What was the officially controlled trade in ancient China?

The mutual market is also an important channel for economic and trade exchanges between the mainland and the border areas of ancient China, and it is a trade under the control of the government. From Qin and Han Dynasties to Ming and Qing Dynasties, this trade not only happened between the Central Plains dynasty or regime and the frontier ethnic regime, but also happened between the tribes and regimes in the frontier areas. Generally, both parties agree to set up a market at the boundary of the jurisdiction. In Song Dynasty, this market was called monopoly market and was managed by officials from both sides.

When the Central Plains dynasty, political power, frontier political power and tribes exchanged markets, they often had both political and economic purposes. First of all, they have political intentions, trying to strengthen their ties with frontier nationalities and regimes through the mutual market, opening the mutual market to show the "kindness" of the "Emperor of the Central Plains" and stopping the mutual market to show sanctions against leaders who are not "loyal". At the same time, economically, they hope to exchange needed goods and prosper the mainland economy. Mainland businessmen and border officials pay more attention to the role of this layer, because mutual exchange is conducive to the development of border areas, businessmen can make money, officials can make political achievements, and people can exchange goods. Once sanctions are imposed, they are often accompanied by confrontation and war, which businessmen and people do not want to see.

The market exchange between Han Dynasty and frontier nationalities and political power has a long history, especially with South Vietnam and Xiongnu. Lingnan area set up counties in the Qin Dynasty, and the economic exchanges with the mainland were much more frequent than before. At the end of Qin Dynasty, Zhao Tuo established South Vietnam, and its trade with the mainland still existed. In BC 196, Zhao Tuo was named as a marquis in the Han Dynasty, and Zhao Tuo became a vassal. The two sides have also demarcated the border, and the trade in the border areas has also developed. The two sides mainly trade gold, iron, farm tools, horses, cattle and sheep. In BC 183, Han Ting banned trade with South Vietnam. It was rumored that the ancestral grave of Zhao Tuo in the north was dug and his brother was arrested, so Zhao Tuo declared himself emperor against Korea and Han Ting sent more troops to Lingnan. After Emperor Wendi ascended the throne, he changed confrontation into appeasement. Since Zhao Tuo went to court and proclaimed himself emperor, the border trade has returned to normal. In BC 1 1 1, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent troops to destroy South Vietnam, and the land of Lingnan returned to the direct rule of the Han Dynasty, which led to closer economic and trade exchanges with the mainland.

During the Han Dynasty, the trade between Han Dynasty and Xiongnu continued. Even though the war between the two sides continued in the early Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu nobles felt that there were not enough goods on the "Feng" in the Han Dynasty, and they still hoped that the two sides would conduct border trade in order to obtain more goods from China. The Han dynasty also wanted to strengthen ties and contain the Huns through the common market, so it carried out trade at border locations. Later, the Xiongnu split in two, and the Northern Xiongnu was defeated by the Eastern Han Dynasty and moved away. It still hopes to trade with the Han Dynasty. In 84 (the first year of Han and Yuan Dynasties), people were sent to drive more than 654.38+0000 cattle and horses to the eastern Han border to demand trade. In the trade between the two sides, Han imported cattle, sheep, horses and furs from Xiongnu, and Xiongnu got iron, bronze, pottery, gold and silver, grain and so on. From Han, it not only meets the needs of both sides, but also enhances the economic complementarity between the two sides, forming a situation in which you need me and I can't live without you. This is also an important factor in the return of Uhaanyehe to Han in the Western Han Dynasty and the return of the Southern Xiongnu in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the mutual market remained an important channel for economic and trade exchanges between the mainland and the frontier. For example, in the early years of the Sui Dynasty, a long-term war with the Turks had a negative impact on the economic exchanges between the mainland and the frontier. When Sui Jun defeated Shabohan's offensive, Turkish ministries surrendered to the Sui Dynasty. In 594, they offered a large number of horses, cows and sheep, and the Sui Dynasty promised to restore the mutual market in the border areas. During the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the mainland and the frontier developed rapidly, and after the official control of the "official market" ended, the private market was allowed. For example, during the Ming Dynasty, Tumote Erdos and other areas bordering the Central Plains were allowed to open monthly markets in appropriate places every month; He also opened a timber market in Yizhou, Liaoning Province (now Yixian County, Liaoning Province), and exchanged grain and daily necessities from the mainland for Mongolian timber.

