| Howqua | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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_-_50.3792_-_Museum_of_Fine_Arts.jpg) Portrait by an unidentified artist | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 伍秉鑑 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Chinese | 浩官 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wu Bingjian (Chinese: 伍秉鑑; 1769 – 4 September 1843[1]), trading as "Houqua"[2] and better known in the West as "Howqua" or "Howqua II",[a][3] was a hong merchant in the Thirteen Factories, head of the E-wo hong and leader of the Canton Cohong. He was once the richest man in the world.[4][5][6][7]
A Hokkien by his paternal ancestry with ancestry from Quanzhou, Wu was known to the West as Howqua, as was his father, Wu Guorong, the founder of the family business or hong. The name "Howqua" is a romanization, in his native Hokkien language, of the business name under which he traded, "浩官" (Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Hō-koaⁿ).[8] He became rich on the trade between China and the British Empire in the middle of the 19th century during the First Opium War. Perhaps the wealthiest man in China during the nineteenth century, Howqua was the senior of the hong merchants in Canton, one of the few authorized to trade silk and porcelain with foreigners. In an 1822 fire which burned down many of the cohongs,[9] the silver that melted allegedly formed a little stream almost two miles in length.[6][7] Of the three million dollars that the Qing government was required to pay the British as stipulated in the Treaty of Nanking, Howqua single-handedly contributed one million.[10] He died the same year in Canton.
After the Opium Wars, Howqua's familial and business lineage quickly diminished. In 1891, the American trading house that had been handling Howqua's international investments, Russell & Company, collapsed. The descendants of Howqua are now commoners.[11] What had been a massive and beautiful estate for the Howqua family is now relatively unmarked in a poor neighborhood in the region of Honam.[12]
The founders of then world-renowned firms including James Matheson, William Jardine, Samuel Russell and Abiel Abbot Low all had a close relationship with Howqua. Portraits of the pigtailed Howqua in his robes still hang in Salem and Newport mansions built by American merchants grateful for his assistance.[citation needed]
Following the 1842 Treaty of Nanking, which spelled the end of the Thirteen Factories, Jardine Matheson & Co continued to use "Ewo" as their Chinese name.[13]
A settlement on the east bank of Lake Eildon, 23 kilometres (14 mi) from Mansfield, in Victoria, Australia, is named after him, possibly by Chinese miners who passed through the area during the Victorian gold rush.
