How developed was commerce during the Song Dynasty

How developed was commerce during the Song Dynasty? Financial tools innovation Credit management institutionalization Song Dynasty, the traditional agriculture, handicrafts, commerce, transportation and cities in the Tang Dynasty on the basis of a new development, especially the unprecedented prosperity of the commodity economy. Against this background, money circulation and credit in the Song Dynasty entered a period of rapid development, whether in the form of credit, credit subject, credit tools, or in the system to protect, all presenting new features, creating a new chapter of ancient traditional finance. Specifically, the characteristics of credit in the Song Dynasty are mainly manifested in the following four aspects. State credit and private credit *** with the development of

In the Song Dynasty, the state credit is centered on the official credit of the court, usually with the help of the power of the regime to operate financial institutions in order to reflect it. Historical records of the Song Dynasty official financial institutions are debatable goods service, market service, inspection school library, against the pawnshop, against the pawnshop, the money service, cross the child service, etc., due to the different responsibilities to play the credit function of different paths. The main responsibilities of the questionable goods affairs are "to take charge of the salt, tea, incense, alum money cited by the decree, in order to communicate with merchants and support the national use" (Song History, Volume 161, "Officials"), "to take charge of the folding of the Bo dendrobium, the genus of the gold and silk" (Song Huayao Series of Drafts, "Officials"), "take charge of the merchants to give money to coupons" ("Song Hui Yao Series Draft - food and goods" five five bis two), equivalent to the government's fiscal and financial management organization. In addition to the monopoly management of the government's prohibited goods, it could also play a credit function through the activities of credit securities such as penny money and the payment of cross-certificates. Based on the market exchange law, "all goods that can be marketed and those that lag in the people but are not sold will be marketed at an equalized price, and those who wish to exchange them for government goods will be listened to" (Renewal of the Ziji Tongjian - Song Ji 69), so it can be seen that its main duty is to suppress prices and pass on the goods to the public. In addition, the market exchange service could also call on people to borrow money against the interest rate, providing credit. The school inspection library was similar to today's trust organization, which managed the property of the officials and the inheritance of the parents of the orphans and children of the officials, and the proceeds were used for the enjoyment of the orphans and children of the households being inspected and inspected. Pawnshop, Pawnshop library is the same official lending institutions, in the Northern Song Dynasty, Emperor Shenzong, Zhezong, mostly called Pawnshop, and after Emperor Huizong to the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, mostly called Pawnshop, whose main responsibility is "to take charge of the official money to listen to the quality of the people to take and to help their emergency" ("History of the Song Dynasty," Volume 165, "Vocational Officials Zhi"). Bianqianwu is set up in Kyoto money exchange management organization, responsible for the management of merchants in the capital into the money, simplify the procedures into the money, improve efficiency. Jiaoziwu was the organization responsible for the circulation and printing of banknotes, which was later renamed Qianjinwu. The provision of state credit in the Song Dynasty had both the positive side of imperial protection, market regulation, increased income, social stability and efficiency, and the drawbacks of yamen style, violation of economic laws and oppression of the people. At the same time, the Song Dynasty folk credit continues to develop, private usury business, folk credit buying and selling, material money, currency exchange and other activities are very common, on the one hand, to meet the needs of the relevant subjects to obtain their own interests, on the other hand, to a certain extent to the inadequacy of the national credit has also played a role in picking up the pieces.

Credit forms tend to be diversified

In the Song Dynasty, credit forms are manifested in the form of borrowing, pledging, pledging, pawning, buying and selling on credit, prepayment and other forms. Borrowing and lending is no more than currency lending and property lending two categories, further government lending and private lending. Government lending is mainly in the form of relief lending, through emergency lending to the people's households rations or grain planting, to help them get through the difficult times, to ensure that the people cultivate on time, in order to ensure social stability. Private loans were mostly in the form of usurious loans, with the help of usurious loan networks centered on "kudo" and "money people" to export monetary funds and solve the problem of serious shortage of funds of the common people brought about by social division and the impact of "money shortage". The problem of the serious shortage of funds for the common people was solved by the social division and the impact of the "money shortage", so as to satisfy the urgent needs and the needs of special payments. Pledges and mortgages are forms of lending and borrowing security, and are operated by institutions such as the Pledge Bank, the Resolution Bank, the Universal Bank and the Everlasting Bank. Pledge is a movable security, which must be established by transferring possession of the movable asset; charge is a real estate security, which is usually

