Thirty years ago, Yiwu is still a small poor agricultural county in Zhejiang center, people are less (mostly red hills), the Quartet meets the land, Yiwu is the habit of doing business since ancient times, the famous “feather-for-Sugar” is the Yiwu traditional means of livelihood in the planned economy era, but it becomes attack targets, saying feathers for sugar” is abandoning agriculture business,” “speculation,” “tail of capitalism.”
Commodity economy gradually began to thaw after reform, farmers are allow to sell their private plots of agricultural products and crafts, but the long-distance trafficking to city and street vendor also be seen as profiteering behavior. 1979 the “Criminal Law” implement a general crime of speculation, until in 1997 the new “Criminal Law” was abolished it. And at this time Yiwu merchants is no longer satisfied the “feathers for sugar” on the street to solve their livelihood, but began cautiously the daily sale of a commodity.
One day in May 1982, it is a worth bearing to be remembered to Yiwu. A peasant woman up the courage to the front of Yiwu government wants to get a story, she has five children to feed, the family’s main income is a sly vendor in the county, but her goods repeatedly be confiscated in two years. The new county party secretary debated to the wives for a full afternoon, and finally told the farmer’s wife: You go back and in stall, never have departments to check you. On August 1982, Yiwu government made ​​a rather amazing decision: allowing farmers to do business, permitted to engage in long-distance traffic, allowing open urban and rural markets, allowing multi-channel competition. Thus, the first generation of small commodity city is born. The next 20 years, with changing several address and expansion, Yiwu Small Commodity Market gradually upgrade to modern, international trade city, developed into a national center for small commodities, and international commodity procurement base.
There is a widely circulated statement, if you take 8 hours one day stroll in the Yiwu Small Commodity Market, each booth you stayed 1 minute, then more than four months to be take to stroll over a total of 58,000 stalls in Small Commodity Market, if you say Commodity City is the city where so much of the market, more than a city is built on the market. It is truly the point of universal operators, dozens of kilometers away from Yiwu in the rural areas, almost every family’s elderly in helping the processed commodities for Commodity City, the income of an old peasant woman a day is about 60-80 yuan.

2006, “Yiwu • China Commodity Index (Yiwu index)” began released by the Ministry of Commerce to global on a regular basis. The Index become the “wind vane” and “barometer” of global price movements of consumer goods, and this website “Www.ywindex.com” is the address of China Commodity Index.