Salt merchant - yan-shang; yen-shang

Japanese: 塩商 - えんしょう（英語表記）yan-shang; yen-shang

Salt sellers in China. Salt is a commodity with high profit margins, and since the Zhou and Han dynasties, there have been many salt merchants who have made huge fortunes or entered the political world, such as Jiao Li, Dongguo Xianyang, and Yidun. With the establishment of the Salt Law in the Song dynasty, many became wealthy merchants by parasitizing the state, and this was even more pronounced during the Ming and Qing dynasties, with a salt merchant reportedly having 10 million taels in the mid-Qing dynasty. Salt merchants were divided into market merchants who purchased salt at the production site and transporters who transported it, but some did all of these jobs and invested in mining, trading, and pawnbroking. Some salt merchants also looked after scholars, literati, and poets, and one great scholar, Zhao Yi, was a former salt merchant.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

中国における塩の販売業者。塩は利益の大きい商品で，周，漢の時代から，塩商のなかには膠鬲 (こうれき) ，東郭咸陽，猗頓 (いとん) らのように巨富を得た者，政界に進出した者が少くない。宋代，塩法の確立とともに，国家に寄生して豪商となる者が多く，明・清時代はさらに著しく，清の中頃には 1000万両をもつ塩商があったという。塩商は，生産地で塩を買付ける場商，運搬する運商などに分化する一方，これらを一身に兼ねる者もあり，鉱山業，貿易業，典当業 (質屋) に投資する者もあった。なお，塩商のなかには学者，文人，墨客を世話する者もあり，趙翼など塩商出身の大学者もあった。

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