流民是中国历代社会所普遍存在的群体。19世纪60年代,上海曾接纳过100多万流民,但其中的绝大多数都离开了上海。促成这一时期大批流民离沪的原因有三:一为流民赴沪时的生存性动机;二为上海恶劣的生存条件;三为清政府垦荒、减赋的措施。透视上述原因可知,人们的观念有一个逐步改变的过程,城市的近代化也有一个渐次演进的历程,此乃上海在其近代化初期,未能成为流民离乡后最终归宿的症结所在。 Migrant is a common group of Chinese society. In the 1860s, Shanghai had admitted over one million migrants, but most of them left Shanghai. There are three reasons for the large number of migrants to leave Shanghai during this period: one is the survivability motive of migrants to Shanghai; the other is the poor living conditions in Shanghai; and the other is the measures taken by the Qing government to reclaim wasteland and reduce taxes. From the above reasons, we can see that people’s concept has a gradual process of change. The modernization of cities also has a gradual process of gradual evolution. This is the crux of Shanghai’s failure to become the final destination of migrants in their early days of modernization.