How did Hoa Than become one of the richest people in the world?

Hoa Than was known as the "first tour de force" of the Qing Dynasty. According to the Wall Street Journal, he is also one of the 50 richest people in the world thanks to ways of making money that will surprise posterity.

He Than (1750 - 1799) was one of the most important people under the Qianlong emperor, considered the most important person in Chinese history. The tourist was born into a noble family. His mother died when he was young, and his father passed away when he was only 9 years old. However, these hardships helped him become stronger.

In the recorded list, after Hoa Than's assets were confiscated, the total value was calculated to be nearly 8 hundred million taels of silver, equivalent to Dai Thanh's 15-year tax treasury.

Did Hoa Than's house hide 268 tons of gold, more than the gold reserves of the world's No. 1 power at that time? So what is this tourist's secret to making money?

Because of Qianlong's favor, there were countless people who bribed Hoa Than. He also never refused anyone. He even regularly harassed large and small officials, demanding bribes from them.

In the 45th year of Qianlong (1781), King Qianlong for the 5th time toured the South, passing through Zhili, Shandong, and Zhejiang provinces. Hoa Than asked to follow. On the way, he tried to extort money from local officials.

When arriving at Duong Chau, Hoa Than saw a prosperous landscape and very prosperous salt merchants. This makes the tourist feel that the annual tribute paid to him by the mandarins of this region is too little. He decided to personally call Chinh Thuy, the chief official of Mesopotamia province, to explain:

- The Holy Lord traveled to Duong Chau, what crime is it that you use your female beauty to distract and blind the king?

Chinh Thuy understood Hoa Than's intention to ask for help, so he immediately replied:

- This coward pays 100,000 taels every year. Don't dare forget about the holidays. Now, please immediately prepare to offer sir 100,000 taels.

When Hoa Than heard that, he was temporarily satisfied. But not long after, the official still assigned this lucrative official position to Uong Nhu Long, another of his henchmen, and Uong Nhu Long treated him much more generously. Chinh Thuy was frustrated but didn't know where to cry.

It can be said that Hoa Than's collection of bribes has become a system, with its own regulations. This amount of silver is collected every year, not inferior to the royal tax collection.

This is just a part of Hoa Than's brazenness in looting. Legend has it that if you want to meet this official, the ceremony requires at least 200,000 taels of silver. If anything less, you can only meet his servants and butlers.

In addition to taking bribes, Hoa Than also organized to buy officials and sell titles, cheat on exams, and reduce palace expenses... These revenues are countless.

Worth mentioning, although Hoa Than is a tourist, he holds many positions related to money management. He once held the position of general manager of the Home Affairs Department, minister of the Household Ministry, head of the Academy of Academics in charge of the examination... These positions opened up endless sources of wealth for Hoa Than. Among them, it must be mentioned that he was assigned to directly manage tax collection at Sung Van Mon.

It is known that since the Ming Dynasty, all nine Beijing city gates had tax collection stations, but in the Qing Dynasty, only one gate remained. Goods passing directly back and forth must pay tax at Sung Van gate. Hoa Than managed tax collection at Sung Van Mon very strictly.

Whether they were civilians, merchants, mandarins, or scholars passing by, they all had to pay money, no one was left out. Even if you go through Sung Van Mon and don't have enough tax money, you have to leave your luggage outside. Go into the scriptures and borrow things from everywhere to use.

Mentioning Hoa Than without mentioning the "fine for crime" regime is a serious omission. The fine-for-crime regime was "initiative" and promoted by Hoa Than himself. Officials who violate the law, if the crime is not worthy of beheading, can pay a fine to be forgiven.

In many cases, officials even voluntarily paid their fines in advance. This income of the royal court was single-handedly managed by Hoa Than. It can be seen that the official managed this huge amount of silver himself. No one knows how much he pocketed. Since ancient times, only Hoa Than has come up with this unique way of collecting money.

In addition to the money he took from the court, Hoa Than was also a talented businessman. He used to do real estate business, open a pawn shop, lend interest, sell antiques, and wineries... In Beijing alone, Hoa Than has 75 pawn shops. The tour also has more than 80 large horse-drawn carriages to transport goods.

Among those forms of business, the one that brings the most money to Hoa Than is collecting land rent from farmers. According to Thanh's records, the amount of land he rented was 1,266 plots. Equivalent to more than ten thousand acres of land today.

Even though he is so rich, Hoa Than is an extremely stingy person. At home, he was lavish with flowers, but with his servants he was very stingy, not spending a single cent.

The servants in the house, besides a few trusted ones, all had to wear rough clothes. Daily meals are almost porridge. When building houses, Hoa Than also mobilized soldiers under his command to do the work, rather than spending money to hire others.

On January 18, the 4th year of Gia Khanh, 1799, 2 days after Can Long passed away, Hoa Than was also arrested and given a life sentence to end his life. He passed away at the age of 49.

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