18、19世紀之間，蘇州、上海兩地商人捐建成立的會館、公所，因為常將其專屬建築物向地方政府「立案」，而被當時司法體系逐漸認定為某種值得保護的「公產」，並演化出種種「公產立案」的法律執行慣例。至於20世紀初年成立的商會，則隨著當時「地方自治」運動的展開，而被納入清末政府借自近代西方法律「法人」觀念的相關法令中，商會被賦予聯結中國商人以對抗外國商業競爭的任務與權力。由公產「立案」到設置「法人」，不僅顯示出清代商人社團在都市社會中的影響力不斷增加，更呈顯出兩種類型不同的制度變遷。整體而論，清代蘇州、上海地區會館、公所被地方政府納為「立案公產」的制度變遷，可說是一種「由下而上的演化」，政府被動地保護商人產權，從而使商人團體的公產「立案」制度被更有效地納入地方行政與司法體系之中。商會的「法人」地位則更像是一種「由上而下的改造」，這種制度變遷與會館、公所的「由下而上的演化」是頗為不同的類型。

The traditional merchant associations named Huiguan or Gongsuo established mainly by the donations of their own members often appealed to the local governments of Suzhou and Shanghai to protect the hall building and their other “common properties” in the eighteenth and nineteenth century China. This commercial-cum-legal procedure not only recognized as a local knowledge shared by both merchants and officials in an urban society both in Suzhou and Shanghai but also led to a kind of institutional evolution. To the contrary, there constituted a sort of institutional revolution at the beginning of the twentieth century China-- the introduction of the chambers of commerce. Many intellectuals and officials overwhelmingly urged the necessity and legitimacy of the chamber of commerce and ardently promoted this western-originated merchant association with the very mission to overcome the foreign competitions and secure the Chinese economic privileges. At the wake of the promotion the chamber of commerce was eventually delineated as a corporation, a legal term apparently borrowed from the modern western jurisprudence. This paper will distinguish the evolution with the revolution in the institutional changes of the Chinese merchant associations, and delve into the significance of the commercial-cum-legal procedure for protecting the merchants’ “common property” in some prosperous Chinese cities at least from the eighteenth century on.