Chapter 13 Section 3 Development of Urban and Rural Commerce, Evolution of Market Forms

In the Northern Song Dynasty, the political center moved eastward and the economic center of gravity moved southward, which can be seen in the distribution of cities.Bianzhou in the Tang Dynasty was promoted to Bianjing in the Song Dynasty, with land post roads pointing to all directions and water transportation reaching the whole country. The book "Tokyo Menghualu" vividly records the prosperity of Bianjing.There are more than 230,000 households in Bianjing and the counties of Kaifeng Prefecture. The surrounding area of ​​the old city of Bianjing was doubled in the Five Dynasties, and a new city with a radius of 40 miles was built. Later, eight rooms were built outside the city.During Shenzong Xining's reign, the Metropolitan Commercial and Taxation Court in Bianjing collected more than 402,000 yuan in commercial tax annually, making it the largest commercial center in the country.The status of the original Guanzhong area declined.The annual commercial tax of Northwest Heyongxingjun and Qinfenglu states is only 700,000 guan, and the commercial tax of Chang'an (Jingzhaofu) is only more than 80,000 guan per year.Among the other states in the north, only Mi (Gaomi, Shandong), Qi (Licheng), Yun (Dongping), and Cangzhou have business taxes exceeding 80,000 guan.In the south, there are more than 40 states and counties with more than 100,000 households (more than a dozen in Tang Dynasty).Hangzhou is known as "the first state in the southeast", and Chuzhou is located at the intersection of the Huaihe River and the canal, and can be reached directly by sea boats.The commercial tax of the two places is more than 100,000 guan; Yang and Tanzhou have more than 90,000 guan; Su, Hu, and Wuzhou have more than 70,000 guan; Fuzhou and Guangzhou have more than 60,000 guan inside).Excluding Sichuan (using iron money), the commercial tax in the south has accounted for half of the country.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, Lin'an (Hangzhou) was the capital city, and there were 300,000 households in the city and the north and south chambers, and merchant ships gathered on the river wharf; dozens of collapsed houses were built by the water in the water gate of Beiguan, and there were thousands of houses, which were leased to merchants for stock.Outside of Lin'an, there were 30 to 40 so-called prosperous cities in the early Southern Song Dynasty.Many of these cities "live on commerce and industry", such as Pingjiang (Suzhou, known as "Golden Piggy Bank" at the time), Zhenjiang, Wuxing, Xiangyang in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and Chengdu in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. And business has accounted for a considerable proportion of the city's economy.This is an obvious characteristic of cities in the Song Dynasty, especially in the Southern Song Dynasty.

Although Lin'an (Hangzhou), the former capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, lost its political center status in the Yuan Dynasty, its commercial prosperity remained the same as before.The amount of commercial tax revenue in Yuan Hangzhou actually ranks first in the country.Marco Polo praised Hangzhou in his "Travel Notes", saying that "a person who lives in it is confident that he is in heaven". In the late Tang Dynasty, the separate system of fangshi was loosened. In the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, with the increase of urban population and the development of commerce, the fangshi system completely collapsed.They walked out of the urban area where the walls had been knocked down; the residents also opened up the walls of the squares and set up doors facing the street.Stores in the city and in the square (which appeared in the early Song Dynasty) also rushed to open on the street to attract customers, and more fixed stores replaced stalls.The boundaries of Fangshi have been wiped out.From "Tokyo Menghualu", it can be seen that the appearance of cities in the Northern Song Dynasty is quite different from that in Tang Dynasty.In Bianjing, street shops, workshops, hotels, cake shops with more than 50 ovens, restaurants on the second and third floors (both government-run and private), are mixed with residences and temples.There are also various shops and restaurants on the streets adjacent to the central government offices.The eight chambers outside the city of Bianjing are also a mix of houses and shops, very lively.Other cities have also pushed beyond the boundaries of "city".This kind of situation is universal, unlike Yangzhou's "Shili Long Street Shijinglian" in the late Tang Dynasty, which was only an isolated phenomenon.

After the collapse of the fangshi system, the distribution of commercial outlets and the occurrence of transactions have formed two patterns: one is that the shops are separated from the restrictions of the same industry blocks, and they are scattered in various places independently; the other is that the transactions of most of the same industry stores or vendors are still concentrated in A certain location (there are also non-trade shops, residences, government offices and miscellaneous places).Generally speaking, retail shops and catering businesses for general commodities tend to be scattered in various streets and alleys to facilitate consumers' purchases; special commodities such as gold and silver, colored silk, treasures, fragrant medicines, falcons, etc., and wholesale trade of general commodities Most of them are concentrated in certain streets and alleys.For example, the fruit shop, ginger shop, yarn shop, meat shop, herring market, Niuhang Street, Mahang Street, oil and vinegar alley in Bianjing are the places where bulk wholesale is concentrated.The line and city here are places for wholesale transactions, which is completely different from the meaning of "line" (trade block) in the Tang Dynasty as a component of "city" (commercial district).

