略论晚清荆沙社会变迁

鸦片战争后,在外国资本入侵和国内商品经济缓慢发展的双重刺激下,湖北荆沙城区经济开始出现明显变化。一方面,它逐步丧失了原有的自然发展状态,逐渐纳入半殖民地半封建城市经济发展的轨道;另一方面,它则摆脱了以往发展的相对迟缓,增加了许多近代化的时代特征：进出口贸易的迅速增长,成为晚清荆沙经济发展的重要前提,随之而来的是商人社会地位的逐步提高以及传统商人组织的不断发展。

Social transformations in Jingsha District in late Qing Dynasty

After the Opium War,Jingsha District has undergone significant transformations in economy due to the invasion of foreign capitals and the slow growth of domestic commodity economy.On the one hand,it gradually deviated from the previous natural state of development and moved onto the track of semi-colonial and semi-feudal development of urban economy.On the other,it developed faster and came to demonstrate many modern features.Fast growth in import and export became the precondition of economic development in the District in late Qing Dynasty,with which the social status of merchants was rising and traditional merchant organizations were growing.