One

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the monopoly system of salt shops was very profitable, and it was the industry that merchants tended to, and among them, there were many salt merchants from Shanxi, such as Hedong Salt District, Changlu Salt District, Lianghuai Salt District, Sichuan Salt District, etc., and there were footprints of Shanxi salt merchants everywhere. Generally speaking, Shanxi salt merchants are mostly composed of the following types of people:

First, the powerful and powerful family. This is a powerful and wealthy man among the salt merchants from Shanxi. For example, the ancestor and father of Yan Qichu, the general doctor of the Ming Dynasty, are all named "Taiyuan Wang clan, Jia Huai on the salt line" (1). Another example is Zhang Siwei and Wang Chonggu's family. Zhang Siwei, whose name is Ziwei, is a native of Puzhou, Shanxi (now Yongji). In the thirty-second year of Jiajing (1553), he was a scholar, and in the third year of Wanli (1575), he praised the machine service as a scholar of Dongge University. Wang Chonggu is Zhang Siwei's uncle, also a native of Puzhou, a scholar in Jiajing for 20 years, a scholar of the official residence and military department, and the governor of Shaanxi. Zhang Siwei's father Zhang Yunling and uncle Zhang Yaoling are businessmen who have traveled all their lives and "footprints in half the world". Zhang Siwei has a total of 9 brothers, Siwei is the elder, and his third brother Zhang Sijiao began to do business at the age of 16, and followed his father to engage in business. Zhang Siwei's fourth brother Zhang Sixiang, his ex-wife Wang's family is also a businessman. After Wang's death, Zhang Sixiang's stepwife, Fan, whose family was still a merchant, and his grandfather Fan Shikui ran the salt industry in the early Ming Dynasty when the Kaizhong Law was implemented. Wang Chonggu's grandfather Wang Xin was a Xuezheng in Dengzhou, Henan, and Wang Chonggu's father, Wang Yao, successively traded in Dengzhou, Xiangyang, Hubei, Shaanxi, Lushan, Henan, Zhangye, Jiuquan, Gansu and other places, and after accumulating a certain amount of capital, he sold salt in Huai and Zhejiang. Wang Chonggu's brother Wang Chongyi is a Changlu salt merchant. Wang Chonggu's uncle, Wang Wenxian, was also a Changlu salt merchant. Wang Chonggu's eldest sister married Shen Tingzhen, and his eldest son, Shen Jiang, was a salt merchant who was active in Yangyue with his father.

Zhang and Wang's families and their in-laws are mostly salt merchants, and Zhang Siwei is a cabinet minister, and Wang Chonggu is a frontier official. Therefore, after inspecting the salt pond in Hedong, Yushi Yong Gaochun said: "The bad salt law is rampant by the momentum, and the big business patents." What Gao Yongchun said is that Zhang Siwei and Wang Chonggu are talking about.

Second, the imperial merchants. Imperial merchants are official merchants. Among the officials and merchants of the Qing Dynasty, the imperial merchant capital of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was the most abundant, and the economic ties with the Qing government were the closest, and among them, Shanxi Jiexiu Fan was the most famous. As early as the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the Fan clan was already trading in the border area. After seven generations, it has become a big Han merchant in the Zhangjia area to Manchu and Mongolian trade when it reaches Fan Yongdou.

