Howqua

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title: "Howqua" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1769-births", "1843-deaths", "history-of-hong-kong", "history-of-foreign-trade-in-china", "businesspeople-from-fujian", "people-from-quanzhou", "hokkien-people", "billionaires-from-guangdong", "18th-century-chinese-businesspeople", "19th-century-chinese-businesspeople"] description: "Chinese hong merchant (1769–1843)" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howqua" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Chinese hong merchant (1769–1843) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
name	Howqua
image	Howqua, 1830.jpg
caption	Portrait by George Chinnery, 1830
birth_name	Wu Bingjian
birth_date	1769
birth_place	Guangzhou, China
death_date	4 September 1843 (age 75)
death_place	Guangzhou, China
resting_place_coordinates
known_for	Founding of the E-wo hong
children	At least five, and adopted John Murray Forbes.
::

| name = Howqua | image = Howqua, 1830.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Portrait by George Chinnery, 1830 | birth_name = Wu Bingjian | birth_date = 1769 | birth_place = Guangzhou, China | death_date = 4 September 1843 (age 75) | death_place = Guangzhou, China | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | nationality = | citizenship = | other_names = | known_for = Founding of the E-wo hong | education = | alma_mater = | employer = | notable works = | occupation = | years_active = | spouse = | partner = | children = At least five, and adopted John Murray Forbes. | parents = | relations = | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | footnotes = | misc = | pic = Hou Qua (Howqua, Wu Bingjian) - 50.3792 - Museum of Fine Arts.jpg | picsize = 200px | piccap = Portrait by an unidentified artist | showflag = cp | c = 伍秉鑑 | p = Wǔ Bǐngjiàn | mi = | myr = Wǔ Bǐngjyàn | w = Wu Ping-chien | j = Ng5 Bing2 Gaam3 | y = Ngh Bíng Gaam | poj = Ngó͘ Péng-kàm | ci = | altname = Business name | c2 = 浩官 | p2 = Hào Guān | myr2 = Hàu Gwān | w2 = Hao Kuan | poj2 = Hō-koaⁿ | j2 = Hou6 Gun1 | y2 = Houh Gūn | ci2 =

Wu Bingjian (; 17694 September 1843), trading as "Houqua" and better known in the West as "Howqua" or "Howqua II", 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.

Biography

A Hokkien by his paternal ancestry with ancestry from Quanzhou, Wu was known by the Europeans 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, of the business name under which he traded, "浩官" (). He became rich on the trade between China and the British Raj 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, the silver that melted allegedly formed a little stream almost two miles in length. Of the three million dollars that the Qing regime was required to pay the British as stipulated in the Treaty of Nanking, Howqua allegedly help raise one million. 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. 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.

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 Howqua in his robes still hang in Salem and Newport mansions built by American merchants grateful for his assistance.

Legacy

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.

A settlement on the east bank of Lake Eildon, 23 km from Mansfield, in Victoria, Australia, is named after him, possibly by Chinese miners who passed through the area during the Victorian gold rush.

Notes

References

Sources

References

1. link
2. Hunt, Freeman; Dana, William B. (1844). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=trtJAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA459 The Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review]''. Volume 10. p. 459.
3. Wong, JDO. (2016). "Global Trade in the Nineteenth Century: The House of Houqua and the Canton System". Cambridge University Press.
4. (2 October 2018). "The Rich and How They Got That Way: How the Wealthiest People of All Time—from Genghis Khan to Bill Gates—Made Their Fortunes".
5. ''The Rich And How They Got That Way'' By Cynthia Crossen Publisher: Crown Publishing Group Pub. Date: 2000 {{ISBN. 0-8129-3267-6
6. "中國評論新聞網".
7. "晚清的財富精英：1834年的世界首富-閱讀-新浪新聞中心".
8. Parkes, Douglas. (2022-04-29). "Who was 19th-century merchant Howqua, the 'Chinese Bill Gates of his day'?".
9. (1885). "觸藩始末 (The Start and End of Upsetting The Foreigners)".
10. [http://www.szdaj.gov.cn/dadg/rwzz/19.html 档案揭秘:被称为“天下第一大富翁”的伍秉鉴-欢迎进入深圳档案网]{{dead link. (November 2017)
11. (April 29, 2022). "Who was 19th-century merchant Howqua, the 'Chinese Bill Gates of his day'?".
12. (22 November 2023). "How The Opium Trade Destroyed China's Greatest Empire".
13. Cheong, W.E.. (1997). "The Hong merchants of Canton: Chinese merchants in Sino-Western trade". Routledge.

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