After experiencing the division of the town at the end of the Tang Dynasty and the destruction of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms War, the land of China finally returned to unification in the hands of Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, but the unified Song Dynasty was ceded to the Khitan by Shi Jingyao, the "Child Emperor" of the Five Dynasties Period, resulting in the northern gateway of the Northern Song Dynasty being opened widely, coupled with the lack of excellent horse farms, the military strength of the Northern Song Dynasty has been difficult to develop, and the Khitan can enter the Central Plains at any time, so the purchase of war horses from abroad has become a top priority for the Northern Song Dynasty.
Because of the loss of Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures, the north has no horse farms, can only expand to the southwest, trade with ethnic minorities has become an inevitable choice, tea horse trade came into being, so how did the Northern Song Dynasty develop the tea horse trade?
The economic driver of the tea horse trade
Although the tea horse trade developed vigorously in the Northern Song Dynasty, but its origin is from the Tang Dynasty, the New Book of Tang , Lu Yu Biography " recorded that "when hui hui into the dynasty, the beginning of the drive of horses and mutual markets", during the Tang Dynasty, the officials began to realize the huge interests of trade with ethnic minorities, began to operate mutual markets, the rise of mutual markets stimulated the prosperity of foreign trade, and the Song Dynasty after the Tang Dynasty due to the lack of war horses naturally and perfectly inherited the trade with ethnic minorities left over from the Tang Dynasty, opened up the ancient tea horse road, and specially used tea horse divisions to specialize in tea and horse trade.
The high yield of tea is also one of the economic driving forces of the tea horse trade, when the agricultural tools represented by the quyuan plough brought the agricultural level of the Northern Song Dynasty to the peak, the output of tea naturally soared, and the supply and demand of tea were unbalanced, according to the "Song History of Food and Goods" recorded that the thirteen courses in The Six Prefectures of Huainan "totaled more than 8.65 million catties for the year". This is equivalent to the southeast region alone annual output of 23.062 million catties, not counting the Sichuan region, the high yield of tea corresponds to the reduction of tea prices, and at this time in the southwest region because of the promotion of the "Tea Classic" and the prevalence of tea drinking, ethnic minorities will drink tea as an indispensable part of life, and its tea is extremely scarce, the huge drive of interests, so that a large number of merchants embarked on the tea horse ancient road.
The rise of tea in ethnic minorities lies not only in the prosperity of tea culture, but also in its medicinal value. Because Tibetan areas are in alpine areas, in order to survive in a harsh environment, Tibetans often eat rice dumplings, milk, ghee, beef and mutton, etc., although it contains high calorie fat, but the long-term use of high-calorie foods and the lack of vitamin supplements will inevitably cause a weakening of physique, in addition, ethnic minorities do not have a large number of land to grow fruits and vegetables, and the high vitamins of tea leaves greatly make up for this defect, coupled with the Northern Song Dynasty need war horses to resist the invasion of the northern Khitans, both sides take what they need, which greatly stimulates the prosperity of the tea horse trade. In the tea horse trade, the Northern Song Dynasty government determined the principle of "increasing or decreasing with the market, the price is uncertain", for the excellent war horses to buy at high prices, for the military supplement of the frontier, and for the weak horses of the inferior product, they flowed into the transportation of the tea horse ancient road, and the fair and reasonable mutual market created a stable tea horse trade, promoted the prosperity of the tea horse ancient road and enhanced the transportation between the Central Plains and ethnic minorities.
The political driving force behind the tea horse trade
Although the Northern Song Dynasty ended the division of the Central Plains but did not unify the country, there are still strong ethnic minority regimes around it, especially Youyun Sixteen Prefectures have been controlled by the Khitans, the northern gateway is wide open, there is no danger to defend, in order to recover Youyun Sixteen Prefectures, the Northern Song Government three Northern Expeditions, but all ended in failure, successive years of war caused the lack of frontier warhorses, at this time the Northern Song Dynasty urgently needed a large number of warhorses as a war supplement, in order to prevent the Khitan from going south, so the opening of the Tea Horse Ancient Road became inevitable.
In the first year of The reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song, the Liao Dynasty army marched south, and Emperor Zhenzong of Song was forced to march in person, and then Song liao negotiated peace and signed the Alliance of Liaoyuan. The alliance of the Liaoyuan made the Northern Song Dynasty breathe a sigh of relief in successive years of foreign wars, the two countries agreed to take the Baigou River as the boundary, do not invade each other, the Song Dynasty gave the Khitan 150,000 taels of silver and 200,000 silk horses every year, since then the two countries began to trade each other, and the brief and stable political environment strengthened the prosperity of the tea horse trade.
In the early days of the Song Dynasty, horses were traded with copper coins to value horses, gold and silver, cloth, tea silk, pond salt and other things to trade, and later there were ethnic minorities using copper coins to cast weapons, and the "History of Song" recorded that "there are Si Yan Rong people to get money, and sell them into tools", so they switched to tea, cloth and other things. At the same time, the use of silver to trade horses brought about a large loss of silver, so in order to prevent these problems, the Northern Song Dynasty set up a special tea horse division to control the tea horse trade. Although the Northern Song Dynasty officially stipulated that tea was used to trade horses, the use of silk, silver, copper, money, etc. in the private sector was not completely replaced.
The cultural driving force behind the tea horse trade
The Western Regions are located in the hinterland of the interior of Eurasia, and the Tang Dynasty was rich and strong, the society was stable, and with the help of strong military strength, it mastered the main transportation routes from the Western Regions to the Central Plains, and opened up the famous Silk Road. With the emergence of the Silk Road in the Tang Dynasty, it solved the inconvenience caused by traffic and safety, and the Silk Road played a decisive role in connecting the economic and commercial exchanges between the East and the West. The development of the Silk Road will be the Central Plains tea culture into Tibet and other Tibetan areas, for the nomadic countries in the western region, its animal husbandry is highly developed but not good at farming, and tea has an important significance for the health of the people in Tibetan areas, not only tea can become a drink, the greasy feeling of meat, but also can improve the physical quality of Tibetans, which greatly promoted the spread of tea in Tibetan areas, laid the foundation for the prosperity of the tea horse trade in the Song Dynasty.
With the increase in the number of tea drinking by Tibetans, tea-related activities are increasing, which has played a positive role in the introduction of tea culture to other ethnic minorities. Subsequently, the opening of the Tea Horse Ancient Road greatly promoted the economic and trade development of the southwest. The demand of ethnic minorities for tea and silk, the demand for war horses and medicinal materials in the Central Plains, formed an economic center dominated by tea and horse trade, so the Northern Song Dynasty set up a tea horse division for tea and horse trade to promote economic exchanges and material exchanges between the central plains ethnic groups and ethnic minorities, which played a great positive role in the exchange of tea culture.
The prosperity of the tea horse trade not only enabled the Northern Song Dynasty to be supplemented by a large number of excellent warhorses, so that the military strength of the Northern Song Dynasty reached a long and short capital with the nomadic peoples in the north, maintained the stability of the frontier, and also promoted the economic exchanges between the Central Plains and the ethnic minorities, the tea horse trade promoted the development of the Northern Song Dynasty to the commodity economy, and also promoted the economic development and cultural development of the ethnic minorities, the tea culture flowed into the ethnic minorities, and the various ethnic groups also developed their own unique tea drinking culture, strengthening the integration of ethnic minority culture and Central Plains culture. It provides a foundation and reference for the current national unity.