We know that from ancient times to the present, there are no China people in the list of the top ten richest people in the world. Historically, there was a man from China. He used to be the richest man in the world. His name is Wu Bingjian, also called Wu Dunyuan. He was from Fujian and a businessman in Guangzhou in the Qing Dynasty. Wu Bingjian's ancestors were tea farmers, not rich people. Wu Bingjian has his own business, Yihehang, which deals in silk, tea and porcelain. What he does is a combination of Chinese and western.
How rich is Wu Bingjian? His private assets have reached 26 million silver dollars. We know that the Grand View Garden in A Dream of Red Mansions can be compared with it. Wu Bingjian is famous internationally because he has invested in many foreign industries and done business with foreigners.
We know that Emperor Kangxi relaxed the policy of overseas communication and prohibition, and many China people did business with foreigners. At this time, "Guangzhou Thirteen Lines" was born. The Qing dynasty closed its doors to the world. At that time, Guangzhou was the only port for foreign trade, but it had to pay huge tariffs to the government. Wu Bingjian's Yihe belongs to the thirteenth line.
Wu Bingjian's Jardine Matheson is engaged in serious business such as tea and porcelain. However, in order to make money, the foreign businessmen guaranteed by the Wu family mixed opium into the goods. The Wu took the initiative to hand over opium, but Lin Zexu took many Wu people away for trial. When the Opium War broke out, thirteen businessmen, including Jardine Matheson, all donated assets to help the government, but there was nothing they could do. Then Wu Bingjian died, and the thirteenth line began to decline.