Everything about Economy Of The Song Dynasty totally explained
The
Song Dynasty (960–1279) of
China was a period of
Chinese history marked by commercial expansion, economic prosperity, and revolutionary new economic concepts. Private trade grew and a market economy began to link the coastal provinces with the interior. The enormous population growth rate from increased agricultural cultivation in the 10th to 11th centuries doubled China's overall population, which rose above 100 million people (compared to the earlier
Tang, with some 50 million people).
Beyond domestic profits made in China, merchants engaged in overseas trade by investing money in trading vessels that docked at foreign ports as far away as
East Africa. The world's first development of the
banknote, or printed paper money (see
Jiaozi,
Huizi), was established on a massive scale. Combined with a unified tax system and an efficient canal and roadways, this meant the development of a true nationwide market system in China. Although much of the revenue in the central government's
treasury was consumed by the needs of the
military defense budget, government taxes imposed on the rising commercial base in China refilled the monetary coffers of the Song government. For certain production items and marketed goods, the Song government imposed monopolies in order to boost revenues and secure resources that were vital to the empire's security, such as steel, iron, and chemical components for
gunpowder.
Organization, investment, and trade
During the Song Dynasty, the merchant class became more sophisticated, well-respected and organized than in earlier periods of China. Their accumulated wealth often rivaled that of the
scholar-officials who administered the affairs of government. For their organizational skills, Ebrey, Walthall, and Palais state that Song Dynasty merchants:
...set up partnerships and joint stock companies, with a separation of owners (shareholders) and managers. In the large cities, merchants were organized into guilds according to the type of product sold; they periodically set prices and arranged sales from wholesalers to shop owners. When the government requisitioned goods or assessed taxes, it dealt with the guild heads.
Although large government run industries and large privately-owned
enterprises dominated the market system of urban China during the Song period, there was a plethora of small private businesses and
entrepreneurs throughout the large suburbs and rural areas that thrived off the economic boom of the period. There was even a large
black market in China during the Song period, which was actually enhanced once the
Jurchens conquered northern China and established the
Jin Dynasty. For example, around 1160 AD there was an annual black market smuggling of some 70 to 80 thousand
cattle. There were multitudes of successful small
kilns and
pottery shops owned by local families, along with oil presses,
wine-making shops, small local paper-making businesses, etc.
Rural families that sold a large agricultural surplus to the market not only could afford to buy more charcoal, tea, oil, and wine, but they could also amass enough funds to establish secondary means of production for generating more wealth. Besides necessary agricultural foodstuffs, farming families could often produce wine, charcoal, paper, textiles, and other goods they sold through brokers.
For clothing,
silken robes were worn by the wealthy and elite while
hemp and
ramie was worn by the poor; by the late Song period
cotton clothes were also in use. He wrote that the old method of hauling boats over limited the size of the cargo to 300 tan of rice per vessel (roughly 21 tons/21337 kg), but after the pound locks were introduced, boats carrying 400 tan (roughly 28 tons/28449 kg) could then be used. Although the massive amount of indigenous trade along the
Grand Canal, the
Yangzi River, its tributaries and lakes, and other canal systems trumped the commercial gains of overseas trade, there were still many large
seaports during the Song period that bolstered the economy, such as
Quanzhou,
Fuzhou,
Guangzhou, and
Xiamen. These seaports, now heavily connected to the hinterland via canal, lake, and river traffic, acted as a long string of large market centers for the sale of cash crops produced in the interior. The high demand in China for foreign luxury goods and
spices coming from the
East Indies facilitated the growth of Chinese maritime trade abroad during the Song period. Along with the
mining industry, the
shipbuilding industry of
Fujian province during the Song period increased its production exponentially as maritime trade was given more importance and as the province's population growth began to increase dramatically. The Song capital at
Hangzhou had a large canal that connected its waterways directly to the seaport at Mingzhou (modern
Ningbo), the center where many of the foreign imported goods were shipped out to the rest of the country. Despite the installation of
fire stations and a large
fire fighting force, fires continued to threaten the city of Hangzhou and the various businesses within it. In safeguarding stored supplies and providing rented space for merchants and shopkeepers to keep their surplus goods safe from city fires, the rich families of Hangzhou, palace eunuchs, and empresses had large
warehouses built near the northeast walls; these warehouses were surrounded by channels of water on all sides and were heavily guarded by hired night watchmen. Shipbuilders generated means of employment for many skilled craftsmen, while sailors for ship crews found many opportunities of employment as more families had enough capital to purchase boats and invest in commercial trading abroad. Foreigners and merchants from abroad had an impact on the economy from within China as well. For example, many
Muslims went to Song China not only to trade, but dominated the import and export industry and in some cases became officials of economic regulations. For Chinese maritime merchants, however, there was risk involved in such long overseas ventures to foreign trade posts and
seaports as far away as
Egypt. In order to reduce the risk of losing money instead of gaining it on maritime trade missions abroad:
[Songera] investors usually divided their investment among many ships, and each ship had many investors behind it. One observer thought eagerness to invest in overseas trade was leading to an outflow of copper cash. He wrote, "People along the coast are on intimate terms with the merchants who engage in overseas trade, either because they're fellow-countrymen or personal acquaintances...[Theygive the merchants] money to take with them on their ships for purchase and return conveyance of foreign goods. They invest from ten to a hundred strings of cash, and regularly make profits of several hundred percent."
