Research On The Trade Ports Opened And The Social Chang Of Antung, A Small Commercial Port City(1906-1931)

Antung has the unique natural and social conditions of forming the city, it wasjust a traditional border town before the trade ports opened, the function of politicalmanagement and military defense was much greater than the function of industrialand commercial trade; Each subset was characterized by the characteristics oftraditional conservatism in the whole urban society. The trade ports opened was thestarting point and necessary condition of urban social change. The Qing governmentopened commercial port actively for resisting foreign aggression and promoting thedevelopment of itself, which forming a nationwide wave of opening commercialport.The Sino-American treaty of friendship, which was signed in1903, made Antungto join in the wave. Antung became the important commercial town in northeast Chinaafter openning officially in1906.The realization of the opening wharfs, directly led to the economicmodernization, which showing the development of port trade led to the commercialprosperity of Antung, the Chinese and foreign businessmen coming together madebusiness category gradually complete, and commercial shops were increasing, newmerchant community gradually formed. Secondly, the prosperity of port trade drovethe modernization of the financial sector, the modern banks began to appear, due to itwas more adapt to the new modern trade and industrial development, the modernbanks gradually became the main force of Antung financial progress. Banks were notcompletely replaced, and they becoming supplementary power of modern banks, itformed the situation of the old and new coexist in the financial sector.The prosperity of the port trade also led to the development of modern industry.First of all, traditional handicraft industry started to transform, the traditional industry of Antung had a certain degree of development before the opening, especially the oilindustry, the tussah industry and wood processing industry, which became the threemain pillar industries of Antung. With the enlargement of the scope of foreign tradeand the increase of the amount, traditional industry began to modernizationtransformation after the opening. Secondly, new industry gradually appeared, theelectric industry, salt industry and match industry began to rise under the stimulationof new external products and fighting for rights, which developed slowly and hadweak capacity. In general, the industry of Antung mainly concentrated in lightindustry, and heavy industry was almost not involved in this period.The modernization of urban economy directly led to the metabolism of urbansociety. Firstly, modern municipal construction and management also gradually rose,and achieved a certain degree of development. With the development of urbaneconomy, its supporting facilities also inevitably ensued a larger change: Firstly,special municipal administration departments was set up, which serves to show theattention of municipal construction; Secondly, the urban infrastructure constructionwas complete step by step, which manifested as rapid development of city road, theconstruction and management of the bridge and enbarkment, the emergence ofmodern communication; The third aspect was the rise and development of urbanpublic utilities management, which manifested as the city’s public health management,urban park construction and maintenance; Fourthly, the city’s public security becamemore and more strong, which supported by urban security and urban fire control. Allin all, the rise of modern city construction and management was the externalappearances of the urban civilization, which reflecting the trend of modernization.Secondly was the initial formation of the modern education system. The imperialexamination system was abolished, the modern sense of new education produced,primary and secondary schools, normal school and vocational school began to run inthe late Qing Dynasty. As the port opened and the development of the economy, alllevels of schools also gradually improved, kindergarten, primary and secondaryschools, normal schools, vocational schools appeared successively, Antung establish amodern education system, which had the ability to cultivate higher level talents. The ideas of modern education also implemented in various levels of educationinstitutions, many things, such as length of schooling, curriculum, teaching materials,teaching methods, went to modernization in the innovation.There were significant changes in the population of city and the social life ofcitizens. The development of port trade promoted the development of industry andcommerce, which also made the urban population increase rapidly, the influx offoreign population was one of the important characteristics of the urban populationchange in the period; Antung opening wharfs widened the scope of foreign trade andthe citizens contacted with western more and more frequently, which resulted inhaving a larger impact on citizens. The daily life of citizens began to change, food,clothing, shelter and transportation had bigger difference, diversification andenrichment trend was increasingly obvious; The changes of citizen ideas also led tothe innovation of traditional social fashion, which presenting the characteristics of theold and new combination.Antung was a small commercial port city, which was an important part of thenational commercial port city. The process of the urban social change had both thecommonness of the overall commercial port city and its own characteristics. From theperspective of the time and nature of social change, small commercial port cities inmodern China were not exempt from the external influence on urban social change,which having both positive significance and negative elements. Commercial port citywith such a feature, made it more completely to separate from the inherent economicform, and then started to the way of modernization, which was a certainly progress. Inthis sense, exogenous was one of the important characteristics of the social changeof the modern commercial port city. Relativing to Shanghai and Jinan, the time ofmodernization of small commercial port cities was later, but the speed was faster,which presenting the characteristics of late emergence. In a word, late emergencefrom the outside was common characteristics of the modernization of smallcommercial port cities in modern China.Compared with large and medium-sized commercial port cities, the traditionaleconomic and social structure of small commercial port city was more thoroughly impacted by opening port, and social change was deeper, which was the most strikingcharacteristics of the kind of commercial port cities, and it was determined by thecharacteristics of small commercial port cities in essence. In the aspect of economicstructure, Because the traditional economic model was unstable, it more easilydestroyed by the new economy theory and modern economic model, and thenreplaced; In terms of social structure, the limit of each stratum was blurred because ofthe unstable class structure, which making business owners don’t have to eliminate allbarriers and walking in the forefront of the society, the modern sense of citizens weremore likely to form, which was good for cities from small to large and medium-sized.At the same time, the social change of small commercial port cities had thecharacteristics of transient, intermittent and instability, which was determined by thecity’s economic development having strong dependence on the port trade.