On The Borrowing Activities Of The Warring States Period To The Western Han Dynasty

Credit activity is an important social and economic activity, which has important influence on people’s daily life. The Warring States period and the Western Han Dynasty is the period when the Chinese small-scale peasant economy had gotten gradually stability and the commodity economy had made initial prosperity.Credit activity had haven the rapid and widespread development during this period. But with the limitation and the lack of historical data the academic study about the credit activity has lots of omission and difference. So1discuss the credit activity again on the basis of a large number of the Bamboo Slips of the Qin and Han Dynasties. This paper is divided into four chapters, including the development situation of the credit activity, reasons of its developing, debt processing, influence of credit activity. The chapters are as follows:Chapter1treats the development situation of the credit activity from the Warring States period to the Western Han Dynasty. This chapter treats mainly the development situation and characteristics on the government credit activity and the private credit activity. The government credit activity experienced the change process that it was free in the Spring and Autumn period and it turned to be repaid in the Warring States period. Its historical characteristics included the following aspects that the physical form of the credit activity accounted for the mainstream and it was with obvious political considerations. The private credit activity included mainly the usury, Shi loan and pledge loan. Its historical characteristics included the following aspects that it treated mainly currency as the medium of credit and Shi loan progressed frequently and borrowing owner experienced the change progress that it consisted mainly of the nobility in the Spring and autumn period and the Waning States period and it consisted mainly of the wealthy merchant in the early Western Han Dynasty and it consisted mainly of businessmen and bureaucrats in the late period of the Western Han Dynasty.Chapter2analyzes the reason of the credit activity from the Warring States period to the Western Han Dynasty. The reason was composed mainly of the historical background, social root and the external driving force. First of all, the social structure change from the Spring and Autumn period to the Warring States period had produced a large number of the small farmers who were out of the blood clan. This is the historical background of the credit development; Second, the small-scale peasant economy in the Qin and Han dynasties has obvious vulnerability due to the cyclical and the low efficiency of agricultural production and the external pressure in the aspects of natural disasters and corvee. So the small farmers often required external borrowing money as turnover. This is the social root of the credit activity development. Finally, commodity economy had gained much development and prosperity from the Warring States period to the Western Han Dynasty. It resulted in the phenomenon that a large number of commercial capital was invested in the credit capital, which met the financing need of the farmers in the credit market. This is the external driving force of the development of the credit activity.Chapter3introduces the debt problems caused by the credit activity from the Warring States period to the Western Han Dynasty. The credit activity leaded inevitably to the debt problems. First of all, the processing ways of government debt problem included recovering, pardon and punishment. Recovering government debt in Qin and Han Dynasties was carried out mainly by the county financial management named by "Xiaofu" or "Shaofu". Pardoning debt went mainly on in catastrophic famine or authorized by the emperor in the imperial royal festival period; Punishment is that the obligors were mainly punished with the penalty "Juzhishuzhai". And the processing ways of private debt problems included mainly debt contracts, debt guarantees and debt recovery. The debt recovery was more complex, it must follow the tighter legal procedure.Chapter4analyzes the influence of the credit activity from the Warring States period to the Western Han Dynasty society. Although the government relief loan in the famine period reduced temporarily the financing difficulties of the small farmers, there were many apparent institutional defects in some aspects such as Loan time, lending way and popularization. These defects forced the farmers to rely on the private credit in their daily life, which was of great significance in terms of relieving the financing dilemma. However, due to the fragility of the small-scale peasant economy, the borrowing was often in short supply on the market situation. The small farmers on the verge of bankruptcy were often forced to mortgage credit or borrow usury. It brought some badly negative social influence in the Qin and Han dynasties that it aggravated directly the land annexation, the salves’problem and the refugees’ problem.