Merchants, Business And Regional Social Change,

Merchant group is an active crowd during the Qing-dynasty and ROC China (1644-1949) in Hui-zhou, a distinct region in South China. Historically, the Wu-yuan county belonged to Hui-zhou region. The merchants from Wu-yuan county mostly deal in lumbering, tea, china ink, etc. These professions always monopolized by some clans from different towns and villages. This dissertation studies on the merchants from Wu-yuan county and their professions, trying to clarify the relations between the merchants/their professions and the region's social changes, that is, the social changes occured in the homeplace and colony of these merchants.This dissertation is a case study on regional society, so its conclusion helps to explain why and how different regions showed distinct characteristic in traditional China.