论明清时期晋中的中小商人

中小商人是晋商研究中不可忽缺的群体,他们代表着中下层商人的利益,在明清两朝商品市场经济发展过程中发挥着积极的作用,他们的人生轨迹与许多寻常百姓的生活命运更贴近。研究明清晋商中的中小商人对当前民营中小企业的发展及农村剩余劳动力的转移有一定的现实借鉴意义。

The Small-medium-sized Merchants in Central Shanxi in Ming-Qing Dynasties

In Ming-Qing Dynasties,millions of small-medium-sized Merchants in Central Shanxi who utilized the geographical superiority,caught three policy opportunities to deal with the business of financial auction,grain,salt,silver,silk,tea,iron and cloth,which were closely related with the national economy and the people's life.These merchants who either came from apprentice or from street vendor,or lived on small workshop,took great pains to handle their business through their hard working and their smartness.Gradually they became the rich merchants as rolling a snow-ball.Their undertakings were very difficult and often suffered from official exploitations,thieves,robbing,and foreigners' squeezing,some of them even went bankrupt, had poor marriage,and finally died outside their hometown.So the ways they earned their money were quite different from those of Western merchants,who earned their money through robbing or selling negroes.These Shanxi Merchants played a great role in developing the Min-Qing Dynasty's economy and social development.