Chapter 18 Section 2 The development of the market trade in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and the prosperity of foreign trade in the Song and Yuan Dynasties

The confrontation between the Song Dynasty and the Liao, Xia, and Jin Dynasties changed the original regional trade into trade between different nationalities and different regimes, and the relationship became more complicated. Liao (916-1125 A.D., later destroyed by the Jin Dynasty), established by the Khitan people, and the Northern Song Dynasty had no market in wartime, and traded in peacetime.The two sides set up special agencies in some places on the border—"discussion field", and officials carried out strict management. The Song side had regulations on stabilizing prices, restricting private transactions, rewarding smuggling, and guarding against spies.After the Chanyuan Alliance, the Song Dynasty set up a "duting post" in Bianjing to receive Liao merchants.What the Liao imported from the Central Plains were tea, silk, rice, lacquerware, and fragrant medicines, rhino horns, and ivory from the South Seas; the Liao paid attention to absorbing the Central Plains culture and imported a large number of books. Very popular item.The main imports from Song Dynasty and Liao Dynasty were sheep, horses, camels and other animals.

Xixia, built by the Dangxiang clan (AD 1038-1227, destroyed by the Yuan Dynasty), had insufficient production of daily necessities and had to import them from the Song Dynasty.The Song Dynasty also set up many bargaining places, and adopted the method of barter to divide the import and export commodities into two categories, and each category was exchanged in a corresponding manner.For example, silk fabrics are exchanged for camels, horses, cattle, sheep, felt blankets, and licorice from Xixia Dangxiang people, and fragrant medicines, porcelain, lacquerware, ginger, and cinnamon are exchanged for honey wax, musk, antelope horns, safflower, and firewood. Hu, Lingmao, etc.Private trade was allowed for commodities that were not within the scope of the official mutual market. For example, the party members used the delicious and cheap green and white salt produced in Yanzhou (now Yanchi County, Ningxia) to exchange the food they lacked with the border people in the Song Dynasty.In Bianjing, there is Duting Xiyi to receive Xixia people, "making it a city".After the middle period of the Northern Song Dynasty, the tea-horse market became more and more important; the tea needed by Xixia was exchanged with horses, except for the gifts from the Song Dynasty (30,000 catties per year).

The trade between the Song and Jin Dynasties was not only a commodity exchange between the northern and southern regimes in China, but also an ethnic trade between the Han people in the south and the Jurchens who were the main body of the northerners.The two sides also set up their own markets for mutual market.The main import of gold from the Southern Song Dynasty was tea, as well as ginger, tangerine peel, fruit, sugar, ivory, frankincense, gold and silver, lacquered bamboo and woodware, brush and ink, etc.; Low price), licorice, safflower, pine nuts, bead, mink, ginseng, etc.Merchants bought and sold in the market, both parties had to pay taxes, and Jin also collected "entry money" from the Southern merchants to absorb the copper coins of the Southern Song Dynasty.Jinqianchang itself also participated in the trade, collecting goods from northern merchants and selling them to southern merchants at a higher price, earning huge profits from it.However, when the output and output are balanced, the gold side always receives more than the input, and a lot of silver will flow out every year.Although goods and materials were exchanged between the North and the South, due to the intermittent wars and mutual defenses between the two sides, the market was abandoned and some commodities were embargoed from time to time, making it very inconvenient for merchants to communicate.In order to reduce imports, Jin Fang once boycotted the import of southern tea, planted tea by himself (failure), and restricted consumption, which was very embarrassing.These practices have affected the mutual benefit and complementarity of the two economies; from a commercial point of view, the people also hope for the early reunification of the country.

