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Economy of the Song dynasty

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The Song Dynasty (960–1279) of China was a period of Chinese history marked by commercial expansion, economic prosperity, and revolutionary new economic concepts. Private trade grew and a market economy began to link the coastal provinces with the interior. The enormous population growth rate from increased agricultural cultivation in the 10th to 11th centuries doubled China's overall population, which soared above 100 million people (compared to the earlier Tang, with some 50 million people).[1] The world's first development of the banknote, or printed paper money (see Jiaozi, Huizi), was established on a massive scale. Combined with a unified tax system and an efficient canal and roadways, this meant the development of a true nationwide market system in China.

Production and employment

The puddling process of smelting iron ore to make pig iron from wrought iron, with the right illustration displaying men working a blast furnace, from the Tiangong Kaiwu encyclopedia, 1637.

Accompanying the widespread printing of paper money was the beginnings of what one might term the "Chinese industrial revolution". For example the historian Robert Hartwell has estimated that per capita iron output rose sixfold between 806 and 1078, such that, by 1078 China was producing 127000000 kg (125,000 t) in weight of iron per year.[2] In the smelting process of using huge bellows driven by waterwheels, massive amounts of charcoal were used in the production process, leading to a wide range of deforestation in northern China.[2] However, by the end of the 11th century the Chinese discovered that using bituminous coke could replace the role of charcoal, hence many acres of forested land in northern China were spared by the steel and iron industry with this switch of resources.[2] Iron and steel of this period were used to mass produce ploughs, hammers, needles, pins, and cymbals among other routine items for an indigenous mass market, with tons of new canals linking the major iron and steel production centers to the capital city's main market.[3] This was also extended to trade with the outside world, which greatly expanded with the high level of Chinese maritime activity abroad during the Southern Song period.

Through many written petitions to the central government by regional administrators of the Song Empire, historical scholars can piece evidence together to appropriate the size and scope of the Chinese iron industry during the Song era. The famed magistrate Bao Qingtian (999-1062) wrote of the iron industry at Hancheng, Tongzhou Prefecture, along the Yellow River in what is today eastern Shaanxi province, with iron smelting households that were overseen by government regulators.[4] He wrote that 700 such households were acting as iron smelters, with 200 having the most adequate amount of government support, such as charcoal supplies and skilled craftsmen (the iron households hired local unskilled labor themselves).[4] Bao's complaint to the throne was that government laws against private smelting in Shaanxi hindered profits of the industry, so the government finally heeded his plea and lifted the ban on private smelting for Shaanxi in 1055.[4][5] The result of this was an increase in profit (with lower prices for iron) as well as production; 100,000 jin (60 tonnes) of iron was produced annually in Shaanxi in the 1040s AD, increasing to 600,000 jin (360 tonnes) produced annually by the 1110s, furbished by the revival of the Shaanxi mining industry in 1112.[6] Although the iron smelters of Shaanxi were managed and supplied by the government, there were many independent smelters operated and owned by rich families.[7] While acting as governor of Xuzhou in 1078, the famous Song poet and statesman Su Shi (1037-1101) wrote that in the Liguo Industrial Prefecture under his administered region, there were 36 iron smelters run by different local families, each employing a work force of several hundred people to mine ore, produce their own charcoal, and smelt iron.[7]

A blast furnace smelting cast iron, with bellows operated by waterwheel and mechanical device, from the Nong Shu by Wang Zhen, 1313 AD

This arrangement of allowing competitive industry to flourish in some regions while setting up its opposite of strict government-regulated and monopolized production and trade in others was not exclusive to iron manufacturing.[8] In the beginning of the Song Dynasty, the government supported competitive silk mills and brocade workshops in the eastern provinces and in the capital city of Kaifeng.[8] However, at the same time the government established strict legal prohibition on the merchant trade of privately produced silk in Sichuan province.[8] This prohibition dealt an economic blow to Sichuan that caused a small rebellion (which was subdued), yet in the Song Dynasty Sichuan was well-known for its independent industries producing timber and cultivated oranges.[8] The reforms of the Chancellor Wang Anshi (1021-1086) sparked heated debate amongst ministers of court when he nationalized the industries manufacturing, processing, and distributing tea, salt, and wine.[9] His restrictions on the private manufacture and trade of salt were even criticized in a famous poem by Su Shi, and while the opposing politically-charged faction at court gained advantage and lost favor, Wang Anshi's reforms were continually abandoned and reinstated.[9]

