由农入商:近代山西的乡村危机与晋中农民经商浪潮

From Agriculture to Commerce: the Rural Crisis in Modern Shanxi and the Business Wave among Farmers in Central Shanxi

过去学界对晋商的研究,主要是从经济史角度关注晋商家族、晋商制度和著名商号,从社会史角度对农民经商问题的研究较为欠缺。揆诸史实可以发现,晚清至民国,晋商由盛转衰,精英商人与地域性商帮的势力明显减退。与此同时,中小商人不断涌现,晋中乡村中兼营商业的农民数量明显增多,除了大环境的变化,主要与当时山西普遍的乡村危机密切关联。20世纪初的晋中地瘠民贫,生产技术落后,又遭遇频繁的战乱和灾荒,加之政府的苛捐杂税,使农民收支严重失衡。在经商风气的影响下,晋中农民普遍在农业外兼营商业,以弥补农业收入的不足,并形成特殊的"半耕半商"的家庭经济。

In the past, the academic research on Shanxi merchants mainly focused on family, institutions and business names from the perspective of economic history, and there was a lack of research on farmers’ business issues from the perspective of social history. From the historical facts, it can be found that from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, Shanxi merchants witnessed a recession. The power of elite businessmen and regional business groups has declined significantly. At the same time, small and medium-sized merchants continued to emerge, and the number of peasants who also engaged in business in the villages of central Shanxi increased significantly, which was mainly caused by the changes in the general environment, and the rural crisis in Shanxi at that time. At the beginning of the 20 th century, people in central Shanxi were barren and poor, with outdated production technology, and they suffered the frequent wars, famines, and the government’s draconian taxation, which caused a serious imbalance between farmers’ income and expenditure. Under the influence of the business atmosphere, farmers in central Shanxi generally run businesses besides farming to make up for the lack of agricultural income, which forms a special family economy of "half farming and half business".