Before talking about the heart disease of Jin Shang, we have to talk about the affairs of the dynasty. After Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born in a poor peasant, laid the huge family business of the Ming Dynasty, in order to stabilize the country, he sent more than 20 sons to various places to claim the king, and contracted the security and defense of various places in pieces. Even so, Lao Zhu was still not at ease, so he put nine "anti-theft locks" around his home in the Ming Dynasty (that is, what we usually call "nine-sided important towns"). Among them, Shanxi's Tiger Killing and Hebei's Zhangjiakou inadvertently contributed to the development of Jin merchants. Of course, the first thing the Jin merchants did was to send some grain and grass to the garrison troops.

After handing over the country to his favorite grandson, Zhu Yuanzhang died happily. Then, the seemingly harmonious dynasty soon had an incident in which Zhu Di snatched the throne of his nephew, and it was successful. Zhu Di's snatching of the throne is a bit disgraceful, but his ability to run the family business is better than his Lao Tzu. Under his rule, the Ming Dynasty became the world leader at that time. But since Zhu Di, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty have been inferior to one stubble, some like to be carpenters and some like alchemy, all love tossing but don't love the country. When it came to Emperor Chongzhen, he had to find a branch to hang himself. But in this era of chaos, Shanxi merchants on the high slopes of the loess began to stand out.

As a result, the question of the Jin merchants collaborating with the enemy to bury the Ming Dynasty has become an endless controversy to this day. And this doubt has become an indelible shadow in the history of Jin merchants.

Merchants exist in all eras, and Shanxi is no exception. It's just that before the Ming Dynasty, Shanxi merchants were just a cluster of sparks, and with the small wind blowing in the Ming Dynasty, they gradually had the potential to burn the plains.

Zhu Yuanzhang is a very shrewd person, Shanxi businessmen sent food and drink to his troops, but what he got was a "white slip" called Yanyin. Don't underestimate this salt citation, with it, Shanxi merchants have a pass to sell salt. In this way, Shanxi merchants reaped handsome rewards from the state-controlled salt industry. The original small merchant and hawker slowly became a boss with a lot of confidence. In the places very close to the border gates, in the areas of Baotou and Zhangjiakou, Shanxi businesses have become local scenery one after another.

Rely on the mountains to eat the mountains, rely on the water to eat the water. After a long time, relying on the advantages of the border gates, Shanxi merchants began to do foreign trade. So, whether it was the grassland or the northeast region, Shanxi merchants took away local cattle, sheep and ginseng skins after bringing the materials they needed. The hustle and bustle of the world is all for profit, and the nature of a businessman is nothing more than this.

The Ming Dynasty has always been very wary of the comeback of Genghis Khan's descendants, but he never expected that the northeast side would be the real trouble. Nurhachi, who led the rebellion in the northeast, was originally a minor official in the Ming Dynasty. Because the Ming Dynasty government killed his father, Nurhachi became the mortal enemy of the Ming Dynasty. However, Nurhachi's rebellious capital was too meagre - the cold climate, the lack of food and clothing, and the status quo of bare hands, as soon as the economy of the Ming Dynasty was blocked, Nurhachi was a little dumbfounded.

I don't know if the Jin merchants chose the Qing Dynasty, or the Qing Dynasty chose the Jin merchants. In short, just when Nurhachi, the founder of the Qing Dynasty, was at a loss, a Shanxi merchant named Fan Yongdou and seven companions rushed through the imperial blockade, bringing food, gunpowder, and metals to the embarrassment of Houjin. The Fan family of Jiexiu, Shanxi, was the first family to become wealthy among the Jin merchants. From the beginning of the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Ming Dynasty, seven generations of the Fan family took root in Zhangjiakou and traveled in Inner Mongolia and Northeast China. By the time Fan Yongdou's generation arrived, the Fan family was already the leader of the Jin merchants in terms of wealth and prestige. Importantly, the long-term trade had allowed the Shanxi merchants of Zhangjiakou to establish a friendship with the Nurhachi family of the Later Jin. Now, Nurhachi is in trouble, and the emotional balance of Fan Yongdou and others has finally tilted from national righteousness to friends. It is undeniable that as a friend of a businessman, the premise must be someone who can bring them wealth. What happened later is very clear to us, the Qing army entered the Shanhaiguan Pass, and the Manchus were in charge of their own affairs for the first time in China.