During the Song period, there was a great deal of organized labor and bureaucracy involved in the extraction of resources from the various provinces in China. The production of sulfur, which the Chinese called 'vitriol liquid', was extracted from pyrite and used for pharmaceutical purposes as well as for the creation of gunpowder.[10] This was done by roasting iron pyrites, converting the sulphide to oxide, as the ore was piled up with coal briquettes in an earthenware furnace with a type of still-head to send the sulphur over as vapour, after which it would solidify and crystallize.[11] The historical text of the Song Shi (History of the Song, compiled in 1345 AD) stated that the major producer of sulfur in the Tang and Song dynasties was the Jin Zhou sub-provincial administrative region (modern Linfen in southern Shanxi).[12] The bureaucrats appointed to the region managed the industrial processing and sale of it, and the amount created and distributed from the years 996 to 997 alone was 405,000 jin (roughly 200 tons).[12] It was recorded that in 1076 AD the Song Dynasty government held a strict commercial monopoly on sulfur production, and if dye houses and government workshops sold their products to private dealers in the black market, they were subject to meted penalties by government authorities.[12][11] Even before this point, in 1067 AD, the Song government had issued an edict that the people living in Shanxi and Hebei were forbidden to sell foreigners any products containing saltpetre and sulfur. This act by the Song government displayed their fears of the grave potential of gunpowder weapons being developed by Song China's territorial enemies as well (i.e. the Tanguts and Khitans).[11]

Since Jin Zhou was in close proximity to the Song capital at Kaifeng, the latter became the largest producer of gunpowder during the Northern Song period.[12] With enhanced sulfur from pyrite instead of natural sulfur (along with ehanced potassium nitrate), the Chinese were able to shift the use of gunpowder from an incendiary use into an explosive one for early artillery.[13] There were large manufacturing plants in the Song Dynasty for the purpose of making 'fire-weapons' employing the use of gunpowder, such as fire lances and fire arrows. One of the main armories and arsenals for the storage of gunpowder and weapons was located at Weiyang, which accidentally caught fire and produced a massive explosion in 1280 AD.[14]

Organization, investment, and trade

A Song era junk ship, 13th century; Chinese ships of the Song period featured hulls with watertight compartments.

Druing the Song Dynasty, the merchant class became more sophisticated, well-respected, and organized than in earlier periods of China. Their accumulated wealth often rivaled that of the scholar-officials who administered the affairs of government. For their organizational skills, Ebrey, Walthall, and Palais state that Song Dynasty merchants:

...set up partnerships and joint stock companies, with a separation of owners (shareholders) and managers. In the large cities, merchants were organized into guilds according to the type of product sold; they periodically set prices and arranged sales from wholesalers to shop owners. When the government requisitioned goods or assessed taxes, it dealt with the guild heads.[15]

Although large government run industries and large privately-owned enterprises dominated the market system of urban China during the Song period, there was a plethora of small private businesses and entrepreneurs throughout the large suburbs and rural areas that thrived off the economic boom of the period. There were multitudes of successful small kilns and pottery shops owned by local families, along with oil presses, wine-making shops, small local paper-making businesses, etc.[3] There was also room for small economic success with the "inn keeper, the petty diviner, the drug seller, the cloth trader," and many others.[16] The vast irrigation system of China also had to be furnished, with multitudes of wheelwrights mass-producing standardized waterwheels and square-pallet chain pumps.[17] There was also a large black market in China during the Song period, which was actually enhanced once the Jurchens conquered northern China and established the Jin Dynasty. For example, around 1160 AD there was an annual black market smuggling of some 70 to 80 thousand cattle.[18]

