Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T06:47:15.316Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Chinese Business Practice in the Late Imperial Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2015

Madeleine Zelin
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The rapid development of the Chinese economy over the past several decades has stimulated new interest in the institutions, practices, and social formations that supported the development of business in China before the intensification of pressure from Western traders to conform to “modern” practices in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This article aims to provide a foundation for understanding merchant practice as it developed during the important years of market expansion during the last Chinese dynasty and to dispel some of the enduring myths about the Chinese merchant, his relationship to family, community, and the state, and the ideological constraints on his activities. To that end I examine several aspects of late imperial merchant culture, beginning with the everyday practices that allowed business to flourish in the Qing, turning next to the large social formations through which long-distance merchants in particular identified and pursued their interests, and ending with some preliminary thoughts on the impact of the laissez-faire policies of the last dynasty and their implications for post-Imperial China.

Type
Articles
Information
Enterprise & Society , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , December 2013 , pp. 769 - 793
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2013. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bibliography of Works Cited

Books

An, Jiesheng. Shanxi Piaoshang [Shanxi Remittance Merchants]. Fuzhou, China: Fujian renmin chubanshe, 1994.Google Scholar
Belsky, Richard. Localities at the Center: Native Place, Space, and Power in Late Imperial Beijing. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2005.Google Scholar
Cheong, Weng Eang. The Hong Merchants of Canton: Chinese Merchants in Sino-Western Trade. Richmond, UK: Curzon, 1997.Google Scholar
Chu, Samuel C. Liu, Kwang-Ching. Li Hung-Chang and China’s Early Modernization. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1994.Google Scholar
Dunstan, Helen. Conflicting Counsels to Confuse the Age: A Documentary Study of Political Economy in Qing China, 1644–1840. Michigan Monographs in Chinese Studies. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1996.Google Scholar
Dunstan, Helen. State or Merchant?: Political Economy and Political Process in 1740s China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2006.Google Scholar
Elvin, Mark. The Pattern of the Chinese Past. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1973.Google Scholar
Fan, Jinmin Yao, Yang Ni, Yi. Ming Qing Shangshi Jiufen yu Shangye Susong [Merchant Disputes and Merchant Litigation in the Ming and Qing Periods]. Nanjing, China: Nanjing daxue chubanshe, 2007.Google Scholar
Feuerwerker, Albert. China’s Early Industrialization: Sheng Hsuan-Huai (1844–1916) and Mandarin Enterprise. Atheneum, NY: Atheneum, 1970.Google Scholar
Finnane, Antonia. Speaking of Yangzhou, a Chinese City, 1550–1850. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Koöll, Elisabeth. From Cotton Mill to Business Empire: The Emergence of Regional Enterprises in Modern China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2003.Google Scholar
Mann, Susan. Local Merchants and the Chinese Bureaucracy, 1750–1950. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1987.Google Scholar
McElderry, Andrea Lee. Shanghai Old-Style Banks (Ch’ien-Chuang), 1800–1935: A Traditional Institution in a Changing Society. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1976.Google Scholar
Morse, Hosea Ballou. The Gilds of China. 2nd ed. London, UK: Longmans, Green, 1932.Google Scholar
Qiu, Pengsheng. Dang falu yushang jingji: Ming Qing Zhongguo de shangye falu [When Law Encounters Economics: Commercial Law in Ming and Qing China]. Taipei, Taiwan: Wunan Publishing Company, 2008.Google Scholar
Rowe, William T. Hankow, Commerce and Society in a Chinese City, 1796–1889. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Skinner, G. William. Marketing and Social Structure in Rural China. Ann Arbor, MI: Association for Asian Studies, 2001.Google Scholar
Sui, Hongming. Qingmo Minchu Minshangshi Xiguan Diaocha Zhi Yanjiu [A Study of the Late Qing Eary Republic Survey of Popular and Merchant Customs]. Beijing, China: Falü chubanshe, 2005.Google Scholar
Wang, Erjian Zhou, Kaifeng, eds. Ba Xian Zhi [Baxian Gazetteer]. Ba xian, China: s.n., 1761.Google Scholar
Wang, Yeh-chien. Land Taxation in Imperial China, 1750–1911. Harvard East Asian Series. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973.Google Scholar
Xu, Dixin Wu, Chengming. Zhongguo ziben zhuyi di mengya Zhongguo [China’s Sprouts of Capitalism] Beijing, China: Renmin chubanshe, 1985.Google Scholar
Xu, Dixin Wu, Zhengming. Chinese Capitalism, 1522–1840. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Xue, Yunsheng. Duli Cunyi [Lingering Doubts from Studying the Sub-Statutes]. Punctuated and Edited by Jingjia, Huang. Taipei, Taiwan: Chinese Materials and Research Aids Service Center, 1970.Google Scholar
Yang, Yong. Jindai Zhongguo Gongsi Zhili, Sixiang Yanbian yu Zhidu Bianqian [The Evolution of Thought about and the Transformation of Systems of Modern Chinese Corporate Governance]. Shanghai, China: Shanghai Renmin chuban she, 2007.Google Scholar
Yao, Chenghan. Gongsi Tiaoli Shiyi [An Explanation of the Company Ordinance]. Shanghai, China: Commercial Press, 1914.Google Scholar
Zelin, Madeleine. The Magistrate’s Tael: Rationalizing Fiscal Reform in Eighteenth-Century Ch’ing China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Zelin, Madeleine. The Merchants of Zigong: Industrial Entrepreneurship in Early Modern China. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Zhang, Guiping. Shanxi Piaohao Jingying Guanli Tizhi Yanjiu [A Study of the Management System of the Shanxi piaohao]. Beijing, China: Zhongguo jingji chubanshe, 2005.Google Scholar
Zhang, Kaiyuan Liu, Wangling Ye, Wanzhong. Suzhou Shanghui Dang’an Congbian [A Compilation of Documents of the Suzhou Chamber of Commerce]. Wuchang, China: Huazhong shifandaxue chubanshe, 1991.Google Scholar
Zhang, Yu Chen, Ying, eds. Ba Xian Zhi [Baxian Gazetteer]. Ba xian: s.n., 1919.Google Scholar
Zhang, Zhongmin. Jiannan de Bianqian, Jindai Zhongguo Gongsi Zhidu Yanjiu [A Difficult Transition, a Study of the Modern Chinese Company System]. Shanghai,China: Shanghai shehui kexue chubanshe, 2001.Google Scholar
Zigongshidang’anguan, Beijing jingji xueyuan, Sichuan da xue lishixi, , eds. Zigong Yanye Qiyue Dang’an Xuanji: 1732–1949 [Selected Zigong Salt Industry Contracts: 1732–1949]. Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 1985.Google Scholar

