Towards the Maritime Trade Belt

Author: Chen Dongyou
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-11-01
Features: This book incorporates foreign trade into the category of world market interaction, examining and discussing the interactive behaviors of southeastern Chinese merchants in the modern world market from the perspectives of marine socio-economic history and marine human society from the 16th to the mid-19th century. The economic interaction during this period was shaped by the shared profit-seeking motives of Chinese and foreign merchants. In this interaction, southeastern China formed trade belts at different levels, and merchants in the region participated in the modern world's activities through different behaviors on these belts. However, merchants' actions were influenced not only by profit motives but also by various controls from internal social customs, institutional norms, and government actions. All of these formed the main characteristics of southeastern merchants' interactive behaviors. As a result, southeastern merchants became the most active social group and economic force of their time, playing a significant role in promoting the development of China's marine socio-economic into a new historical period and further driving social and economic transformation. However, their inherent weaknesses and the conservative social and institutional environment they were in suppressed and undermined their enthusiasm, restricting and limiting their vitality. Despite having a vibrant social group and economic force, China ultimately failed to undergo a qualitative transformation in its social and economic development.