Distress And Outlet Of Tea Merchants Of Shanxi Province

From the late Ming and early Qing Dynasty, merchants of Shanxi province is very famous and occupied the business circles for five centries. The tea trade to Russia is very important. The tea trade in Kyakhta can be divided into three stages, which are prosperous and declined. Before1727, tea is commodity and gift between China and Russia. At the same time, the quantity of exchange is little and occasional. After1271, Kyakhta was opened as commercial port. And tea trade was developing quickly, then became the first between China and Russia trade. From1850, the trade in Kyakhta was declined gradually. First, China was intruded by Kyakhta, and assigned a lot of unequal treaties. The merchants of Russia extruded merchants of Shanxi province by own privilege. The tea trade of merchants of Shanxi province was plummeted. In1905, the railroad between Siberia and Vladivostok was opened. At last, the merchants of Shanxi province were quited from Kyakhta. This article was started from economic history, take the tea trade between China and Russia as example. First, the overview of tea trade between China and Russia was reviewed. And then, it elaborates the reason of merchants’rise of Shanxi province. In semi-feudal society, the treatments between merchants of Shanxi province and merchants of Russia were different. For example, likin, transportation and mode of production in tea. At last, on the basis of main contradiction and two historic task of Chinese modern history, it proposed the rational way for the merchants of Shanxi province.