鸦片战争后的清代钱庄

Chinese Private Banks in the Qing Dynasty After the Opium War

钱庄是我国历史上的一种金融机构 ,发展到清代 ,特别是鸦片战争后日益完善 ,近似现代银行 ,在当时社会经济生活中发挥着相当大的作用。其作用具有双重性 :一方面 ,它在外国势力对中国进行经济侵略和掠夺的过程中起了助纣为虐的消极作用 ;另一方面 ,它加速了沿海和内地的商品流转 ,扩大了国内市场 ,增加了产品输出 ,加速了中国特别是腹地的自然经济的解体 ,促进了商品经济的发展 。

As a sort of banking institutions in the history of our country, private banks, which had gradually grown into perfect banking institutions similar to modern banks up to the Qing Dynasty, especially after the Opium War, palyed a considerable role in the economic life of society in those days. The function of private banks then was of duality. On the one hand, they acted an inactive part as a help to the evil-doer in the process of imperialist economic aggression and plundering of China. And on the other, they played an active role in helping accelerate the disintegration of the system of natural economy in the depths of China to promote the development of business economy by strengthening the distrubution of merchandise between inland and coastal China, expanding domestic market and increasing the export of goods.