The cruel sea ban in the early Qing Dynasty and the closed-door policy in the middle and late Qing Dynasty greatly hindered the development of foreign trade at sea. Before the Opium War, only Guangzhou Port was open to foreign trade. However, the Qing government did not restrict the development of trade with Russia. Therefore, in the Qing Dynasty, the Yangtze River was basically the line, and the goods in the south of the Yangtze River were mainly exchanged with Britain, the United States and other countries through Guangzhou Port. The goods in the north of the Yangtze River mainly supply the long Sino-Russian border trade in the northwest. Shanxi merchants became a powerful force in Sino-Russian trade by virtue of favorable weather, favorable geographical position and friendly people, and soon developed into one of the top ten business gangs in China. Then, why were the border trade partners of Shanxi merchants in Ming and Qing Dynasties mainly Mongolia and Russia in the northwest? The reasons are as follows:/kloc-In the 9th century, a French economist pointed out that if goods can't cross national borders, soldiers will.
After the Ming Dynasty replaced the Yuan Dynasty to rule the Central Plains, in order to consolidate the political power, it made great efforts to continue to pursue the remnants of Yuan and Mongolia. During the Hongwu period, Zhu Yuanzhang sent troops to the north many times, including three times with more troops and larger scale. During Yongle period, Judy went to Mobei five times and moved to Beijing to strengthen her political and military leadership in the north. Under the military pressure of the Ming Dynasty, the Yuan and Mongolian forces were forced to return to the north. Later, due to the weakening of the ruling power and the internal struggle for power and profit, it gradually split into three parts: Tatar, Wala and Wuliangha. Although the Ming Dynasty did not have a unified political power or a unified action plan for Mongolian ministries, because it was a single nomadic economy and the necessities of life depended on the Central Plains, the Ming regime adopted strict preventive policies for Mongolian ministries and restricted their ties with the Central Plains. Therefore, frequent expropriation and wanton plunder are a measure and the most convenient economic remedy for Mongolian ministries to change the material embarrassment caused by the simplification of nomadic economy.
"Zheng De three years (1508) in June, the Ministry of War said that I went to Datong in summer, which made me exhausted. Although I am restraining people and animals, I am waiting. But I can't attack for a long time, so I am prepared. "
"In the 30th year of Jiajing (1552), in August, more than 20,000 people rode horses to attack Wei in Datong, and were plundered by states and counties such as Shuo, Ying and Mayi, attacking Yi and beating castles, killing and injuring thousands of people." In order to prevent war plunder, the horse market in Liaodong was officially opened in the third year of Yongle in Ming Dynasty (1405). Thirty-six years later, in April of the third year of orthodoxy, Datong established the horse market again. Since then, horse markets have been established in many places to carry out border trade and barter trade between Mongolia and China. They not only meet the needs of Mongolian production and life, but also provide improved horses, ginseng, hides and other special products beyond the Great Wall for the Central Plains, communicate the economic exchanges between the Great Wall and the Great Wall, stabilize the political situation and provide an opportunity for the development of commodity economy. According to historical records, since six years later, Shaanxi Luzhou iron pot has flowed into the horse market. As for the iron farm tools needed by overseas ethnic groups, they are also "all purchased by Luzhou businessmen". (3) Yang Yiqing, the minister of the Ming Dynasty, served as the governor of Shaanxi Province in the 16th year of Hongzhi (1503). He once said: "Since the eighteenth year of Hongzhi (1505), I have listened to the list of ministers and asked rich businessmen in Shaanxi and other places to buy 500,000 Jin of official tea. At that time, the price was 520 kilograms of silver per kilogram, and each businessman could not buy more than 1 10,000 kilograms. It can be seen that the main trading partners of Shanxi merchants in Ming Dynasty were the northwest frontier minorities represented by Mongols.