Before the Qing Dynasty, Fan Yongdou was the imperial merchant of the Internal Affairs Office. In the early years of Shunzhi, he officially entered the Ministry of Internal Affairs. With the establishment of Qing rule throughout the country, Fan Yongdou, with the help of his son Fan Sanba, took advantage of the privileges of imperial merchants to meddle in the transportation and marketing of salt and copper and foreign trade, and became more and more powerful and profitable. From Kangxi to the early years of Qianlong, Fan Sanba's sons Fan Yuma, Fan Yu [Xiang + Qi], and Fan Yu [Xiang + Qin] transported military rations for the Qing government and established meritorious services. The Qing government successively granted Fan Yu [Xiang + Qin] Taifu Siqing and Fan Yu [Xiang + Qi] Bu Zheng to participate in politics. Fan Yu [Xiang + Qin] was promoted to important positions such as the chief military officer of Zhengding with martial arts. The Fan family took advantage of their imperial merchant privileges and once operated Changlu and Hedong salt. From the list of Fan's bankruptcy in the 46th year of Qianlong (1781), it can be seen that Fan's salt shops were set up in Zhili, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan and other places, and there were warehouses for hoarding salt catties in Tianjin and Cangzhou.

Third, rich businessmen and landlords. For example, Wang Lutai and Wei Jimei, their hometowns are all from Shanxi, "rich in the north of the province, and the industry is salt and Huainan and home". Another example is the rich room Kang family in Pingyang Prefecture, Shanxi, according to Ma Guohan's "Bamboo Ruyi" volume download: "The right side of the mountain is a certain one, the family is hugely rich, and the warehouse is as many as thousands, and people call it with 'millions', arrogant and arrogant, so as to speak wildly, when the Jin Province is in drought, the counties pray, and the people are panicked." Kang Duran threatened to the public: 'There is an old sky, there are millions of Kang, it does not rain for three years, and there are ten thousand stones of old grain'." It is not difficult to see that Kang is a big landowner. Kang's ran a grain store, a pawnshop, and a big salt merchant. According to records: "During the Kangxi period, the Pingyang Kang clan and the Taixing Ji clan were all rich and rival the country, enjoyed luxury, and were in the princely realm", both of which started as "Ye Lu". Kang's salt industry in Yangzhou was once as famous as Anlu Village, Yangzhou's "Salt Business General", and was known as "North Anxi Kang", which is Kang's in Pingyang, Shanxi.

Fourth, general businessmen. Such people include those who are poor and have salt industry, such as the aforementioned Wang Wenxian, whose father was originally a teacher, the official was humble and poor, Wang Wenxian was the eldest son, soaring into the domain of Changlu, and finally died in the salt field...... He is also a farmer and a businessman. For example, Xue Lun, the Tiancheng Wei of Datong Mansion, his family is rich in farming, his brother is cultivating his brother, and his salt is in Huai. Those who abandon Confucianism and become Jia. For example, Qiao Chengtong, a native of Xiangling, Shanxi, was born in the Ming Dynasty, his father Qiao Yangchong, Zhongyan died in Yangzhou, and Chengtong abandoned Confucianism and Jia (9). Those who have inherited the salt industry from their ancestors. Such as Yang Jinquan, Zhenwu Weiren, "the legacy of the ancestors,...... Thousands of gold, pretending to travel between the Jianghuai River".

Two

Shanxi salt merchants in the Ming and Qing dynasties not only covered the major salt farms in China, but also many wealthy merchants. In Lianghuai, "there have always been hundreds of wealthy people in Shanxi and Huihui who have been engaged in business, and their capital is accumulated in the amount of 70 or 80 million." The ancestor and father of Taiyuan Yan Chu, in "Huaishang laughing salt, rich accumulation". In Changlu, such as Wang Wenxian, a merchant of Pu, started as a salt merchant, "a large room, preparing guest sacrifices, and getting married" (13). In the Qing Dynasty, Shanxi Jiexiu Fan was the richest man in Changlu, with a capital of "more than 100,000 taels". In Sichuan, the local "businessmen, not all the solid households, each will be led, sold and marketed with Shanxi guests". In Fujian, according to the "Fujian Salt Law Chronicle": "The government runs various gangs, and there are few local businessmen who are rich, and most of them are Western businessmen." In addition, from the perspective of the way to get rich, there are those who start from business, such as Fan Shikui, a native of Puzhou, "Liguanlong, Du Gaolan, and Zhangye, Jiuquan, and Guzang,...... The benefits are huge, occupying hundreds of acres of fertile land, and accumulating tens of thousands of dollars." For example, Li Yinglin, a native of Hongdong, "Caixiong is in the middle, and he is a border businessman". started with trafficking, such as Yan Tianjie, a Linyi person, "out of the salt business, shipped to Chang'an, Huayin County, Shaanxi, five years of business, profits of tens of thousands." ”

