从利他主义和文化群体选择理论视角看潮商的发展

On the Development of Chao Merchants From the Perspectives of Altruism and Cultural Group Selection

潮商与晋商和徽商并称为中国传统三大商帮。作为拥有特许经营权的垄断商人群体的晋商和徽商早已衰落,而注重海外贸易的民间商人群体的潮商却仍在不断发展。以往关于潮商的研究主要集中在发展历史、文化特征、宗教信仰、商帮会馆、经商制度和慈善行为等方面。但应用利他主义和文化群体选择理论分析潮商发展的研究还未见发表。利他主义贯穿潮商发展全过程,是挈领潮商成功主要因素的主线,包括遵守市场规则和慈善行为。前者主要表现在远离权力、契约精神、商业组织和制度等。在明清海禁、生存面临危机期间利他精神的发展尤其突出,这是潮商利他主义文化形成的关键时期。与善于在“权力社会”中经营的晋商和徽商不同,潮商有远离权力依附的传统,通过市场、创新和服务社会以获得财富,并有自发形成“权利社会”的内因。这实现了亚当·斯密的“经济人”与“道德人”的统一,是利他主义的典型表现。文化群体选择促进了潮商利他主义理念和行为的不断进化,并使这种理念成为共同遵守的经商原则。潮商在王权主导的、自给自足的小农经济社会里发展出了具利他精神的、制度化的“契约诚信”;这有别于儒家文化的“道德诚信”。潮商是哈耶克提出的“自发秩序”在社会经济领域中形成和发展的典型案例,需要多理论、多角度的进一步研究。

Chao merchants,together with Jin and Hui merchants,are known as the three traditional Chinese merchant groups.Jin and Hui merchants,once monopolistic with monarchy franchise rights,have already declined,while Chao merchants,as a private group focusing on overseas trade,continue to grow.Previous research on Chao merchants mainly focused on history,cultural characteristics,religious beliefs,business associations,business institution and charitable behaviors.However,research on Chao merchants using altruism and cultural group selection theories has not appeared.This paper adopts these two theories to explore the intrinsic reasons for the development of Chao merchants.Altruism played a vital role throughout the history of Chao merchants,including compliance with market rules and charitable behaviors.The former is mainly manifested in their distance from political power,their contract spirit,commercial organizations and institutions.Altruism was particularly prominent during in the Ming and Qing dynasties when maritime trade was banned and life was hard.Unlike Jin and Hui merchants in their“power society”,Chao merchants stayed away from political power,gaining wealth through market,innovation and service to society,and had an internal motivation to form a“society of right”.This unity of Adam Smith’s“economic man”and“moral man”is a typical manifestation of altruism.Cultural group selection promoted the continuous evolution of altruistic concept and behaviors,and made it a common business principle.For example,it developed a culture of integrity among Chao merchants which influenced the groups with which they traded and became a norm.Chao merchants developed an altruistic and institutionalized“contractual integrity”in a self-sufficient agricultural economy under monarchs,different from the Confucian“moral integrity”.They typify the formation and development of“spontaneous order”proposed by Friedrich von Hayek in the social and economic domain,which requires further research from multiple perspectives and theories.