Merchant, Commerce And Commercial Customs From The View Of Hankow(1912-1937)

There was a tradition called the favor of agriculture over commercials in China. The merchants stood at the last of the occupational division "scholars, farmers, workers, and businessmen" . They were rich but discriminated by the society. However, it was changed by the realization of the government's ideology of saving the country by developing commerce. The national capitalism achieved a good chance to develop.As a transportation hub of Chinese inland, Hankow has been a most important commercial city and one of the financial centers from modern times. Between the year 1912 to 1937, there was a fabulous development in domestic business which was called Golden Age for the national bourgeoisie. The same thing happened in Hankow. At the same time, it had its particularity due to the historical environment and humanistic customs.As the result of the commercial prosperity, merchant joined autonomy groups of different forms were born. The merchant groups became standardized and diversificated .They played an important role in the national political life, and served as a tie between the government and the merchant. For the merchants themselves, they fully supported government policy rather than only conducted business on a commercial basis. The merchants were recognized as progressive forces at that time.At the surge of political participation, the corporation of merchants and government was especially attractive. By the support of the legislation investigation, commercial customs became laws and statues which contributed a lot of the legal environment construction. The commercial customs was higher in effect ion rather than statues and jurisdiction according to the law. As a result, the customs formed by the consciousness of merchants got a fully development besides the government legislation with clear characteristic in the folk. The author hopes that his research of the merchant, commerce and commercial customs does not only satisfy the academic interests but also provide referenced for the practice.