The research was entitled “The Economic Social Life of Cloth Merchants
in Sumampir Village Rembang Subdistrict Purbalingga in 1979-2013”. The aim
of the research was to get the description of the Sumampir village, explore the life
of urban cloth merchants till 2013 as well as to know the life of the urban
merchants. The subject of this research was the merchants in Sumampir village,
especially urban merchants selling their things over the island in Indonesia and
their life in society. The Research application was by historical method with the
pashes of heuristic, critics, interpretation and historiography. From the research, it
could be seen that the Sumampir village, Rembang, Purbalingga was an agrarian
village located on the slope of mountains, 35 km in the east of the Purbalingga
downtown. Most of the people were farmers and 27% was urban merchants. The
urbanization was to get more income than usual farmers. Feeling that the result of
the wandering was still far from enough, and then they went to Sumatra. From
there, the urban got significant improvement, either in the quantity or the benefits
as well as the life change of the urban merchants. The next period, the
urbanization was not only done in Sumatra but also in many islands over
Indonesia from Sabang to Merauke. The success of the merchants had been able
to change the economic social and the life of the Sumampir village. Now,
Sumampir village has become sophisticated village with a better life than in the
past.