Author(s)

Lei ZENG

Corresponding Author

Lei ZENG

ABSTRACT

Since the Song Dynasty, the activities of Fujian merchants, known as Yan Shang, YanJia, began to attract the attention of the society, and became more and more important in the business world. Their fields of activity are mainly land and sea trade, commerce, transportation, finance. Meanwhile, the sidelines of geishas, monks, Taoist priests and farmers cann’t be ignored. At that time, they took the initiative to devote themselves to these jobs, not only because of overpopulation and lack of arable land, which triggered new opportunities for commercial profit. Moreover, people of Fujian origin, including those who came to the post as a doctor, combined with the social economy with strong geographical ties when planting in the fields. Therefore, in order to fully grasp the significance of Fujian businessmen's activities, it is necessary to comprehensively understand the special trend of Fujian society and the historical, local and socio-economic conditions at that time.

KEYWORDS

Song dynasty, Quanzhou businessmen, Economic development