How did the Song Dynasty, with the rudiment of modern society, make its "money bag" rich?

Balaz, a French sinologist, considered the Song Dynasty to be the most fascinating dynasty in the West during his long-term study of the history of China. This dynasty, which was born in the 9th century AD, created the peak of China's ancient culture and eclipsed other countries in the world at the same time. Its high economic and cultural prosperity not only made Song Dynasty the largest city with a population of one million in the world, but also made it a well-deserved world center. Of course, all the admiration for the Song Dynasty is not only based on the arrogance of Yelang. Looking back at history, we historical observers can establish a social situation map of an ancient empire that has disappeared for thousands of years through various historical materials and documents. Through this panoramic view, we can see the prosperity, tranquility and order of the society in this scene, just like the riverside scene on Qingming Festival. So how prosperous was the Song Dynasty? Today, let's talk about commerce in the Song Dynasty. Prosperous Urban Commerce —— The Riverside Map on Qingming Festival is a central urban economic circle represented by big cities. As we all know, the picture background of The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival is Bianjing, which is Kaifeng today. As the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, as well as the economic, political and cultural center, Bianjing is undoubtedly regarded as a model of the Northern Song Dynasty, although it cannot be said that its economic development is sufficient to represent the entire social economy of the Northern Song Dynasty. After the Song Dynasty made Bianjing its capital, Bianhe River, Huimin River and Guangji River were continuously widened and rested, which made the water transportation rise and further promoted the commercial development of Bianjing. The Song Dynasty History "Hequ Zhi" records that "Bianjing is the only river that crosses China, and it is the first river to take over. The rivers and lakes are painted with water, benefiting the South China Sea, and it is a department store with mountains and water." Because of its natural political advantages, Bianjing has become a transit and gathering center of national commerce and culture, and the rise of water transport has made trade increasingly prosperous. When I arrived in Song Shenzong, I broadened the outer city, and its residents reached 200,000. According to the calculation of a family of five, there are millions. In addition, the floating population and the army of * * * who are not included in the household registration, with the increase of population, the following problem is how to effectively manage the increasingly prosperous business development. In this regard, the Northern Song Dynasty adopted a relatively free commercial system, allowing businessmen to "open stores along the street" and operate everywhere. But before that, the Tang Dynasty adopted the management system of "separation of square and city", such as "buy horses in the east, saddles in the west, reins in the south and whips in the north" in Mulan Ci. According to "Tokyo Dream", Bianjing Street was very developed and there were many shops. The advantage of allowing businessmen to open the market is to promote the development of commerce in a more flexible way, and even trading activities are allowed in the corridors on both sides of Xuande Gate in the south of the imperial city. It extends all the way to Zhuquemen, with restaurants, restaurants, pharmacies, teahouses, various shops and night markets on both sides. Under the relaxed "curfew" policy, these business activities can last until midnight. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, a modern urban business model of "opening the street" in the Song Dynasty, has gained extremely flexible trading freedom for some retailers. During the Northern Song Dynasty, * * * also opened a special fixed-point trading market, such as Suoguo Temple, which has eight trading hours every month. According to Wang Ya's Records of the Art of Swallow Wings, the atrium can accommodate 10,000 people, and business travel transactions are concentrated. It can be seen that locating the commercial transactions with large liquidity in a certain place greatly facilitated the businessmen at that time, and at the same time avoided the formation of commercial chaos, and a good commercial order has been formed. In addition to Kaifeng, other major cities in the Northern Song Dynasty, such as Luoyang, Daming, Yingtian, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Yangzhou, Jingzhou, Guangzhou and Chengdu. , has no less than the capital's commercial scene. These large and medium-sized cities * * * isomorphically became the economic circle of the central cities in the Northern Song Dynasty, and radiated to drive the development of the surrounding areas, forming a virtuous circle, which can be said to be unprecedented in ancient times. For example, at that time, due to its superior geographical location, Hangzhou had very developed land and water transportation and a permanent population of more than 100,000 households. Businessmen from all directions and various department stores keep coming and going. In the tenth year of Xining, Hangzhou levied a business tax of170,000 yuan every year, which is a well-deserved taxpayer. Suzhou, with its scenic and geographical advantages, is the highest in southeast China, and it is also a gathering place for many literati and businessmen. Jingzhou, with its north-south traffic position in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, has formed a grand occasion of "North passengers follow South