A piaohao was a private remittance bank of the Qing dynasty, run mostly by merchants from Shanxi province. Instead of shipping silver across the country, a customer paid in at one branch and received a draft that another branch would cash, for a fee; the first, Rishengchang (日升昌) in Pingyao, is usually dated to the 1820s. At their height the Shanxi houses had branches across China and lent to officials and the court, before collapsing with the dynasty. In Legend of the Magnate, the hero starts out in a piaohao before making his name in tea and salt.