One is to be good at scheming. For example, Wang Wenxian, a businessman who has been in business for 40 years, is a businessman who is "kind and scheming, knowledgeable about the important and light, able to be low and low-valued, so as to forgive; Another example is Fan Shikui, "scheming,...... The businessman is not happy to be in the city with the official, and the public alone says: This can be lived. ...... Its tendency, every shot must be strange". Another example is the Puzhou people Zhan Yuquan, "although the residence is in the middle, it is not cut to the knife and cone, and where the residence is abandoned and moved, the heart is settled."

The second is to be good at calculations. For example, the salt merchant Zhang Sijiao, "the industry is reduced to a small number, the knowledge is Hongda, the comprehensive calculation is accurate, the disdain is more than baht, and the envy of others every year does not take it, especially the nine chapters of arithmetic, where the Fangtian chestnut cloth Pythagorean business division and other methods, are all according to the wonderful solution, not taught by the teacher,...... Proficient in the Oriental Luli, the source committee, distribution, scheduling, with manipulation. In the last years, the industry is prosperous, which is not less than ten times the beginning."

The third is the practice of passing on from father to son. Such as Zhan Yuquan, "Since his father's time, he has lived in Yingying, and Yuquan Fang is very old, because he has traveled from Weng." Weng painted and good, in the time of the salt system Fangdun, the near realm class for its transport division invaded, its coastal counties rate smugglers to the right, and the people are good at boiling alkali brine for salt, the salt years are shipped less than three or four tenths, Zhujia people go to it, but Weng guards his business and does not move, still pay his son. In recent years, the legal system has gradually recovered, and those who occupy the salt often make great profits, and the Zhujia people are in all directions, depending on the past as ten times the public, and only the Zhan family is the world's businessman, so the Pu people say that it is not easy to teach their children, and their business is also insightful.

Fourth, work tirelessly. For example, Fan Shikui, young clothes Jia Quartet, when "the merchant occupies Huaizhejiang salt, ordered to lose Gansu, Ningxia and other borders, to clear the customs lead, and guard the support in Huaizhejiang, called the flying." However, since the opening and the support for a long time, and in and out of the horses, there is a surprise of the beacon, and the salt profit has a view from time to time, it is to the merchant is unhappy with the official for the city, and the public alone said: This can be lived. Then he went through Guanlong, Dulangao, and traveled to and from Zhangye, Jiuquan, and Guzang, and it was dangerous and easy to find the road,...... Its tendency to give up, every time it is strange, it often makes a big profit."

