Hist 487_4

Summing up Shiba:
The Formation of a Nationwide Market During the Song Dynasty

• The Nationwide market: resulted from
  - an upsurge in agricultural productivity
  - the growth of regional specilization in the production of commodities
  - the development of transport and communications
  - the development of irrigation
• Revenues of the early Song government:
  - taxation of agricultural products
  - where possible also paper, lacquer, wax, silk
• Revenues of the later Song:
  - taxes on trade
  - large-scale purchases of articles for official use (for government dictated prices)
• There were three important economic areas in the Song:
  - north and - south separated by the Huai River
  - Sichuan province in west China
• Southern China was especially rich in trade goods desired by the population in the north and by the Jin such as tea, rice sugar, porcelain, lacquerware, silk, hemp and ramie cloth, bamboo and cane goods, cotton, writing materials, books, precious objects made from ivory, rhinoceros horn, coral, and agate; military suplies (bows, crossbows, wood and bamboo, shafts for spears and arrows, fish-glue, leather saddleflaps, leather soles for shoes, sheep, deerskins, hare furs, tong-oil etc.); green ginger, dried orange peel.
• In exchange the Jin provided pearls, silks, medicine from plants growing in the north (liquorice root; ginseng), horses, safron.
• Sichuan produced tea, silk, hemp, writing materials and books, fruits and sugar. They imported salt, horses, medicines (for which large fairs were held), and porcelain.
• International trade was conducted with
  - the Liao (Khitan; Qidan) -as long as the state existed- buying silver, hemp cloth, sheep, horses, slaves
  - Japan from where gold, gold dust, pearls, mercury, antlers, sulphur, shells, various woods, copper (vessels and weapons), artistic handicraft works were imported
  - To Southeast Asia: gold, silver (raw material and ornaments), iron pots and needles, mercury, celadon, white porcelain, earthenware, silk threads, hemp cloth, baskets, paper, grains, refined sugar, woods, books
  - Imports from Southeast Asia: spices, cotton, birds, exotic animals, fruits, beeswax, tortoiseshells, ivory, rhinoceros horn, pearls, white wax (refined beeswax, white wax insects' deposit).

The Rice Market:

Production and Circulation
Rice production was especially successful int the Yangzi delta. Due to draught resistant and early-ripening Champa rice, better irrigation and fertilizers double-cropping became common. Other areas were less affluent. In the Northern Song rice was prominent but by the Southern Song different kinds of rice are described even in poetry (Shiba quotes a poem mentioning 'long-waist' rice, 'level head' rice, 'red lotus' rice, 'fragrance' rice).

The Structure of the Rice Market
Peasants could carry their own grain to the market or rice could be temporarily stored in granaries of landlords (who could manipulate the price of rice in times of famine by hoarding it and selling only when the demand was high). This rice would be transported to the market by rice-boats which in some areas could carry as much as 10,000 piculs. The average capacity of rice boats and ocean going vessels carrying rice was between 600 and 2,000 piculs. In the market towns the rice was sold to rice-brokers. They would then sell it to rice shops where the consumer bought it. Sometimes the brokers and shop owners would betray the customers by moistening the rice to increase its weight.

Other agricultural products
Oils and fats were used for
- cooking
- lighting
- cosmetics
- ship construction
- manufacture of weapons
- lacquer goods and inks
- lubricants
- rust preventives
Different kinds of oil: -sesame oil; - hemp oil for reading lights; - perilla seed oil for rain garments;- almond oil; - tongtree oil; wax tree oil for candles and hair dye; fish oil

Vegetables
Radishes, ginger, melons, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, dye-plants, (red hibiscus, indigo, madder), onions, garlic, taro, turnips, lucerne

Fruits (fresh and preserved usually in brine or honey)
Loquats, plums, apricots, quinces, lychees, oranges

Sugar
from sugar cane (production took 18 months from planting to the sale; )

Timber and bamboo
for the construction of buildings and ships as well as for coffins: pinewood, catalpa wood, camphor trees, oak, sophora, cryptomeria, fragrant wood, juniper (the last three also imported from Japan); cedar wood for furniture

Cattle and fish
Cattle: Yellow cattle, black cattle (in the north), water buffalo (in the south): used as draft animals and for meat; no export to barbarian neighbors was allowed yet smugglers sold cattle to the Jin and trades illicitly in horns and hides; official permission had to be obtained for slaughtering; government-owned oxen could be rented
Fish: raising fish in ponds was especially popular in south China; it was sold fresh and preserved.

Handicraft products
Paper
- fine light-weight, thin, papers with a high gloss finish became popular; demand was fuelled due to the printing industry;
- fine paper was made from made from bamboo sprouts and mulberry tree bark
- less high quality paper: made from hemp, ramie, used cloth; structured paper: wheat and rice stalks, tree barks, tree roots, silk-cocoons, sea-weed
- papers could be decorated with colors and patterns
- toilet paper was available

Silk
Shandong, Hebei, Henan had been centers of silk production; in the Song production in Hubei and Sichuan, Jiangsu and Zhejiang developed quickly; various kinds of silk were produced on a large scale: open-weave silks; figured damask; plain silk, crepe, figured satin, pongee, raw silk thread, silk wadding, flossy silk for embroidery.

The state had official workshops which produced the silk used in diplomatic missions and as compensation payments to foreign states; rice growing areas which were also taxed with silk often bought their tax silk from other districts; mulberry leaves could also be bought if households that concentrated on sericulture did not have their own trees.

Lacquer
Lacquer was used
- as a finishing coat for wooden utensils and furniture;
- in building
- in weapons
- in textile manufacture
- in painting
- in ink production
- in medicines

Iron and copper goods
Iron and copper were used for
- the production of weapons
- cooking and ceremonial vessels
- for statues in temples
- as ornaments
- for mirrors
- for manufacturing bronze vessels in the antiquarian fashion
- for coins (copper)

Copper mines were used up by the eleventh century excepts for the mines in Yunnan in the southwest;