Sea trade abroad to the South East Pacific, the Hindu world, the Islamic world, and the East African world brought merchants great fortune, while foreigners had an impact on the Chinese economy. For example, many Muslims went to China to trade, and dominated the import and export industry.[19] For Chinese maritime merchants, however, there was risk involved in such long overseas ventures to foreign trade posts and seaports as far away as Egypt. In order to reduce the risk of losing money instead of gaining it on maritime trade missions abroad:

[Song era] investors usually divided their investment among many ships, and each ship had many investors behind it. One observer thought eagerness to invest in overseas trade was leading to an outflow of copper cash. He wrote, "People along the coast are on intimate terms with the merchants who engage in overseas trade, either because they are fellow-countrymen or personal acquaintances...[They give the merchants] money to take with them on their ships for purchase and return conveyance of foreign goods. They invest from ten to a hundred strings of cash, and regularly make profits of several hundred percent,".[20]

A 10th or 11th century Longquan stoneware vase from Zhejiang province, Song Dynasty.

Wealthy landholders were still typically those who were able to educate their sons to the highest degree. Hence small groups of prominent families in any given local county would gain national spotlight for having sons travel far off to be educated and appointed as ministers of the state. Yet downward social mobility was always an issue with the matter of divided inheritence. Suggesting ways to increase a family's property, Yuan Cai wrote in the late 12th century that those who obtained office with decent salaries shouldn't convert it to gold and silver, but instead could watch their values grow with investment:

For instance, if he had 100,000 strings worth of gold and silver and used this money to buy productive property, in a year he would gain 10,000 strings; after ten years or so, he would have regained the 100,000 strings and what would be divided among the family would be interest. If it were invested in a pawn broking business, in three years the interest would equal the capital. He would still have the 100,000 strings, and the rest, being interest, could be divided. Moreover, it could be doubled again in another three years, ad infinitum.[21]

The author Zhu Yu wrote in his Pingzhou Ketan (萍洲可談; Pingzhou Table Talks) of 1119 AD about the organization, maritime practices, and government standards of seagoing vessels, their merchants, and sailing crews. His book stated:

According to government regulations concerning seagoing ships, the larger ones can carry several hundred men, and the smaller ones may have more than a hundred men on board. One of the most important merchants is chosen to be Leader (Gang Shou), another is Deputy Leader (Fu Gang Shou), and a third is Business Manager (Za Shi). The Superintendent of Merchant Shipping gives them an unofficially sealed red certificate permitting them to use the light bamboo for punishing their company when necessary. Should anyone die at sea, his property becomes forfeit to the government...The ship's pilots are acquainted with the configuration of the coasts; at night they steer by the stars, and in the day-time by the sun. In dark weather they look at the south-pointing needle (i.e. the magnetic compass). They also use a line a hundred feet long with a hook at the end which they let down to take samples of mud from the sea-bottom; by its (appearance and) smell they can determine their whereabouts.[22]

Foreign travelers to China often made remarks on the economic strength of the country. The later Muslim Moroccan Berber traveler Ibn Batutta (1304-1377) wrote about many of his travel experiences in places across the Eurasian world, including China at the farthest eastern extremity. After describing lavish Chinese ships holding palatial cabins and saloons, along with the life of Chinese ship crews and captains, Batutta wrote:

Among the inhabitants of China there are those who own numerous ships, on which they send their agents to foreign places. For nowhere in the world are there to be found people richer than the Chinese.[23]

The world's first paper money

Jiaozi, the world's first paper-printed currency, an innovation of the Song Dynasty.

