以广州为中心的汉代“海上丝绸之路”是岭南地区两汉时期历史发展过程的一大特色,其发达的海外贸易对当时本地以至全国的社会发展产生了极大的作用:向海外传播中华文化;形成当时的世界格局,特别是东半球的格局;开创了以后中国海外贸易的先河。于广东而言,商业贸易传统的形成过程,显然应当是在更早的历史阶段,可追溯到本地先秦以及新石器时代晚期。这样一个时期,又是中国文明,包括岭南文 The Han-dynasty-centered Han Dynasty “Silk Road on the Sea” was a major feature of the historical development in the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties in South China. Its developed overseas trade played an important role in the social development at that time, both locally and nationwide: spreading overseas Chinese culture; forming the current world pattern, especially the pattern of the Eastern Hemisphere; and creating a precedent for China’s overseas trade in the future. In the case of Guangdong, the formation of the tradition of trade and commerce should apparently be at an earlier historical stage, traceable to the local Pre-Qin and Late Neolithic. Such a period, but also Chinese civilization, including Lingnan