From the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, there existed a hierarchy in the population of the Jiangnan district. Specifically, the upper class, which included rich traders, the retired bureaucrat, and the landlords who lived in the city; the middle class, which comprised people with skills in commerce and industry; the farming class, and last in the hierarchy was the working class, which comprised the people who had no skills or were looking for work. These people had their own way of carrying out religious rituals, and these rituals were very important for the autonomy of the city. The family groups played an important role where the upper class was predominant, whereas. The ritual group played an important role where the middle class was predominant. However, the lower class sometimes caused some conflicts.

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A lot of anthropologists, historians and geographers have researched on traditional markets in China. The writer himself has reported on periodical markets in Hopei Province, Northern China (Geogr. Rev. of Japan, Vol.43, No.4, 1973 & Maizner Geographischen Studien, Heft 10, 1976). Nevertheless, we can see only few studies on markets in East-Central China (Kiangsu, Chekiang & Anhwei Provinces) which has been long time the most developed region in China. In this paper the writer examines comprehensively the traditional markets there during Ming (1368-1662), Ch'ing (1663-1911) and Min-Kuo (1912-1948) periods. He investigated many data obtained from more than five hundreds local gazetteers available at the some main libraries in Japan. The results are as follow:
1. In the local gazetteers of East-Central China all the markets, periodic or daily, are generally called “shi”. But in northern parts of the region the periodical markets are called “chi”, being distinguished from the daily ones. On the other hand the markets in southern parts are called “hsü” in the rare cases as like as in South China.
2. The market week is “hsün” (decade) in the region. Another market week: the twelve chih (branches) is seen in the rare cases. The markets are generally held twice or three times per a decade. But daily markets are dominant in and around the Yangtze delta. The frequency of markets increased during these periods. The market days trend to be arranged uniformly on each days of a decade.
3. The distribution density of markets or market towns is little different from that of the other parts in China. But it is higher in and around the Yangtze delta, and correlates the density of population through the all region. As for the spatial arrangement of markets or market towns, the uniform pattern are found in the two hsiens (counties) by the Nearest Neighbour Analysis.
4. The dimensions of market regions decreased during the periods. Therefore the average radius became shorter from 7-8km in Ming period to 4-5km in Min-Kuo period. The former is equivalent to a day's journey of going, marketing and returning, the latter to a half day's one. The peasants could go and market every early morning in the area with the highest density of markets. The average population per a market region is 10 to 20 thousands as like as in the other parts of China.
5. From a gazetteer of Yin-hsien (Chekiang Province) the writer could distinguish four classes of the settlements with markets. From a gazetteer of Chiating-hsien (Kiangsu Province) he could do four classes of central places and three of markets, too. Markets and market towns are spatially arranged with the structure of hierarchy.
6. Many gazetteers tell us that almost all of central places have had the traditional markets during the periods. It is confirmed from the data of Yin-hsien that frequency of market correlate the scale of settlement with market. From the data of Chiating-hsien, such a correlation is ascertained between the functional class of market and the scale of settlement with market. Consequently it is concluded that the traditional markets have played an important role in the development of central places.

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