New cheap merchant - Shinan Shonin

A merchant from Huizhou Prefecture, Anhui Province, China. Along with the Shanxi merchants from the north, they were one of the two major forces in the Chinese commercial world during the Ming and Qing dynasties. They are generally called Xin'an merchants, named after the old name of Huizhou Prefecture, Xin'an County. They first made a huge fortune as salt merchants in Yangzhou, the base of Jianghuai, following the Ming Dynasty government's salt monopoly. At the same time, they operated various businesses such as rice, cotton, raw silk, silk textiles, ceramics, salt, tea, and mining with joint capital from their relatives, and expanded their activities throughout almost all of China, mainly in central China, but also in northern and southern China. They also monopolized many pawnbroking businesses. They also sent many bureaucrats from among them to the political world, and in collusion with the political world, they were active in the economic world at the end of the Ming and early Qing dynasties. However, from the mid-18th century onwards, due to the heavy burden of donations imposed by the Qing government's tax-collection policy, as well as the decline of the salt industry due to the rampant private selling of salt, many of them fell into ruin, they lost their dominant position in the commercial world, and were gradually replaced by the Zhejiang conglomerate.

[Shigeo Sakuma]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国、安徽(あんき)省徽州府出身の商人。北方の山西商人と並んで、明(みん)・清(しん)時代の中国商業界に二大勢力をなした。彼らは、徽州府の古名である新安郡の名にちなんで、一般に新安商人とよばれる。初め明朝政府の塩の専売に伴い、塩商として江淮(こうわい)の拠点、揚州に進出して巨万の財をなし、かたわら同族の合資のもとに米穀、綿花、生糸、絹織物、陶磁器、塩、茶、鉱山など各種の企業を営み、華中を中心に華北、華南に及び、ほとんど全中国に活動を展開した。典当業（質屋）は多くその独占するところであった。また彼らのうちからは政界にも多数の官僚を送り出し、政界と結託して明末清初の経済界に活躍した。しかし、18世紀なかば以後、清朝政府の捐納(えんのう)政策による過重な寄付負担に加え、私塩の横行による塩業の不振から、彼らのうちにも没落する者が続出し、その商業界での支配的地位を失い、しだいに浙江(せっこう)財閥にとってかわられた。

［佐久間重男］

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