The Commodity Economy And Market Network Of Jing River Basin In The Ming And Qing Dynasties

Ming and Qing Dynasties is a period that China's commodity economy has relatively rapid development. In this period, the goods which moves between regions are far exceed the previous of both variety and scales in this period. The nationwide market network have taken initial shape.Jing River valley has always been a vital channel for communication between Shaanxi and Gansu. In the environment of Ming and Qing Dynasties time, the large-scale movement of commodities has led the commodity economy development of the prefectures and counties in Jing River basin, and the development of the small towns along this route. It's also promoted the Jing River basin market network system's formation and development.The development of commodity economy is the base of the market network's growth. So, this paper has firstly researched the commodity economy of Jing River basin from the handicraft industry aspects, merchandise categories, the quantity of professional businessmen and small towns, frequency of opening the market and so on. Based on this, the paper has studied the market network architecture of Jing River basin by use of G.WilliamSkinner's Structure-functional analysis pattern, and divided the Jing River's commodity market into three degrees:central market, middle market and basic-level market. The central market is the PingLiang city which is at the upper reaches of Jing River, the Jingyang and Sanyuan both of that are at the downstream. The movement of goods between central markets is the force, which stimulates the development of commodity economy and the growth of the market at the countries in the Jing River basin. The middle market means the market which is at the mid-position in the commodity vertical mobility. The middle market is the first town of each county at the Jing River basin Ming and Qing Dynasties time, which is the economic center of each county's internal market system. The basic-level market consists of a large number primary town, which has fixed market days. The main function of these towns is meeting the peripheral farmer's commodity exchange need. At last, this paper summarized the market network's traits of Jing River basin, and analyzed the main brake of the development of commodity economy and the growth of the market at the countries in the Jing River basin; include natural endowment, market volume and culture.