沙船商人与上海传统城市化和近代社会变迁

Sha-chuan Merchants, Shanghai Traditional Urbanization and Modern Social Changes

伴随江海关的设立和江苏的海运出海口由太仓浏河南移上海，不断成长和富裕起来的沙船商人，在上海传统城市化进程中发挥了主导性的作用。而当1843年上海开埠之后，他们又在上海逐步成为中外贸易的商品集散地和最大的商业港口城市的发展中，作出了重大贡献。正是在上海开埠之后的1840年代后半期以及之后的整整十年，沙船商人迎来了事业发展的黄金时期。当1860年代初西方的蒸汽轮船运输业和保险业在上海兴盛发展起来之后，沙船商人遭遇了巨大挑战，一面是沙船商人继续顽强地经营沙船业，一面是在沙船业的黄金时期培养出来的沙船商人大家族后裔，虽然开始走上与父辈完全不同的近代性的政治、文化、教育和外交等职业道路，但却又继承了父辈关心参与地方事务的精神，对上海近代社会的变迁发挥了重大作用。

As the Customs House was established and sea gate for transportation of Jiangsu was translocated southward to Shanghai from Liuhe River of Taicang, the growing and richer Sha-chuan merchants played a dominant role in the course of Shanghai＇s traditional urbanization. Right after port-opening of Shanghai in 1843, they have made significant contributions to Shanghai＇s gradual development as the commodity gathering and distribution center of sino-foreign trade and the biggest commercial port city of China. Since Shanghai＇s port-opening （from the late half of 1840s and the following decade）, Sha-chuan merchants entered a prosperous period for their careers. In early 1860s, as western steam ship transportation industry and insurance industry were thriving in Shanghai, Sha-chuan merchants were thrown into enormous challenges. On the one hand, they struggled to maintain operation of Sha-chuan industry. On the other hand, although the descendants from Sha-chuan merchant families, cultivated in golden period of Sha-chuan industry, have chosen totally different career paths as their fathers, such as modern politics, culture, education and diplomacy etc., the spirit to concern about and participate in local affairs has been successfully inherited from their fathers, which played a major role in Shanghai＇s modern social changes.