摘要
新發現的《本爐往來簿》記錄了浙江松陽石倉「闕彤昌號」──一個小型冶鐵公司──嘉慶二十五年 (1820) 日常經營的收支明細。本文在逐條解讀帳目並建立相關數據庫的基礎上，對「闕彤昌號」的經營關係、煉鐵成本與收益、物價與工價、資本來源，以及石倉冶鐵業與國內鐵市場的關係等，進行了細緻的分析與討論。本文認為，十九世紀中葉以前的中國，已經形成了一個發育相當成熟的市場體系。對於工業原料市場而言，尤其如此。石倉冶鐵業成功的祕密，就在於廉價勞動力的大量使用，它使得業主對於技術的成本支出，壓縮到最低。石倉鐵業之衰落，是道光後期國內經濟大蕭條的結果；蕭條結束之際，正值洋鐵傾銷之時，石倉乃至浙南冶鐵業因此而一蹶不振。
The newly discovered Iron Workshop Account Book provides detailed records of daily management expenses and receipts for the “Quetongchang Workshop”─a small iron smelting workshop in Shicang village, Songyang county, Zhejiang province─during the year 1820. Based on examination of each record in the account book as well as the construction of a dataset, the authors of this paper carry out explicit analysis as to the following issues: the managerial operation of the workshop, the costs and benefits of iron smelting, commodity prices and labor costs, sources of capital and joint-stock patterns, and the relationship between the iron smelting industry in Shicang and the national iron market. The article argues that before the mid-nineteenth century, China had already developed a mature market system, especially with regard to industrial raw materials. The success of Shicang’s iron smelting industry lay in its use of cheap labor, which enabled entrepreneurs to reduce capital investment to the lowest level. The decline of the iron industry in Shicang was most likely caused by the economic depression at the end of the Daoguang period. When the economic depression ended, foreign iron products began to saturate the Chinese market, preventing the revival of the iron smelting industry in Shicang and the southern Zhejiang region.
關鍵詞
石倉 《本爐往來簿》 冶鐵業 市場 前工業化
Shicang, Iron Workshop Account Book, iron smelting industry, market, pre-industrialization