Wealthy landholders were still typically those who were able to educate their sons to the highest degree. Hence small groups of prominent families in any given local county would gain national spotlight for having sons travel far off to be educated and appointed as ministers of the state. Yet downward social mobility was always an issue with the matter of divided inheritance. Suggesting ways to increase a family's property,
Yuan Cai (1140–1190) wrote in the late 12th century that those who obtained office with decent salaries shouldn't convert it to gold and silver, but instead could watch their values grow with investment:
For instance, if he'd 100,000 strings worth of gold and silver and used this money to buy productive property, in a year he'd gain 10,000 strings; after ten years or so, he'd have regained the 100,000 strings and what would be divided among the family would be interest. If it were invested in a pawn broking business, in three years the interest would equal the capital. He would still have the 100,000 strings, and the rest, being interest, could be divided. Moreover, it could be doubled again in another three years, ad infinitum.
Shen Kuo (1031–1095), a minister of finance, was of the same opinion; in his understanding of the velocity of circulation, he stated in 1077:
The utility of money derives from circulation and loan-making. A village of ten households may have 100,000 coins. If the cash is stored in the household of one individual, even after a century, the sum remains 100,000. If the coins are circulated through business transactions so that every individual of the ten households can enjoy the utility of the 100,000 coins, then the utility will amount to that of 1,000,000 cash. If circulation continues without stop, the utility of the cash will be beyond enumeration.
The author
Zhu Yu wrote in his
Pingzhou Ketan (萍洲可談; Pingzhou Table Talks) of 1119 AD about the organization, maritime practices, and government standards of seagoing vessels, their merchants, and sailing crews. His book stated:
According to government regulations concerning seagoing ships, the larger ones can carry several hundred men, and the smaller ones may have more than a hundred men on board. One of the most important merchants is chosen to be Leader (Gang Shou), another is Deputy Leader (Fu Gang Shou), and a third is Business Manager (Za Shi). The Superintendent of Merchant Shipping gives them an unofficially sealed red certificate permitting them to use the light bamboo for punishing their company when necessary. Should anyone die at sea, his property becomes forfeit to the government...The ship's pilots are acquainted with the configuration of the coasts; at night they steer by the stars, and in the day-time by the sun. In dark weather they look at the south-pointing needle (for example the magnetic compass). They also use a line a hundred feet long with a hook at the end which they let down to take samples of mud from the sea-bottom; by its (appearance and) smell they can determine their whereabouts.
Foreign travelers to China often made remarks on the economic strength of the country. The later Muslim
Moroccan Berber traveler
Ibn Batutta (1304–1377) wrote about many of his travel experiences in places across the Eurasian world, including China at the farthest eastern extremity. After describing lavish Chinese ships holding palatial cabins and
saloons, along with the life of Chinese ship crews and captains, Batutta wrote:
Among the inhabitants of China there are those who own numerous ships, on which they send their agents to foreign places. For nowhere in the world are there to be found people richer than the Chinese.
Production and employment
Steel and iron industries
Accompanying the widespread printing of paper money was the beginnings of what one might term an early Chinese
industrial revolution. For example the historian
Robert Hartwell has estimated that per capita
iron output rose sixfold between 806 and 1078, such that, by 1078 China was producing 127000000 kg (125,000 t) in weight of iron per year. In the smelting process of using huge
bellows driven by
waterwheels, massive amounts of
charcoal were used in the production process, leading to a wide range of
deforestation in northern China. Iron was also a necessary manufacturing component for the production processes of salt and copper. This was also extended to trade with the outside world, which greatly expanded with the high level of Chinese maritime activity abroad during the Southern Song period.