1652 (the ninth year of Shunzhi in Qing dynasty), the first direct conflict occurred between the Qing army and the Cossack armed forces invading the Heilongjiang river basin. (1) Since then, the conflicts and wars of aggression and anti-aggression between Qing and Russia in Heilongjiang and its upper reaches have been fought intermittently for decades. In September of the 28th year of Kangxi (1689), the two sides signed the Sino-Russian Nebuchadnezzar Chu Treaty. The principle of trade and friendly exchanges between the two sides was established, which opened the door for Shanxi businessmen to trade with Russia. 1728 (the sixth year of Yongzheng, Qing dynasty), China and Russia signed the Treaty of Chaktu, which stipulated that Nebuchadnezzar and Chaktu on the Sino-Russian border should trade with each other. After the signing of the treaty, the stability and peace in the northern border areas opened a broader foreign trade channel for Shanxi businessmen. China commodities that Russia needs, such as tea, cloth, tobacco leaves, silk, etc. , is a commodity of Shanxi merchants in Russia. According to the historical records of China's foreign trade, from the 17th year of Daoguang (1837) to the 19th year of Daoguang (1839), Chaktu sold an average of 80,000 cases of tea to Russia every year, which increased to120,000 cases in the 23rd year of Daoguang (1843). As far as the trade volume between China and Russia is concerned, it reached15.96 million rubles during the five years of Jiaqing (1800). Since then, it has remained between1300-150,000 rubles until the 1960s. Russia became the second largest trading partner of the Qing government, second only to Britain. Shanxi businessmen are the main force in this trade with Russia. The rise of Shanxi merchants in Ming and Qing Dynasties was closely related to the natural environment and geographical conditions in Shanxi. Shanxi is known as "eight mountains divided into two fields", with Taihang Mountain and Luliang Mountain on the east and west sides respectively. The northern part is barren, the people are poor, and the southern and central parts of Fenhe River are fertile, but the land is narrow and densely populated, and the farmland is insufficient. According to statistics, from 1393 to 1949, the per capita cultivated land in Shanxi province decreased from 10.28 mu to 4.88 mu. Among them, in the seventeenth year of Jiaqing in Qing Dynasty (18 12), the per capita cultivated land reached the lowest point, which was 3.95 mu.
Although Shanxi has little arable land, it is rich in natural resources. According to Gu's "Yu Zhaozhi", "Mausoleum: Taiyuan, Pingyang, Lu 'an and Fenze all came out. Silk: Out of Lu 'an, there are other places between Zezhou. Iron: It's everywhere, especially Yangcheng. Huangtie: There is metallurgy in Jingle County, Jiaocheng. Copper: Fengyou Valley in Daizhou and Beishan in Yuanqu County. Due to the large population and small land, people have to make full use of local resources for processing and selling in exchange for the materials they need. Therefore, Jin's extremely rich natural resources have laid a material foundation for people to engage in commercial activities. The geographical direction of foreign trade depends on the complementarity of the two economies. The more complementary the economies of the two countries are, the closer the trade relationship will be.
In the Ming Dynasty, the nomadic people, such as Tatar, Wala and Hercynian Nuzhen, to the west and north of the Great Wall, did not cultivate and had no other products on the land. Therefore, the daily satin cloth, tea, rice salt, iron ware, needle and thread were always supplied by the Han areas. They exchanged horses with the Han nationality, collected and hunted ginseng, mink and other specialties, in exchange for daily necessities such as iron pots, farm tools, cattle, salt and cloth, in order to maintain reproduction. At that time, Russia's productive forces were underdeveloped, and silk, tea and salt were also exchanged by trade to maintain normal economic development.
The Ming and Qing Dynasties witnessed the emergence and rapid development of China's commodity economy. The production of handicraft commodities in Shanxi, especially the industries of salt, iron, silk and coal, has developed to a certain extent. In terms of salt pond production technology, the Ming dynasty made some progress compared with the previous generation, such as: taking the cultivated land next to the pond as the boundary, "introducing clear water into the farming boundary, avoiding the infiltration of turbid water and silting salt veins." When water is diverted to plant salt, it is in spring and the water will turn red for a long time. At the turn of summer and autumn, the south wind rises and becomes overnight. It's called salt, and it was called big salt in ancient times. "This is the so-called salt solution method. During the Wanli period of Ming Dynasty, salt was introduced into the channel of 1, 440,700, which reflected the growth trend of pool salt production in Ming Dynasty.
The pig iron output of Hong and Shanxi is "1 1469 17 kg", ranking fifth in the iron output of all provinces in China, among which Jiaocheng's square iron field is excellent and suitable for casting weapons. In the 28th year of Hongwu (1395), The Record of Ming Taizu (176) said, "All places where iron is smelted should be ordered, and the whole people should practice by themselves, but they miss classes every 30 years, so they take the second place". Since then, private iron smelting in Shanxi has developed day by day, and the iron output has increased greatly. During the Tianshun period (1457— 1464), Yangcheng "taught no less than 500,000 Jin of iron every year". According to the tax rate of "one thirtieth" of the iron class in Ming Dynasty, Yangcheng County produces 7.5-9 million Jin of iron every year. If the private iron smelting output of other counties is added, the private iron smelting output of Shanxi should be listed as "the first in the world" at that time.
