Song Gaozong (in office,1127-1162) showed a new attitude towards trade: "The benefits of foreign trade are the richest. If handled properly, millions (copper coins) will be earned, wouldn't it be better than taking them from the people? " He built a fleet, improved ports and built an expensive lighthouse navigation system every 30 miles along the coastline. China has entered the golden age of overseas trade. Trade stimulates the development of domestic handicrafts and agricultural production, and a large number of luxury goods are imported, but gold, silver and copper coins also flow overseas. There are fewer and fewer domestic coins, the national economy and the people's livelihood are unsustainable, and war profligacy leads to exorbitant taxes and levies-the tail is too big, and a dynasty has fallen. The golden age of marine civilization is like a sunken ship from now on, which needs to set sail again today after 1000 years.
Overseas trade: Guangzhou was once called "Flower Pagoda and Light Pagoda as a symbol of a city" by China, and Huicheng was called a giant ship, twin towers and five floors by prosperous scholars. -Qing Qu Dajun's Guangdong Xinyu (volume 19) describes Guangzhou as a "great ship".
According to expert research, "Nanhai No.1" is full of daily necessities such as gold, silver, iron and porcelain. Among them, there are "bell-mouthed" porcelain plates similar to those used in Arab hand-grabbed rice, and cobra bones are also found. Experts speculate that there are Arab and Indian businessmen on board and cobra keeps pets for them. Experts speculate that Nanhai No.1 is a large merchant ship bound for West Asia.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, shipping companies were established in Guangzhou, Quanzhou and Hangzhou. Similar to today's customs, they also opened a route to and from the Indian Ocean, which only took three months. By the early Southern Song Dynasty, "the three parties were the most prosperous"; Guangzhou Shipping Company's revenue from shipping trade is still "twice that of other modes". According to Bi Yan's Book Score, Mingzhou (now Ningbo) and Hangzhou bought a batch of frankincense weighing 5,376 Jin, and Guangzhou collected 348,673 Jin at a time, accounting for more than 98% of the total.
Simply put, Guangzhou was a huge commodity distribution center at that time and the "Canton Fair" of the world. Because of its popularity, Indian businessmen in China during the Tang and Song Dynasties even took Guangzhou as the name of China. Tang Yijing recorded in the biography of seeking dharma from the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty that "Guangzhou is also there"; Zanning's biography of becoming a monk said: "Indians are called Guangfu (Guangzhou) Chinamen."
What were the things in the Canton Fair at that time? According to Song Yaohui's Draft, Guangzhou mainly exports gold, silver, lead, tin and other hardware raw materials and handicrafts such as porcelain, silk, cloth and silk, while imports mainly luxury consumer goods, spices, medicines, dental implants, rhinoceros horns and corals.
In short, buy only the most expensive, not the best. Moreover, from the Northern Song Dynasty to the Southern Song Dynasty, the number of imported luxury goods only increased. Officials and rich people don't treat the money of working people as money at all. During the Southern Song Dynasty, the money spent on luxury goods every year actually accounted for 1/20 of the total fiscal revenue of the Southern Song Dynasty.
Corrupt officials in Guangzhou in the Song Dynasty also made a fortune through these transactions. Their way of getting rich is similar to that of corrupt officials in Otawa now. One is "Cheng Xiang", commonly known as "take back the buckle". When foreign cargo ships arrive, we must first give some good things to the officials.
Then there is accepting "gifts" when reading goods, that is, "accepting bribes." That is, when you spot-check the goods, you give me more money and I will order a first-class product for you; Pay less and be qualified; No, sorry, I can't sell it.
There is a more direct one, that is, your goods are not good, you have to sell them to the government at a low price, or even confiscate them.
Some officials are still dissatisfied with the unskilled action of "profit sharing" Just as many leaders like to buy shares in coal mines now, they can start their own companies and private overseas trade with their own notes.
Zhang Jun, a general who was relieved of military power with Yue Fei in the early Southern Song Dynasty, probably played the biggest role in private overseas trade. "He Lin Yu Lu" records that one day Zhang Jun saw a veteran sleeping in the backyard and asked him, why are you so lazy? Will you do something? The veteran said he could do business. Q: How much business can it do? The answer is "1 million won't do, 500 thousand will do." So he built a big ship, bought more than 100 beautiful women who can sing and dance, and bought some scattered silks and satins and precious antiques, and went to sea. A year later, he came back, saying that he pretended to be a "messenger of the Great Song Dynasty", renamed himself a horse with a beautiful woman, and used the spirit of Jin Ling to play the medicine of changing pearls into rhinoceroses, earning dozens of times.
