The objective needs of social and economic development have expanded the circulation of commodities and developed transportation and foreign exchange. Banks handle exchange and deposit, which solves the difficulty of transporting cash, speeds up capital turnover and promotes business prosperity.

Shanxi Merchants Bank appeared in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties and was first founded by Shanxi pigment merchants. The most famous achievement of Pingyao Rishengchang Bank is "Huitong Tianxia", which has become its unique business. Of course, banks also operate deposits, loans, private stickers and other businesses. There are nearly 100 semicolons all over the country and even in Singapore, Russia, Japan, North Korea and other countries.

2. Conditions:

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Shanxi merchants rose for the Ming rulers to raise their salaries in northern border towns, and became imperial merchants after entering the Qing Dynasty, gaining commercial privileges. In the Qing Dynasty, due to the contribution of the Qing government and the exchange of military salaries, they were praised to the forefront of the financial community. In a word, Shanxi merchants in Ming and Qing Dynasties always prospered by relying on and serving the feudal government. However, when the feudal government went into decline, Shanxi merchants were bound to self-harm.

For example, after the Gengzi Incident, Zhixin Bank sent funds to the southern province to lend, but most of the funds sent to the southern province during the Revolution of 1911 were lost. However, the Qing court was anxious to refund the money. As a result, there were 4 million taels of cashier on the books and 2 million taels of silver payable, but in fact they could not turn around and were forced to close down.

In the early years of the Republic of China, creditors mostly sat in Taigu, Pingyao, Qixian and other places in Shanxi to collect debts. Due to the heavy losses of the banks, Cai Dong was unable to repay them, so he had to sell his house and land, even fled to other places, and some even became beggars.

3. Features:

The most distinctive features of Shanxi merchants' exchange of banknotes are seals: letterhead seal, pledge seal, landing seal and riding seal. The design is full of strong cultural and artistic colors, which not only has anti-counterfeiting function, but also reflects the simple, heavy and frank folk customs in Shanxi. The border of Shanxi merchants' bills is decorated with the name of the ticket number, and the design fashion is Eight Immortals, Meilan Bamboo Chrysanthemum, Baoding and cornucopia.

For example, this piece of 300 posts distributed by Shanxi merchants on March 6 18 (19 17) in Hongdao, Dingxian County, Shanxi Province has a blue pattern, with the line name and "Dark Eight Immortals" as the border, and the amount is written with a brush. The six seals have their own characteristics, and the most interesting thing is to use a set of Zhao Gongming as the flower quality, which is vivid and interesting.

4. Impact:

In the history of China's modern economic development since Ming and Qing Dynasties, Shanxi merchants galloping across Europe and Asia attracted worldwide attention. Shanxi, especially the Jinzhong Basin represented by Taigu, Qixian, Yuci and Pingyao, has made great achievements in commerce and trade.

The business scope is all-encompassing, and it is the forerunner of finance. Bankers' banks are omnipotent, dominating the world for more than 500 years, creating unprecedented century prosperity and leaving a splendid business culture on the land of China.

Extended data:

Representatives of Shanxi merchants' culture;

Qiao's family, Qu's family and Cao's family all walked through the west entrance, and the sandstorm outside the Great Wall tempered their will and perseverance not to be poor. The results they exchanged with sweat left behind these carved houses and thousands of quadrangle buildings with antique charm, which were spread all over urban and rural areas, providing rare intuitive materials for the teaching and research of architecture and Shanxi merchant culture.

Covering an area of 8724 square meters, it has 6 courtyards and 20 small courtyards, consisting of 3 13 rooms. The overall layout is "double happiness". The whole hospital separates six courtyards with a straight passage. There are courtyards and gardens in the courtyard, which not only emphasize the overall aesthetic feeling, but also have local characteristics. They are all beautifully shaped and ingenious.

There are more than 300 decorative wood carvings in the hospital, almost every one of which is an ancient folk story. You can see the brick carvings in the yard from a height. 65,438+000 "shou" characters make up the poster, which is full of all kinds of characters, strong and Gu Zhuo, smart and exquisite.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Shanxi Merchants Draft