Jin Wengong's "business, agriculture and sharp weapon" dominated the five tyrants in the Spring and Autumn Period for the longest time (up to 200 years). At that time, Shanxi merchants were famous. For example, in Mandarin, it is said that "Jiang Yi has a wealthy businessman whose wealth is enough to cherish his car and his clothes are disheveled, so he can bribe the princes". Ji Ran, the minister of the State of Yue, was called "Fan Li's business teacher" after he was the son of the State of Jin. Since then, "Tao (place name) (pseudonym)" has become a symbol of wealth, and "Tao Zhushu" has also become synonymous with China's business. Bai Gui, the earliest official in Wei State, was the "ancestor of human speech" and was also related to Sanjin. Yidun in the Warring States Period was the first big salt merchant in the history of China, and was known as the "ancestor of China merchants". He sold salt for animal husbandry (later there were big cows in southern Shanxi), built water conservancy projects, built roads and bridges, and taught the people with proverbs, which made him famous for a while. In the reign of Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty (207 BC), a county was established, named "Li", which has not been changed so far (now Linjin and Li merged to form Linyi). Yidun Mausoleum (Ancient Yidun Tomb) in Liaowang Village of this county is a provincial key cultural relics protection unit, which contains Tao Zhugong Temple. Yuci and Anyi are famous commercial market towns.
Nie Yi, a big businessman in Han Dynasty, was also a royal spy. He was personally appointed by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to travel to and from Xiongnu in the name of doing business, and conducted a military investigation for the later large-scale conquest. The reflection of Wei Zhi Zhang Liao says that Zhang Liao is Wen Yuan, and the people of Yanmen Mayi are also. After this visit to Nie Yi, he changed his surname to avoid resentment. "Momo, a native of Yanmen Fan Shi (now Yingxian County) in the Western Jin Dynasty, was a general left and a Guanzhong Hou, who made important contributions to the political construction in the early Northern Wei Dynasty. His ancestors did business inside and outside Yanmenguan and were very rich. He often traveled between Tuoba Yao Lu, the emperor of Xianbei in Daibei, and Liu Kun, the assassin of Bingzhou, and made positive contributions to maintaining peace and stability in the two places. My old house is on the south bank of Sanggan River, known as Mohui City in the world, in Sanmen City, Yingxian County today. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, Taiyuan, Pingyao, Fenyang, Pinglu and Hong Tong were important commodity distribution centers. When Li Shimin and his son rebelled against the Sui Dynasty, many military expenses were borne by the warriors of Wenshui Timber Merchants. Of course, Wu is famous because of his daughter Wu Zetian. Taiyuan and Tang Ding are Beijing, making it a big city with prosperous business. Du Fu once "cut Wusong River with quick scissors", and Han Yu described Taiyuan at that time as "drums in the street were everywhere, like the morning light". Emerging commercial towns such as Datong, Taigu, Pingding and Jincheng appeared in Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties.
By the Song Dynasty, Shanxi merchants had risen to prominence and became the backbone of China's commerce at that time. Some people think that Huizhou merchants began in the Southern Song Dynasty, when they made contributions. ) Hedong set up a yamen to transport salt, so it was renamed "Yuncheng", and a group of salt merchants with tens of millions of wealth emerged. Crane and other places supply a large number of good horses. There is a folk saying that "flowers and flowers really set the house, Taiyuan city is beautiful", and its commercial street is like a riverside map on Qingming Festival. Shanxi was the center of the Yuan Dynasty, and its economy and population were more prosperous than other regions, just like a paradise. From the Yuan Dynasty (present-day Beijing) to Sarai (present-day Volga River valley in Russia), there is a direct mail route. A complete post office expands the scope of business activities. The Travels of Marco Polo wrote, "Businessmen from Taiyuan to Pingyang (Linfen) spread all over the country and made huge profits". Yuncheng salt merchants also set up children's schools to carry out vocational education.
In the Ming Dynasty, Xue's three brothers and his second brother, Xue Lun, were appointed as the deputy envoys of the Shaanxi Provincial Supervision Department and resigned from their posts to do business. His brother Xue Ying is a big salt merchant in Huaihe River. The Xue family owns real estate in Datong and Yangzhou. Yang Jimei, a native of Daixian County, is a well-known wealthy businessman among salt merchants in the Huai River and Huai River. He worked as a wine merchant in imperial academy. One man owed him a huge debt and wanted to offset it with the family business, while Yang tore up the bond to his face and wrote off the old debt. There are three large commercial cities in China: Taiyuan, Pingyang and Zhou Pu (Yongji). In the Ming Dynasty, Shanxi merchants were the first of the three business gangs.
The "Eight Imperial Merchants" in the early Qing Dynasty (given by the emperor) were all Shanxi merchants. In the middle of Qing Dynasty, Shanxi merchants had already taken the lead in the whole country. Sometimes there is a folk saying that "a person in a teahouse is not as good as a family with two thousand pieces of silver." "Being a guest in a teahouse is better than being an official." The "No.1 Firm in China" rose to prosperity. At most, it exchanged as much as 1 100 million taels of silver, and was awarded the plaque of "Huitong Tianxia" by the emperor. The intangible assets were not less than 800 million taels of silver. The aristocratic families of Shanxi merchants in Qing Dynasty mainly include Chang, Xu, Nie, Cao Taigu, Qi Xianqiao, Qu, Li Pingyao, Jiexiu Hou Shi, Ji, Fan, Linfen Kang, Pan Wanrong, Yang, Zhang, Wang, and Chang Hun yuanshi county. "There is heaven on earth and millions on earth. It doesn't rain for three years, and the old grain has a stone. " -Linfen Konka, a big salt merchant, was the richest man in Sanjin, with tens of millions of assets during Guangxu period. Shanxi merchants in Qing Dynasty pushed Shanxi economy to a glorious historical height.
