What does the "Thirteen Lines" in Guangzhou in Qing Dynasty mean?

Guangzhou 13, the most famous bank in Qing Dynasty, was the general name of some famous firms in Guangzhou at that time. It consists of thirteen firms in Guangzhou, including Pan, Wu, Lu and Ye. They are very rich.

Details are as follows:

1, Jardine Matheson of Wu Bingjian, a famous businessman,

2. Lu Jiguang's Guanglixing, a famous businessman,

3. Pan Shaoguang's Tong Fuxing, a commercial official,

4. Xie Youren's Dongxing firm, the business name Aoguan,

5. Liang Jixi's Tianbaoxing, a famous businessman and official,

6. Yan Qichang's Xingtai Bank, Sun Qing,

7. Pan's neutralization, business name and official,

8. Ma is a famous businessman, Shun Tai Hang.

9. Ren Hexing of Pan Wenhai, Guan Hai of Shang Ming,

10. Guan Shuang Shangming Wu Tianyuan's smooth travel.

1 1. Yi Yuanchang's Learning Taihang, commonly known as Kun Guan,

12. dongchang star of Luo futai, forest canopy of Shang Ming,

13. An Changxing, Rong Youguang, is a famous official.

Among the "Thirteen Lines", the lines founded by Pan, Lu Guanheng, Wu Bingjian, Shanglin Ye and others, Guangli Line, Yihe Line and Yixing City Line are the most famous. The Wall Street Journal once rated the 50 richest people in the world for thousands of years, including Wu Bingjian.

The "Jardine Matheson" run by the Wu family has an annual trade volume of several million taels of silver with British and American businessmen. Wu Bingjian not only owns huge assets in China, but also is a "banker" and the largest creditor of the East India Company. Moreover, he invested in railway, securities trading and insurance business in the United States, and was the richest man in the world in the19th century.

Jardine Matheson is a famous name in Chinese and foreign business circles. Jardine Matheson still maintains considerable business in Hong Kong, including land acquisition, milk company, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminal, Hong Kong Container Terminal, Wellcome Supermarket, 7- 1 1, IKEA, Pizza Hut and so on. The total number of employees exceeds100000.