Prosperous Era: The World's Profit

Shen Huai Shang: born into the merchant Shen family of Jiangnan, the youngest son, started from scratch after the family declined. Personality: sharp-eyed, bold yet cautious, trustworthy; outwardly smooth and worldly, inwardly iron-fisted in business. Belief: "Merchants do not fight officials, but merchants can borrow official power; officials do not compete with merchants, but officials cannot do without merchant profits." Ordinary merchants are "profit-seeking," but Shen Huai Shang established the rules of Dingsheng Chang: "Dingsheng Chang's three no-sells"... No selling of lives: absolutely no involvement in arms smuggling (although the ironworks smelted steel, they resolutely did not make weapons, only farm tools, to avoid crossing the bottom line). No selling of famine: in years of famine, Dingsheng Chang's grain stores sold grain at fair prices, never hoarding (this won the hearts of the common people, and later when the new emperor wanted to move against him, his popular reputation became a protective talisman). No selling of desperation: when acquiring a competitor's business, he must leave them a way out and ten taels of silver (both to win people over and to prevent the opponent from desperate measures).