delivered to the mortgagee by the old deed of the collateral. When the debtor defaults, the creditor can sell the price of priority. Pawn as a form of real estate transfer, also in the song dynasty formed and developed. It is characterized by the pawnbroker to the pawnbroker to pay the pawnbroker price, it possesses the right to use the pawnbroker's property and the right to dispose of the proceeds, the pawnbroker does not pay the rent to the pawnbroker during the period of survival of the pawnbroker's right, and the pawnbroker does not pay the interest to the pawnbroker. In the Song Dynasty, the commercial trade was very developed, but the inflation was on the tight side, so the behavior of buying and selling on credit was also very popular, almost all the goods in the field of consumption, circulation and production could be bought and sold on credit. Moreover, the relationship between the people involved in buying and selling on credit was extremely complex, touching both the official and private levels. From the point of view of its practical effect, it solved the military needs, relieved the poor, strengthened the circulation, satisfied the finance, and more importantly, it launched an attack on the usury that bound the expansion and development of production and circulation.

Credit tools continue to innovate

With the development of social and economic development, the development of commercial trade in the Song Dynasty on the development of monetary requirements are increasingly high, but the society of the money supply and circulation situation is not ideal, manifested in the circulation of money in the region of the cut-off, the limited number of money supply, the complexity of the currency coins, and a large number of the circulation of the copper and iron money, the characteristics of the fines and inconvenient to carry, and the result is to inhibit the economic development. As a result, economic development was inhibited. In order to solve these problems, under the guarantee of highly developed papermaking and printing technology, and through the role of the spontaneous power of the people or the compulsory implementation of the government, a large number of new types of paper credit instruments such as the tea guide, the salt guide, the incense and medicine guide, the alum guide, the money, the money, the money guide, the money of the public, the Guanzi and the Huizi, etc., emerged one after the other in the Song Dynasty society. Tea citation, salt citation, alum citation, incense and medicine citation and other credit instruments require the relevant person to pay with grain or cash as a condition of obtaining, and then exotic with the ticket to cash money or other prohibited goods. The use of these credit instruments, in addition to the function of credit, also enabled the government and merchants in the field of prohibited monopoly goods to **** profit development, not only conducive to merchants from the government franchise of prohibited goods a share of the benefits, but also conducive to the government to achieve the goal of replenishment of military supplies and increase revenue. The credit instruments such as penny, see money public document and the early Jiaozi, Guanzi, Huizi, etc. required the people concerned to first pay cash money as a condition for obtaining them, and then, according to the needs, hold these credit instruments representing the value of the cash money deposited to go to the designated area and the place of deposit to cash in the cash money. This kind of credit instrument is easy to carry and has the nature of bill of exchange, which can guarantee the smooth settlement of payment for goods in large transactions and inter-regional transactions. Early Jiaozi, Guanzi, will be later in the credit notes on the basis of the gradual development of paper money, their use, to make up for the shortage of money, saving the demand for money circulation, so that the commodity economy has been expanded. It can be seen that a large number of new credit instruments in the Song Dynasty is the most iconic new thing in the history of socio-economic development, which eases or solves many inconveniences and contradictions in the process of exchange, and thus promotes the economic development to a large extent.

Credit management began to be institutionalized

One of them was the improvement of the relief loan system. Song history records, "the states years of failure, will be sent to Changping, Huimin silo corn, or sell at par, or loan to plant food, or straight to the relief of the main customers, no points in the main customers" ("Song History" Volume 178 "food and goods on the sixth - relief"), this system through the Northern Song and Southern Song. Second, strengthen the management of usury. The government loan sharks, a clear source of loan funds, repayment period, interest calculation method and so on. For example, Wang Anshi change of law period of the implementation of the green seedling law pointed out that, "to changping run over this for the green seedling money, scattered with the households, so that the interest rate of two cents, spring scattered autumn convergence" ("Song history - Wang Anshi biography"). Private loan sharks, the Song government attaches importance to the restrictions on interest, "so that the rich people out of interest money shall not be over times, violators did not enter the" ("renewed Ziji Tongjian long compilation" Volume 2 of 3), "there are rich people to take the home of the grain and wheat, the interest rate shall not be lost times, not lose the tax shall not be compensated for the first private burden, violators added to the crime! " ("Song Da Zhao Ding Jie" Volume 198 "forbidding the people to take the rich man's grain and wheat loan interest shall not lose double edict"). Third, the credit purchase and sale, prepayment, etc.

