清末汕头保商局创建始末

The Establishment of Shantou Bureau of Commerce Protection in the Late Qing Dynasty

清政府于清末在沿海地区专设保商局以保护归国华侨的利益,体现了官府在对待海外移民政策上从传统的"海禁"到"护侨"逐步转型。通过汕头保商局的个例分析,指出汕头保商局通过以官商合办的形式,在官府的支持下,逐步实现了本土商人联盟的建立,通过创办巡警、解决商务纠纷、组织商行"报效"等系列事务,构建了商人治理地方事务的模式。虽然在"护侨"事务上有所不及,但对于振兴本土商务、创建良性的商业环境却起到了积极的作用,呈现了清末潮州官府与商人、地方名流对于地方治理的探索与实践。

The late Qing Dynasty set up special bureaus in coastal areas to protect the returned overseas Chinese, which embodied the gradual transformation of the government’s overseas immigrants policy from banning to protection. Through a case study of Shantou bureau of commerce protection, this paper points out that Shantou bureau of commerce protection realized the alliance of local merchants through the cooperation between government and merchants, and constructed a model of merchants’ governance through establishing patrol police, settling business disputes and organizing the commercial firms. Although it failed to protect overseas Chinese, it played a positive role in revitalizing local business and creating a benign business environment, and was an exploration of local governance of Chaozhou administration, merchants and local gentry in the late Qing Dynasty.