清中叶陕西工商业的合伙经营

Industrial and Commercial Partnership during Middle Period of Qing Dynasty

聚焦于清中叶陕西工商业合伙经营的个案研究,可实证合伙为一种民间自发协议契约关系,有一定独立的社会地位,债务清偿要考虑资东与领本伙计间责任的平衡。纠纷可诉诸国家司法审判,但地缘和业缘的共同体为其运作提供了最重要的社会环境。合伙的类型以东伙结合型占主导,钱股与人股所占权益股份的比例大致为五五或六四。在人股中,领本伙计所占股份独多。小规模经营为其经营方式的重要特征,经营期间以5年以下者占大多数,少数亦能持续经营24年以上,最长者已达60年,也有成长性极好的例子。由于对合伙者之间人格化的信用关系依赖甚大,达到一定规模后很难获得进一步发展。

This is a case study focusing on the mid-Qing Shan-xi industrial and commercial partnership. It argues that partnership was an initiative of private contracting nature and it was partially accepted by society. Practically, debt clearances were made according to the responsibility distribution among the capital providers and the operation managers. Contradictions among the involved could be resulted by law enforcement. Meanwhile, regional and industrial communities remained the most important social frames for this type of cooperation. The dominated form of partnership was the cooperation between capital providers and managers. The share distribution between the capital holders and the managers was usually 5 to 5, or, 6 to 4. The chief manager taking larger responsibilities of the business performance commonly enjoyed lager shares. This kind of partnership usually operated in small scale and lasted for less than 5 years. Only a small number of them could survive for longer than 24 years, while 60 years was the longest exception. There were a few cases showing healthy business growth. Because this kind of relationships was largely built upon the reliability of the involved partners, they usually confronted difficulty after reaching certain level of scale. 