论山西银号——兼谈日本军国主义侵华是晋商衰亡的直接原因

On the Silver Bank of Shanxi

银号是明清时期伴随着金属货币白银的流通使用而产生并一直延续到抗战时期的金融组织机构。它的产生比票号早,消亡却比票号晚。在中国封建社会后期的商业贸易中曾发挥过重要作用。过去由于史料的缺乏和对票号、钱庄、当铺研究的重视,一直未对银号进行全面、深入的研究,以致对晋商银号的研究,特别是晋商的衰亡时间产生了一些误解。例如,黄鉴辉先生认为"清末还有部分钱庄和银号仍在经营货币兑换业务,清度支部就把它们改称为银钱兑换所,到了民国初年,这些银钱兑换所或停业或转业也就不存在了。这样,延续400多年的货币兑换商最后在中国历史上就消失了"[1]109。事实上,到民国初年,这些银钱兑换所还存在,银号仍在营业,除了一部分票号改营银号外,太原、晋中、长治、晋城、大同等地仍有二百多家银号,直到抗战爆发的20世纪40年代,由于日军侵略破坏,晋商和银号才陆续消亡,延续500多年的晋商最后在中国历史舞台上消失。结合大量史料,通过对银号这一在晋商兴衰过程中产生过重大影响和作用的金融组织进行探究,可以论证出明清晋商衰亡不在清末民初而在日寇全面侵华时期。

With the circulation of silver,Shanxi Silver Bank,a kind of financial institutions ,emerged and came into use until the War of Resisitance Against Japan. Shanxi Silver Bank came earlier but declined later than the Shanxi Draft Bank, and played an important role in the trade business in Ming Dynasty, Qing Dynasty, and even aroud the year of 1912.Due to the shortage of historical materials ,Silver Bank has not been systematically studied. So there are some misunderstandings about the Shanxi Silver Bank,especially about the time when the Shanxi Merchant went bankruptcy.And someone even thinks that the Silver Bank did not exist around the year of 1912.While,in fact, the Silver Bank did exist and over one hundred of Silver Banks still operated in Taiyuan, Jinzhong, Changzhi, Jincheng, Datong and so on at that time. Because of the Japanese invasion, Shanxi merchant and silver Bank were seriously damaged. Finally, the Shanxi Merchant declined in the Chinese history during the period of the War of Resistance Against Japan.