There are four main ways for the profits of Shanxi salt merchants to go: A. Extravagance and profligacy. For example, Zhang Sijiao, a salt merchant, "has a wide range of hearts, is willing to give righteousness, and when his righteousness is aroused, he will ignore his money." Salt merchant Kang's family, Kangxi's "Legend of the Palace of Eternal Life" is new, "the life of the family is performed, all the utensils are used, and the fee is more than 400,000 taels". B. Purchase land and houses. As mentioned above, Fan Shikui, a salt merchant, has huge profits, occupying hundreds of acres of fertile land and accumulating tens of thousands of dollars. Another example is that Zhang Siwei's grandmother loves her second son Zhang Yaoling very much, and on her deathbed, she asked her eldest son Zhang Yunling to say that she is not good at making a living, and she hopes that her brother can help. Later, Zhang Yunling gave Zhang Yaoling a village and let him live a leisurely life on the land. It can be seen that the Zhang family has a lot of land. The Zhang family is a big family, living in Jingshi and Puzhou, and there are many houses in both places. In his later years, Zhang Yunling missed his hometown and left Beijing to return to his hometown to live, so he built a new villa in the east of the city, and the flowers in the courtyard bloomed at all times, which was quite large-scale. Another example is the salt merchant Kang's family, which is "the leader of the Jin merchants, the home of Linfen, the house of Lianyun, and the garden of the family". According to the "Yangzhou Painting Boat Record": "Kangyuan is in Xiaoqinhuai, the early Kang's industry salt, and An's is equally famous, called North Anxi Kang,...... 100 houses are built near the river, and the natives call them 100 rooms". C. Invest in other industries. According to the Qing Dynasty's "Military Aircraft Department Record Vice", "the people of Jin Province are good at business, and they never refuse to store their silver money at home. Generally speaking, the capital of Shanxi salt merchants in the Ming Dynasty was mostly used for salt and grain trade. After entering the Qing Dynasty, the business scope gradually expanded, including silk, fur, wood, copper, tea, etc. For example, Qianlong's "Shaanxi Zhouzhi County Chronicles" volume 9: "The salt and wood sellers and the silk and leather of the opening are all Jin people. "D. Donations. This kind of payment is mostly in the Qing Dynasty, especially in the Qing Dynasty. Xu Jishe, a Qing man, said: "Jin Province has donated five or six times before and after, and tens of millions have passed." One of these donations is for military purposes. For example, during the Yongzheng period, the Qing soldiers went to the northwest, and the Shanxi salt merchant Fan donated 440,000 taels of silver at one time and 2.62 million at one time. Zhang Ying, a native of Jiexiu in Shanxi, mainly engaged in Hedong salt, donated 14,000 taels of silver during the Qianlong period to help the Jinchuan military quartermasters, and donated 20,000 taels of silver during the Jiaqing period to manage military resources. Another donation is to congratulate the emperor on his visit. The emperor of the Qing Dynasty often went to Wutai Mountain to patrol the luck, and the salt merchants in Shanxi had no choice but to "repay the favor with affection and be willing to reward silver". The government gave incentives to businessmen who donated money to provide consolation. For example, Cheng Fengnan, a salt merchant in Taigu County, "gave out Chinese capital, donated salaries to increase classes, and helped military supplies", and "gave nine products a top belt to show special awards". In fact, this kind of donation was coercive, and often caused the merchants to regard it as a fierce tiger, so much so that Emperor Jiaqing also felt that this kind of expropriation and extortion might "provoke incidents" and warned local officials to handle it properly. E, other aspects. Such as building roads and bridges, ancestral temples, and helping to do so. The Yao Siam Canal in Yuncheng Salt Pond was donated by salt merchants.

Among the merchants in Shanxi, there are many people who have become rich because of the salt industry. And these businessmen, their families were not wealthy, they only became rich after doing business. As mentioned above, Wang Wenxian's family was originally relatively poor, but later Wang Wenxian went out to do business, so he was able to buy family property, build a new house, and help his younger siblings get married, making Wang a well-known local wealthy family. Even Zhang Siwei, a well-known university scholar, has an average family background in his parents' generation. His father Zhang Yunling has been in business for decades, and his industry has only "increased slightly". Later, Zhang Siwei's younger brother Zhang Siwei was able to get rich because he was very shrewd and especially familiar with the management of salt and Huai salt, and with the support of his brother Zhang Siwei, who was an official in Beijing. And Zhang Siwei, with the support of his wealthy family, was prosperous in his official fortune and was finally able to enter the cabinet. They help each other and support each other.

