What Is a Middle Market?

The market is one of many systems, institutions, procedures, legal enhancements and infrastructures in which all parties participate in the exchange. Although parties can exchange goods and services through barter, most markets rely on sellers to provide goods or services (including labor) in exchange for buyer's money. It can be said that the market is the process of establishing the prices of goods and services. The market promotes trade and contributes to distribution and resource allocation in society. The market allows any tradable item to be evaluated and priced. The market appears more or less spontaneously, or it can be deliberately constructed through human interaction in order to exchange rights (such as ownership) for services and goods. The market usually replaces the gift economy, usually through rules and customs (such as stall fees, competitive pricing, sources of goods sold (local produce or stock registration) and military or police threats if these rules are broken.

[shì chng]

The market is the product of social division of labor and commodity production. Wherever there is social division of labor and commodity exchange, there is a market.

Three factors that determine market size and capacity: buyer, purchasing power, and desire to buy.

At the same time, in the process of its development and growth, the market has also promoted the further development of social division of labor and commodity economy. Market feedback directly affects what people produce, how much they produce, time to market, and product sales. Connect the production, supply, and sales parties in the development of the commodity economy, provide exchange places, exchange time, and other exchange conditions for the production, supply, and sales parties, so as to realize the production of goods,

Classification by market body

1. Divided by purchase purpose and identity

1. Balance between supply and demand

2.Commodity exchange and value realization

3.Service functions

4, the function of transmitting information

5. Income distribution-The market uses the economic levers such as price, interest rate, exchange rate, tax rate, etc. to distribute or reallocate income to the entities engaged in trading activities on the market-producers, consumers, and middlemen. For example, when the price of an industrial product rises, producers can increase their income, but if the middleman benefits a lot, the producer's income will not increase much. At this time, interest adjustment can be made through the collection of VAT.

Equality principle

Voluntary principle

Mutual benefit principle

Principle of good faith

Market primitive society

Wugong County, Shaanxi Province is the hometown of the heir to the ancestor of the Chinese agricultural civilization. According to legend, each spring in ancient times, Houyi taught the farmer in front of the Jiaojitai and taught the people farming techniques. Every year on the seventh day of November in the lunar calendar, the people of the Quartet gather together under the teaching pads of the East River Beach of Qishui River to bring their own harvests to thank Houyi and start bartering. The earliest market in China started here. ^[1]

"The Book of Changes in the Book of Changes" wrote about the origin of the market: "Shennong Day and China is the city, to the people of the world, to gather the goods of the world, to retreat from the transaction, each has its own place." "Shennong Day and City is the city, to the people of the world, to gather the goods of the world, to retreat from the transaction, and this city begins." Both of these sayings believe that the original market began to emerge from the era of the Shennongs. But Shennong is the legendary ancient emperor, and may not necessarily have someone. However, one thing is certain. After the ancient society of China entered the agricultural period and the social productive forces had developed to a certain extent, the ancestors began to have a small amount of surplus products to exchange, thus creating the original market.

The original markets are: market. "City" was also called "city well" in ancient times. This is because the initial transactions were conducted by the well. "Historical Records of Justice" wrote: "The ancients gathered together to draw water, and sold things when they were there. Because of the city, they became 'market wells.'" In ancient times, before the official market was built, it was often "because of the wells". This has two advantages. One is to solve the problem of water for traders and livestock, and the other is to be able to wash goods. "Custom Customs" cloud: "Wash on the well to make the fragrance clean." Later, there were wells in Shaanxi provinces and cities for businessmen to drink horses. This legacy of ancient times has continued. Until liberation, they were still seen in townships. The term "market well" has remained in use today.

Market week

In the official market of the Zhou Dynasty, daily trading activities were held in three times: "Chao market" in the morning, "big market" in the afternoon, and "xi market" in the evening. Participants in the evening market trade are small business vendors. The market has doors. Entering the market is called "market entry". At the time of market entry, a small official guards the door to maintain market entry order. The various trading locations of the market are called "random". In the same market, there are several branches according to different operating varieties. There are houses in the city where goods are stored, called "", which is the storehouses of later generations. The puppets were all built by the government, so merchants must pay taxes when depositing goods, which is called "puppet cloth" (cloth, currency). The voucher used in trade is called "quality agent". The long coupons are called "quality" and are used to buy cattle and horses. Coupons are called "agents" and are used to purchase weapons and rare objects. The big cities use "quality" and the small cities use "agents." Orders issued by market officials are called "city orders." Businessmen must obey city orders or they will be punished. One of the ways of punishment is fines, called "penalties." The market is both a place where commodities are traded and a place where the government executes criminals. After the executioner killed the criminal, he showed his body to the public and called it "abandoning the city." The market is a place of activity for "minions" and it is also a torture ground, so the government does not allow dignitaries to enter the market casually. Entrants are punished. "Zhou Li · Diguan" wrote: "Mrs. passes the market and is punished by one scene; Shizi passes the market and is punished by a penalty; It's for "don't respect the humility" (Zheng Kang idiom), that is, to maintain the identity of these people. Ichii (Han Dynasty Portrait Stone Tomb)

