Historical Facts of Ancient Chinese Economic Policies

I. The Development of Ancient Commerce

(1) Ancient Commerce under the Suppression of Commerce

1. The Development and Prosperity of the Pre-Qin Period

(1) During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, merchants appeared, and commerce was on the rise. The people of the Shang Dynasty were known for their skill in doing business, and the later generations called those who did business "merchants".

(2) Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, commercial prosperity: the government's control of commerce was broken; many commodity markets and large merchants with strong assets appeared everywhere.

2. Difficult development since the Qin and Han Dynasties

(1) The rulers mostly implemented the policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce.

(2) Merchants were restricted by time and place in doing business, but business was still developed.

3. Commercial development in the Sui and Tang dynasties

(1) Conditions of development: the development of agriculture and handicrafts; the opening of the Grand Canal.

(2) the development of the performance: in addition to urban commerce, rural market trade, cabinet and flying money came out.

4. Song and Yuan period of commercial prosperity

(1) Song Dynasty: the business environment is relatively relaxed, the increase in the variety of commodities, the emergence of the world's earliest paper money "Jiaodi".

What is the significance of the emergence of the currency? It facilitated the flow of commodities and promoted the development of the commodity economy in Sichuan and other regions during the Northern Song Dynasty; it was the earliest paper currency in the world.

(2) Yuan Dynasty: transportation was developed and metropolis became an international commercial metropolis.

5. The suppression of commerce in the Ming and Qing dynasties and the towns and cities still prospered in commerce

(1) A large number of agricultural and by-products, such as cotton, tea, and sugarcane, entered the market as commodities.

(2) Inter-regional long-distance trafficking trade developed faster.

(3) The emergence of "merchant gangs", the largest number of people, the strongest strength is the Hui merchants and Jin merchants.

(2) Foreign trade under the control of the government

1. The course of development

(1) During the Western Han Dynasty, trade between China and foreign countries gradually developed due to the opening of the two Silk Roads on land and sea.

(2) During the Tang Dynasty, Guangzhou became an important port for foreign trade, and the government set up a city ambassador here.

(3) During the two Song dynasties, China traded with dozens of countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Africa.

(4) During the Yuan Dynasty, Quanzhou was an important foreign trade port and was known as the world's largest port at that time.

(5) During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the rulers implemented the sea ban and the "closed-door policy", and China's foreign trade dwindled, and at that time, there was only one place to open Guangzhou for foreign trade, which was operated by the "Thirteen Houses".

Second, the ancient economic policy

The evolution of the land system

1. Primitive society: the land belongs to the clan communes.

2. Well-field system in slave society

(1) Prevalence: Xia, Shang, Western Zhou

(2) Content

①All land belonged to the state, and the king divided the land into layers, which were enjoyed by the grantees for generations. However, it could not be transferred or traded.

②The grantees had to pay tribute to the king.

③The common people and slaves farmed on the fiefs of the nobles and were subjected to cruel exploitation and slavery.

(3) Evaluation: It was a system of land statehood in slave society.

(4) Disintegration

1) During the Spring and Autumn Period, due to the development of productivity, the wasteland outside the well-field was reclaimed in large quantities as private land.

②The decline of the Zhou royal family, the frequent wars of annexation, and the further development of land transfer relations.

3The well-field system was undermined by the fact that the vassals regarded the land within their own boundaries as their private property, and by the decreasing number of laborers working on the well-field.

3. Feudal Private Land Ownership System

1) In 594 B.C.E., the state of Lu was the first to stipulate that taxes should be paid according to the mu (亩) regardless of whether the land was communal or private, and the other vassal states followed suit in reforming the tax system, which in fact recognized the legitimacy of private ownership of land.

②During the Warring States period, Shang Yang's reforms abolished the well-field system and legally established private ownership of feudal land.

(3) Evaluation: It has continued for more than 2,000 years in Chinese history; the landlord class, relying on political and economic privileges, annexed a large number of peasants' lands, resulting in the manning of society.

(4) Measures taken by successive governments to curb annexation:

From the Northern Wei Dynasty to the early Tang Dynasty, the government practiced bipolarization, set a maximum limit for the possession of land by government officials and the people, and restricted the land equalization system; the Ming Dynasty government measured the land throughout the country and collected taxes according to the sale and purchase of the land and the number of acres.