From 1949 to 1978, China was explored for socialist construction. During this period, Chinese economic construction was influenced by Marx-Lenin classics and the practice of the Soviet Union in building socialism, mainly around the planned economy. However, with the constant exploration and adjustment in the practice of economic construction, market factors have also begun to appear in the socialist construction. Although they are not the main part of the socialist economic construction, they also play a certain role in the historical practice. Influenced by historical limitations, the ideology of the socialist market economy produced in this stage is still in its infancy, which is mostly included in the analysis of the role of factors such as currency and commodity economy in socialism. Therefore, this paper defines this period as the early exploratory stage of the socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics, and mainly studies the ideological track, theoretical contribution, practice and performance of the market economy in this stage. Firstly, this paper clarifies the early exploration of the economic thought from 1949 to 1978. In this period, no matter the practice of economic construction or the discussion in the theoretical circle, although they are mainly based on the planned economic system, there have been preliminary attempt on how to make use of market factors, and discussion on a lot of problems such as the socialist economic law, commodity production, value law and distribution according to work. The discussion even contains the germination of the socialist market economy thought. By sorting out the thought of the early market economy, we can summarize the development track of the socialist market economy thought in this period. Secondly, this paper discusses the theoretical contribution of the market economy thought formed in the early exploratory period. Although the thought of the socialist market economy in this stage is still in its infancy and has not formed a scientific ideological system, nor has it completely avoided the twists and turns in the process of socialist construction in our country, they still correctly analyze our country at the 8th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, have a positive impact on the recovery of the national economy after the Great Leap Forward, and lay the groundwork for the subsequent proposal of the socialist market economic system. Finally, this paper studies the performance of the practice of the socialist market economy under the influence of the early socialist market economy thought. In this period, although the main direction of the practice of building a socialist economic system is to build a planned economic system, some attempts on the market economy under the restraint of the socialist system have also been carried out, and these attempts have also brought some results to the economic development of our country in this period. In a word, since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, there have been some thoughts about the market economy in our theoretical exploration and practical activities.