The Research On The Pawnbroking Of Shanxi Merchants During The Period From Qing Dynasty To Early Republic Of China

The first-hand data about Shanxi Pawnbroking letters collected by Liu-Jianmin,the chairman of Shanxi collectors association,is concerned with the cross-regional operating activities of Shanxi pawnbrokers in Zhili,Shandong,Hubei,Hunan and other places during the period from Qing Dynasty to Early Republic of China,and has very high historical and academic value.This article mainly uses the newly discovered letters,takes the Pawnbroking of Shanxi merchants from Qing Dynasty to early Republic of China as the research object,carries on the discussion to the predecessor’s insufficient attention and the problems which has not been paid close attention.In addition to the introduction,conclusion,appendix,this article is divided into eight chapters.The first chapter makes a textual research on the newly discovered letters,including time,place,identity of both parties and the content reflected,and introduces the academic value and research significance of the newly discovered letters from three aspects.The second chapter discusses the basic situation of cross-regional operating activities of Shanxi pawnbrokers since the Ming and Qing dynasties.The cross-regional operating activities of Shanxi pawnbrokers are divided into three historical stages: the middle and late Ming Dynasty,the early Qing Dynasty,the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.This article mainly used inscriptions,local records,and the information of other aspects study of the cross-regional management activities of Shanxi pawnbrokers.The third to sixth chapters are the key parts of the thesis,respectively studying the business,capital,operating system,social relations of Shanxi pawnbrokers.In terms of business,this paper analyzes the main business Mortgage Loan,concurrently business deposits,credit lending,private ticket issuance,and discusses other commercial activities such as exchange,guarantee,and estimated clothing shop.In the aspect of capital,the paper focus on several problems that the former predecessors paid less attention to,such as the form of capital organization,the scale of capital,the management of liabilities,the joint operation and the daily fund management.In the aspect of operation system,it mainly analyses somesystems reflected by letter materials,including opening and taking place,handling "man huo ",organizing account books,business reports and so on.In terms of social relations,this article analyzes the social relations network of Shanxi pawnbroker from three aspects: officials,fellow merchant commercial size,local grass-roots society,and their roles in operation and management.The seventh and eighth chapters are the innovation and difficult part of the thesis.The seventh chapter analyzes the power of the owner,the duty of the manager,the interaction between the master and the shopkeeper,and thinks that the master of the pawnbroker in Shanxi,it is not the radical separation of ownership and management right,but a proper separation relationship between ownership and management right,in which owner and shopkeeper cooperate with each other,and they complete the operation and management of pawnshops together.The eighth chapter mainly discusses the basic situation of Shanxi pawnbrokers using letters to carry out business activities,and thinks that Shanxi merchants’ letters of pawnshops reflect the difference between general letters in format,number,content and way of sending letters.The characteristics of the letters of friends,and the procedural requirements of the contents of the letters and the functions of commercial management which are the core and key points of the Shanxi merchants’ pawnbrokers to complete their business activities by means of letters.The "letter management" reflected in this batch of letters is a kind of customary and institutional guarantee for Shanxi merchants to complete cross-regional business,which reflects the operational mechanism for the development of more Shanxi businessmen including the merchants outside the province and the industry.