Xinjiang Mainland Businessmen Study

Merchant is generally explained as those who buy material goods in one place and sell it in another place, of course this is in the ancient time. Now they deal with not only material goods. "The merchants from inland China " to be discussed in this study refers to the merchants who made business all over Xingjiang who come from inland China , but their hometown are not Xingjiang.When Xinjian was reunified by Qing dynasty , a lot of inland merchants rushed into Xingjian, this made a great economic trade thriving in the Qianlong and Jiaqing Period and kept a peace and prosperous society . In the long process of the reunion, a lot of inland merchants came up with the army and did business with them—this phenomenon was called "business campaign with the camps " . This business campaign helped a lot to the reunion work . The national reunion made a peaceful social environment for business trade and strengthened the communication between Xingjiang and inland China, turned the trade history into a wholly new period .Then came with a trade thriving. And with the development of the inland merchants , "Businessman Group" gradually came into being. It was made up by members who came from the same geographic place and share the same hometown . Those groups have great historic meaning due to their great contribution to Xingjiang economic thriving and deep influence to the society and lifestyle of Xingjiang.This paper mainly focuses on related issues happened in the period of late Qing dynasty and the Public China , gives the business activities of the merchants from inland China in Xingjiang a thorough and systematic study. The paper is made up the following parts: exordium, conclusion and three chapters of texts.In the exordium the author mainly introduced current study situation over the topic, the meaning of the study both theatrically and practically, the definition of the related concepts, the delimiting of scope , and also the general explanation of the target, the chosen stage and the range of the study.In chapter one , the author introduced the discovery of the relationship between the "business campaign with the camps " and the recovery of economy in Xinjiang, the traditional basis of how the Campaign come into being in the Qianlong and Jiaqing period. The auther also described the whole process of how the inland merchants moved into Xinjiang . This showed with the development of business made by the inland merchants all around both north and south sides of the Tianshan Mountain, the business and trade came into its most prosperous period. Many kinds of business and trade activities which had the strong local characters of Xingjiang. On one hand , they activated the Xinjiang economy, on the other hand, strengthened the communication between Xinjiang and inland China , and in the process the business means of the inland merchants gained continuous progress . Although from the middle of the Qing dynasty continuous war affairs stopped the common business , the rebellions of Hui groups in Shanxi and Gansu cut off the business way from inland to Xinjiang which made business activities impossible anymore. The merchants faced the burned cities destroyed by the wars after the reunion . But after they enjoyed the peaceful and stable society again, the Qing government took a series of policies to reactivate the economy , then the inland merchants found their stages again to perform their high trade skills. The thriving of Dihua and Qitai, the prospering of many towns along the south and north sides of Tianshan Mountain were closed related to the business activities of the merchants from inland China.In chapter two the author discussed the contribution the inland merchants made to Xinjiang .Tea trade had always been crucial from ancient time and became even more important in Qing dynasty. A old saying goes like this "on the taxation list of Qing government , the salt trade in the southeast of China and the tea trade in the northwest of China comes first" . This showed how important the tea trade was . Jin merchant Group found their tea trade way thousands of kilometers far away from their hometown. They thoughtfully and strategically changed their sourcing places with the changes of political and social environment in order to keep the tea trade continuous . This was very important to meet the great needs of the daily consumption of tea in Xinjiang. In the northwest camel was the only tool to transportation. The merchant who run camel transportation business played a important role in the transportation of the supply of the army. At the end of the Qing dynasty the camel transportation way was opened, the camel transportation business was getting more and more popular and reached its business climax at the beginning of the Public China. But this business declined influenced by the political chaos and the whole social environment. So we could saw the whole trade fate from the destiny of camel transportation business. After the reunion of Xinjiang, there were a lot of inland merchants lived in big towns and then the "Merchant Group " came into being which was made up of members who share the same hometown. The top 8 groups were Yan Group, Jin Group, Xiang Group ,Qin Group , Shu Group , Er Group , Yu Group, Long Group. Among the Yan Group, Tianjin businessmen had the most power, they sold many kinds of goods and lived in most of Xiniang areas and had great influence to the Xinjiang society. The other groups also played important role . From late Qing dynasty to the period of the Public China, these groups suffered a lot and most of them had a tragic fate because of the historically reasons . but they still had great historic meaning to the development of Xinjiang society .In chapter three the author described the social business environment in Xinjiang . From late Qing dynasty, there had been a lot of rebellions and wars through out to the Yangzengxin ruling period . Yang was very trick and kept Xinjiang relatively peaceful and stable. Although it was closed. In Jinshuren ruling period(from 1928 to 1933) Xinjiang turned into thoroughly chaos and there had not any improvement in Shengshicai ruling period until the later 1940s. The chaos factors came from both inside and abroad and the unresistant aggression of the Britain and Russia were part of it. The Britain and the Russia attacked and made use of each other . The later had more influence to Xinjiang , but the former 's existed throughout the modern history. Before the October Revolution of the Russia, Xinjiang faced the influence of the Britain and Russia. When the Russia broke down then came the Soviet Union. Xinjiang's economic trade suffered a lot over the Soviet Union without any solutions due to the unfair contract which is cheated in Jinshusheng period. The political trick by Shengshicai and the powerful Soviet Union also has a great influence over a long period of time .In the conclusion the author had a brief review of the inland merchant trade activities , pointed out the great contribution they had made to the Xinjiang economic development and social life, the great contribution to the strengthen of the communication between Xinjian and inland China in many kinds of social affairs, and emphasized their special and great meaning to the national union also.