A Preliminary Study On The Pawnshop Of Canton During Late Qing

This article based on the previous studies, concentrates on the commercialnewspapers which had been published in Canton, Hong Kong and Macao. Byinterpreting them, this paper analyses the development and change of pawnshop inCanton, and rediscovers the status of pawnshop in socio-economic developments ofCanton province. The first part of this article reviews the status quo about the studiesof the pawnshop in Canton, describes the historical materials and defines the conceptsinvolved. The second part summaries the development of Canton’s pawnshop history,probes into its formation and historical changes since Ming and Qing dynasty. Thethird part introduces the organization and operation of Canton’s pawnshop, and showsoff the historical development of Canton pawnshop, by means of analyzing its capital,turnover and profit. The fourth part mainly describes the interaction of Canton’spawnshop and society. It mainly included four points: First of all, the relationshipbetween the pawnshop and Canton’s finance; Secondly, the interaction between thepawnshop and other industries, such as gaming industry; Thirdly, the social functionof pawnshop, mainly in private lending and charitable activities. The forth part statesthe modern transformation of the pawnshop in Canton. With the introduction ofmodern western financial systems and the changes of social environments in LateQing dynasty and early Republic of China, the pawnshop had been under theinfluence and declined gradually. In order to adapt to new changes and challenges, thepawnshop introduced the modern management styles and complished its restructuringprocess eventually.