The Late Qing Dynasty Commercial System Change And Its Modern Revelation

The commercial law reform in Qing Dynasty in early 20th century is of profound and great significance. It was the prelude to legal modernization of China and the first attempt to connect Chinese legal system to the international one. China's modernization in politics, economy and culture can not proceed without the development of the modernization of commercial legislation, which requires us to make full use of all the beneficial results in commercial system of human societies home and abroad, from the ancient to the modern. When we trace back, we may find that the commercial legislation reform over 100 years ago, with abundant theoretical and practical value, may give us a great deal of enlightment and reflection. It is not only historic, but also modern.This essay holds that the commercial legislation reform in late Qing Dynasty has a deep economic, political and cultural background. It lasted about ten years and obtained rather rich legislative fruits and experiences mainly representd by 《Regius Commercial Law of Qing Dynasty 》 , 《Draft of Commercial Law in Qing Dynasty》 and 《Draft of Revision Commercial Law of Qing Dynasty 》 .This reform is of great historic significance in Chinese modernization of legal system, for it marked the beginning of Chinese social system promoting the development of commodity economy and the formation of Chinese new legal model. The commercial legislation system it established and legal transplantation have deeply influenced China's commercial law development afterwards. However, it cannot be denied that the reform bore a lot of deficiency which is a lesson to the later legitimators.Legal transplantation in commercial legislation modernization is an important enlightment from commercial legislation reform in Qing Dynasty. Commercial law transplantation has its specific connotation for its particularity and it carries its new characteristics in today's ecomomic globalization.