On The Cantonese Merchants In Tianjin During The Dynasty And The Beginning Of The Republic Of China

The Cantonese merchants were a group of influential businessmen in Tianjin, and played an indispensable role in its modern history. The development of Tianjin’s maritime transport promoted the prosperity of freight between the north and south in the Ming and Qing Dynasty, attracting a large number of merchants to Tianjin. The Cantonese merchants had engaged in long-distance business and trade activities since the reign of Emperor Qianlong. Since Tianjin had opened its port to trade, part of the Cantonese merchants began to settle down. They frequently engaged in industrial and commercial activities in Tianjin, involving in numerous industries, for example, grocery, Chinese and Western medicine, leather, real estate and iron manufacture, ect. In addition, many Cantonese merchants came to Tianjin with foreign firms, and they became the first compradors in the history of Tianjin.As agencies between China and foreign trade, they became an emerging business group in Tianjin. Those compradors participated in import and export businesses between Tianjin and foreign countries, many of whom even carried out their own commercial activities. Serving the foreign firms, some compradors accumulated their wealth rapidly, and they also participated in the founding and operating of the coal industry, real estate and insurance as well as other industries. There were four well-known compradors in the history of Tianjin, half of them from Guangdong. They were Liang Yanqing and Zheng Yizhi, from the foreign firm Yihe and Taigu, respectively. It was until the early twentieth Century that the Cantonese merchants had become one of the most powerful business groups in Tianjin.In the meanwhile, the Cantonese merchants formed a unique network in economics and social activities in Tianjin. Within the interactions, a unique cohesion was formed among those merchants, which made them closely connected and maintained their interrelations. These interrelations included kinship, geographical relationships and business relationships. As with non-Cantonese groups, they also formed a wide range of external relations. The network of the Cantonese merchants in Tianjin was interconnected through their social and economic activities within and outside the group.At the beginning of the twentieth Century, this Cantonese business group developed to their heyday in this area of Tianjin. They build magnificent Canton Guild Hall with their collective donations. As a specific organization for fellow villagers, the Canton Guild Hall played a unique role in economic activities, collective recreation and mutual help. Besides, they participated in all kinds of activities in Tianjin during the end of Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, consciously or unconsciously, and influenced Tianjin’s specific class, public services and cultural establishment, ect.