What are the ways of economic and cultural exchanges between Song and Liao Dynasties?

First, there has been a tribute system for many years.

The so-called tribute refers to the trade relationship between the Central Plains dynasty and other small countries or vassal States around it. The essence of this trade relationship is that neighboring small countries or vassal States regularly pay tribute to the Central Plains dynasty to gain its recognition and protection, while the Central Plains dynasty maintains its control over neighboring small countries or vassal States by giving back to show the majesty of big countries, and both have their own needs.

In fact, small countries often agree with this tribute system, because most of the items they gave to the Central Plains Dynasty were local specialties, but they got rare treasures and real money. By the way, they can also buy a lot of Zhongyuan products on their way back. Why not? This tribute system, which originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty and existed on the basis of national strength and cultural centripetal force, has a strong binding force on neighboring small countries or vassal States. If any small country does not obey, the Central Plains Dynasty will take the interruption of tribute as a sanction, which will often make the small country tremble with fear.

However, as history came to the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, this tribute system, which existed for nearly two thousand years, encountered a crisis. The strong rise of the Khitan in northern China not only occupied a vast territory, but also claimed to be the Central Plains Dynasty, so it was impossible for the Song Dynasty to maintain the so-called tribute system of the Central Plains Dynasty. On this premise, the Song Dynasty could only establish an equal bilateral trade system with the Liao Dynasty.

Foreign tribute map

Second, the deepening of Song-Liao trade.

During the Song Taizu period, the people of Song and Liao countries spontaneously conducted free trade on the border. At this time, neither Song nor Liao interfered in the trade between the two countries, and the types, prices and methods of trade were decided by the border people and businessmen themselves, forming a rare period of free trade in history.

By the time of Song Taizong, the situation had changed, and the Song Dynasty began to set up specialized agencies on the border between the two countries for trade management. There are three main reasons: first, the need to standardize border management; Second, the Song Dynasty hoped to increase the national fiscal revenue by setting up trade management agencies to collect tariffs. Third, Song Taizong is determined to recover sixteen states of Youyun, which will naturally restrict the export of Liao Dynasty and avoid easily selling strategic materials to the enemy.

So the Song Dynasty set up a monopoly market in Xiongzhou, the border trade distribution center between the two countries, to manage the trade with the Liao Dynasty. The whole monopoly market is strictly controlled by the government, and Song and Liao countries have also set up special institutions to manage the trade between the two countries and collect tariffs. In this way, businessmen can't trade at will as before, and the government doesn't allow businessmen from both countries to trade face to face. All trade needs to be done through intermediaries sent by the government.

Commodity Trade in Song Dynasty

This has caused two results. On the one hand, under the standardized trade control, both Song and Liao can collect considerable taxes from it, and at the same time, it also limits the flow of important materials, including military materials, to each other. On the other hand, the more trade is restricted, the scarcer and more expensive goods are, which leads to smuggling. This kind of border smuggling was once rampant, and even several officials were involved.

During the period of Song Zhenzong, the Liao Dynasty continued to grow and develop, and its strategy for the Song Dynasty changed from defending to attacking, becoming the active party. In A.D. 1004, the Liao Dynasty made a large-scale expedition to the south and made an agreement with the Song Dynasty in Ganzhou, which is known in history. Yuan Geng League? . The Covenant stipulates that the Liao Dynasty and the Song Dynasty are about brother countries, and the Song Dynasty gives the Liao Dynasty 65,438+202,000 silver and 202,000 silk every year. This seems to be an unequal treaty, and the Central Plains dynasty changed from tribute to tribute, but it was not necessarily a good policy for the Song Dynasty.

Because in terms of economic and social development level and material and financial resources, the Song Dynasty undoubtedly has obvious advantages. If the war breaks out, the Song Dynasty is not sure of winning, and it will cost a lot of money and manpower. According to historical records, the cost of a large-scale war in the Song Dynasty reached 30 million taels of silver, but after concluding an agreement with the Liao Dynasty, it only needed 300,000 taels of silver every year, less than 1% of the cost of a war, which was very cost-effective. And at this time, in the border trade between Song and Liao countries, Song had a large trade surplus, which occupied an advantageous position, far greater than the 302,000 old coins delivered to Liao countries every year.

Song Liao? Yuan Geng League?

Third, I can't live without your mutton, and you can't live without my tea.

An important reason why the Song Dynasty was suppressed militarily by the Liao Dynasty for a long time was that the troops in the Song Dynasty were mainly infantry, while those in the Liao Dynasty were mainly cavalry, and the fighting capacity of cavalry was far stronger than that of infantry. Didn't Song Dynasty want to develop cavalry? Of course not, but the lack of high-quality war horses in the Song Dynasty. The grassland in the area where the Liao Dynasty was located was rich in water plants and high-quality war horses. The Song Dynasty lacked favorable conditions for raising horses, so it had to import war horses from the Liao Dynasty.

However, we must know that war horses are strategic military materials, and the price will naturally not be cheap. At that time, a war horse could sell for 30 rounds. If Song Dynasty wanted to buy horses, it had to give Liao Dynasty a lot of money. In the long run, it will cause a huge loss of wealth in the Song Dynasty. How to deal with this situation? The Song Dynasty thought of the leaves of a magical plant, namely tea.

Qidan people have a soft spot for tea.

