“Buy low, sell high” — this fundamental principle of commerce remains unchanged throughout history. But around 2,300 years ago during China’s Warring States period, one man took this concept far beyond basic trading to deploy sophisticated market manipulation techniques that made him fabulously wealthy. His name was Lü Buwei (呂不韋, Lǚ Bù Wéi). He wasn’t just a merchant. He was a pioneer of “scarcity marketing” — a strategy still used by the diamond industry today — and ultimately rose to…