At the same time that the space restriction of the Fangshi district was canceled, the time restriction of commercial activities has been completely broken.Although there were night markets in the late Tang Dynasty, the gates of Fangshi still had to be closed late at night, and sometimes night markets were banned. Many night markets were only held a few times a year (Lantern Festival, Qixi Festival, etc.), not regular.Since the boundaries of Fangshi in the Northern Song Dynasty were broken, the problems of setting up Fangshi gates and opening and closing on time did not exist, and there was no restriction at all on holding night markets.In many big cities, it is open every day from dawn to late night, or even all night.In addition to popular food and supplies in the night market, which are convenient for people who are "on business" and ordinary civilians to buy and eat at night, "the lights go up to Fanlou in the middle of the night", and the rich even live "Liangyuan singing and dancing in the big restaurant". , the life of good wine is like a knife that can break sorrow".

In the city, not only are there frequent commercial activities in every street and alley, every day and every night, but also specialized markets at certain places and at certain times have also developed greatly.For example, the temple market in Bianjing Xiangguo Temple in the Northern Song Dynasty was the most famous, "open five times a month, common people trade", it is a large-scale regular department store market.Temple market has been a traditional business form ever since. There are also a large number of street vendors and street vendors in the city.From the famous "Surfing the River During the Qingming Festival", we can see the active scene of small vendors in Bianjing.Mobile commerce also goes deep into every street and alley, so that residents can buy things conveniently without going far.This is in line with the rising status of daily necessities serving the public in the market.

The organizational form of wholesale business also had new developments in the Northern Song Dynasty. "Xing" is not only a place for wholesale transactions, but also a new wholesale organization.There are various "lines" set up at the convenient places of transportation on the riverside and bridgeheads inside and outside the city or on the street squares.Merchants from other places deliver the goods to the location of each "business", and the price is set by local people or giant merchants in the industry, and then the goods are distributed to various retail stores for sale. "Line" has replaced some of the functions of the past Didian (wholesale transactions).As for the suspension of goods, there are independent warehouses in places with convenient transportation; residents and merchants can go to hotels located on busy streets.In the past, the residence store had to be located in the city, and the situation that the out of stock and residential businesses were all carried out in one place has changed.

Great changes also took place in the industry organization in the Song Dynasty.Since various shops are scattered in all streets and alleys, the zoning of industries as in the Tang Dynasty has disappeared, and difficulties have arisen in government restrictions and commercial monopoly. Therefore, the role of industry organizations needs to be strengthened, and the "line" system is Instead of "Municipality".Xing is not only the name of a certain wholesale unit, but also the name of a certain type of commodity industry organization.In the Tang Dynasty, each industry had its own line in each city in the same city. In the Song Dynasty, there was only one unified organization for the same industry in a city in the Song Dynasty—line, retail stores scattered in various places, and wholesalers (or merchants) concentrated in certain blocks. Major retailers of specialty commodities) are included in this line.All walks of life have distinct traditional costumes, forms of vending and common jargon.The leader of the line - the old man and the head of the line, are approved by the government, and deal with the government's "bank households should only" (supply goods at low prices and share among bank accounts). At the same time, they also have the right to control the price of transactions and inspect the goods quality and calibration measuring instruments, etc.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, the market structure and industry (travel or group, group row) organization were inherited from the Northern Song Dynasty.There are specific records in the book "Meng Liang Lu".Compared with the Tang Dynasty, the market structure and industry organization in the Song Dynasty have been greatly improved.This is an important symbol of commercial development in the Song Dynasty. The nature and function of industry organizations in the cities of the Yuan Dynasty remained unchanged from the Song Dynasty, but the scope was wider than before.Semu merchants also established group-style merchant organizations.

The business outside the city has been continuously expanding since the Song Dynasty.In the Song Dynasty, grass markets and bazaars increased greatly. In the Southern Song Dynasty, there were more than 800 bazaars in Guangnan alone.There are tooth people activities in the market and grass market, and the business tax (tax included) has been collected.Some grass markets already have fixed permanent shops, not just limited to regular markets, and on this basis, they can enter the ranks of emerging towns (or cities).The town is managed by officials and is a formal first-level administrative organization; the business in the big town is even more prosperous than the county seat.Many commercially prosperous towns were promoted as new county governments, such as Jiading and Qingyuan on Liangzhe Road in the Southern Song Dynasty, and Xiangshan in Guangdong.The emergence of towns ushered in a new era of China's local administrative system (there were only townships in Tang Dynasty, but no towns).In the Southern Song Dynasty, there were 15 towns and cities under the Hangzhou County under the jurisdiction of Lin'an.Merchant exchanges converged, and the trade volume was 10 times that of the Northern Song Dynasty.The increase of grass markets and market markets in the Song Dynasty and the emergence of towns and cities were the result of the development of agriculture and commerce, and also had a stage-setting significance.From large, medium and small cities to towns, grass markets, and market markets, they are connected to gradually form a network-type market structure.

In feudal society, a large part of farmers’ products—grain and silk—had always been paid to cities in the form of land rent and taxes. This one-way flow reduced the amount of commodities farmers could exchange and their purchasing power.In the Song Dynasty, with the development of economic crops and rural sidelines (using sideline farming), the amount of commodities available for exchange and the purchasing power of farmers increased compared with before, and the two-way exchange of commodities between urban and rural areas became more frequent. The reason for the earlier development of rural commerce is Here it is.