Puankhequa

Puankhequa, also known as Pan Wenyan or Zhencheng was a Chinese merchant who made a fortune trading in Canton and traveled as far as Sweden to meet the director of the Swedish East India Company.

Puankhequa originated from a poor village on the Fujian coast and spent part of his youth in Manila learning Spanish and helping his father in trade to Quanzhou. He settled in Canton in 1740 and started his own business. He was very successful in his vocation and established close links with the Swedish and English. The foreigners praised him highly as can be seen from the following lines: “...the richest, most educated, cleverest of all the Chinese merchants…. It would be difficult to find among the other Chinese merchants a man who combined such wealth and intelligence, and who knew so well, by his superiority of knowledge, his unrivaled character, his experience of business how to dominate and persuade others.”

In 1760s Puankhequa was appointed the head of the Cohong. At the time of his death, Puankequa’s fortune was estimated at 15 million taels (US$22 million).