Shanxi Merchants

Merchants and financiers from Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces in China. Along with the Xin'an merchants from the south, they were one of the two major forces in the Chinese commercial world during the Ming and Qing dynasties. During the Ming dynasty, military bases on the northern border, called Jiubianzhen, were established along the Great Wall to defend Mongolia, and many standing troops were stationed there, so the issue of military supplies was an urgent issue for the government. Shanxi merchants initially transported military supplies and made huge profits, then linked up with government authorities and advanced into Jianghuai, where they monopolized the market as salt and grain merchants, making huge profits. They also traded in a wide variety of products, including silk fabrics, cotton cloth, lumber, transportation, pawnbroking, iron, tea, and dyes, and their range of activity extended from northern and central China to the western regions and Liaodong. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, they forged close ties with the Qing government, and in particular, with their wealth, they monopolized financial businesses such as currency exchange and money exchange. Their activities were centered in Beijing and extended to northern and central China, and around 1905, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, it is said that about half of the financial industry in Beijing was made up of Shanxi-affiliated branches of their old-style banks.

Shanxi merchants also received loans or investments from these old-style banks to operate various commercial and industrial businesses, and in Beijing they were active in rice trading, oil pressing, and businesses such as liquor, tobacco, and dyes. Furthermore, their businesses strengthened unity through hometown ties, organized mutual aid guilds, and built hometown associations and venues all over the place to serve as bases for their activities, and in Beijing these were subdivided by type of industry and by prefecture of origin.

[Shigeo Sakuma]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国、山西・陝西(せんせい)両省出身の商人、金融業者。明(みん)・清(しん)時代に南方の新安商人と並んで、中国商業界に二大勢力をなした。明朝ではモンゴル防衛のために長城線一帯に九辺鎮(ちん)とよばれる北辺の軍事基地が置かれ、多数の常備軍を駐屯させ、これに補給する軍餉(ぐんしょう)問題は政府の緊急課題であった。山西商人は初めこの軍糧の輸送を担当して巨利を得、政府権力と結んで江淮(こうわい)にも進出し、塩商および穀物商として市場を独占し、莫大(ばくだい)な利益をあげたばかりでなく、彼らの営業種目は絹織物、綿布、木材、運輸、典当(てんとう)（質屋）、鉄、茶、染料など多彩であり、その活動範囲も華北、華中から西域や遼東(りょうとう)方面にまで及んだ。明の滅亡後は清朝政府と密接な関係を結び、とりわけ、その富で票号（為替(かわせ)業）、銭鋪(せんぽ)（銭荘）などの金融業を独占した。その活動は北京(ペキン)を中心として華北、華中に及び、清末の1905年ごろには、北京の金融業界の約半数が彼らの旧式銀行による山西系店舗に占められていたという。

　山西商人はまたこの旧式銀行から融資または出資を受けて、各種の商工業を経営し、北京での米穀商、搾油業をはじめ酒、たばこ、染料などの営業はほとんど彼らの活躍舞台であった。さらにその経営は、同郷関係によって団結を強め、相互扶助のギルドを組織し、至る所に同郷同業の会館、行所(こうしょ)を建てて活動の根拠地にし、北京ではそれも業種別、出身県別に細分化されていた。

［佐久間重男］

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