PERIODICAL MARKETS OF MING, CH'ING AND MIN-KUO PERIODS IN HOPEI PROVINCE, CHINA

Abstract

The writer has provided several notes and articles on periodical markets in some parts of the world and has intended to make a comparative study of them. In this paper, he deals with periodical markets of Ming, Ch'ing and Min-kuo periods in Hopei province, China. He investigates many data obtained from more than three hundred gazetteers about the province available at the various libraries in Japan. The results are as follows: 1. In Hopei province, the numbers of periodical markets and their market days increased throughout these periods. However their rate of increase was less than the population growth. In later Ch'ing and Min-kuo periods, the density of markets was lower in the northeast and higher in the southwest part of the province. Such a regional difference is attributed to the relative population density and the degree of participation in the marketing economy. 2. Some principles are confirmed in terms of the location of periodical markets: 1) Markets of the same class tend to locate at regular spacing. 2) New markets tend to appear at the intermediate point between older ones. 3) Few markets, if any, tend to locate in the vicinity of the market of the hsien's capital. 4) Market days of adjacent markets differ from each other. 5) But, in some cases, adjacent small markets have the same market days, which are, nevertheless, different from those of the larger central market. 3. Three classes of periodical markets can be distinguished from the data on the number of licensed brokers, on the allocation of sites for selling goods, and on the kinds of goods traded at markets. 4. The existence, age, and scale of periodical markets correlate with the scale and structure of central places. Therefore, it is concluded that periodical markets have played an important role in the development of central places.