The traditional way of setting up stalls

Since the end of May, with the change of the central policy, the "stall economy" in various places has become popular rapidly. As if overnight, this popular business form has returned to our lives. It can be seen that this form of street stalls has greatly improved people's livelihood and facilitated the lives of more people.

Stall profile

But you know what? In fact, this commercial form of street stalls can be said to be one of the oldest commercial forms, and even the famous Jiang Taigong did the same. Today, we talk about past lives, which spread the economy.

We have all heard a word called market, which generally means market. But in fact, the original meaning of this word is well, which refers to the minefield, or more precisely, the ridge between minefields. There is a saying that the market is based on a well. This well is not a well, but a minefield. That is, when the Shang and Zhou Dynasties implemented the well-field system, people wanted to trade, so they took the goods to the fields and sold them on the spot. This is actually the earliest stall. According to historical records, Jiang Taigong, a famous city in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, lived in poverty in his early years and had a small business. This is the form at that time.

Jiang Ziya used to set up a stall to do small business.

Later, from the Warring States to the Qin and Han Dynasties and then to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the urban planning in this period followed a strict system of fangshi, and all commercial activities were restricted within a strict time and space range. For example, Chang 'an in the Han Dynasty had nine cities. If you want to set up a stall in the city, you have to hit the board. However, the vitality of the stall economy is very tenacious, because its demand is there, no matter in cities or villages, as long as there are people, there is a demand for transactions. Also from the Han Dynasty, we can see that some markets, such as night markets, pavilions and fairs, violated government regulations.

Model of Chang 'an City in Tang Dynasty in Museum

From the late Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, the square market system came to an end, and from the city to the countryside, the commercial forms were more flexible and diverse. For example, Lin 'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, shops along the street can be seen everywhere, and there must be many people carrying goods along the streets.

Northern Song Night Market in Qingping Music

The development of commerce has stimulated the enhancement of urban economic functions and spawned various emerging service industries, such as intermediary, accounting and warehousing. On the one hand, it facilitates the life of urban and rural residents, and more importantly, it also makes the employment population that the city can accommodate increase continuously. The number of big cities that could accommodate hundreds of thousands of people in Ming and Qing dynasties was far ahead of the previous generation, and the development of commerce was a very important factor.

In any case, street stalls have been an important commercial form since ancient times, which can not only facilitate life, but also provide more people with the means to support their families. Are the booths around you busy? What are the interesting things? Welcome to leave a message to share with us.