In the history of the Song Dynasty, there was a period of embryonic period of capitalist economy, and some scholars believed that if the Song Dynasty did not perish, China's economy would be hundreds of years ahead of the world. So, what is the basis for this speculation?
Today, let's take a look at the economic situation of the Song Dynasty.
The Song Dynasty was the most prosperous economic, cultural and educational era in China's history, reaching the peak of feudal society. The famous historian Chen Yinke said: "The culture of the Chinese nation, which has evolved over thousands of years, was created in the world of Zhao and Song dynasties. "Kaifeng, located in the center of the Eastern Henan Plain, also known as Bieliang and Fenjing, was the capital of the Song Dynasty for 168 years, the Ninth Emperor, was a famous cultural, economic, artistic, and political center at that time, and its prosperity was difficult to reach in later generations, and it was also the earliest city in China where Jews settled.
From the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the economic center began to move south, and was finally completed in the Southern Song Dynasty. It can be said that during this period, the Song Dynasty's foreign trade became very developed, and because in the Song Dynasty's fiscal revenue, the foreign trade tax occupied a certain proportion, so the Song Dynasty obtained benefits in the foreign trade tax far exceeded that of other dynasties. Emperor Gaozong of Song once said something like this: "The benefits of the city are the most generous, and if the measures are taken properly, and the income is millions of dollars, will it be invincible to the people?" So pay attention to this, Shu Ji can forgive the people's strength. ”
The meaning is that the tax revenue obtained by the imperial court in the market is extremely rich, and if it can be taxed with proper policies, it can obtain at least a few million yuan of income from it every year, which will greatly alleviate the burden of the common people. Compared with the Song Dynasty, the status of merchants in the Ming and Qing dynasties was not high, and the market was also greatly restricted. Underdeveloped commerce, the revenue of the imperial court was mainly derived from agricultural taxes. The reason why the Song Dynasty increased the proportion of commercial taxes was because the Song Dynasty's financial expenditure was extremely large, and it could only ensure the balance of payments in this way.
The total amount of officially issued currency during the Song Dynasty was large, and the most intuitive embodiment of this is the discovery of Archaeologists in China. When excavating coins from other dynasties, the team can find up to hundreds of coins at one archaeological site. However, when excavating Song dynasty coins, archaeological teams can often find tons at an archaeological site. For example, Chinese archaeologists excavated nearly seven tons of Southern Song Dynasty coins in the Sichuan region in 2003. In 2006, Chinese archaeologists found more than 30 tons of Iron Money of the Northern Song Dynasty at a construction site in Shandong.
So why did the Song Dynasty mint so many coins?
This is entirely because the Song Dynasty's economy developed rapidly and the market demand for money was enormous. According to the figures, the Song Dynasty minted more coins in the two years of its heyday than the Ming Dynasty in two hundred years. Therefore, archaeologists will find a huge amount of Song Dynasty currency. In fact, in our neighboring countries of Vietnam, Korea, and Japan, local archaeologists have also excavated a large number of Song Dynasty coins.
In this regard, the world-famous economic historian Gund Frank also believed: "In the Song Dynasty in the 11th and 12th centuries, China was undoubtedly the most economically advanced region in the world. Since the Song Dynasty in the 11th and 12th centuries, China's economy has far outpaced the rest of the world in terms of industrialization, commercialization, monetization, and urbanization. ”
There is also: the Shipbuilding Technology of the Song Dynasty is leading the world, and the number of ships ranks first in the world. As we all know, ancient ships have such a characteristic, that is, the larger the tonnage, the more difficult it is to manufacture. During the Song Dynasty, the tonnage of seat and official ships was very large, and even the tonnage of civilian ships that went out to sea to fish far exceeded that of other countries.
Today, we can see the merchant ships of the Song Dynasty at the Quanzhou Overseas Transportation Museum, which are visually estimated to be about 25 meters long, about 10 meters wide, and more than 200 tons. In that era of underdeveloped technology, such tonnage was enough to make other countries stunned.
However, two hundred tons is not an exaggeration, according to the "Goryeo Tujing" record, the tonnage of the Song Huizong imperial ship reached a terrifying thousand tons. In addition, a variety of advanced technologies were applied in the official and civilian ships of the Song Dynasty, such as the cabin of the "passenger boat" equipped with a compass and a clearly marked nautical chart.
With the funds and means of transportation for foreign trade, the next step is to establish trade relations with overseas countries. The Song Dynasty's attitude towards foreign merchants was quite friendly, with a series of encouraging policies. For example, in the matter of opening up ports to the outside world, the imperial court set up institutions in Quanzhou, Mingzhou, Hangzhou, and Guangzhou to manage foreign trade, that is, the "Municipal Shipping Department".
Functionally, this institution was somewhat similar to modern customs, in addition to managing foreign ships, it was also responsible for collecting taxes on merchants. If local merchants want to trade abroad, they only need to prove their qualifications and receive a certificate from the government. Merchants only need to hold this voucher to carry goods abroad to participate in foreign trade, without the need to prepare other complicated procedures.
If there were foreign merchants who wanted to buy houses and settle in the Song Dynasty, the Song Government also provided them with corresponding policies. In cities with a large number of foreign investors, such as Guangzhou and Quanzhou, local people will respect the customs, beliefs, and living habits of foreigners. In addition, the imperial court would also build public facilities in the settlements of foreigners to meet all the living needs of foreign merchants.
In order to retain more foreign merchants, the imperial court built cheap public rental housing for them. According to statistics, at that time, half of the foreign businessmen chose to rent public rental housing and settled in the Song Dynasty. It can be seen that as early as the Song Dynasty, the embryo of capitalism had emerged in China, hundreds of years earlier than some scholars believe that the Opium War period.
At the end, I might as well talk about some digressions, at that time, the rent of public rental housing in the Song Dynasty was very cheap, only 500 yuan per month. A small trader like Wu Dalang, who can earn a hundred yuan a day in the novel, can rent a house every month with only one-sixth of his income. More humanely, the imperial court would build a certain number of "low-cost rental houses" to serve a small number of groups who did not have the money to rent.
Of course, in order to prevent the people from taking advantage, only one-tenth of Kaifeng residents at that time were able to apply for low-cost housing.
Resources:
[Song Shi, Food Chronicles, Mutual MarketIng, and Goryeo Tujing]