Through many written
petitions to the central government by regional administrators of the Song Empire, historical scholars can piece evidence together to appropriate the size and scope of the Chinese
iron industry during the Song era. The famed magistrate
Bao Qingtian (999–1062) wrote of the iron industry at
Hancheng, Tongzhou Prefecture, along the
Yellow River in what is today eastern
Shaanxi province, with iron smelting households that were overseen by government regulators. He wrote that 700 such households were acting as iron smelters, with 200 having the most adequate amount of government support, such as charcoal supplies and skilled craftsmen (the iron households hired local unskilled labor themselves). The result of this was an increase in profit (with lower prices for iron) as well as production; 100,000
jin (60
tonnes) of iron was produced annually in Shaanxi in the 1040s AD, increasing to 600,000
jin (360 tonnes) produced annually by the 1110s, furbished by the revival of the Shaanxi
mining industry in 1112. Although the iron smelters of Shaanxi were managed and supplied by the government, there were many independent smelters operated and owned by rich families. While acting as governor of
Xuzhou in 1078, the famous Song poet and statesman
Su Shi (1037–1101) wrote that in the Liguo Industrial Prefecture under his administered region, there were 36 iron smelters run by different local families, each employing a work force of several hundred people to mine ore, produce their own charcoal, and smelt iron. In the beginning of the Song Dynasty, the government supported competitive
silk mills and
brocade workshops in the eastern provinces and in the capital city of
Kaifeng. The state monopoly on Sichuan tea was the prime source of revenue for the state's purchase of horses in
Qinghai for the Song army's cavalry forecs. The restrictions on the private manufacture and trade of salt were even criticized in a famous poem by
Su Shi, and while the opposing politically-charged faction at court gained advantage and lost favor, Wang Anshi's reforms were continually abandoned and reinstated. As for private entrepreneurship, great profits could still be pursued by the merchants in the luxury item trades and specialized regional production. For example, the silk producers of Raoyang County, Shenzhou Prefecture, southern
Hebei province were especially known for producing silken headwear for the Song emperor and high court officials in the capital.
Gunpowder production
During the Song period, there was a great deal of organized labor and bureaucracy involved in the extraction of resources from the various provinces in China. The production of
sulfur, which the Chinese called 'vitriol liquid', was extracted from
pyrite and used for
pharmaceutical purposes as well as for the creation of
gunpowder. This was done by roasting iron pyrites, converting the
sulphide to
oxide, as the ore was piled up with coal briquettes in an earthenware furnace with a type of still-head to send the sulphur over as vapour, after which it would solidify and
crystallize. The bureaucrats appointed to the region managed the industrial processing and sale of it, and the amount created and distributed from the years 996 to 997 alone was 405,000 jin (roughly 200 tons). Even before this point, in 1067 AD, the Song government had issued an edict that the people living in
Shanxi and
Hebei were forbidden to sell foreigners any products containing
saltpetre and sulfur. This act by the Song government displayed their fears of the grave potential of gunpowder weapons being developed by Song China's territorial enemies as well (for example the
Tanguts and
Khitans). There were large manufacturing plants in the Song Dynasty for the purpose of making 'fire-weapons' employing the use of gunpowder, such as
fire lances and
fire arrows. While engaged in a war with the
Mongols, in the year 1259 the official Li Zengbo wrote in his
Ko Zhai Za Gao, Xu Gao Hou that the city of
Qingzhou was manufacturing one to two thousand strong iron-cased bomb shells a month, dispatching to
Xiangyang and Yingzhou about ten to twenty thousand such bombs at a time. One of the main
armories and
arsenals for the storage of gunpowder and weapons was located at
Weiyang, which accidentally caught fire and produced a massive explosion in 1280 AD.
Urban employment and businesses
Within the cities there were a multitude of professions and places of work to choose from, if one weren't strictly inheriting a profession of his paternal line. Sinologist historians are fortunate enough to have a wide variety of written sources describing minute details about each location and the businesses within the cities of Song China. For example, in the alleys and avenues around the East Gate of the Xiangguo Temple in Kaifeng, historian Stephen H. West quotes one source:
Along the Temple Eastgate Avenue...are to be found shops specializing in cloth caps with pointed tails, belts and waiststraps, books, caps and flowers as well as the vegetarian tea meal of the Ding family...South of the temple are the brothels of Manager's Alley...The nuns and the brocade workers live in Embroidery Alley...On the north is Small Sweetwater Alley...There are a particularly large number of Southern restaurants inside the alley, as well as a plethora of brothels.
