由商及政:论清末民初湖商的政治参与

From Business to Politics:on the Political Participation of Huzhou Merchants in the Late Qing Dynasty and the Early Republic of China

近代湖商凭借湖州优越的自然和人文条件,以及上海开埠的历史契机,以生丝起家,崛起于上海滩。清末民初(19世纪末20世纪初),在时局的影响下,湖商及其子弟由商及政,积极参与反对教会侵略、浙江拒款保路运动、晚清革命运动等一系列政治运动,对中国社会的近代化进程产生了重要影响。因为自身利益受损和对清政府倒行逆施的彻底失望,再加上深受民主自由思潮的影响,以及自身爱国情感的感召,湖商及其子弟大都走上了趋新的从政之路。

Relying on the superior natural and cultural conditions of Huzhou and the historical opportunity of opening Shanghai as a port,modern Huzhou merchants started with raw silk and rose on the bund of Shanghai.In the late Qing dynasty and the early Republic of China(the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century),under the influence of the current situation,Huzhou merchants and their children were actively involved in a series of political movements against church aggression,the movement of mortgage denying and railway defending in Zhejiang,the revolutionary movement of the late Qing dynasty and so on,which had an important impact on the modernization process of Chinese society.Because of the damage of their own interests and the complete disappointment of the perverse actions of the Qing government,coupled with the influence of the ideological trend of democracy and freedom,and the inspiration of their own patriotic feelings,most of the Huzhou merchants and their children embarked on a new political road.