Articles and Chapters

Chan, Wellington K. K. “The Organizational Structure of the Traditional Chinese Firm and Its Modern Reform.” Business History Review 56, no. 2 (1982): 218–35.Google Scholar
Chen, Zhiping Lu, Zengrong. “Cong Qiyue Wenshu Kan Qingdai Gonshangye Hegu Weituo Jingying Fangshi De Zhuanbian [Using Contractual Documents to Examine the Transformation of the Industrial and Commercial Joint-Stock Proxy Management Form in the Qing Period].” Zhongguo shehui jingjishi yanjiu 2 (2000): 27–38.Google Scholar
Chung, Stephanie. “Chinese Tong as British Trust: Institutional Collisions and Legal Disputes in Urban Hong Kong, 1860s–1980s.” Modern Asian Studies 36, no. 3 (2010): 599–630.Google Scholar
Colli, Andrea Rose, Mary B. “Family Firms in Comparative Perspective.” In Business History around the World, edited by Amatori, Franco Jones, Geoffrey, 339–52. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Dillon, Michael. “Transport and Marketing in the Development of the Jingdezhen Porcelain Industry During the Ming and Qing Dynasties.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 35, no. 3 (1992): 278–90.Google Scholar
Fan, Jinmin. “Mingdai diyu shangbang xingqi de shehui beijing [The Social Background to the Rise of Regional Merchant Associations During the Ming Period].” Qinghua daxue xuebao (zhexue shehui kexueban) 5, no. 21 (2006): 79–92.Google Scholar
Ferguson, John C. “Notes on Chinese Banking System in Shanghai.” Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 37 (1906): 55–82.Google Scholar
Gardella, Robert. “Squaring Accounts: Commercial Bookkeeping Methods and Capitalist Rationalism in Late Qing and Republican China.” The Journal of Asian Studies 51, no. 2 (1992): 317–39.Google Scholar
Guo, Songyi. “Qingdai Beijing de Shanxi shangren--genju 136 zongge renyang suozuo de fenzi [The Shanxi Merchants in Beijing in the Qing Dynasty: An Analysis Based on 136 Samples of Merchants and Their Activities].” Zhongguo jingji shi yanjiu 1 (2008): 3–9.Google Scholar
Hansmann, Henry Kraakman, Reinier Squire, Richard. “Law and the Rise of the Firm.” Harvard Law Review 119, no. 5 (2006): 1335–403.Google Scholar
Hinton, Harold C. “The Grain Tribute System of the Ch’ing Dynasty.” The Far Eastern Quarterly 11, no. 3 (1952): 339–54.Google Scholar
Ho, Ping-ti. “The Salt Merchants of Yang-Chou: A Study of Commercial Capitalism in Eighteenth Century China.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 17 (1954): 130–68.Google Scholar
Jing, Junjian “Legislation Related to the Civil Economy in the Qing Dynasty.” In Civil Law in Qing and Republican China, edited by Bernhardt, Katherine Huang, Philip, 42–84. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Kuroda, Akinobu. “The Collapse of the Chinese Imperial Monetary System.” In Japan, China, and the Growth of the Asian International Economy, 1850–1949, edited by Sugihara, Kaora, 103–127. New York: Oxford Univesity Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Liu, Kwang-Ching. “Chinese Merchant Guilds: An Historical Inquiry.” The Pacific Historical Review 57, no. 1 (1988): 1–23.Google Scholar