The bankruptcy of Shanxi salt merchants is mainly in two aspects. First, it is caused by its own poor management. The second is due to the intervention of the feudal government, until the seizure of family property, conviction and imprisonment. For example: Zhu Liji, a salt merchant, a native of Fengtai, Shanxi, has the experience of donating Nabu political secretary, and Mi Liji, a salt merchant in Changlu, once ran the Changmao of his maternal uncle Wang Tang. In the twenty-fifth year of Qianlong (1760), Wang Tang took over the salt affairs of Yongqing, which was introduced by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Zhu Liji acted as an agent. Since the capital of Changmao has long been used up, Zhu Liji has successively moved the Yongqing silver and two salt bags to Changmao for operation, sharing 91,600 taels of silver in three years. Qianlong 26 years in Henan factory salt warehouse was flooded, loss of cost, and in recent years, all salt transportation needs to use rope catty, mat piece, vehicle and ship foot price appreciation, the selling price is not enough to transport the cost, year after year shortage, Changmao, Yongqing No. 2 total of 250,000 taels of silver. In the winter of the 27th year of Qianlong, the business period expired, and a new business was replaced, and the cost was lost, and the bottom was exposed, so that it was pursued. On the one hand, the government sealed and seized Zhu Liji's family property and foreign trade assets, and the estimated value was 160,000 taels of silver, and 90,000 taels of silver were still owed. At the same time, Zhu Lijige was given the rank of experience, sent to the nearby army, and went to the distribution center with 100 rods, and his friends were also punished to varying degrees. In addition, for the silver owed, Wang Deyi, who had invested in the list, will pay 30,000 taels, and Liu Yunhong and other 11 guarantors will compensate 60,000 taels.

economic loss, and punishable crimes. The so-called interest refers to the principal and interest. In the Qing Dynasty, there were two kinds of capital: one was the capital loaned by the Imperial Palace's internal affairs office, which was called the internal affairs capital, and the other was the capital lent by the local government, which was called the capital of the Beijing Foreign Affairs. The government received a large amount of interest-bearing silver taels from salt merchants through the distribution of capital. Although the interest rate system initially had certain benefits for salt merchants and others to raise funds, they still could not escape the usury exploitation of salt merchants by the feudal government. Especially after Qianlong, there was a situation in which salt merchants had to repay both the capital and the donations. However, the government reimbursed the salt merchants for the money donated and then handed it over to the salt merchants as a capital to operate, and at the same time had to pay the interest on the capital. The original funds of the salt merchants have virtually become the government's capital and have to pay government interest. This kind of money is not only not helpful to the salt merchants, but also becomes a heavy burden for the salt merchants. As a result, "business power is weakened, especially in Lianghuai and Hedong". In particular, when the salt is unsalable, the salt merchants fall into a situation of heavy debt. And the feudal government's tolerance for arrears of interest was limited. At a certain time, the government had to take drastic measures to liquidate the salt merchants who were seriously in arrears for the sake of fiscal revenue, which eventually led to the bankruptcy of the salt merchants and the relapse of their wealth. This is also the reason why Zhu Liji's salt merchant group, which once cost hundreds of thousands of silver taels, finally collapsed completely.

Three

The society regards business as the last industry and the influence of traditional Confucianism, and does not take pride in business, but emphasizes business over business, and pursues eunuchs, which has formed the following psychological characteristics:

1. Light business and heavy Confucianism. For example, the father of Wang Wenxian, a salt merchant, was an official and an edict, and his position was humble and poor. Wen Xian has 5 brothers, Wen Xian is the elder, and the four younger brothers all look forward to Wen Xian and stand, thinking that Wen Xian abandoned Confucianism and went to business, and finally became rich with business, and made great contributions to the prosperity of the Wang family. However, after his father returned home, due to the strange idea of light business, he first let his eldest son Wang Wenxian go out of the family, which greatly stimulated Wenxian, and sadly composed "Five Fathoms", the lyrics of which include "Sweeping away the people of the court, going out and thinking about it in the twilight, the breeze is fluttering, and the bright moon is clear; When his father heard this song, he repented, and the father and son reconciled as before. When Wen Xian's younger brother Wang Keju was in the township, his father said happily: "Brother business and profit, brother and name, what is my regret now." Another example is the salt merchant Yang Jinquan, although it is two Huai salt laughing sacrificial wine, but "only happy and scholar travel", when his son Yang Sui raised in the township, Yang Jinquan in Huai Shang Wen Jie, lifted his beard and said: "Husband and I are not to Confucianism, my son to Confucianism, what is still the matter, the same day to abandon the capital axe to the north, and the old township association for joy." Another example is Shen Tingzhen, a salt merchant, "When doing business, you must bring the primary school to the general guide, recite it when you learn it, and there is a certificate in case of trouble, and the regular script is written in regular letters, and it is a close poem."

