Feng-tai Firm:The Business of Grain Tax Bao-Ban of Sheng Xuanhuai's Family(1869-1885)
At the turn of the Tongzhi and Guangxu reigns,Sheng Kang and Sheng Xuanhuai were engaged in the grain trade through firms such as Feng-tai Firm.The main business of the firm was to purchase and transport tribute grain for Jiangsu prefectures and counties.Feng-tai Firm purchased rice from rice trading centers such as Wuxi and Zhu jiajiao,then transported them to Shanghai to deliver sand boats and China Merchants'ships to serve as local governments'grain tax.In addition to collecting part of the tribute grain in the warehouses,the local governments handed over the key aspects of grain tribute affairs to Feng-tai Firm and others.The magistrates and the Sheng family generally made a contract on rice management in accordance with principles of commercial and markets,but this is not the only logic between them.From the example of Feng-tai Firm,it can be seen that since the 1870s,under the institutional framework that Jiangsu's tribute grain allowed to collect in currency and shipped uniformly from Shanghai,along with the well-developed grain market and financial and communication networks in the Jiangnan area,the grain tribute system was embedded in the market in a different way than before,which changed its own operation mode.
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