侨批贸易及其在近代中国与海外华人社会中的作用——对“跨国资本主义”的另一种阐释

The Qiaopi Trade in Modern China and the Chinese Diaspora:An Alternative Interpretation of “Transnational Capitalism”

侨批贸易是以侨批的汇寄为主要业务,是一种集商业贸易、金融货币、政治经济、交通运输、人文信息等为一体的多重性综合服务行业。有些研究认为侨批贸易是一种现代形式的"跨国资本主义"。这种观点认为侨批贸易依赖于对非个人化规则体系的信任,而非一种依靠文化或家族血缘关系的"‘华人资本主义’的一种独特形式",在这种体系中侨批商人通过有效的经济实践来实现跨国经营。本文针对这样一种观点,旨在寻找对于现代资本主义的另一种解释,这些世界主义的解释认为现代是一种多元的而非模式化的概念。族群和身份认同对海外华人的商业文化影响重大,成为华人企业家的适应能力和创造力的来源,这种影响在海外华人社会形成初期尤为明显。商业家族主义。

This essay takes issue with the idea that the trade in remittance letters ( qiaopi ) was a modern form of “transnational capitalism” that relied on trust in a system of impersonal rules rather than “a distinctive form of ‘Chinese capitalism’” dependent on cultural or familial affinities, and that qiaopi traders used instrumental economic practices to transnationalize their businesses. The essay aims to identify alternatives to modern capitalism that are, at the same time, robustly cosmopolitan, and for which modernity is multiple rather than modular. Ethnicity and identity matter greatly in diasporic Chinese business culture, as sources of entrepreneurial resilience and creativity, especially in the early stages of diaspora formation. Far from forming an obstacle to economic growth and technological innovation, business familism, social networks, and their associated cultural values can be shown, at least in some periods and contexts, to have assisted economic development in Chinese societies at home and abroad, by enabling social mobility, furthering family interests, building partnerships, facilitating contracts, and promoting other practices proper to a modern market economy.