Anzhai, Lu Shanxi was the center of northern silk industry in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the silk produced here was famous for its exquisite texture. Lusi mobile phone users are located in Changzhi, Gaoping and Luzhou. Instead of going to the government to work, these aircraft operators are paid separately in the local area, and then the local government sends them to Beijing to pay the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Because the silk machine shop is scattered and woven separately for residents, they have more freedom in mastering labor time than shift workers and daily workers. In addition to weaving, they also have the conditions to engage in home textiles, and the production of Lusi has also expanded from supply to general commodity production. Later, due to the good quality of the products, they were welcomed by the market and the output increased day by day. The quantity supplied by the company gradually relegated to a secondary position in the output ratio, while the goods produced for the market jumped to the first place. During Jiajing and Wanli years, this commercial Chengdu developed rapidly and reached its peak in Wanli years, becoming a best-selling product of the whole country and border trade. A Ming Guo said, "Lucheng looms are ingenious, weaving is pure and beautiful, and clothes are all over the world." Shunzhi's "Lu 'an Fuzhi" records that in the Ming Dynasty, Lu Si, except for "tribute and trade", was directly transported in the province and spread abroad, which was called "profit".
Economic assessment:
It can be seen that the necessities of life of ethnic groups and countries outside the frontier are scarce, while the Central Plains region within the frontier has the supply capacity of various products because of the developed commodity economy. This economic complementarity is precisely the complementarity of nomadic single economy and agricultural commodity economy. Therefore, the border trade with Mongolia and Russia developed rapidly in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In addition, the cattle and horses (especially military horses) and furs needed in Han areas have always relied on the supply of ethnic groups outside the border. The economic connection formed by the differences in material production between regions is an objective law of social and economic development. Therefore, the choice of Shanxi merchants' foreign trade partners in Ming and Qing dynasties was not transferred to the northwest frontier region based on human will. The emergence of foreign trade comes from the development of commodity economy, and the development of commodity economy is inseparable from social progress, which is the direct result of population activities. Population is the most active and abundant carrier in culture, and it is also an indispensable main participant in economic activities.
The northern and western parts of Shanxi are located on the dividing line between agriculture and animal husbandry in China Economic Zone. The rise and fall of nomadic people in the north has a great influence on the development and population change of Shanxi. Especially in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, a large number of Shanxi people moved out, which provided a marriage zone for the development of Shanxi merchants.
Shortly after the establishment of the central government in the Ming Dynasty, the financial resources of the whole country were devoted to building the Great Wall and setting up nine borders to defend Mongolia. However, because a single nomadic economy cannot meet the needs of daily necessities, in order to solve the problem of serious imbalance between supply and demand as soon as possible, ethnic groups outside the border often invade and plunder in the south, and population is an important target of Mongolian plunder in the south. Shanxi, which is connected with the Great Wall, is an important passage for overseas nationalities to go south, thus becoming the focus of plunder. For example:
In September of the thirty-third year of Jiajing (1554), Zhili Taishou Mao investigated "From July to August of the thirty-second year, Lu Kouxuanda slaughtered 25 docks and castles, with thousands of soldiers and civilians and thousands of casualties. There are 1700 prisoners. "
In October of the first year of Qin Long, the governor of Shanxi issued a statement accusing the border administration of an accident: "... more than 30 years have passed since the invaders left the customs, and looters and disabled people have chased thousands of miles, captured, burned and killed tens of thousands of prisoners."
According to an Jiesheng's rough estimation, before the "Anda Fenggong", the Mongols of the Great Wall plundered at least 500,000 Shanxi residents. However, we also see that while a large number of Shanxi civilians were taken captive to Saibei, many Shanxi people voluntarily entered Mobei area, and the emergence of Bansheng agricultural area was the result of the joint efforts of two types of Shanxi immigrants.
"A Record of Emperor Shizong of Ming Dynasty" was published in 486: "Outside the right rear side of Datong, from the old city of Yulin to the north, through Heihe River and Erhui, the land is called Fengzhou, surrounded by mountains, and the water plants are sweet. China rebels Qiu Fu, Zhao Quan, Li Baixin, etc. I lived there, built a city, built a magnificent palace, opened a thousand hectares of grain fields, and connected Dongsheng to Sichuan. The state of Lu called Ban Sheng. Ban Sheng, Hua Yancheng also.
In the atmosphere of harmony between the north and the south and peace in the border court after the "Anda tribute", the momentum of the Han people in the border areas to vote outside the Great Wall has further intensified. According to the official statistics of the Ming Dynasty, there were at least 654.38 million+"half-liter" Han people in the Wanli period.
Social evaluation:
In short, there is only one result, whether it is the exiled Shanxi civilians north of the Great Wall or the "half-liter" who voluntarily went north, that is, there are a large number of Shanxi immigrants living in the vast areas outside the Great Wall. These Shanxi immigrants still retain the traditions of their hometown in language, customs and culture, which created convenient conditions for Shanxi people to do business outside the Great Wall, and then provided the benefits of human harmony for the rise and development of Shanxi merchants later.