Chapter 12 Section 2 Changes in Market Commodities and Trafficked Trade

In the Song Dynasty, due to the growth of the urban industrial and commercial population and the formation and expansion of economic crop areas, the position of grain in the market became more important.Lin’an, the capital city of the Southern Song Dynasty, except for the landlords and bureaucrats who rented rice for income, was only the residents of the city. There were no less than 160,000 or 70,000 people who lived on the rice shop and bought rice. City stone, about 100 catties).At that time, there was a proverb: "Hangzhou people eat thirty feet of wood a day", which means that the wooden mallets for pounding rice in every family have to be pounded so much shorter every day.In the Song Dynasty, the grain production areas were located in the southeast, especially with Su, Chang, Hu, and Xiu on the Liangzhe Road as the center, so there is a saying that "Su Changshu is rich in the world".In the Han Dynasty, the traditional concept of "a thousand miles without selling tea" has begun to change.Meat products such as pigs and sheep are also necessary for people's lives, and they are supplied to cities, and the circulation is not small.Pigs transported from various places in Bianjing in the Northern Song Dynasty entered Beijing through Nanxunmen, and there was an endless stream of pigs every day and night, with tens of thousands per group.

The main commodity that has enjoyed a good reputation for thousands of years——paper, in the Song Dynasty, with the growth of demand, its output and variety increased greatly.Moreover, the texture is excellent, and it can be used for other purposes besides printing and writing. There are often novel products such as "paper clothes", "paper tents" and "Chu crowns" in the market. It is worth noting that sucrose was listed in the Song Dynasty.In the past, maltose was used to make sugar, called caramel; in the Tang Dynasty, sugar cane was used to make sugar, but the output was very small.In the Northern Song Dynasty, the cultivation of sugarcane was popularized. For example, in Sanshan Mountain, Nanxi County, Sichuan Province, "four out of ten people have sugarcane fields in the front and back of the mountain, and three out of ten sugarcane households" (Wang Zhuo's "Sugar Sugar Spectrum"). "I recommend amber on an ice tray, how beautiful is it like icing sugar" (Su Dongpo's poem), people can not only make red and white sugar, but also make crystal-like icing (rock sugar).Sugar has become a new commodity that is "ten times more profitable" after the long-lasting tea.

Cotton cloth used to be imported from overseas or from the Western Regions or Southwest (Ailao area), known as "Jibei" or "Baidie" in history.In the late Northern Song Dynasty, as cotton was gradually planted in Fujian and Guangxi, the people there also learned to spin and weave cloth; the cotton cloth woven by women of the Li nationality in Hainan was "dyed with variegated colors and distinct patterns."But cotton cloth had not yet become a significant commodity.It was not until the Yuan Dynasty that the widespread cultivation of cotton was advocated, and Huang Daopo introduced cotton planting and textile technology from Hainan to the Songjiang area, and only then did the status of cotton cloth in the market gradually increase.

In the past, many urban handicrafts were associated with "unique skills and obscene ingenuity", regardless of the supply of general daily necessities; later, especially in the Southern Song Dynasty, an increasing number of small urban handicraftsmen and private workshops were oriented towards the production of daily necessities. In daily life, in addition to large industries such as silk weaving, printing and dyeing, the production of various small commodities such as household sundries, clothing, children's toys, stationery, etc. is quite developed.There are dozens of kinds of "work" and "shop" in Lin'an in the Southern Song Dynasty.These small commodities are not only an indispensable part of urban life in the place of origin, but also more and more of their famous and high-quality products are sold in other places, and merchants are happy to operate them.

The traditional smuggling trade, which mainly focused on rare native products and luxury goods, had already changed in the Southern Dynasties and Tang Dynasties, and the changes accelerated after entering the Song Dynasty.In addition to pearls, jade, gold and silver wares and imported rhinoceros and elephant fragrances from Guangnan, which still play an important role, grain, silk, tea, salt, iron, porcelain (fine porcelain is sold in cities, coarse porcelain is sold in rural areas), paper, sugar, Utensils and other utensils have all entered the commodity series that circulated between regions on a relatively long distance and on a large scale.The types and proportions of goods trafficked are more varied than in the past, and the role of commerce in strengthening economic ties between regions is greater than in the past.

At this time, the proportion of daily necessities in the market is increasing day by day, not only imported from other places through businessmen, but also locally produced; a wide variety of commodities fill the shops.There were 440 industries in Lin'an in the Southern Song Dynasty, and the variety of commodities was twice as large as that in the Tang Dynasty. Most of them should be daily necessities.Commerce has begun to change from its narrowness of primarily serving a small number of customers; from often deformed developments to being built on more reliable foundations.This is a progressive manifestation of the new stage of business development.

Most of the market commodities in the Yuan Dynasty were luxury goods, which was a temporary reaction to history under the conditions of ethnic conflicts, class conflicts, and rich-poor antagonisms.After entering the Ming Dynasty, there were changes again, and the trend of commercial progress did not stop there.In the Yuan Dynasty, the production of some products, such as the famous Yuan porcelain (Jingdezhen white porcelain is called "Raoyu", blue and white and multicolored porcelain began to be produced), the emerging cotton textile industry, felt blanket industry, etc., were maintained as productive forces. After that, it will still play a role in the development of business in the future.