Market Han Dynasty

In the Western Han Dynasty, there were six major commercial cities in the country, with Changan, the capital of the country. It relies on the convenience of water and land commercial roads to connect with other famous commercial cities in the country, such as Luoyang, Handan, Linzi, Wan, and Chengdu, forming a nationwide business network. Sima Qian said: "The land in Guanzhong is one-third of the world, and the people are only three; the rich are the sixth most." It is conceivable that Changan City is rich in wealth and material. Chang'an's business districts are mainly distributed in nine cities. Among them, there are seven cities that can be tested, namely West City, Liu City, East City, Xiaoli City, and Zhishi City (because there are no prices), Jiaomen City and Jiaodaoting City. The planes of the nine cities are all square. 266 steps for all parties. Each city has a wall called "" and its gate is called "A". There are cross-shaped passages in the city called "tunnels". On both sides of the tunnel are "columns", also known as "city columns", that is, buildings displaying goods. Ran separately and orderly. Behind the column houses, next to the city wall, there is a shop that stores goods, called a "dwelling", which is the "" of the Zhou Dynasty. As long as the businessmen are operating in the city, they must be registered in the register, called "city membership". Those who have obtained city citizenship must pay "city rent" to the government. The city's administrative agency is located on the "flag pavilion" (also called "city building"). Judging from the situation of "Kai Kaijiu City, Tongqiao District, described by Zhang Heng's" Xijing Fu "in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the flag pavilion is five-fold, and the hundred tunnels are inspected.

The "Historical Records of Goods and Plants" contains the following categories of commodities circulating on the market at the time: 1. Agricultural products, including grain, fresh vegetables (such as leek, ginger), and dried vegetables; 2. Forest products, including logs, bamboo poles, firewood, Fruits (such as tangerines and wild mixed fruits), dried fruits (chestnuts), etc .; 3. Animal products, including cattle, sheep, pork, cowhide, sheepskin, pigskin, horns and tendons of livestock; 4. Fishery products, including fresh fish, Big dried fish, small miscellaneous fish; 5. By-products, such as bean paste, wine, pulp (acidic beverage), loquat, silk (cotton), woolen fabric, fox fur, etc .; 6. Handicraft products, such as ox carts, barn carts , Lacquer, bronze, iron, banquet, woodware, etc .; 7. Mineral products, such as tan sand. In addition, there are slaves who are bought and sold as labor. "Salt and Iron Deficiency" lists many names of cooked foods in Chang'an City: Yang Dolphin Leek, Dogs and Horses Belly, Fried Fish Cuts Liver, Sheep-fried Chicken Cold, Horse Breeding Wine, Stomach Breast Prediction, and Lamb Douzi, glutinous rubber goose, self-bacon maggot, hot beam and sunburn. In Chang'an, there is Mr. Gua who sells divination. "Historical Records of the Japanese" in the early Western Han Dynasty, Jia Yi and others went to Dongshi to visit the seller of Sima Jizhu. The city is where the executions are again.

According to the "Hanshu", during the period of Emperor Han Jing, the official Shi Shi was cut off in the East City by wearing the Chaoyi clothes. "Parents and wives (same mothers and brothers) have abandoned the market for a long time." Later, "Dongshi Chaoyi" became an allusion, referring specifically to the killing of the minister. In addition to the nine cities, Changan has some relatively small markets. For example, when Taixue Zhusheng was born every month, they gathered in the grove of locust near Taixue and traded local products and classics, books, and musical instruments brought by everyone, called "Huai City". In the Guanzhong area, many people have become rich through business. Some are rich by usury or hoarding, while others are rich by selling pulp and selling stomach food. At that time, the saying of the people was: "Ask for riches from poverty, it is better to work than farmers, and work is not as good as business; embroidery is not as good as leaning on the city gate." In the social atmosphere of getting rich from business, many farmers left the fields and came to cities to do business. The abnormal phenomenon of "there are fewer people in the crops, more people in the business travels, and unfamiliar grains but more goods" has formed. During the Han Dynasty, the "silk road" across Europe and East Asia gradually opened. An endless stream of foreign ambassadors and businessmen came to Chang'an. They brought their own specialties in exchange for Chinese goods, and they all lived in the barbarous mansion on Chang'an Chan Street. The barbarous mansion belongs to a big diplomat and commerce official, namely Da Hongying.

Song Dynasty

1: The boundaries of the city and the square are broken, and the operating time limit is also broken. Trading activities are no longer under the direct supervision of the government.

2: "Grass-fed" is more common in suburban and rural areas.

3: Hankou Town, Foshan Town, Jingde Town and Zhuxian Town are four famous commercial towns.