Tea, a plant, has not been discovered in Liao Dynasty, but the Qidan people love tea very much, even to the extent of obsession. Under the guidance of the Khitan nobles, the custom of drinking tea soon became popular among the civilian class. So the Song Dynasty exported a large amount of tea to the Liao Dynasty every year, which brought great benefits to the Song Dynasty, which was equivalent to exchanging tea for war horses, which was very cost-effective. The Liao Dynasty issued a control order prohibiting the export of war horses to the Song Dynasty. But if you don't need a war horse, what can you exchange for tea? In fact, there is also a favorite commodity of Song people in Liao Dynasty, which is mutton.

The mutton produced in Liao Dynasty was delicious, tender and juicy, which made the Central Plains people full of praise and became an indispensable food for the upper class in Song Dynasty. In order to maintain the long-term commodity scarcity and fight against the tea trade in the Song Dynasty, the Liao Dynasty issued an order prohibiting the export of ewes to the Song Dynasty to prevent sheep from leaking out. In fact, according to common sense, we know that this practice is unnecessary. Of course, the taste of mutton is also related to the variety, but the most important thing is the environment in which sheep grow and the forage they eat. Even if there were sheep breeds in the Song Dynasty and Liao Dynasty, it is estimated that they could not raise mutton-scented sheep. Although this is a joke, but from the perspective of both Song and Liao? Tea sheep trade? It can be found that what lurks under the calm surface is actually an undercurrent of trade.

Song people were full of praise for mutton produced in Liao Dynasty.

Fourth, there are both material embargoes and cultural sanctions.

Regarding the material embargo, the Song Dynasty was also tit for tat. Since you won't let me buy your war horse and breeding sheep, I won't sell you sulfur and saltpeter. We know that sulfur and saltpeter can make gunpowder, which is an important strategic military material. Not only that, even the wood that can be used to make arrow shafts was forbidden to be exported to Liao Dynasty in Song Dynasty. It can be seen that the material embargo in Song Dynasty is no less powerful than that in Liao Dynasty. All this is still at the physiological level. In addition, the culture of Song Dynasty is not rich. When time came to Song Shenzong, the Khitan nobles yearned for the Central Plains culture. They are proud of reading Confucian classics, and even the emperor of Liao Dynasty hoped to be born in the Central Plains in the afterlife. In the eyes of the children of the Qidan nobles, the Central Plains culture is advanced and charming, and they are eager to read more books of the Song Dynasty. For Song Shenzong, if the Khitans mastered the knowledge and culture of the Central Plains to arm themselves, it would be a great threat to the Song Dynasty.

In this case, the Song Dynasty imposed a cultural embargo on the Liao Dynasty, which prohibited the export of any books to the Liao Dynasty. Violators will not only confiscate all their income, but also be severely punished. But people in Liao Dynasty had a strong demand for books. Since you won't sell it to me, I will try my best to buy it at a high price. So the books of the Song Dynasty were on the Song-Liao border for a while? Luoyang paper is expensive? It has become a hot hard currency, and many businessmen and even officials smell business opportunities and risk their lives to smuggle books and make a lot of money.

What was the time of books in Song Dynasty? Luoyang paper is expensive?

Five, the growing shortage of funds.

With the development of commodity economy and the continuous expansion of trade in Song and Liao Dynasties, the demand for coins has also soared. As early as the establishment of the Song Dynasty, the number of coins minted by the government each year had far exceeded that of the Tang Dynasty. In Song Shenzong period, the demand for coins increased further, and the existing number of coins could not meet the needs of social and economic development. For example, during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, about 300,000 coins were minted each year. By the time we arrived in Song Zhenzong, it had risen to 654.38+300,000, but it was still not enough.

So did the Liao Dynasty. When the Khitans just rose, the economy was very backward, and they basically stayed at the stage of bartering things. With the strengthening of strength and the expansion of power, this situation has changed, especially after the Liao Dynasty got sixteen states of Youyun, it copied the commodity economy model of the occupied area to its own base camp, so the demand for coins in the Liao Dynasty is also increasing year by year. However, the Liao Dynasty's coin-making technology was backward and resources were scarce, so it was impossible to cast enough coins, and it could only be obtained from the Song Dynasty through trade.

Song dynasty coins

On this premise, the Liao Dynasty had to obtain the copper coins cast by the Song Dynasty through a few commodities that were dominant in the Song Dynasty, and merchants from the Song Dynasty often came to the Liao Dynasty to do business, which was very popular because it could bring the scarce copper coins in the Liao Dynasty. This phenomenon of money shortage is very intriguing under the trade background of mutual confrontation and interdependence between Song and Liao countries. In concrete actions, both countries hope to increase their trade with each other in order to obtain more coins and wealth to develop themselves, but at the same time, they are afraid that the other party's acquisition of key strategic materials will pose a threat to themselves. This contradictory and complicated psychology gradually deepened with the increasing shortage of money, until later it affected the formulation and implementation of a series of strategies such as politics and military affairs.

Song-Liao trade had a far-reaching impact on other aspects.

Looking at the changes of trade policies in different periods in Song and Liao Dynasties, we can draw a conclusion that the development of commodity economy is the driving force and fundamental reason for deepening trade exchanges and improving social production level, and the trade embargo and sanctions between the two sides are based on this background and adjusted according to the actual situation. Although this history has been more than 1000 years ago, the enlightenment it brings us is extremely valuable wealth.