乾嘉之际小业主的经济状况和社会生活——兼述嘉庆朝刑科题本档案史料的价值

Economic Conditions and Social Life of Petty Proprietors in the Reigns of the Emperor Qianglong and the Emperor Jiaqing:Value of Criminal Files as Historical Data in the Reign of the Emperor Jiaqing in Addition

考察18、19世纪之际的手工业者、小商人、一般农民、小土地出租者、自耕农民而有雇工者,以及佃农而有雇工者所从事的各种行当及从业活动,以明了他们的生活状况。在此基础上论述小业主经济的社会意义及其社会地位:小土地出租者与土地所有权关系复杂,是农民构成的一分子,不同于地主;小业主雇工经营,不仅对家庭经济生活有益,对社会有发展生产、增加社会财富和活跃经济的作用,对维持社会运行有积极意义;小业主的雇佣,因经营规模太小很难产生新的生产关系;小业主普遍采取赊销的经营方式,以此促销,也是适应传统社会人际关系的需要,令生意中具有人情味,但是赊销、赊购反映商品经济发展程度不高,还使得经营者缺乏周转资金,难以扩大经营规模;小业主雇主在法律上和雇工一样是平民,没有因此提升社会地位,但在实际上有的能够指挥佣工做分外的事情,无形中高于雇工。论文所使用的史料争部是中国第一历史档案馆收藏档案——"内阁全宗·刑科题本·土地债务类·嘉庆朝"所提供的,笔者在阅读、运用中体会到刑科题本档案能够提供社会生活史的多种领域的研究素材,而且具有真实性强、生动具体、内容独特的特点,因之非常宝贵,值得珍视,需要充分利用。

To understand the real social life of petty proprietors in the 18th and 19th centuries,it is essential to explore activities of handicraftsmen,small merchants,peasants,small landowners,owner-peasants with hired labor and tenant peasants with hired labor.Their social signification and social status are understood on the basis of social investigation. Small landowners who let out small piece of land are actually peasants in consideration of their complex ownership that distinguishes them from the landlord.Petty proprietors who hire labors function in society positively in the sense that that not only increases their family incomes and promotes production but also increases social wealth and stimulates economy in terms of social stability.It is difficult for petty proprietors to introduce a new relation of production because of small scale of production.They often promote business by selling on credit to cope with traditional interpersonal relationship and in- crease popularity,but selling on credit not only reflects the less development of commodity economy but also makes the owner lack of working fund and difficult to expand scale of business.Although petty proprietors are common people,the same as their employees,in terms of social status,they are above the employees virtually in the light that they can ask the employees to do what is beyond their duty. This paper is based on the historical materials in Ni Ge Quan Zong,XingKe Ti Ben,Tu Di Zhai Wu Lei,Jia Qing Chao(cabinet records,criminal files,category of land debt,in the reign d the Emperor Jiaqing)stored in The First Chinese Historical Archive,What the author found when reading and using the historical data is that criminal files provide various kinds of materials for study of social history in many fields with the characteristics of authenticity,vivid- ness,detail and specificity that make them very valuable and needed to be prized and fully used.