ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on business history as the human dimension of commercial history, that is, how mercantile activity has been perceived by society; how merchants accumulate their capital; the relations among merchants and between merchants and government; how merchants manage their enterprises; and their rise or fall. It covers Taiwan studies of the Chinese mainland from 1600 to 1949, studies of Taiwan from 1600 to the present, and some studies of overseas Chinese. Taiwanese studies of Chinese business history come mainly from the fields of history, sociology, business administration, and political science. The chapter focuses on the interpretive trends of other Taiwanese studies of Chinese business history, essentially merchant history. In Japanese colonial Taiwan, religious festivals were used for commercial promotions as pointed out by Sung Kuang-yu. Huang Yun-lung and Hsu Mu-lan have found religious ethics to be favorable even for modern enterprise management.
