1. The superior natural geographical advantages have laid a good foundation for the establishment of the city.

Jiangmen is located in the south-central part of Guangdong Province, on the lower reaches of the Xijiang River, and in the west of the Pearl River Delta.

The Xijiang River in the Pearl River system mainly originates from the water cave at the east foot of Maxiong Mountain in Guyi County, Yunnan Province, and flows from west to east through Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi provinces.

For countless years, the upper reaches of the Xijiang River carried a large amount of sediment and rolled eastward. It was deposited in the calm water between countless islands on the sea until a delta was formed. Its shape is like a replica of a human hand. With five fingers, a knife is sharpened.

Gate, Niwan Gate, Hutiao Gate, Yamen and Hengmen firmly grasp the South China Sea of ??the Pacific Ocean.

Jiangmen, especially in people's hands, controls the Xijiang River for five days when it goes out to sea.

With the Xijiang River, Jiangmen can connect to Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Macau on the upper side; and on the lower side, it can reach Zhaoqing, Wuzhou, Guangxi, Xinhui, Kaiping, Enping, Yangjiang, Shuidong, Dianbai, Leizhou, Lianjiang, Zhanjiang, and Hainan Island, becoming Guangzhou.

It is the western sleeping barrier of the Mansion and the transportation hub of Siyi and even western Guangdong.

Therefore, Jiangmen has always been a battleground for military strategists.

North Street, located 3 kilometers northeast of Jiangmen, was established in the 13th century. It is on the bank of the Xijiang River and is the gateway to Jiangmen's water and land transportation.

The river here is wide and the water level near the shore is deep, which is suitable for ships with larger tonnage to berth. It is actually a natural port and has unique geographical conditions.

Precisely because Jiangmen has such natural and geographical advantages, it has become a place coveted by imperialism.

After the Second Opium War in 1860, imperialism extended its evil hand to the Pearl River Delta in order to intensify its economic and cultural invasion of southern China and to open more coastal and inland foreign trade ports.

In the 23rd year of the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1685), Guangdong Customs was established and a main tax port was set up in Jiangmen, commonly known as "Jiangmen Changguan".

In the 23rd year of Guangxu (1897), according to the special funds from the "Sino-British Burmese Trade Treaty", Jiangmen became the first passenger and cargo docking station in Xijiang, and it was a branch under the jurisdiction of Sanshui.

In October of the same year, Guangdong Customs established an office in Jiangmen. This was the first time that Jiangmen was designated by treaty as a small gateway for the entry of people and goods. Jiangmen also became the waterway transportation hub and commodity circulation center for foreign trade on Xijiang South Road.

In order to further develop Jiangmen, a commodity distribution market and import and export commodity distribution market, into a transshipment port for imported and exported commodities and as a "bridgehead" to penetrate into Wuyi hometown of overseas Chinese and other markets in central and western Guangdong, the imperialists carried out economic development.

Invasion, on the fourth day of August in the twenty-eighth year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (i.e. September 5, 1902), the Qing government was forced to sign the "Sino-British Renewal of Commerce and Shipping Treaty" (i.e., the "Makai Treaty"), and Jiangmen was opened as a foreign trade port and

Set customs accordingly.

On March 7, 1904, Jiangmen Customs was formally established, and Guangdong Customs assigned the two permanent customs of Jiangmen and Ganzhu to the jurisdiction of Jiangmen Customs.

The opening of the port and the establishment of Jiangmen Customs played a role in promoting the development of water and land transportation, foreign trade and commerce in Jiangmen, allowing Jiangmen to expand its radiation and influence on Wuyi and even western Guangdong, thereby accelerating the pace of Jiangmen city construction.

2. The developed commodity economy created favorable conditions for the establishment of Jiangmen city.

A city is the center of commodity economic activities in a region.

In a commodity economy society, it is difficult for a place to become a city by administrative means alone. It must rely on the commodity economy to develop.

Although Jiangmen is not close to the coast, it can go to the sea through five gates. It is backed by the hometown of overseas Chinese in Wuyi and faces the provinces, Hong Kong and Macao. It can be called a treasured place for business.

Jiangmen's commodity economy sprouted in the 14th century.

At that time, there was a small polder market at the top of the polder in today's Pengjiang District. During the first, third, and fifth polder periods, farmers and fishermen from the neighboring four townships would bring their agricultural, sideline and fish products here for sale or exchange.

Later, the polder gradually expanded to the beach. By the 16th century, it had developed into a very lively commodity distribution center with "thousands of ships gathering like ants on the riverside".

By the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, "merchants gathered and transactions numbered in the millions."

Various grain stalls, fruit and vegetable stalls, fish stalls, pig stalls, livestock stalls, fir and bamboo fences, etc. have been set up one after another. The business methods include retail and wholesale. The goods are purchased and sold as far away as Guangzhou, Hainan, Zhanjiang, Yangjiang and other places; as close as Xiangshan (

Today's Zhongshan), Shunde, Taishan, Kaiping, Xinhui, Heshan and other counties. By the end of the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Jiangmen had become the commercial and trade center in the western part of the Pearl River Delta. There were many restaurants and hotels and shops all over the streets, and the business was booming.

After Jiangmen was established as a foreign trade port in the 28th year of Guangxu (1900), it became a foreign trade port for Wuyi and even the western Guangdong region, and commerce and trade became more active. This can be seen from Lie Ti, the fourth tax department (agent) of Jiangmen Customs.

(GReady) learned from the reported "Jiangmen Customs Ten Years' Report" (1904-1911).

One section of the report describes it this way: "Jiangmen is connected to all five inhabited waterways in the Delta and has been an important trade center in this region for many centuries. The emergence of ships as a means of transportation has gradually declined the civilian ships that were once most prosperous in the past. But in

In Jiangmen, various ships are tightly crowded in the Jiangmen River, which may not be easy to see in other places in China: seagoing steamers tower among civilian ships; ships from Singapore and India are equipped with 6 to 12 anti-piracy heavy guns.

Sailing ships of 300 to 400 tons; steamers equipped with gun holes and bulletproof plates to protect the sides of the cockpit, dragging huge passenger ships with bright paint and fluttering flags, spraying steam forward; official salt ships, grain ships, loaded with pottery or pigs, live animals

Folk boats carrying ducks, fruits, eggs and silkworms; boats and sampans with holes on both sides and flowing water tanks for loading live fish; some of the countless boats mentioned above were built by exiled lepers.

The river was so congested that it was difficult for the boat to navigate.