恰克圖茶葉貿易與晉商(1862-1917)

Abstract

At the beginning of the 19th century, massive quantities of Chinese tea were exported through Kiachta, a town on the Sino-Russian border. At first this trade was monopolized by both sides. Then, taking advantage of the Taiping Rebellion 太平天國 (1850-1864) and the Crimean War (1864-1865), Chinese merchants from Shanxi 山西 province came to dominate the trade, making a great profit trading in the Kiachta tea market. Before long, Hankow 漢口tea had conquered the taste of Russian tea drinkers. Although Chinese tea was later gradually displaced from the British market by Assam black tea, the total quantity of Chinese tea exports still increased into the second half of the 19th century. In 1862, Russian merchants came to Hankow, took over the tea industry, and finally built tea factories equipped with modern machines that produced improved tea bricks. Thanks to these Russian merchants, Chinese tea greatly strengthened its grip on the Russian market. Shanxi merchants' businesses suffered under the control of the tea trade by the Russian merchants. However, fiercely competitive small scale Chinese merchants began to spring up along the border, finally some even crossing the border to settle. After leaving Kiachta, Chinese tea traveled from fair to fair, spreading into Siberia and European Russia, and even penetrating central and western Asia, and as such is an excellent illustration of the globalization of a commodity.