The northeastern region was a new undeveloped land, and Han chinese merchants in the region entered the northeastern territory without the government’s protection. Therefore, they led the development of commerce in the region based on kinship and regional connections. They established centers for people from the same province based on regional networks, and organized merchant associations, which established business rules based on their old trading systems and methods and regulated the market order. In this way, they applied their old customs and systems of commercial trade in the northeastern region. This is considered the process that the northeastern region was reformed into the structure of sharing the economic systems (customs) within the jurisdiction of China. Immigrant merchants in the province raised funds and opened shops using their kinship or regional connections, and this was the hugu(partnership, 合股) organization in the form of partnership. In addition, they needed to promote the maximization of profits and the enduring stability of businesses through a commercial network connecting related categories of businesses in tune with the northeastern market environment, and lianhao(chain store, 聯號) was the shop organization developed to meet the need. They minimized the risk of market based on trust among the members connected through the most traditional interpersonal relations. Various human networks worked in business activities pursuing the common interest of maximum profit. Because of the strong tendency that relations based on the origin of place appeared redundantly, however, such relations functioned as the most enduring network in shop administration.
On the other hand, there were huge merchant groups called shangbang(商幇), which was engaged in commercial activities, in each unit ‘region.’ It was during the Ming and Qing Dynasties and especially from the mid Ming Dynasty that such a regional shangbang emerged
conspicuously. There was no shangbang having the northeastern region as its foothold at that time, but conditions for the formation of a regional merchant group were fulfilled by the mass migration of Han people in the Qing Dynasty and the activation of northeastern economy centering on the three provinces Shanxi, Shandong, and Hebei. In this way, the economy of Fengtian developed rapidly through the migration of Han population within the district to the northeastern region throughout the period from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, and it was Zhangzuolin’s regime that grew with the support of such economic power. Backed by the political support of the local administration of the northeastern region, moreover, local capitals in Fengtian led the development of commerce and industry in the area along with ‘indigenized’ capitals from the three provinces (other provinces within the district).
What should be noted here is the advance of Fengtian local capitals. Fengtian local capitalists are largely divided into four groups, though somewhat overlapping with one another: first, commercial and financial capitalists who had long accumulated capitals through commerce and industry; second, former and incumbent provincial council members, bureaucrats, military cliques, and their descendents; third, old Manchurian aristocratic families and military rulers; and lastly, province?invested financial institutions such as Dongsanshengguanyinhao(東三省官銀號). They generally belonged to the privileged leading class of the northeastern region, and had various relation networks based on their past and current backgrounds. In particular, there was a strong tendency of promoting the maintenance and expansion of shop operation through active relations with the local regime, which was struggling to expand and stabilize the local economy of the northeastern region. The local administration of the northeastern region raised capitals with inconvertible paper money called Fengtianpiao(奉天票), and could produce huge profits as a merchant from government projects. An exemplary case was the opening of liangzhan(粮棧) by Dongsanshengguanyinhao as a government project. The growth of shops based on immense capital power, solid credit in the market, and political support from the government of the Fengtiansheng confirms that some of Fengtian local capitals grew rapidly under auspices of Zhangzuolin’s regime. In the process of growth, Fengtian local capitals gained competitiveness, on the one hand, through the anti?foreign currency movement in Guohuotichang(國貨提唱) movement for promoting profits along with the gigantic flow of nationalist anti?foreign movements against foreign merchants and, on the other hand, through appealing ‘regionalism’ in the aspect of social economy.