Study On The Solution Pattern Of Commercial Disputes In Tianjin Chamber Of Commerce In The Late Qing Dynasty And The Republic Of China

The modern chamber of commerce is a social organization that advocated by the state and manipulated by the gentle merchants.The study of the history of the chamber of commerce is frequently based on theoretical deduction and official expression,so regarded it as a social self-governance force opposed to the state.The interpretation of the archives provides a new perspective and new approach.Mediating the business dispute is an important function undertaken by the Tianjin Chamber of Commerce during the whole period,leaving thousands of mediation archives,as an opportunity to examine its actual operation,we can find that there are quite prominent interaction between the government and the chamber of commerce.Consequently,the core of this research is how to cognize and comprehend its actual situation and the logic of the interaction between the state and urban society.In the introduction,the author firstly points out the theoretical trap of understanding the adversarial relationship between the state and society in the history of chamber of commerce,and puts forward the core thesis of this research by summarizing the current situation of research,and further illustrates the research path of connecting experience and theory.The text is divided into seven chapters,The first chapter gives a brief description of the 91 cases of Tianjin Chamber of Commerce used in this study,which preliminarily shows the wide scope,the diversity of the source,the validity of the reason,and the close relationship with the state power,provides a reliable empirical material for the latter.From Chapter II to V,the author respectively discusses the institutional evolution,organizational structure,advantages,purpose and bases,aims to build the basic operation pattern of Tianjin Chamber of Commerce's mediation.Tianjin Chamber of Commerce from no specialized institution to establish Review Section,Review Gu,Commercial Arbitrary Organ,Commercial Arbitrary Committee,although due to the turbulent current political situation and bring about occasional intermittent,but never give up the function,even actively attempted to seek the right of accept and hear a case.In contrast to the transition of organization,the mediation personnel in Tianjin Chamber of Commerce is always the prestigious gentle merchant class,and in company with nonlocal chambers of commerce,business guilds and government agencies to build a network in commercial dispute settlement.Therefore,its internal and external organizational structure shows a consistent continuity.Moreover,in the process of dealing with commercial disputes,Tianjin Chamber of Commerce upholds the purpose of preventing litigation and becoming reconciled,and insists on the basis of “commercial customs are most important,law is no more than human relationship”.Its dealing gradually shows more advantages than litigation and civil mediation,that is to say specialty,fast and economy,thus become an important choice for merchants.Chapter VI sorts out the 91 cases,and attempts to make a distinction between three major dispute settlement patterns,that is to say self-processing,upload and release,and co-processing,and then have to see the benefits of dealing commercial disputes by Tianjin Chamber of Commerce,that is settlement rate has reached one third.There is one point which needs attention that one-third of the knot cases are the result of interaction between the government and Tianjin Chamber of Commerce.According to analyze the nature of the mediation of the commercial disputes in the Tianjin Chamber of Commerce,it has become a semiformal mechanism between the national formal dispute resolution system and the informal dispute resolution system because of its orderly interaction with the state's judicature.And then it is pointed out that the deep reason lies in that the highly centralized country is unable to abandon the dependence on social autonomy for the need of simple governance,and the urban society with higher degree of autonomy can't give up the worship of the power of centralization.In chapter VI,the author tries to though two typical cases to dissect the cooperation and prevarication in interaction between the judicial authority and Tianjin Chamber of Commerce,In order to demonstrate the possible order and disadvantage of the interaction between the state and the urban society,also discuss the logic behind it.