Jia, and Wu Qiang is also a Shu boat". Through the theme economic circle composed of these large and medium-sized cities, the commercial tax collected from these cities every year in the Northern Song Dynasty is extremely considerable. According to the general examination records, before 10, there were 3 cities with annual business tax above 400,000 yuan, 5 cities with annual business tax above 200,000 yuan, and 30 cities with annual business tax above100,000 yuan. Together with other taxes, more than 300 cities have annual business tax above100,000 yuan. The development of commerce made the purse of Song Dynasty * * * particularly rich, and even the compensation for Liao Jin was only nine Niu Yi Mao, which also led to the rich Song Dynasty * * * raising millions of troops every year. Perhaps it is a pity that it is such a dynasty that is not short of money but has existed for a longer time because of the political atmosphere. The Double Growth of Commerce and Population —— The Development of Local Ports and Overseas Trade on the Riverside in Qingming Festival In the era of natural economy, China's ports and overseas trade have always been at the level behind the western world, and the fundamental factor is the difference in political ideology. The Song Dynasty began to implement the "sea ban" policy in Zhao Guangyi, Song Taizong, and its strict policy basically cut off the development of overseas trade in the Song Dynasty. According to the History of Song Dynasty, Zhao Guangyi ordered many times to trade with overseas countries privately, and was convicted and punished if it exceeded 100 yuan. If it exceeded 15, it was tattooed on his face and sent to the island. It was not until the ambitious Song Shenzong came to power and the ports and overseas trade in Song Dynasty developed that this strict "sea ban" was lifted. With its unique geographical location, Guangzhou became the largest port city in the Song Dynasty at that time, and it also experienced continuous expansion and development. Compared with the Tang Dynasty, the three parts of Guangzhou, namely Dongcheng, Zicheng and Xicheng, were expanded several times. In Zhejiang and Hangzhou along the coast of Zhejiang, the city shipping company was established during the Zhenzong period, which was not only responsible for the trade of Southeast Asian countries, but also for the trade between Japan and North Korea, which was one of the reasons why the Song Dynasty did not suffer from the Japanese rebellion. After the "shame of Jingkang", the economic development in the north was seriously damaged when the Song Dynasty crossed the south, which directly led to the transfer of the economy in the Song Dynasty to the south and indirectly promoted the development of ports and overseas trade in the Southern Song Dynasty. Due to the urgent need for financial support, the Southern Song Dynasty allowed and even advocated coastal businessmen to vigorously develop their businesses. During the Shaoxing period, the shipping companies in Fujian and Guangzhou alone paid taxes and fees as high as two million yuan each year. Shiqian, Quanzhou, Fujian has gradually developed into a center of gravity for overseas businessmen to gather. Due to the superior conditions such as deep water, shelter from the wind, convenient fresh water supply and various hotels and restaurants, the local situation is in competition with the transportation and trade of shippers. Prosperous ports and overseas trade economy After the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty, when Kyle Polo traveled to Quanzhou in the early Yuan Dynasty, he was shocked by Quanzhou's prosperous port trade. He thought it was one of the largest ports in the world, and the grand occasion of dozens of countries as far away as * * *, Southeast Asia and India trading here was undoubtedly extremely shocking to Kyle Polo. The Four Ming Classics of Avenue is described as "If it is difficult, Fujian will be wide, with the sun in the east and Koguryo in the north." Abundant commodities, the prosperity of port economy and the continuous prosperity of overseas trade have made coastal residents "inadvertently planted willows in the shade" and formed a grand occasion of "tax on southern goods merchants, moving tens of thousands". 1987 The appearance of the Southern Song Dynasty ancient ship "Nanhai No.1" in Yangjiang made modern people truly feel and witness the prosperity of trade development in the Song Dynasty. This 30-meter-long, 4-meter-high and 9-meter-wide ship is not only evidence of the development of shipbuilding industry in the Song Dynasty, but also a representative of the development of overseas trade in the Song Dynasty. There are 60,000 to 80,000 commodities on board. A large number of ironware, porcelain, gold and silver wares were found on this sunken ship, as well as a large number of copper coins, especially many exquisite porcelain, which are also extremely important commodities in overseas transactions. Most of these porcelains come from famous kilns in Song Dynasty, such as Dehua Kiln, Cizao Kiln, Jingdezhen Kiln and Longquan Kiln, and many of them have now become national cultural relics. At the same time, it also proves the development and prosperity of the Maritime Silk Road in Song Dynasty. Unfortunately, due to political and ideological problems, the ancient feudal rulers strictly implemented the "sea ban" policy in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties in order to stabilize their rule, which made many exquisite commodities in ancient China only be in the mode of self-production and self-sale, and missed the opportunity to enter the capitalist era. References: History of Song Dynasty, Tokyo Chinese Dream, Collected Works of Town Xishan and Illustration of Siming Road.