Similarly, in the "Pleasure District" along the Horse Guild Avenue, near a
Zoroastrian temple in Kaifeng, West quotes the same source,
Dongjing meng Hua lu:
In addition to the household gates and shops that line the two sides of New Fengqiu Gate Street...military encampments of the various brigades and columns [ofthe Imperial Guard] are situated in facing pairs along approximately ten li of the approach to the gate. Other wards, alleys, and confined open spaces crisscross the area, numbering in the tens of thousands—none knows their real number. In every single place, the gates are squeezed up against each other, each with its own tea wards, wineshops, stages, and food and drink. Normally the small business households of the marketplace simply purchase [prepared] food and drink at food stores; they don't cook at home. For northern food there are the Shi Feng style dried meat cubes...made of various stewed items...for southern food, the House of Jin at Temple Bridge...and the House of Zhou at Ninebends...are acknowledged to be the finest. The night markets close after the third watch only to reopen at the fifth.
West points out that Kaifeng shopkeepers rarely had time to eat at home, so they chose to go out and eat at a variety of places such as restaurants, temples, and food stalls.
Restaurant businesses thrived on this new clientele, The pleasure district mentioned above—where stunts, games, theatrical stage performances, taverns and singing girl houses were located—was teeming with food stalls where business could be had virtually all night. Besides food, traders in eagles and hawks,
precious paintings, as well as shops selling bolts of silk and cloth, jewelry of pearls,
jade,
rhinocerous horn, gold and silver, hair ornaments, combs, caps, scarves, and aromatic incense thrived in the marketplaces.
Paper currency
Copper resources and receipts of deposit
The root of the development of the
banknote goes back to the earlier
Tang Dynasty (618–907), when the government outlawed the use of bolts of
silk as currency, which increased the use of
copper coinage as money. In the year 1120 alone, the Song government collected 18,000,000 ounces of silver in taxes. With many 9th century Tang era merchants avoiding the weight and bulk of so many copper coins in each transaction, this led them to using trading
receipts from deposit shops where goods or money were left previously. Since the 10th century, the early Song government began issuing their own receipts of deposit, yet this was restricted mainly to their monopolized salt industry and trade.
Although the output of copper currency had expanded immensely by 1085, some fifty copper mines were shut down between the years 1078 and 1085. Although there were on average more copper mines found in Northern Song China than in the previous Tang Dynasty, this case was reversed during the Southern Song with a sharp decline and depletion of mined copper deposits by 1165. Even though copper cash was abundant in the late 11th century, Chancellor Wang Anshi's tax substitution for
corvée labor and government takeover of agricultural finance loans meant that people now had to find additional cash, driving up the price of copper money which would become scarce. To make matters worse, large amounts of government-issued copper currency exited the country via international trade, while the
Liao Dynasty and
Western Xia actively pursued the exchange of their iron-minted coins for Song copper coins. The government attempted to prohibit the use of copper currency in border regions and in seaports, but the Song-issued copper coin became common in the Liao, Western Xia,
Japanese, and
Southeast Asian economies. In the year 976, the percentage of issued currency using copper coinage was 65%; after 1135, this had dropped significantly to 54%, a government attempt to debase the copper currency. Even before this point, the Song government was amassing large amounts of paper
tribute. It was recorded that each year before 1101 AD, the prefecture of Xinan (modern
Xi-xian,
Anhui) alone would send 1,500,000 sheets of paper in seven different varieties to the capital at Kaifeng. In that year of 1101, the
Emperor Huizong of Song decided to lessen the amount of paper taken in the tribute quota, because it was causing detrimental effects and creating heavy burdens on the people of the region. However, the government still needed masses of paper product for the exchange certificates and the state's new issuing of paper money. For the printing of paper money alone, the Song court established several government-run
factories in the cities of
Huizhou,
Chengdu,
Hangzhou, and
Anqi.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Economy Of The Song Dynasty'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://economy_of_the_song_dynasty.totallyexplained.com">Economy of the Song Dynasty Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
