商帮·金融·洋糖:镇海方家糖行史

Guild,Finance and Foreign Sugar:the History of Sugar Stores of the Fangs in Zhenhai

镇海方家以糖业起家,19世纪10年代起在上海小东门外一带从事砂糖零售业务(南货店),1843年上海开埠后从事砂糖小型批发业务(拆货店),19世纪70年代起从事砂糖大型批发业务(糖行)。随着19世纪末20世纪初东亚糖业格局巨变,它从国产糖批发为主转向洋糖批发为主,并陆续增设多家糖行。20世纪二三十年代,它在既有糖行的基础上设立了相当于洋行的进口糖行直接从南洋进口爪哇糖。这些糖行以联号方式组成家族糖行群,其中几家经营至中华人民共和国成立初期。镇海方家从东亚砂糖贸易圈的边缘走到中心,从销售渠道的下游走到上游,见证了近代中国糖业兴衰沉浮,见证了近代东亚糖业格局巨变。这段家族糖业史历时140多年、历经5代人,得益于宁波商帮的鼎力支持、家族钱庄的金融运作,以及近代中国洋糖消费的兴起。

The Fangs of Zhenhai built up their fortune from the sugar indus-try.The family was first engaged in sugar retail business(southern goods shop)in the area of Xiaodongmen in Shanghai in the 1810s.After opening of Shanghai as a port in 1843,it operated small wholesale business of sugar(unpacking goods shop).Since the 1870s,it has engaged in large wholesale business of sugar in its sugar stores.The late 19^(th)and early 20^(th)century saw great changes in the structure of the East Asian sugar industry.It has shifted from domestic sugar wholesale to foreign sugar wholesale,and has successively established a number of sugar stores.In the 1920s and 1930s,it set up imported sugar companies equivalent to foreign companies on the basis of the existing sugar stores,which directly imported Java sugar from Nanyang.All of these sugar stores were associated in the form of family sugar store group,and several of them were in operation until the early years of the founding of the People's Republic of China.From the edge to the center of the East Asian sugar trade circle,from the downstream to the upstream of the sales channel,the Fangs in Zhenhai witnessed the rise and fall of the modern Chinese sugar industry and the great changes in the modern East Asian sugar industry.The Fang's sugar industry has a history of more than 140 years and has gone through 5 generations,thanks to the strong support from the Ningpo pang,the financial operation of the Fang's native bank,and the bloom of foreign sugar consumption in modern China.