Ming And Qing Dynasties Henan Town

During Ming and Qing period, domestic commodity economy made greater progress than before . Because of the center of its position , Henan became the important area which the commodity circulation between most areas past in our country, the traders and commodities from all directions swarmed into the market of Henan. With the spring tide of commodity economy, the commodity economy in Henan also made marked progress. A lot of vicinal agricultural products, byproducts and the strange goods sold or transported here established the enough material bases for booming of the country fairs and towns. At the same time, a network of communication lines, which extended in all directions, came into being in Henan because of the center of the position. The above are the reasons why the country fairs and towns in Henan flourished in Ming and Qing period.Under the circumstances, the quantity of country fairs and towns in Henan began to increase greatly after the middle of Ming dynasty. Although the quantity of country fairs and towns ever decreased rapidly because of the war and the natural calamity in the late Ming and the early Qing, after the recovering for more than one hundred years, the quantity of country fairs and towns increased more rapidly since Qianlong period in Qing dynasty than in the Ming dynasty. We can see the general course of the development of the country fairs and towns in Henan in Ming and Qing period through the changes of the quantity in every stage. The distribution of the country fairs and towns also had some features in Ming and Qing period. In general, the country fairs and towns distributed like a net. Affected by the changes of the quantity of the country fairs and towns, density of the net changed in every stages. More over, affected by the communication, terrain etc., density of the net was not even.The economy of the country fairs and towns developed greatly in the period. The frequency of opening the country fairs increased so fastfairs that opened every two days had existed widely in the Qing dynasty. As a special pattern of the country fairs, the temple fairs, which replenished more commodities and high-grade goods other country fairs did not have, also were growing increasingly. Some medium-sized towns and large towns, which were the important juncture in which the commodities circulated between Henan and other areas . The development of the country fairs and towns met the needs of the people, promoted the development of the planting and handicraft industry to a certain degree and made the large towns have the features of cities in appearance, population, economy etc., which showed the large towns appeared in an embryonic form . But the development of the country fairs and towns in Henan had many limitations. The limitations mainly showed: There were only a few towns as the center of producing handicrafts, and the handicraft industry in most towns were not flourishing; Small towns were the most in the towns of Henan, which caused the levels of the country market in Henan were not distinct. These limitations hindered the country fairs and towns from playing more important role.