Abstract
The rural market was an important constituent of marketing system, and formed an un-vertical congruent relationship with urban market in late imperial China. There were different types of rural fair in the imperial China. Xu, Chang, Ji, Dian, Shi, Hui, all of them were the regular fairs. Their number was huge. They distributed widely, played a distinct role, and became the base of rural market development. During Tang and Song dynasties, county seat, town or village had some regular fairs. They were more and more developed during Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. In the late imperial China, the establishment or abolishment of rural regular fair must been approved by local magistrate, such as magistrate of a county. Equally important, the clan and Gentleman played the crucial role in rural market. On the whole, the network of rural fairs began to take shape in the most regions from Qianlong to Daoguang reigning years of the Qing Dynasty. The professional markets in rural society included two kinds: professional town and professional fair. The emergence of professional markets in rural society was the inevitable result of enlargement of cash crops planting and development of social division of labor, and helped in the shaping of specialized region which centered on cash farming.
Highlights
Preface Many scholars have discussed the rural market in late imperial China. (Note 1)Based on it, I put forward my view of the parallel market-relation between city and rural area from the standpoint of marketing system. (Note 2) The rural market was an important constituent of marketing system, and formed an un-vertical congruent relationship with urban market in late imperial China
In the late imperial China, the establishment or abolishment of rural regular fair must been approved by local magistrate, such as magistrate of a county
The most important professional towns were those: the first focused on cotton and cotton cloth, the second focused on silkworm, mulberry and silk fabrics, and the third focused on rice
Summary
There were different types of rural fair in the imperial China. With regard to opening time, rural fair may be divided into regular fair, un-regular fair, half-regular fair, and everyday fair. The middle town played the part of primary market during the period of small market, and acted the role of intermediate market when the large market came here This arrangement which tried to avoid collision of opening time was for meeting the demands of celebrities and merchants mainly, not for peasants’ convenience, because peasants went to middle market occasionally. This network was coordinated with commercial cities and towns, communicated markets of city and countryside, and became the component part of national system of commodity circulation. It was foundation of long-distance carrying trade, and was significant link of ensuring that small-scale peasant economy was in working order
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