In the course of Shanxi merchants' hegemony, there are five monuments on the tree: camel gang, boatgang, ticket number, courtyard and "tea ceremony".
Qi Taibang helped Shi, Zhang and Wang to open Jisheng Hall in Shahukou, Youyu County. At the end of Kangxi's reign, it was renamed Dashengkui, with over 1000 semicolons under its jurisdiction. Modern scholars believe that its total assets are at least two or three times that of the national treasury reserves in the Qing Dynasty. Dashengkui is the only large group in Shanxi merchants that has no family color. At the peak, there were 6,000 or 7,000 employees and nearly 20,000 camels in the caravan. Only the trade route between the Great Wall and Ulya Sutai (formerly known as generic name, later moved to naturalization) has a peak of 1500 every year. Therefore, there is a folk saying that there are Hu Xueyan (Huizhou merchants) in the south and Dashengkui (Shanxi merchants) in the north. /kloc-in the 8th century, there were about 15 foreign ships in China, and Fan, the imperial envoy of Jiexiu in Shanxi, owned six or seven ships, which sailed between the Yangtze River estuary and Nagasaki, Japan, monopolizing the trade of copper imported from Japan in the 1970s and 1980s.
At the end of feudal society in China, Nanqianzhuang and Beipiaohao merged into a historical context of early banking in China. Shanghai Qianzhuang is the most representative bank in the south of the Yangtze River, and Shanxi Bank, known as "Huitong World", is recognized as "the national ancestor of modern banks in China". The "Golden Triangle" of Pingyao, Taigu and Qixian brought Shanxi merchants to the peak of history. There is a saying in the traditional houses in China that the north is in Shanxi and the south is in southern Anhui. Shanxi quadrangles are mainly distributed in Taigu, Pingyao, Qixian, Yuci, Lingshi, Jiexiu, Datong, Hunyuan, Baode, Yangquan, Qinshui, Yangcheng, Linfen and Xiangfen. For example, Jia Fan Courtyard in Jiexiu Bird Village is called "Little Golden Hall". "There are more than 40 quadrangles similar to the Qiao Family Courtyard in Qixian County. Some of these courtyards are comparable to or even better than Joe's Courtyard in terms of building scale and craftsmanship. Unfortunately, most of them have become increasingly dilapidated and endangered due to their inability to repair or neglect protection. " (1997: "Shanxi merchants' courtyard culture") The situation of the guild halls left by Shanxi merchants is much better. "Hope is the most precious thing" and they are all national key cultural relics protection units.
When Zhang Qian hollowed out the Western Regions in the Western Han Dynasty, the Silk Road started from Xi in the east and reached the Caspian Sea and the eastern Mediterranean in the west. There is also a famous post road-"Tea-Horse Ancient Road" between Hengduan Mountain Area in Yunnan and Sichuan and Tibet, Myanmar, India and Nepal. The Western Han Dynasty took shape at the beginning and was strengthened in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. Shanxi merchants went north to the frontier, east to Japan, and south to Nanyang, and opened up a road of international trade-Sino-Russian tea trade, starting from Fujian and Jiangnan, with Shanxi and Hebei as hubs, running through Mongolia, and going deep into Siberia, Petersburg and Moscow. The Wanli Tea Road, the Silk Road (land and sea) and the ancient tea-horse road, which were developed by Shanxi merchants, roughly covered the commercial tracks of ancient China merchants in the north, middle and south.
During the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Shanxi "Lu Silk" was a famous brand comparable to "Hang Satin". "Nanyang in Qinshui County is one of the birthplaces of the Silk Road" has basically become a historical definition. In recent years, gold coins of Persian Sassanian dynasty have been unearthed in Shanxi. Although it can't be concluded that Shanxi merchants have been to Iran during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, there is no doubt that Shanxi merchants have a close relationship with the Silk Road in history. The "tea road" of Shanxi merchants is exactly the same as the Silk Road on the southern line. The northern line points out that Zhangjiakou goes to Baotou and Ulaanbaatar, passes through Ulyasutai and Cobudo to the west, and goes all the way to Siberia and Moscow. Wanli Tea Road is also called "the tea-horse road in the north", with "grain, wine and tea" in the south and "cattle, sheep and camels" in the north. The "Tea Road" and the "Silk Road" are world-renowned, but the "Ancient Tea-Horse Road" is much inferior.
From this, it seems that it can be concluded that the rise of Shanxi merchants has sprouted since the Yao and Shun period because Shanxi has the natural resources of Yuncheng Yanchi, just as Shanxi people have coal resources today; At the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty, the natural environment of Shanxi began to become uninhabitable. Being in the geographical position around the "imperial power" for a long time makes Shanxi people persistent in authority, open-minded, introverted and cowardly; I can't be an excellent student, I am poor, and I don't have the courage to "stand up", but I still have to live. What should I do? Do business and sell salt! The policies implemented by the Ming government to ensure border supply eventually pushed Shanxi businessmen to the political and economic stage in China.