Study On The Merchants In Zhou Dynasty

Official merchant was the main merchant in Zhou Dynasty at first, but at this time they had been different from that in ordinary meaning or later ages said, they had their own particularity. During the Spring and Autumn period, royal family declined, and authority was descended, which made the official merchant unhook with the patriarchal order and imperial court politics gradually, official merchant began to use commercial capital that local authorities supplied to make profits for it, then separated himself from it and became free merchant at last. The rising and development of private merchant also had a process, At the Western Zhou period, the private merchant was at the stage of preliminary development, they had their own organizational and administrative model, they inhabited a region together as a clan, and their profession was hereditary. At the Spring and Autumn period, the merchant sprang up as a independent stratum. At the Warring States period, private merchant's extensiveness objectively and the thought of restraining business subjectively formed contrast.The merchant's identity and status in Zhou Dynasty also experienced some changes. At the Western Zhou period, the official merchant had'official'identity naturally, but the ordinary merchant acted as common people. At the end of the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, their identity almost had no changes, but their status deserved careful pondering. At the Western Zhou period, we couldn't read opinion about despising merchant; merchant's action didn't suffer social reproach at least. The merchant during the Spring and Autumn period was taken seriously, not only the social public opinion supported its development, but the ruler supplied many convenient conditions. But at the Warring States period, there appeared views and action about restraining merchant, this had something with the effect that merchant's development had on the society.The maximum effect the merchant had, about society's developing, was on economic respect. Their activities promoted goods and materials'flowing between regions throughout the country, urged the commodity economy's developing, impelled the economic structure's changing and provided considerable revenue for the rulers. On political respect, the merchant were supporters of union objectively, and their activities'accelerated the aristocratic system's releasing. The merchant, in their business activities, summarized experience continually, and formed abundant business theories and a free competition system was formed under the guiding of their profit-making spirits in the society.