2. Zirconium camp eunuch view. For example, the Puzhou salt merchant Zhan Yuquan, hundreds of gold, can be awarded to the Shangqiu Yicheng of virtue, and the salt of its operation is reduced, so his son is ordered to take charge. Before leaving, he happily said to his son: "I am a good man, and I have to see it from time to time." Although Zhan Yuquan only got a small post man, he was envied by his peers, "Rong Qi Jia and talent, Shi Shi without losing his world". In addition, in Hedong Yanchi, a special school was set up for the children of merchants, and in the Huaiyang Salt Farm, Shanxi Yan, Li, the 200th year. The following information on the imperial examination of the children of salt merchants vividly illustrates this point.

3. Confucianism and business outlook. Wang Wenxian, a salt merchant, had the most typical view, he said: "Merchants and scholars are different and concentric, so those who are good at businessmen are in the field of wealth and goods, and they cultivate a wise line, so although they are profitable but not dirty; Therefore, the profit is based on righteousness, the name is based on pure cultivation, and each keeps his business".

4. Accumulate virtue and do good. For example, Qiao Chengtong, a native of Xiangling, Shanxi, died in Yangzhou in his father, and Chengtong abandoned Confucianism and Jia. Brother Chengtong offended the two Huai salt governors, died, and the pursuit was very urgent, Chengtong stepped forward and went to prison, and the five poisons were prepared, and he never said where his brother was. And for the bribe, he was released. The younger brother returned home and broke his own property to his younger brother. In the second year of Shunzhi (105), the Qing army marched south, and ordered the women captured in the army to be redeemed by their families to be released. When the Chengtong heard that many of the old women were captured in the middle, he visited the camps and ransomed them to their homes. Another example is Yan Tianjie, a native of Linyi, who has been operating the salt industry for five years, making tens of thousands of profits, returning home, advocating the repair of temples, and helping the poor people.

According to the analysis of the economic situation and psychological state, in view of the fact that salt is a patented product and has a large profit, even the royal family also intervenes in it, so among the salt merchants in Shanxi, there is no shortage of powerful and powerful landlords, who collude up and down to influence the salt industry and seek huge profits from it, as for the ordinary businessmen, they can only pick up its scraps. Judging from the development process of Shanxi salt merchants, they are roughly as follows: (1) they started as salt merchants, ascended to the official career, and used their power to support their business; (2) used the legacy of their ancestors to invest in salt transportation and marketing, and increased capital; (3) supported each other through salt industry and other businesses, complemented each other, and expanded wealth. The success of Shanxi salt merchants is not only due to the geographical advantages of being extremely close to the border and the natural conditions of the province with Yuncheng salt ponds, but also because they are good at management and work hard, which is also the way to success. However, due to the fact that the society at that time was mainly a natural economy, and the commodity economy was not developed enough, although they concentrated some capital, they could not invest in production, and part of their capital was squandered by them, part of it was purchased land, and part of it was donated to help them. In addition, due to the constraints of feudal culture, they psychologically pursued Confucianism and feudal ethics and morality, this kind of road from merchants to eunuchs, rather than from merchants to workers, can be said to be the tragedy of merchants in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The reason for this was the low degree of development of the commodity economy at that time.