The history of Dashengkui trading house and the Chinese trade in Mongolia during the Qing period

The organization of the Chinese-Mongolian trade during the Qing empire concerns not only problems of the Chinese-Mongolian relations during this period, but also directly influence the research of history of the Russian-Chinese and Russian-Mongolian relations. In a Russian historiography the organization of the Chinese trade in Mongolia is almost not studied. The purpose of this work is to determine the main features of the Chinese-Mongolian trade. The first Chinese dealers in Mongolia were representatives of Dashengkui trading company from Shanxi province. On the basis of the analysis of the Chinese historical materials the history of the development and the role of the Chinese Dashengkui firm are presented. The attention is also paid to professional ethics and business culture of merchants of Shanxi. The Dashengkui firm was the largest trading company of the Chinese merchants in Mongolia. The government of the Qing dynasty supported Dashenkui and Dashenkui had the centralized structure of management, these conditions promoted creation of an extensive distributive network across all of Mongolia. The merchants of Dashengkui were the first Chinese dealers in Mongolia; they not only defined barter bases with the Mongolian nomads, but also laid the foundation for the Chinese-Mongolian trade relations. Dashengkui was the firm of merchants from the Province of Shanxi. The merchants of Shanxi until the second half of the 19th century were monopolists in the Mongolian market. The history of activities of Dashengkui is a striking example of the trade policy of the Qing government in Mongolia. Close connection of the firm with Qing officials had granted Dashengkui the special rights to trade, pricing, etc. The features of activity of Dashengkui formed the basis for the system of the Chinese-Mongolian trade relations during the Qing dynasty. The trading company Dashengkui using a monopoly position in the Mongolian market has organized unequal barter with Mongols. It allowed it to save up the big capital, to open a number of subsidiaries and to enter the market of Kyakhta. However, after the arrival of Russian merchants to Mongolia Dashengkui lost its monopoly position.