"Tea-horse mutual market" was particularly prominent in the Ming Dynasty. Since the early Ming Dynasty, Tibetan areas needed to import a large amount of tea from the mainland, and the Ming Dynasty needed to buy a large number of horses from there, so the government monopolized the "tea-horse" trade. In the Ming Dynasty, Hanzhong tea and Bacha tea were collected and stored in Shaanxi and Sichuan, and later tea was collected and stored from Huguang, which was specially used for "tea-horse exchange". In the Ming Dynasty, tea markets were established in today's Gansu, Sichuan, Tianshui, Linxia, Lintan, Ya 'an, Songpan and Xining, and Tea and Horse Department was established to manage the tea-horse trade with Tibetans. In order to ensure the purchase of enough horses, the Ming Dynasty banned the smuggling of tea, prohibited mainland businessmen from buying horses in Tibetan areas, and prohibited Tibetan businessmen from buying tea in the mainland. Those who were found smuggling private tea out of the country and dereliction of duty at the customs gate were all executed. In the mutual market, discuss the price of horse's upper, middle, lower and annual teeth, and prohibit the export of inferior tea in order not to affect the input of horse. The price of tea horses was set in the Ming Dynasty, which varies from time to time and from place to place, mainly depending on supply and demand. For example, in the early Ming Dynasty, in Yazhou (now Ya 'an, Sichuan), 1 pimagai 1 0,800 kg of tea was needed, while in Hezhou (now Linxia, Gansu), 40 kg of tea and 30 kg of tea were needed. After the "Civil Revolution", the horses of the Ming Dynasty suffered heavy losses. Because of the urgent need for horses, the price has been raised, and it is stipulated that 100 Jin of horses should be loaded, and 80 Jin of horses should be medium. In addition, the Ming dynasty also exchanged salt, silk, cloth, cattle and silver for horses, and stipulated the price comparison.

In the north, the Ming dynasty also opened a horse market in a designated place to exchange horses with Mongolian ministries and nuzhen. The market is opened once or twice a year, and the price of livestock is determined according to the variety and grade. Horses in the Ming Dynasty were either bought with silver or paper money, or exchanged with daily necessities such as silks, satins, cloth, ironware and tea at a discount. This kind of horse market is called official market. In the Ming Dynasty, officials were sent to manage, troops were stationed to maintain order, and leaders of various ministries also sent people to supervise and manage subordinates and commodities in the market. If the mutual market goes well, the Ming officials will host a banquet after the end to entertain the heads of border ministries and give them a "reward"-a city reward in the name of the Ming court. If the other side had hostile actions or disrupted the market, the Ming Dynasty imposed sanctions by not providing market incentives or even stopping the horse market.

In the Ming Dynasty, horses obtained in the mutual market were sent to the border to fight or to the local guard for training, while mares, ponies and undistributed horses were sent to Ma Yuan Temple for breeding. There were many places where horses were raised in the Ming Dynasty, such as Ma Yuan Temple and Xingtai Temple in Shaanxi and Gansu. It should be said that the tea-horse trade not only enabled the Ming Dynasty to obtain a large number of war horses, but also achieved a win-win effect. Mongolia, Nuzhen and Tibetan areas in the border areas have obtained necessary materials such as salt, tea and iron, which has promoted the development of agriculture, animal husbandry and sideline in the mainland and border areas, and is of more positive significance to the development of border areas.

In the period of unified dynasty, the mutual market promoted the economic and trade exchanges between the mainland and the frontier, which was beneficial to the development of the frontier, as well as in the period of multi-regime separation and confrontation. This was quite prominent in the Song, Liao, Xia and Jin Dynasties. In order to develop mutual trade, Song and Liao established monopoly markets in border areas. Liao's monopoly market was in Zhuozhou (now Zhuozhou, Hebei Province) and Shuozhou (now Shuozhou, Shanxi Province), and Song was in Xiongzhou, Bazhou, Jun (now xushui county, Hebei Province) and Guangxin Army (now xushui county, Hebei Province). The Song Dynasty imported money, cloth, horses, sheep and camels. From Liao, tapirs, silks, lacquerware and grain were exported. Going to Liao not only facilitated the daily necessities of the people, but also enabled the two governments to get a lot of tax revenue from it. Moreover, the Liao Dynasty also set up Bazaar in the northern part of the territory to trade with Nuzhen and other ethnic groups. The most important Bazaar was located in Ningjiang Prefecture (in Songyuan City, Jilin Province), and the main trade items of Nuzhen were gold, cloth, beeswax and medicinal materials.

