Mercantilism is an important clue for understanding the modern legal history of China.Mercantilism,a common manifestation of modern political economy,fundamentally represents the syn-chronous creation of the nation-state and the national economy.Since the modern era,the economies of Western countries have gone through a distinct phase of mercantilism.In late Qing China,the country was forcibly integrated into the world system through unequal treaties,losing a significant amount of rights and privileges.To defend the national economic interests and achieve prosperity,enlightened indi-viduals of the late Qing era,represented by Zheng Guanying,proposed a set of commercial warfare strat-egies that included legal reforms,marking the Chinese version of mercantilism.At the international law level,these commercial warfare reforms manifested in the establishment and perfection of a consular sys-tem aimed at investigating foreign trade and protecting overseas Chinese merchants,as well as attempts to negotiate the abolition of many unfair treatments in trade agreements.Domestically,the reforms were reflected in administrative organizational law reforms tailored to modern economic development,the en-actment of general mercantile laws,and various legislations directly intervening in the economy,akin to modern industrial policies.Advocating for mercantilism as a new understanding of modern law does not aim to exclude the existing"rule of law—rights"and"politics—nationality"models;rather,in the mod-ern context,the three are more compatible and even complementary.
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