沈万三生于元朝末年,幼时随父迁至位于江苏省昆山市境内西南隅的周庄。沈万三以躬耕起家,后来利用周庄的镇北白蚬江水运之便,“通番贸易”,进行海外经商,并开展民间贸易活动,“田产遍布天下,又通番而资巨亿万”,成为“江南首富”。他致富在元代后期,走的是一条从经营土地到辗转 Shen Wan was born in the late Yuan Dynasty, when his father moved with his parents to Zhouzhuang, located in the southwestern corner of Kunshan City, Jiangsu Province. Shen Wansan started his career with a bow and then made use of the water transportation by the Baijian River in Zhenbei, the town of Zhouzhuang, to conduct business overseas and carry out non-governmental trade activities. He added that “there are hundreds of millions of properties spread all over the world, South China’s richest man. ” He became rich in the late Yuan Dynasty, taking a land from the operation to be removed