The Mercantile Thought and the Social Transformation of Late-Qing Dynasty.

The mercantile thought is the key word to the research of social transformation in Late --Qing Dynasty. The thought includes rich political economy content rather than traditional economic thought. The paper points out that the multi--dimensional feature of the mercantile thought is the result of gradual progress which presents a developing way to industrialization and institutionalization. The mercantile thought tries to break structural constrain of the traditional society and push social transformation. However, the feudal government did not undertake the reform successfully. Therefore, the influence of mercantile thought is rather limited, and the economic modernization did not make remarkable progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]