Is It Barter or Currency Exchange?Study on the Changes of Zhangjiakou City Circle and Its Transaction Form Since the Late Ming Dynasty

At present, due to the serious lack of relevant historical documents of Zhangjiakou in Ming Dynasty, the historical track is blurred to a certain extent. Therefore, for a long time, there has been a relatively customary understanding in the academic circle: the trading form and mode of “barter exchange” is often applied to the urban development and commercial activities of Zhangjiakou, intentionally or unintentionally. Through the empirical study on the birth, development and disappearance of Zhangjiakou city circle, this paper can not only see the stages of Zhangjiakou’s historical transformation, but also answer empirically: Shanxi merchants specialized in the economic activities of the Mongolian and Han nationalities for more than 300 years, which showed the socialized transaction pattern ——the inherent essential difference between “barter exchange” and “exchange through the medium of money”.