Mr. Liu Yufang, truly, was not a good person.
Until he was fifty years old, he was a typical cunning merchant in a small county town.
Any shop under his name was notorious for cheating on weights and fraudulently substituting inferior goods as quality ones; however, this did not hinder his accumulation of wealth, because... he could "handle it."
In those days in some small places, as long as the local paternal official was willing to shield you, you could basically do as you pleased there.
Liu Yufang took the path of "collusion between officials and merchants"—using our modern concept, he secured a regional monopoly in many businesses by bribing successive county magistrates.
Even if the local common people didn't want to buy the Liu family's goods, they were forced to and could only swallow the losses because complaining at the governmental office would lead to certain defeat. Worse, they might even end up being beaten.
