Golden Fleece

Author: Gu Yue
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-01-01
Features: Part of the long historical novel "The Great Qing Foreign Broker," telling the story of white-collar entrepreneurs from the Chinese era expanding westward, and the first business textbook for Chinese foreign brokers. In the late Qing Dynasty, Li Hongzhang promoted the Self-Strengthening Movement, and capitalism in China was in its infancy. One day, Ge Tuzi, an employee of Tianjin, rode a donkey and traveled thousands of miles to the vast northwest for a survey. Unbeknownst to him, both the donkey and his luggage were stolen by bandits, leaving him stranded in a remote town on the banks of the Yellow River under the Helan Mountains—Shizuishan. Here, he unexpectedly discovered a "gold mine"—scattered wool that looked like trash. From then on, the bold and meticulous Ge Tuzi began a risk-free business,shearing sheep wool and sheepskin from herdsmen, transporting them by ship to Baotou, and then hiring camels to carry the goods to Tianjin. The foreign office then exported the goods from Tianjin to Britain, earning substantial profits.
After that, Ge Tuzi became a foreign broker, setting up Gao Lin Office in Shizuishan and engaging in a highly profitable business. This attracted other foreign offices to flock to Shizuishan, leading to a series of lively scenes of western development: dreams of promotion mingled with dreams of wealth, while male intrigue overlapped with women's suffering and cries of pain.