Crime and Public Order in the Market Towns of the Lower Yangze Delta during the Qing Period

Abstract

As soon as the turbulence of Late Ming-Early Qing Era came to an end, the commodity distribution of the Lower Yangze Delta became brisk again, and the spatial transfer of persons and articles was rising rapidly. How-ever, the development of the commodity economy exposed social problems, such as the expansion of the gap between the rich and the poor, and it increased real crimes targeting commodity transported by merchants and shipping carriers. As a result, in the mid-Kangxi _??__??_ era, by the early Yongzheng _??__??_ era at the latest, the local government had to take system-atic measures against these crimes, and placed a lot of police box xun _??_ in parts of county cities and market towns, of along the network of roads between county cities and market towns, between market towns, and between market towns and villages. The local government finally started taking safety measures against commercial and traffic conditions. It is likely that such an arrangement of xun _??_ system promoted the develop-ment of transportation during the Qing period. But not all municipalities were not served by this xun _??_ system. Only those that G. W. Skinner called "the intermediate market, " in which local elites and merchants lived, enjoyed the service provided by the xun _??_, system. It seems reasonable to suppose that the xun _??_ system was expanded by the political-economic ability of the leaders of "the intermediate market." They hoped that the lacal government's police force would contain the criminal elements which disturbed the saticfactory development of the market town. They absorbed sorts of expenses for policing the xun _??_ system, while the police xunbing _??__??_ in turn protected their life and property. It may safely be assumed that in this way public order became stable, and the foundation of the development of regional society was established.