In the Song Dynasty, there was also a market in the area bordering Xixia. Xixia imported silk, grain, cloth, incense, porcelain and other daily necessities from the mainland, and exported camels, horses, sheep, carpets, beeswax, Bupleurum, musk and safflower to the mainland. The two sides complement each other in the mutual market, especially Xixia has a great demand for daily necessities in the mainland. Therefore, when the relationship deteriorated, the Song Dynasty imposed sanctions by stopping the "year-old ceremony" and mutual exchange. During the period of 1039 ~ 1042, the wars between the two sides continued, and Yuan Hao continued to win on the battlefield, but he was losing ground economically because the Song Dynasty stopped the "annual gift" and closed the monopoly market, which had little impact on the Song Dynasty. However, the shortage of food, cloth and other daily necessities in Xixia caused the price to rise. Yuan Hao's policy towards the Song War made the officials and people quite dissatisfied, so he turned to peace talks.

There was a constant war between Song Dynasty and Liao, Jin and Xixia, and horses were badly needed. So monopoly markets were set up in Xizhou in the northwest (now Lintao County, Gansu Province), Hezhou (now Linxia City, Gansu Province), Yazhou in the southwest (now Ya 'an City, Sichuan Province) and Yongzhou in the south, and local products such as tea produced in the mainland were exchanged for horses from Tubo ministries and Dali. This kind of trade is called "tea-horse exchange" in history. This makes the economic exchanges between Tubo and Dali and the mainland closer, which is conducive to the development of the southwest frontier. As a result, the Song Dynasty acquired a large number of war horses. According to records, during the teenage years (1094 ~ 1098), as many as 20,000 horses were purchased every year.

After the agreement of 1 142 was reached between the Southern Song Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty, there was a market in the border area, but since then, the two sides fought with each other and the market opened and closed. Nevertheless, the variety and quantity of the common market between the two sides are considerable. In the Southern Song Dynasty, mink, jewelry, ginseng, licorice, silk and pine nuts were imported from the Jin Dynasty, and tea, ginger, dried tangerine peel, cattle, rice, ivory, rhinoceros horn, sandalwood and silk products were exported to the Jin Dynasty. Tea is a commodity in cross-strait trade. 1223 (the second year of Jin Guangyuan), 50 counties in Henan and Shaanxi alone bought tea from the Southern Song Dynasty, with a total value of 302,000 silver. The mutual market promoted the economic and trade exchanges between the north and the south, and the Jin and Song governments also obtained a lot of taxes from it. For example, in 1 196 (the first year of Jin Cheng 'an), the tax revenue obtained by the Jin government from (now Tianshui City, Gansu Province) was 122099, while the tax revenue imported from the Jin Dynasty in the Southern Song Dynasty reached 43,000.

There is a monopoly market between Jin and Xixia, but the scale is small and intermittent. After repeated requests from Xixia, the Jin Dynasty only agreed to exchange markets in11year (the first year of Jin Di Tong), and the two sides set up markets in Baoan (now Zhidan County, Shaanxi Province), Lanzhou (now Suide County, Shaanxi Province) and Zhou Huan (now Huanxian County, Gansu Province). Xixia exchanged jewels and jade for the ruler's silk. Jin Shizong thought it was "exchanging useless things for useful things". 1 172 (in the 12th year of Jin Dading), the security and Lanzhou Fair was closed. 1 18 1 year, Suide monopoly market recovered, and all the old monopoly markets recovered after 10, but they were all closed in193 (four years of Jin Mingchang). Later, Lanzhou and Baoan were restored, but they were closed because of the war between the two sides.