The root of the development of banknote goes back to the the earlier Tang Dynasty, when the government outlawed the use of bolts of silk as currency, which increased the use of copper coinage for a means of money. By 1085 the output of copper currency had reached 6 billion coins a year.[1]. This displayed evidence of remarkable and unprecedented expansion of Chinese economic power, in consideration of the output of coinage currency in the earlier year of 997 AD, which was only 800 million coins a year.[24] With many 9th century Tang-era merchants avoiding the weight and bulk of so many copper coins in each transaction, this led them to using trading receipts from deposit shops where goods or money were left previously.[24] The later Song government soon saw the economic advantage of this, issuing a monopoly right of several of these deposit shops to the issuance of these certificates of deposit, and by the 1120s the government stepped in, producing the world's first paper printed money (using woodblock printing).[1] However, China's first paper-printed money can be traced back to the year 1024, in Sichuan province.[25][26]

Even before this point, the Song government was amassing large amounts of paper tribute. It was recorded that each year before 1101 AD, the prefecture of Xinan (modern Xi-xian, Anhui) alone would send 1,500,000 sheets of paper in seven different varieties to the capital at Kaifeng.[27] In that year of 1101, the Emperor Huizong of Song decided to lessen the amount of paper taken in the tribute quota, because it was causing detrimental effects and creating heavy burdens on the people of the region.[28] However, the government still needed masses of paper product for the exchange certificates and the state's new issuing of paper money. For the printing of paper money alone, the Song court established several government-run factories in the cities of Huizhou, Chengdu, Hangzhou, and Anqi.[28] The size of the workforce employed in these paper money factories were quite large, as it was recorded in 1175 AD that the factory at Hangzhou alone employed more than a thousand workers a day.[28]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Ebrey, 156. Cite error: The named reference "ebrey 156" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c Ebrey et al., 158.
  3. ^ a b Embree, 339.
  4. ^ a b c Wagner, 181.
  5. ^ Wagner, 182.
  6. ^ Wagner 182-183.
  7. ^ a b Wagner, 178-179.
  8. ^ a b c d Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 23.
  9. ^ a b Ebrey, 164.
  10. ^ Yunming, 487-489.
  11. ^ a b c Needham, Volume 5, Part 7, 126.
  12. ^ a b c d Yunming, 489.
  13. ^ Yunming, 489-490.
  14. ^ Needham, Volume 5, Part 7, 209-210.
  15. ^ Ebrey et al., 157.
  16. ^ Embree, 339-340.
  17. ^ Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 347.
  18. ^ Golas, Peter (1980). "Rural China in the Song". The Journal of Asian Studies: 291-325.
  19. ^ BBC article about Islam in China
  20. ^ Ebrey et al., 159.
  21. ^ Ebrey et al., 162.
  22. ^ Needham, Volume 4, Part 1, 279.
  23. ^ Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 470.
  24. ^ a b Bowman, 105.
  25. ^ Morton, 97.
  26. ^ Benn, 55.
  27. ^ Needham, Volume 5, Part 1, 47.
  28. ^ a b c Needham, Volume 5, Part 1, 48.

References

  • Benn, Charles (2002). China's Golden Age: Everyday Life in the Tang Dynasty. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-517665-0.
  • Bowman, John S. (2000). Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Ebrey, Walthall, Palais, (2006). East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
  • Embree, Ainslie Thomas (1997). Asia in Western and World History: A Guide for Teaching. Armonk: ME Sharpe, Inc.
  • Gernet, Jacques (1982). A History of Chinese Civilization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Hartwell, Robert (1966). Markets, Technology and the Structure of Enterprise in the Development of the Eleventh Century Chinese Iron and Steel Industry. Journal of Economic History 26.
  • Morton, Scott and Charlton Lewis (2005). China: It's History and Culture: Fourth Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
  • Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 1, Physics.. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd.
  • Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 2, Mechanical Engineering. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd.
  • Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 3, Civil Engineering and Nautics. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd.
  • Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 5, Part 1. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd.
  • Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 7, Military Technology; the Gunpowder Epic. Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd.
  • Wagner, Donald B. "The Administration of the Iron Industry in Eleventh-Century China," Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient (Volume 44 2001): 175-197.
  • Yunming, Zhang (1986). Isis: The History of Science Society: Ancient Chinese Sulfur Manufacturing Processes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

External links

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