The history of Shanxi merchants providing life and strategic materials for Nurhachi's Houjin has been a shadow over the image of the Jin merchant group since the fall of the Ming Dynasty. Until now, when the Jin merchants, who have been dominant for 500 years, have become a proud memory of Shanxi people, the outside world has argued that the Jin merchants are traitor groups, and in the unrelenting controversy, they have become entangled in a piece of Shanxi people's heart.

But attributing the fate of a dynasty's rise and fall to a group of merchants is always an excuse to make it difficult. The actions of Fan Yongdou and other eight businessmen are understandable from a commercial point of view, and we cannot be harsh on the consciousness of a businessman to rise to the height of national righteousness. Perhaps, in their opinion, helping Nurhachi is nothing more than a good business. But in any case, the fate of the Jin merchants was tightly tied to the Qing Dynasty.

After the Qing army entered the customs, the little emperor of Shunzhi at that time, under the Zhang Luo of the regent Dorgon, began to reward the heroes who entered the customs. As Nurhachi's son, Dolgon did not forget the Shanxi merchant who was very righteous for his buddies. At his invitation, Fan Yongdou and others entered the palace in fear. Dolgon was very happy, and promised these Shanxi buddies that it was no problem to ask for money from officials. Fan Yongdou and others were very hesitant, in fact, since the Qing army entered the customs, there have been many people in their hometown Shanxi who poked their backbones in the back, and at this time, wearing the black gauze hat of the Qing Dynasty, it really became a veritable traitor.

In the end, Fan Yongdou chose to continue doing business. However, in recognition of their merits, the imperial court still gave each of them a hat of half-official and half-businessman, which is the "Eight Great Imperial Merchants" of Shanxi criticized by later generations. Among them, Fan Yongdou was the most important, in addition to being given a lot of land in Zhangjiakou, he also became the person in charge of trade affairs in the imperial court. Perhaps feeling that the reward was not enough, the imperial court later stipulated that Mongolian trade could only be handled by Shanxi merchants. No matter how disdainful the behavior of Fan Yongdou and others was by other Shanxi merchants, in fact, the development of Jin merchants was still stained with the light of the eight imperial merchants.

With privileges in his hands, it is difficult for Fan Yongdou not to get rich. In addition to completing the royal procurement task, the Fan family's commercial tentacles gradually extended into the salt industry, medicinal materials and other fields. After Fan Yongdou's death, his grandson Fan Yuqi inherited his privileges, and the scale of the Fan family's business reached its peak.

Fan Yu once did something that moved Emperor Kangxi. In the 59th year of Kangxi, there was a rebellion in Zungar, because the road and environment were too treacherous, and the transportation of grain and grass became the top problem of the imperial court. When Fan Yu heard the news, he undertook the heavy responsibility of transporting grain at a third of the price. Needless to say, this time the grain was transported, and the Fan family lost a lot of silver. As soon as the imperial court was moved, it gave the business of importing copper materials to the Fan family at that time. Since then, on the seas of China and Japan, there has been a fleet of Fan Jiayun copper ships with dragon flags.

However, with the soaring price of copper in Japan, the purchase price of the imperial court could not be shaken, and the Fan family's business of importing copper materials finally came to an end during the Qianlong period. Kangxi has always taken good care of the Fan family, and even if the copper material cannot be paid in time by chance, he is exempted from accountability out of old feelings. But in the Qianlong period, because he really couldn't meet the import target (even if he did, he would lose a lot of silver), Fan Qingji, the head of the Fan family at that time, couldn't bear a huge deficit and sold the salt industry that had been operating for many years. But even so, the imperial court did not allow the Fan family to withdraw from the copper import business, but the Fan family was at this time to live on loans and could not afford it. In the end, Fan Qingji was dismissed from his post and investigated, and then imprisoned for questioning, and his family property was also confiscated.

At this time, the Shanxi businessmen who were given the title of "imperial merchants" together with Fan Yongdou have long been gone. They once had a privilege that other merchants envied, but they didn't know that it was a double-edged sword, pushing them to the forefront while losing the right to control their own destiny. Fan Yongdou under Jiuquan probably never thought that he would bid farewell to the stage of history in such a bleak way after he worked hard to run the Fan family's business empire.

They were originally pure businessmen, and they were involved in the turmoil of historical change, intentionally or unintentionally. For the rise of the Jin merchants, they created a living space in the sea and the sky, but in the Jin merchant group, they were lonely outliers. They accompanied the rise of a dynasty, but in the end they were destroyed in the abyss of this dynasty. The Eight Imperial Merchants seem to be a piece of black humor left by history to the Jin merchants.

(Excerpt from Iron and Blood Forum)