Different from the climate with more restrictions on ethnic trade, the Song Dynasty adopted a policy of opening up, encouraging, and attracting foreign trade, and its scale exceeded that of the Tang Dynasty.During the Northern Song Dynasty, it mainly relied on sea routes and foreign trade. In addition to setting up a municipal shipping department in Guangzhou, the Northern Song Dynasty government successively set up a municipal shipping department in Banqiao Town (now Jiaoxian County, Shandong) in Hangzhou, Mingzhou, Quanzhou, and Mizhou.The Shi Ship Department is responsible for managing ship merchants, and "deletes" ship goods (collecting 1/10 of the tax in kind), and all banned goods (frankincense, rhino horn, etc.) Raffle" 3/10.Domestic merchants may go out to sea for trade, but they must first register with the Maritime Shipping Department and obtain a "public certificate".In addition to the Central South (Indochina) Banniao, Southeast Asian countries, Korea, Japan, India, Shizi Kingdom, Dashi, etc., the Northern Song Dynasty also traded with the Tang Kingdom on the east coast of Africa (now Kenya, Tanzania and other places).At that time, China's shipbuilding and navigation skills ranked first in the world. The big ship can seat five or six hundred people and has advanced equipment such as a compass.Aroma medicines are especially important in the imported goods, so the sea route to trade is also called "Road of Fragrant Medicine".More than 100 kinds of commodities have been exported, among which silk products are the most important, and the name "Maritime Silk Road" comes from this.Ceramics were also exported in large quantities; icing sugar was a special product of China at that time; books from the Northern Song Dynasty were very popular in the Silla market; cotton cloth began to be exported at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, such as the "red jibei" exported to the Dan Kingdom.The annual income of Shibo Division is hundreds of thousands of guan, and at the time it reached 2 million guan.

The degree of foreign trade development in the Southern Song Dynasty was higher than that in the Northern Song Dynasty.Forty or fifty of the trading countries and regions rely entirely on sea routes.In addition to the original ones (Mizhou has been returned to Jinyou), the three city shipping departments (or city shipping affairs) of Xiuzhou, Wenzhou and Jiangyin were added.Due to its proximity to Lin'an, Quanzhou has gradually surpassed Guangzhou in status and is the largest commercial port in the south.The income of the Shibo Division increased. In the last years of Shaoxing, the annual income of the Quan and Guang Er Divisions alone reached 2 million.Among the bulk export commodities, the trade of porcelain was more prosperous than before. Porcelain was trafficked from Quanzhou to Europe for sale, and its value was equal to that of gold.Imported goods increased from about 50 kinds in the Northern Song Dynasty to more than 320 kinds, including 70 kinds of fine-colored goods transported to Beijing, 110 kinds of coarse-colored goods transported to Beijing, and more than 140 kinds of coarse-colored goods that were not transported to Beijing and remained in the local area for "selling in sets". .Most of these coarse-colored goods are general consumer goods that were rarely or never imported in the past, such as common medicinal materials, wood, and clothing raw materials.The decline in the import ratio of luxury goods shows that foreign trade has begun to have a relationship with the general public to a certain extent.

The rapid development of foreign trade in the Yuan Dynasty was related to the fact that the Yuan Dynasty had a wide influence in Europe, the excessive production of luxury goods required the development of foreign markets, and the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty were eager for overseas rare items.At that time, Quanzhou was known as the largest commercial port in the world; Qingyuan (Ningbo) near Hangzhou was often traded by Japanese ships; Guangzhou, Wenzhou, Ganpu (later merged into Qingyuan), and Shanghai were also owned by Shibo location.The Yuan rulers sent envoys to foreign countries to attract trade, and the trade covered more than a hundred places in Europe, Asia and Africa.Foreign businessmen are protected and given preferential treatment. They can wear tiger charms and ride post horses when they enter and leave. Officials provide food and soldiers for defense.At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, the northwest land route and the southeast sea route flourished; after the middle period, the Yuan Empire split, obstacles arose in the northwest land route, and foreign trade mainly relied on the sea.In order to secure ship merchants, the Yuan government prohibited city ship officials from cheaply taking valuable goods from ship merchants. The statutory ratio was 15 for rough goods and 1 for ten fine goods. Tax.Exports of local goods are less heavily drawn, only half of that of imported goods.The Yuan Dynasty allowed merchants to enter the sea for most of the time.Due to the development of overseas trade, merchants "get treasures and goods without calculation", and those who specialize in sea profit are mainly Semu people; there are also Han people, such as Shen Wansan, a rich man in the south of the Yangtze River in the late Yuan Dynasty, who is known as his family with a "cornucopia". .The prosperity of many cities in the Yuan Dynasty was supported by foreign trade.Domestic trade and foreign trade are in a state of lameness, and the foundation is not solid.Development is deformed.