中国商人历史研究中的制度与文化:一个新的路径

A New Pat:Institution and Culture in the History of Chinese Merchants

20世纪以来,学术界对于中国古代商人及商业资本历史的研究,基本上是以欧洲中世纪的所谓自然经济结构作为参照标本的。事实上,中国古代商业及商人的产生历史很早,商品经济与农业经济在更多的场合里是作为经济的共生体而长期存在的。中国古代商人的发展与停滞,主要取决于国家与政治体制的变迁,而不是自然经济结构的制约。随着中国历史上商人及商品经济的波浪式进步,中国的国家与政治体制、文化观念以及社会形态等许多方面,都已经在一定程度上潜生出包容多元经济向前发展的因素。而国家与政治体制的强势,则决定了中国历史上商人及商品市场经济的发展基本上必须沿着自上而下变革的道路前进。

Since last century, the researches on merchants and business capital in ancient China have been largely based on the comparison with the economic structure of Medieval Europe. In fact, the Chinese business and merchants emerged in a rather early time, and then the commodity economy and agriculture economy coexisted long in most occasions. The development and stagnation of ancient merchants and economy depends more on the vicissitude of the state and political system than the structure of natural economy. During the progress of merchants and business in ancient China, the state, political and cultural system, social morphology and many other aspects, have breed factors promoting the development of the pluralist economy. Therefore, the dominant influence by the state and political system determined the top-down approach of the development of the merchants and commodity economy in ancient China.