Overview of Chen merchants

Chen businessmen, that is, Chenzhou businessmen, businessmen from the old Chenzhou government or merchant groups, are not just businessmen in Chen county. Chen merchants are also called "Guiyang merchants" and "Zixing merchants" are commonly known as "Zixing Gang". Shang Chen was born in Shang Dynasty, grew up in Tang and Song Dynasties, and flourished in Ming Dynasty, including Chenzhou, Zixing, Chenxian and Leiyang in Yongxing County. Shang Chen is one of the eight business gangs in Hunan. At its peak, Shang Chen once occupied 1/3 of Hunan's total assets. He is also a scholar and businessman. He worked hard and won the reputation of "water mule driver". The activities of Chen merchants spread all over urban and rural areas, from Jianghuai in the east to Yunnan, Guizhou and Guanlong in the west, Youyan and Liaodong in the north and Fujian and Guangdong in the south. Chen merchants traveled as far as Japan, Siam, Southeast Asian countries and Spain. In the late Qing Dynasty, with the disintegration of feudal economy, the influence of Chen merchants weakened, and gradually died out in the late Republic of China due to war. In recent years, with the development of reform and opening-up, the time-honored Shang Chen has been revived again.