Brief Business Law Tutorial

Author: Gu Gongyun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: Overview of Commercial Law
Section on the Concept and Characteristics of Commercial Law
1. The Concept of "Commercial"
To study commercial law, one must first examine the connotation and extension of the term "commercial." "Commercial" is an economic phenomenon. The "commercial" in commercial law is closely related to the "commercial" in the sense of economics, but there are also differences. The "commercial" in commercial law has two meanings:
① Since commercial law is a product of the development of modern commodity economy, "commercial" reflects the regular profit-seeking activities in modern commodity economic activities. In other words, any business activity with the purpose of profit, whether it is buying, manufacturing, investing, or providing services, falls under the category of "commercial."
② Any business entity with the purpose of profit-seeking is considered "commercial." For example, entities engaged in buying activities are called "buying merchants," entities engaged in manufacturing activities are called "manufacturers," and so on. To distinguish between the two meanings of "commercial," commercial law uses two different concepts: the first meaning of "commercial" is referred to as "commercial act" or "commercial," while the second meaning of "commercial" is referred to as "merchant." In recent years, Chinese scholars have largely revealed the essence of "commercial" in commercial law.
Professor Wang Baoshu, after examining the concept of "commercial," conducted a comprehensive analysis of its nature, scope, and characteristics, and believed: "In the development of modern economy, people have regarded profit-seeking as the essence of 'commercial.' This behavior is not only reflected in buying and selling but has also developed into wholesale merchants, goods transportation, warehousing, banking, and damage insurance industries. Moreover, it has expanded to areas unrelated to commerce, such as life insurance, passenger transportation, manufacturing and processing industries, printing, and publishing industries."
Professor Xu Xuelu believes: "Modern merchants, in addition to dealers, also include manufacturers, securities dealers, insurance dealers, transportation dealers (including maritime), advertising dealers, and agents." Therefore, "a sound modern merchant system is the legal term for the modern enterprise system in economics."
Through further research, Professor Xu pointed out: "Modern market entities (merchants) are capital operators, and modern market behaviors (commercial acts) are---