With Shen Wansan's great achievements in agriculture, his story is known by more and more people. At that time, there was a wealthy businessman named Lu, who greatly appreciated Shen Wansan's intelligence and business talent.
Rich businessmen feel that they are old, so it is better to pass on their gold and silver treasures to those who can give full play to their value. So he gave all his property to the shrewd and honest Shen Wansan. Shen Wansan thus accumulated more property.
China started trade with other countries very early, such as Xu Fudong crossing the river in the early Qin Dynasty and Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions in the Western Han Dynasty. These overseas trade activities are also called "going to sea". In the Yuan Dynasty where Shen Wansan was located, the overseas trade in Jiangnan was very developed, and Chinese businessmen spread all over Japan, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Africa and other places.
Therefore, Shen Wansan, who lives in Zhouzhuang in the south of the Yangtze River, was also affected and began to do overseas trade. While he continued to be busy with the farm house business, he used Zhouzhuang, a well-developed waterway transportation, as a base for commodity trade and circulation to sail, transporting silk, tea, pottery and handicrafts from Jiangsu and Zhejiang to other countries for commercial transactions, and at the same time transporting foreign ivory, rhinoceros horn and spices to China for sale.
As a result, his "cornucopia" was full of gold and silver treasures from all over the country, and he soon became the first tycoon in Jiangnan. What we are going to discuss today is neither tourism nor history, but we should go through the storm of history, unveil all kinds of mysteries of Shen Wansan, and draw lessons and inspirations from his process of creating wealth, becoming rich, flaunting wealth and declining.
First, create wealth and become the richest man.
There are different opinions about how Shen Wansan got rich. According to the relevant information, I think there are three kinds of statements that are more credible.
The first is to start farming and get rich. During the long farming period in China, Shen Wansan, like other wealthy businessmen, made a fortune by operating agriculture to complete primitive accumulation. After Shen Wansan came to Zhouzhuang with his father, he cultivated a low-lying land at first, producing only reeds and thatch. They worked hard to make it a high-yield cultivated land. Zhouzhuang area has fertile land, mild climate and convenient irrigation. It has always been a good place to grow grain, rape, mulberry and sericulture. After Shen Wansan "started from scratch", he immediately "opened up farmland houses and happy ever after", so that "wealth is huge and land is all over the world". Dongzhuang Snow, one of the eight scenic spots in Zhouzhuang, once had many huge granaries, which stored countless grains every year. It is a true portrayal of Shen Shi Manor.
Second, Lu's gift money is even worse. As the saying goes, horses are not fat if they don't eat night grass, and people are not rich if they don't earn extra money. At that time, there was a rich man named in Suzhou, very rich. He admired Shen Wansan's cleverness and business credit, and felt that he was old and saw through the world of mortals. If you don't pass on the huge property in your hands to others, once the situation is turbulent, it will become a disaster. So he gave them all to Shen Wansan, and went to Kaiyunge by the lake of Hu Cheng to be a Taoist until he died. The huge sum of money that Shen Wansan got from Lujia made him play an important role in the process of getting rich in the future.
The third is the international trade of Haitong sail. After Shen Wansan completed the primitive accumulation and accepted Lu's huge sum of money, on the one hand, he continued to open a family; On the other hand, he took advantage of Zhouzhuang's "going to Shanghai in the east and going out of Zhejiang in the south" to develop waterway transportation as a base for commodity trade and circulation, and shipped silk, porcelain, grain and handicrafts from the mainland overseas, and shipped overseas jewelry, ivory, rhinoceros horn, spices and medicinal materials to China, and began to "compete for money". All kinds of mysterious legends about his "golden touch" and "cornucopia" on the one hand reflect his countless wealth, on the other hand, it also reflects his superb ability to make money and accumulate wealth.