The Late Qing Fiction And Modern Commercial Society

After the opium war, a transformation of the traditional commercial society of the late Qing Dynasty into the modern commercial society was brought about by the convention system gradually coming into existence and by the commercial activities going on at the commercial ports.. The modern commercial society differs from the old commercial one in many aspects. The novels of the late Qing Dynasty offer clear pictures of the modern commercial social life. These novels reflect the writer's own observations while unfolding the reality of the society. Some of those observations have thrown some light on the modern history of economy, as well as on the ideological history of economy.The novels of the late Qing Dynasty reflect the transformation of the commerce of the then society, describe the change of the commercial ideology of the late Qing Dynasty and the flourishing of the city commerce then, and the occupation by foreign banks , foreign goods and foreign merchants of the Chinese market. More over, these novels present the relative effect on the society and give clear pictures of the deterioration of the commercial environment The novels of the late Qing Dynasty reflect the process of the loss of sovereignty and independence of the Mid Qing Dynasty to the system of the foreign tariff commission, and the the corresponding change of the systems of administration, of tariff and of operation. The description of foreign Customs also reflects the part of the Chinese Customs features.The novels of the late Qing Dynasty reflect the modern Chinese finance. They describe the scenes of confusion, where there were a complex variety of currencies. The old-styled private banks of China had some new features, and these banks became subtly related with the local government. At that time foreign banks were already making their appearance in China while the Chinese people remained still ignorant of the nature of the modern banks. The financial crimes were dominantly the themes of the novels then.The compradors, gentry merchants were two newly rising classes of the modern commercial society. These novels depict the further grouping of these compradors, who had acquired very high social status for high income. By reading these depictions the reader may get some ideas of the sophisticated feelings of the then people towards those compradors as well as the attitude of the later toward the Chinese culture. Finance was the very motivation for the co-flow of gentry and merchants. The flow of merchants to gentry was motivated more by economy than by conventional values, the result being a drastic increase in the number of the gentry class of much lower quality. The fate of those gentry merchants, who contributed something in the society of the late Qing Dynasty, varied from one person to another, and what became of them in the end was due to many factors, such as different moral standards ,different ways of management and different ways of life.