A Study Of The Merchants Of Zhili Fromlocal Records In Qing Dynasty

In recent years,the academic research on the history of social economy has been continuously refined,and the study of business association has gradually become a focus of scholars' research.Among them,the top ten business groups have achieved abundant results,such as Shanxi merchants,Huishang merchants,Ningbo merchants,and Shandong merchants.But there is a slight lack of research on the merchants in North China.It only stays on the separate research of Beijing merchants,Tianjin merchants and Hebei merchants.The overall research on the Merchants of Zhili lacks in-depth research.Zhili was the political and economic center of the Qing Dynasty and the largest consumer-city in the country.The rulers of the Qing Dynasty encouraged the merchants to enter the business to meet the consumption needs of the region on the basis of the“Encourage-business” policy,which provides the opportunities for the development of merchants.This paper takes the Merchants of Zhili from the local chronicles in the Qing Dynasty as the research object,and explores the spatial and temporal distribution,social composition,management state and the interaction problem of merchants and local society in the Qing Dynasty,which can reflect the social role of the Merchants of Zhili in Qing Dynasty are gradually changing in the process of participating in the local society.The introduction part of this paper mainly explains the reasons of the selection of this article,the review of academic history,the research methods and the definition of related concepts.The Zhili area was the political and economic center of the Qing Dynasty,gathered a large number of merchants.These Merchants of Zhili promoted the development of the commodity economy in the Zhili area and should be concerned by the academic circles.The first chapter mainly explores the spatial and temporal distribution and social composition of the Merchants of Zhili in the Qing Dynasty.It made a certain statistics on the spatial and temporal distribution of the Merchants of Zhili in Local Records.And it found that the Merchants of Zhili in the Qing Dynasty concentrated on the central regions of Zhili and took Beijing as the center,they were distributed in an umbrella shape.From the perspective of development process,the Merchantsof Zhili were restored under the “Encourage-business” policy of the early Qing Dynasty,and developed rapidly during the Kangxi and Yongzheng periods.And peaked at Qianlong and Jiaqing period,after that,the Merchants of Zhili began to transform into the identity of the merchants under the influence of the Western business culture;Local Records' s merchants' social composition in Qing Dynasty mainly consisted of the following categories: peasants,Confucians,bureaucrats,slaves,etc.The peasant class has the largest proportion,followed by the Confucian scholars and the least servants.The second chapter mainly describes the business situation of the Merchants of Zhili in the Qing Dynasty.The industry mainly operated by the Merchants of Zhili in the Qing Dynasty was closely related to the lives of the people,mainly in the catering,fuel,salt,medicinal,and cloth industries.From this we can see the business scope is very wide.The business mode of the Merchants of Zhili in the Qing Dynasty was mainly based on sole proprietorship,supplemented by joint ventures and entrusted operations.In the course of its operation,it reflects several major business concepts such as honesty,justice,brand supreme and demand orientation.The third chapter starts from the content of the biography of Zhizhi in the Qing Dynasty and analyzes its influence on the local society of Zhili.The Merchants of Zhili promoted the improvement of the local public infrastructure of Zhili by participating in local water conservancy,transportation,school,school,ancestral temple and temple construction.and also influenced the local cultural education system by changing local customs,art culture,participating in family education and supporting local Confucianism.What's more,they also strengthened the clan management and the stability of local social order in Zhili by maintaining local social security,participating in local social relief.The conclusion part mainly analyzes the main motives of the direct participation of the Merchants of Zhili in the local society from the aspects of the social and economic environment,social and economic thoughts of the Qing Dynasty and the subjective consciousness of the merchants.On the basis of the previous article,it summarizes the positive effects of the participation of businessmen in the local social belt of Zhili.