A Study On Merchants’ Business Activities And Affections In The Southwest Region Of Tang Dynasty

Based on the foundation of previous dynasty, the economy of Tang dynasty has greatly developed. It appears the control by Zhengguan, followed by the Kaiyuan flourishing age. The economy of the southwest region also gets great development, the reason of which is in many aspects, especially the merchants’business activities in southwest play a very important role. Studying on the southwest merchants’ business activities and its influence, it not only be helpful to deepen our understanding about the merchants in Tang dynasty, but also can provide a useful historical solution to the present economic development in the southwest region.The merchants in the southwest region of Tang Dynasty mainly are two types: local merchants and foreign merchants. The number of local merchants is large and its composition is complex, there are ordinary merchants, official merchants and other merchants (including monks, doctors, women and so on). These merchants’business activities have two characteristics:one is abundant business types, including handicrafts, agriculture products, services and so on. The other is wide trade area, which covers all over the country, some countries and regions in Central Asia, South Asia and East Asia. There are many domestic merchants and foreign businessmen in southwest of China. Some merchants export the southwest China’s commodities to all over the country and abroad, other merchants import commodities into the southwest China, both of these trades play an important role in economy development and market prosperity of the southwest region. Merchants’ business activities have many functions in the southwest China. Firstly, it promotes the market’s prosperity, such as developing the town markets; promoting the professional markets’ formation, like medicine, silkworm, flower, wine, rice and so on; promoting the morning market and night market’s appearance and making the commodities’ types be rich. Secondly, it promotes the ethnic minority areas’ economy, which is embodied by improving the traffic condition and let the specialty goods be commodities. Thirdly, it promotes the rural urbanization, merchants’ business activities make some military towns gradually transform into commercial towns in the southwest region, and give birth to a large number of town markets, which push forward the rural urbanization process.