清末广州的“七十二行”

The “72 Guilds” in Guangzhou in the Late Qing Dynasty

清末文献提到的广州的七十二行,往往是指广州各商业、手工业行会的联合体。七十二行在广州总商会建立的过程中起了重要作用,总商会成立后,它仍作为与总商会平起平坐的商人团体,参与各种社会、政治活动,常常挑战总商会的权威,1910年,甚至成功地罢免了总商会协理、代总理左宗藩。1911年武昌起义后,广东实现“和平光复”,七十二行起了重要作用。作为“传统”的行会联合体广州七十二行,在“新式”的商人组织总商会成立以后,仍作为代表全城商人的团体而独立存在并发挥重要作用,类似的情况在其他城市很少见。因此,研究近代中国商人团体,广州七十二行是一个值得注意的个案。

The “72 guilds” in Guangzhou mentioned in the literatures in the late Qing Dynasty, was often concerned with the combinations of merchants or handicraft guilds. It played an important role in the construction of the Guangzhou General Merchants Association. After the founding of the Association, the “72 guilds” were still active in social and political events, acting as a merchants combination whose status was equal to that of the Guangzhou General Merchants Association and often challenged its authority. In 1910, the “72 guilds” even succeeded in dismissing Zuo Zongfan from his post of the associational director and vicarious chief director of the Guangzhou General Merchants Association. It also played an essential part in the “peaceful revival” of Guangdong Province right after the Wuchang Uprising. It might hardly happen in other cities that the “72 guilds,” viewed as “traditional” combination of guilds, remained and acted independently as a representative institution of all merchants in the city, even after the “new” Merchants Association had already been established. Therefore, the “72 guilds” in Guangzhou is a noticeable case in the researches on the merchants groups in Modern China.