Wuyue Culture, wuyue's Strong Commercial Tradition and the Restoration of Coastal Trade

Wuyue Culture, wuyue's Strong Commercial Tradition and the Restoration of Coastal Trade

In the early Qing Dynasty, some new phenomena appeared in China's commerce, such as the rise of coastal cities, the development of coastal domestic and foreign trade, the transfer of business center from inland cities to coastal cities, and the transfer of inter-port trade to international trade.

Wuyue is one of the most obvious areas of this shift. Port cities such as Ningbo, Shanghai and Wenzhou have developed one after another. Ningbo was already a trading port as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. County. This? County, that is, because "there are people at sea here to hold trade in goods" named. It can be seen that the maritime cargo trade here has a long history. During the Jin Dynasty, merchants had arrived in Qing and Xu in the north, and made friends in the south, which spread widely. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, Mingzhou was one of the major international trade ports in China. "Sailing at sea, foreign businessmen are getting better and better, and the transformation of profits is coming one after another" (Volume 9 of Max Zhang's Four Daoming Classics). * * * Here is the city shipping office. Wenzhou is also a trading port, and * * * has shipping services. Shanghai Town Songjiang House also became an international trade port after the mid-Southern Song Dynasty. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the legal trade along the coast was frustrated by the strict implementation of the maritime ban, but the smuggling trade was still extremely active.

The middle period of Kangxi was a turning point in the history of coastal trade. Due to Zheng's surrender in Taiwan Province Province, the southeast coast began to be peaceful. In the 23rd year of Kangxi (1684), the maritime ban was lifted. As soon as the policy was relaxed, Ningbo's latent trade activities suddenly became active. After the middle and late Kangxi period, the number of businessmen in Ningbo increased greatly. It is in this situation that the business gangs such as Dong Shi in Sanqi City of Cixi and Zheng's in Room 17 of Zhenhai emerged.

17 The first businessman of the Zheng family was probably Zheng Shichang (1664-1728), who had accepted his father's orders to go out for business in the middle and late period of Kangxi. Later, Zheng Guangqi (1707- 1782) went to Jiaxing and Suzhou for business in the early years of Qianlong, and Zheng (17 16- 1788) went to Yongjiang to "fuck fish and salt industry". At the end of Qianlong and the beginning of Jiaqing, Wei Zheng Debiao inherited Yongjiang business, Zheng Tianzhi went to Daishan in Zhoushan Islands to do business, and Zheng Weilie did business in Yongjiang. In the early days of Daoguang, Zheng Xun inherited Zheng Debiao's career, and money houses began to flourish. Zheng Tianzhi's two sons became business leaders in Daishan. Zheng Huishun went to Suzhou on business. There are at least six families in this clan doing business. Although this family has been in business for a long time, its business scale was not large for more than 100 years before the Opium War. It broke out after the Opium War. After Ningbo became a trading port, Zheng Xun, as an "equipment expert", was able to give full play to his business talents. "After repeated calculations, the interest is multiplied, and the family background is getting longer and longer" (the first volume of "Xie Pu Zheng Genealogy", the biography of Zhu Xi, Qing Kui's endowment). 1844, he ordered his younger brother Zheng to go to Shanghai to break new ground. After Zheng arrived in Shanghai, "all walks of life benefited from it, and his family prospered" (ibid., preface to Genealogy, Epitaph and Doctors in Qing Dynasty). In the third year of Xianfeng (1853), on the eve of the Shanghai Knife Society Uprising, Zheng transferred the funds to Ningbo in advance. During this period, Zheng Xun was in charge of Ningbo, and businesses such as Qianzhuang flourished and became famous in a county. "Since he came to power, he has recommended Mr. Xiang Yan, down to Zaliuya, and all foreign businessmen in Taiwan and Western countries have trusted and relied on him", and "Yongjiang has been the mainstay for twenty years" (ibid., Biography of Jun Zheng Zhu Xi, genealogy frontispiece).

Since the lifting of the maritime ban in the mid-Kangxi period, Shanghai has gradually developed into a hub of transportation and trade between the North and the South and a port city along the southeast coast. Daoguang, "all the way to the deep pu, merchants gathered, tens of thousands of ships, the city is empty" (Huang Benquan's "A Brief History of the Woods", the first episode of Shanghai Legend Series). Most people who do business in Shanghai are businessmen from Guangdong, Fujian and Ningbo. Shanghai is a distribution center for goods. Businessmen from Fujian and Guangxi buy silk, cotton, tea, ceramics and other goods from Shanghai, and also transport sugar and rice from other places. At that time, there was a "foreign street", the most prosperous. 1842 After the opening of Shanghai, Yangxing Street was gradually replaced by the Bund. After the opening of Shanghai, businessmen from all over the world gathered, and the population of Shanghai surged, gradually becoming the most developed city in China. At the beginning of the 20th century, Shanghai officially replaced Suzhou as the most developed city in China. Suzhou's status declined, and it gradually became the backyard base of Shanghai. At this time, people called Suzhou "little shanghai". Like Ningbo, it is called "little shanghai". Under the influence of foreign trade, silk weaving, cotton spinning, tea and other industries in Taihu Lake Basin are more developed, and small towns are more prosperous. Jiangnan commercial network, with Shanghai as the leader, is getting closer and closer. There is a poem "Nanxun Silk Market Tour" (written by Wen Feng), which describes it vividly: "When sericulture rose, rural farmers sold silk to compete for the market. People in the city can't stop it, and Qian Qian's voice is heard by the deaf. Card is very high in the market, door-to-door contact. It's noisy from morning till noon, so we can't move forward. * * * This year, the price of silk is long, with three silks and twelve taels. Businessmen and husbands raced away, bustling. Trading tens of thousands of gold a day, no one in the city is good. But teaching is very popular, and people are chasing it in the streets and alleys. Teahouses and wineries are all words, all business. Xiao Jia bought Jiao Da Jia, and dajia entered the Shenjiang boundary. Jiang Shen, a ghost country, is trading, and its prosperity is almost equal to that of Suzhou and Hangzhou. China businessmen are crazy to import millions of silver dollars. I bought many classics this year, and there are six farmers spinning ten. So every family has a spinning wheel, and there is no plan to grow millet at all. I heard that the shortage finally dispelled the worries of saints, and the prosperity of sericulture hindered the fields. Even if it's profitable at present, I'm worried that my hometown Tian He will suffer even worse harvest (Nanxun Chronicle of the Republic of China, Volume 31).