Autonomous Analysis On The Industrial And Commercial Guild Regulation In Qing Dynasty

According to the inscriptions on the tablets, the industry and commerce were underthe permissive supervision of the government of Qing Dynasty. The merchants activelyestablished an amount of guilds and guild regulations to safeguard their benefit better. Thefew statutes of law code and the judgments of local government were the basis of guildregulations in Qing Dynasty. But they also left great space for the legislation of merchants.The principle of voluntariness extended by the statute was used as the standard ofexamining and supervising guild by the government. These guild regulations comprisedguild management system, guild financial system, relief system, commercial registrationsystem, commercial employment system and market management system. The punishmentof guilds, the worshipping of deities and the judgment of government were the importantways which could be used to protect the regulations by guilds. Absence of the civil andcommercial statutes of law code directly led to the autonomy of the guild regulation. But itwas the underlying reason that the deep-seated customary laws of the rural society and thepolicies of the autocratic empire made the government have no strength and intention tocontrol the civil and commercial society.