徐润的故乡在广东香山县，晚清的香山县是广州府属县之一，因靠近广州这个中国最大的进出口贸易港，得其地利之便，香山人便多从事海上贸易。鸦片战争之后，由于对外贸易专营权的丧失，广州十三行逐渐衰落，从中散出的人有不少依附于外商，成为中外商人的新型中介人——买办。 Xu Run’s hometown was in Xiangshan County, Guangdong Province. Xiangshan County in the late Qing Dynasty was one of the prefectural counties in Guangzhou. Because of its close proximity to Guangzhou, China’s largest import and export trade port, Xiangshan people were mostly engaged in maritime trade. After the Opium War, because of the loss of the foreign trade franchise, the 13th Canton Bank gradually declined. Many of the people scattered from the Opium War later attached themselves to foreign merchants and became new intermediaries to compilers both at home and abroad.