Morck, Randall Yang, Fan. “The Shanxi Banks: Corporate Governance with Chinese Characteristics.” Paper presented at the The Origins of Shareholder Advocacy Conference, New Haven, November 6–7, 2009.Google Scholar
Muhse, Albert C. “Trade Organization and Trade Control in China.” The American Economic Review 6, no. 2 (1916): 309–23.Google Scholar
Myers, Ramon H. Wang, Yeh-chien. “Economic Developments 1644–1800.” In The Cambridge History of China, 9 Part 1, the Ch’ing Dynasty to 1800, edited by Peterson, Charles, 563–645. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Song, Jianze Moll-Murata, Christine. “Notes on Qing Dynasty ‘Handicraft Regulations and Precedents’ (Jiangzuo Zeli), with Special Focus on Regulations on Materials, Working Time, Prices, and Wages.” Late Imperial China 23, no. 2 (2002): 87–126.Google Scholar
Van Dyke, Paul. “The Yan Family, Merchants of Canton 1734–1780s.” Revista de Cultura 9 (2004): 30–84.Google Scholar
Wang, Xuemei. “Lun Qingmo de “Shangfa Diaocha’an Liyou Shu [On the Late Qing ‘ Account of the Investigation of Commercial Law’.” Journal of Sichuan Normal University (Social Sciences Edition) 32, no. 4 (2005): 77–82.Google Scholar
Wei, Qingyuan Lu, Su. “Qingdai Qianqi De Shangban Kuangye He Ziben Zhuyi Mengya [Early Qing Merchant Operated Mines and the Sprouts of Capitalism].” Beijing, China: Renmin daxue, n.p., 1981.Google Scholar
Weiman, David Zelin, Madeleine. “Chinese Monetary Arrangements in the Late Qing and Republican Periods.” Paper presented at the annual meeting for the Annual Convention of the Association for Asian Studies, Atlanta, Georgia, April 3–6, 2008.Google Scholar
Wu, Leonard T. K. “The Crucial Role of the Chinese Native Banks.” Far Eastern Survey 4, no. 12 (June 19 1935): 89–93.Google Scholar
Yang, Lan. “Qingdai Shaanxi Piaohao De Jili Jiqi Dui Dangdai Yinhang Jianguan De Qishi [An Analysis of the Incentive Systems of the Qing Shaanxi Piaohao and the Way They Inspire Current Banking Supervision] Journal of Hanshan Teachers College 24, no. 1 (2003): 27–32.Google Scholar
Zelin, Madeleine. “A Critique of Rights of Property in Prewar China.” In Contract and Property in Early Modern China, edited by Zelin, Madeleine Ocko, Jonathan Gardella, Robert, 17–36. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Zelin, Madeleine. “Merchant Dispute Mediation in Twentieth-Century Zigong, Sichuan.” In Civil Law in Qing and Republican China, edited by Bernhardt, Kathryn Huang, Philip C. C., 249–86. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Zelin, Madeleine. “The Firm in Early Modern China.” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 71, no. 3 (2009): 623–37.Google Scholar
Zhu, Ying. “The Transformation of Transformation of Chinese Guilds in Modern Times.” Frontiers of History in China 2 (2006).Google Scholar

Archives

Sichuan Provincial Archives, Baxian Archives, Chengdu, China.Google Scholar
Tian Tao Collection, Beijing.Google Scholar

Dissertation

Matsubara, Kentaro. “Law of the Ancestors: Property-Holding Practices and Lineage Social Structures in 19th-Century South China.” PhD dissertation, Oxford University, 2004.Google Scholar