晚清浙江京茶庄的歙县宗族伙计——基于泰昌发介号淳庄的考察-《中国农史》

文章信息/Info

Title:: The Employees of Wu’s Clan from She County in the Domestic Tea Factory in the Late Qing Dynasty: A Case Study of Taichangfa-jiehao Trader in Chun’an County

Author(s):: HUANG Yi-biao1 LONG Deng-gao 2; （1. School of Humanities, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084; 2. School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084）

Keywords:: the tea factory; the clan employees; Huizhou tea merchants; transaction cost

摘要:: 十九世纪末期，华北花茶消费日渐兴起，远在新安江流域的徽州茶商吴炽甫为了收购和加工茶叶，在严州府淳安县设立了季节性经营的茶庄机构。茶商基于特定的农业周期与地理方位，选择雇佣歙县的昌溪吴氏族人充任伙计，这些宗族成员因而能够实现生活来源的多样化。淳庄则通过对族人的雇佣，减少了招募、管理及解散等环节的交易成本，降低了资金与货物的运输风险并有效缩短了每年的经营周期。淳庄的个案显示宗族成员参与同族茶商的产业经营，极大地增加了个人收入，与此同时茶商得以节省经营成本，从而更好地参与市场竞争，是一种双方互益的制度安排。

Abstract:: At the end of the 19th century, the consumption of scented tea in North China was on the rise. To purchase and process tea, a Huizhou tea merchant named Wu Chifu in the Xin’an River Basin set up a seasonal tea factory in Chun’an County, Yanzhou Prefecture. Wu Chifu based on specific agricultural cycles and geographical locations chose to hire the members of the clan as laborers, so they could diversify their sources of life, turning out Chunzhuang mitigating the transportation risk of capital and goods, reducing transaction costs in recruitment, management, and dissolution and effectively shortening the annual operating time. The case of Chunzhuang demonstrated clan members were involved in the industrial management of the tea merchants of the same clan, which greatly increased their income. At the same time, the tea merchant could save operating costs to better participate in the market competition, which was a mutually beneficial economic arrangement for both sides.