Legal regulation. Song government in order to ensure the smooth running of credit sales, introduced a large number of laws on the behavior of the parties and rights and interests to regulate, pay particular attention to preventing and combating fraud, pay attention to the national revenue of tea, salt and other items on credit to buy and sell the regulations. For example, for the credit provisions, "such as a large section of the line of goods to be sold on credit with the person, that is, the buyer of the amount of line of goods how much, call the family living material resources of people households more than three or five people entrusted to the insurance, write and set up a period of time to write the text to return." ("Song Hui Yao Series Draft - Foodstuffs" 37 of 9) on the sale of government salt on credit behavior regulations, "the Salt Academy to buy the lead, allowing merchants to follow the Shaanxi credit silk example, called the insurance to the house deed, gold and silver credit when, in the border state army to lose. For every six kan of lead, there was an additional three hundred dollars, and it was limited to one year to lose all the lead. If this was not done, all the credit would be forfeited to the government." ("renewed Ziji Tongjian long compilation" volume two three zero) of tea on credit to buy on credit, "the future should be bought on credit guest tea, their parents and older brothers and sisters, and to be with the * * * bookmarked documents and deeds, that is, the Supervisor of the Le teeth to protect the repayment of the rest of the people who bought the salt, but also one of the implementation of the" ("Song will want to draft - food and foodstuffs," three one bis six), "the guests will be tea, and their parents and older brothers, and to be with the * * * bookmarked documents and deeds, that is, the supervision of the Le teeth and insurance are repaid in equal shares, the rest of the buy salt, also one implementation" ("Song will want to draft - food and foodstuffs" three one bis 6) "the guests will sell tea on credit with the floating waves and young people, in accordance with the favorable debt law" ("Song will want to draft - food and goods" 30-38).

The prosperity of credit in the Song Dynasty had a positive impact at the time. First of all, it promoted the creation and development of the world's earliest paper currency, the jiaozi. Early Jiaozi is the Northern Song Dynasty Sichuan area stores in order to solve the local circulation of iron money to the inconvenience caused by the transaction in the developed commercial credit on the basis of the principle of free issue of borrowing fly money, the essence of the credit note, the function of the later paper money is based on the evolution of this basis. The emergence and development of the cross is closely related to the development of credit. Secondly, it ensured the smooth progress of production. The implementation of the Song Dynasty's relief loan and relief pension, and the implementation of credit purchase and credit sale prepayment reduced the uncertainties affecting the continuity of production, resolved the payment conflicts between buyers and sellers, and prompted the smooth progress of production. Thirdly, it promoted the development of commodity economy in Song Dynasty. The government's ban on debit system, the limited supply of money, and the currency cut-off were the main obstacles to the development of the Song Dynasty commodity economy, while the issuance of a large number of innovative credit instruments and credit currencies, such as jiaoyin (交引), jiaozi (交子), and huizi (会子), defused these unfavorable factors to a certain extent. Fourthly, it solved the financial difficulties and increased the financial income. When financial difficulties arose, the Song government vigorously issued all kinds of credit notes and increased the amount of banknotes to cater to financial needs. When sharp conflicts arose as a result, they were calmed by measures to adjust credit. In the process of this conversion and utilization, the Song government gained more benefits. Of course, there were also drawbacks to Song credit. Usury was highly parasitic and corrupting, and its exploitation of small producers destroyed their conditions of production. Commercial credit provided opportunities for unscrupulous people to commit commercial fraud, triggering speculative behavior and increasing risk. The shift from convertible to non-convertible banknotes and the massive issuance of non-convertible banknotes easily triggered currency devaluation and inflation. However, a comprehensive evaluation, the prosperity and innovation of credit in the Song Dynasty not only produced positive effects at that time, but also provided practical experience for the subsequent dynasties and other regional financial development, played a positive role and had a far-reaching impact.