng Xuanhuai who was causing trouble behind the scenes. At this time, although Zuo went to Shanghai to deal with the aftermath, it was of no use; in order to avoid attracting attention, Sheng Xuanhuai was transferred to Tianjin by Li Hongzhang.

Only Hu Xueyan sighed and sat on the Taishi chair, his face ashen. Two years later, in the eleventh year of Guangxu, Hu Xueyan finally paid off his debts, but he failed financially and had no capital for a comeback. This year, he died in anger at the age of 63. His patron Zuo also died in the same year.

In a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, China’s national capital is squeezed at home and abroad, and the primitive accumulation of capital faces many difficulties. Many businessmen still rely on the traditional business model, that is, collusion between the government and enterprises and hoarding goods for arbitrage. However, Hu Xueyan’s failure shows that the old model of red-top businessmen does not work. Hu Xueyan left a very heavy lesson to future generations.