The Qiao family originated in the Qianlong period. Qiao Guifa became the first generation. In the early days, he opened a shop called Guangsheng Gong, which mainly sold mixed grains and liquor, and later changed its name to Fusheng Gong. By the Jiaqing period, the business was al

Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty both implemented a policy of closing the country in the middle of the Qing Dynasty. Foreign Trade was allowed to trade with foreign merchants only, which greatly hindered the development of commerce. However, in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, the opening of Guangzhou Thirteen-Terms in also became the only surviving trade port on the Maritime Silk Road, sending a large amount of fiscal and taxation to the Qing Dynasty. In addition to the Thirty Tours in Guangzhou, there is another family among the people who are also one of the three top rich people in the Qing Dynasty, namely the Qiao family.

Qiao family originated during the Qianlong period. Qiao Guifa became the first generation of wealth. In the early days, he opened a shop called Guangshenggong, which mainly sold mixed grains liquor, etc., and later renamed Fushenggong . By the time of Jiaqing , the business was also small in scale. Qiao family has always adhered to the concept of honest management and has a good reputation around it. It was safe to pass on the generation of sons, Qiao Quanmei, but he did not live for a long time, leaving behind two descendants, Qiao Zhiguang and Qiao Zhiyong, and Qiao Zhiguang began to take over the shops, and Qiao Zhiyong learned to be famous and took the path of officialdom. But shortly after Qiao Zhiyong passed away after he passed away the scholar, his elder brother Qiao Zhiguang died of illness. Qiao Zhiyong took over the family's business and had no choice but to embark on the road of doing business. This began the royal hegemony of a generation of family.

The previous article said that Qiao Zhiyong was raised by his elder brother Qiao Zhiguang, and his death was also related to an internal strife, that is, Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement . Since south of the Yangtze River was occupied by the Taiping Army, the Qiao family's business was also implicated and could not stand the blow and died due to illness. The currency that could be sold in ancient times was nothing more than tea, silk, and ceramics. It is normal for business to be affected due to the obstruction of civil strife in the south. After Qiao Zhiyong took over the family, the first thing he did was to make up for the relationship between the upper and lower levels and start to clear the business path, and the business began to improve.

Qiao Family made its fortune not because it was traditionally selling tea and silk, but involved financial business, that is, founding silver . This also had a lot to do with the business environment of Shanxi merchants at that time. In the late Qing Dynasty, social unrest, forces were entrenched in various places, and bandits were rampant, and there was no guarantee for those who did business and trade for many years. It is not very safe to carry a lot of silver on it. At this time, Shanxi has only , Pingyao, , Rishengchang Piao number, the largest, but only seven semicolons cannot meet the needs of Shanxi merchants. Qiao Zhiyong saw the development prospects inside, so he changed the Dadexing shop, which specializes in selling tea, to Dadetong , which specializes in exchange. After a small trial, the profit was pretty good, so I invested the interest I earned again. By the time of Guangxu, the capital of the Qiao family had reached 350,000 taels of capital accumulation. Later, ticket number was opened nationwide, money shops, shops, and assets accumulated to about 5 million taels, while the funds flowed in the entire business territory were tens of million taels.

Qiao Zhiyong's business was running so smoothly, and it had a lot to do with some people in the court. Before Zuo Zongtang carried the coffin to recover Xinjiang, he went to find Qiao Zhiyong to support the army. Qiao Zhiyong proposed the condition that he hoped to open a silver account after arriving in Xinjiang, to specifically accept the military salary and silver allocated by the court. After Zuo Zongtang agreed, Qiao Zhiyong raised one million taels of silver to borrow it from Zuo Zongtang to pacify the northwest. Later, Westernization Movement , Li Hongzhang began to raise funds for new equipment everywhere, and also formed Beiyang Fleet . After visiting Hu Zhiyong, he donated hundreds of thousands of taels of silver through Dadetong. After meeting two powerful officials of the Qing Dynasty, they both left a very good impression on each other and also gained privileges in their future dealings.

And the decline of the Qiao family also followed the emergence of state-owned banks in the late Qing Dynasty. The court established the Ministry of Revenue Bank Envoy, gradually replacing private deposit institutions. After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, the Qiao family business, which was closely linked to the Qingting bureaucracy, also began to decline.