To say that the Song Dynasty had no money, he was a regime that plundered all the wealth of the country. Although he is rich, he is in financial crisis and economic crisis almost all the time, and it is even difficult to maintain his operation. The rise and fall of overseas trade is the epitome of the contradiction in the Southern Song Dynasty. As Qian Mu summed up in the Outline of National History: "The government of the Southern Song Dynasty was taken from the people, and its people won't be trapped, and its country won't die!" Porcelain: all over the world. "Song porcelain, rare in the country. ..... alas! Colorful clouds are easy to disperse, and precious porcelain is fragile. Foreigners have skillfully translated pens, and porcelain is called porcelain. In the Southern Song Dynasty, it was a glaze bottle in a wolf's paw ... "—— Fu Wei Minglun Nanhai Phase I in Suining produced more than 2,000 pieces of complete porcelain, which collected more than 30 kinds of fine ceramics from famous kilns in the Song Dynasty, such as Dehua Kiln, Cizao Kiln, Jingdezhen Kiln and Longquan Kiln, most of which can be listed as national first-and second-class cultural relics. Effluent porcelain has obvious exotic style, which is considered to be a product ordered overseas and processed by samples in Song Dynasty. Geng, president of China Ancient Ceramics Association and authoritative expert on ceramic appraisal, exclaimed at the porcelain that surfaced on Nanhai No.1: "I have been engaged in porcelain research all my life, and I have never seen so many porcelain treasures, and many of them have never even heard of it!" The Song Dynasty was the first heyday of China porcelain, with five famous kilns: Ding, Jun, Guan, Ge and Ru kilns. Compared with the gorgeous enamel in Ming and Qing Dynasties, Song porcelain is famous for its elegant monochromatic glaze, which is regarded by many porcelain lovers as a "good family" in China porcelain. In the Song Dynasty, famous kilns appeared one after another, and official kilns were second to none. When Song Huizong ascended the throne, a Jun porcelain kiln was built in Shenhou Town, Yuzhou, which was dedicated to firing flowerpots, pots and other furnishings for the palace. Under his auspices, the surface of Jun porcelain was fired with unusually beautiful and changeable lines. Because it is difficult for later generations to imitate, Jun porcelain is unparalleled. During the period of Jingdezhen in the Song Dynasty, Zhao Heng of Song Zhenzong ordered Changnan to enter imperial porcelain. The calligraphy "Jingdezhen Year System" was very popular in the name of "Jingdezhen" for a long time because of its exquisiteness. With the southern crossing of the Song Dynasty, many skilled craftsmen from famous northern kilns flocked to Jingdezhen, bringing the advanced porcelain-making technology in the north at that time, which made Jingdezhen's porcelain-making technology develop rapidly. Jingdezhen was famous for producing "Yingqing Porcelain" and "Blue-and-White Glazed Porcelain" in Song Dynasty, which reached overseas through Quanzhou and Guangzhou and became a world famous brand at that time. It is said that when Dutch and Portuguese businessmen first trafficked porcelain to Europe, the price of porcelain was almost equal to that of gold. According to Zhao's Zhufanzhi, the porcelain of Song Dynasty was transported to more than 50 countries around the world, including Tanzania and other places as far away as Africa. Driven by huge economic benefits, many porcelain kilns appeared near famous foreign trade ports such as Quanzhou, Guangzhou and Hangzhou in Song Dynasty. For example, Dehua kiln in Fujian and Cizao kiln near Quanzhou, which were discovered on Nanhai No.1, were the famous export porcelains of that year. Archaeologists found some porcelain carvings in the magnetic stove kiln, with tall figures and deep eyes, vividly reappearing the scene of "merchants from all over the world rising at home" at the trading port that year. In the Song Dynasty, Guangdong porcelain industry entered an unprecedented period of prosperity, with more than 80 famous kilns such as Guangzhou Xicun Kiln and Chaozhou Bijiashan Kiln, with an annual output of 65.438+0.3 billion pieces of porcelain, nearly 22 times higher than that of the Tang Dynasty. Zhou Pingke Tan written by Zhu in the Southern Song Dynasty recorded the situation that Guangzhou merchant ships exported a large number of porcelain at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty. He said: "The ship is dozens of feet deep and dozens of feet wide, and the merchants divide the goods. People have to wait a few feet to store things and lie on them at night. There are a lot of pottery, with matching sizes and no shortage of space. "Some experts say that most of the Song porcelain found in Southeast Asia were foreign trade commodities in Guangzhou that year. As the light of Song porcelain spread overseas, foreigners flocked to Song porcelain. In foreign countries, the use of Song porcelain has become a symbol of class and status, and even affected their living customs. According to records, before the introduction of China ceramics, some countries in Southeast Asia used plant leaves as containers for food. After the introduction of Song porcelain, they changed the eating custom of "eating with a shovel" in the past and used exquisite and practical porcelain as tableware. Today, in the National Museum of Indonesia, there are still many large "bell-mouthed" porcelain bowls produced by Dehua in the Song Dynasty. The blue-and-white porcelain seagoing vessel of the Song Dynasty emerged from Nanhai No.1: the world's crown. "A ship is like a mansion, living in the South China Sea, with a diameter of hundreds of miles, a thousand lives and a rudder directly under it." -Zhou Qufei, an expert in the Southern Song Dynasty, told the reporter that Nanhai No.1 adopted the overall salvage plan because "the ancient shipwreck itself is a huge archaeological information". Because most of the sunken ships in the Song Dynasty unearthed before were damaged and incomplete, the relatively complete hull of Nanhai No.1 will probably solve many mysteries of shipbuilding and navigation in the Song Dynasty for experts.
From the mid-9th century, China ships began to replace Persian, Japanese, Indian, Kunlun and other foreign ships, and gradually controlled the maritime hegemony in the Indian Ocean. In the face of the invasion and siege of the belligerent nationalities in the north, the Song Dynasty reached a peak in the history of China's navigation.
Song Ting encouraged the rich to build ships and buy goods overseas to do business. In order to guide merchant ships and official ships, he also set up an expensive lighthouse navigation system every 30 miles along the coastline. Song Gaozong personally sought the help of businessmen to form a fleet, which was enough to challenge the long-held commercial hegemony of Persian and Arab businessmen in the Indian Ocean. During the Southern Song Dynasty, China had the best ships in the Indian Ocean and directly competed for the control of maritime trade in the hands of Arabs.
In the Song Dynasty, the average length of ocean-going merchant ships was 30 meters, the width was 10 meter, the cargo could be 100 tons, and there were more than 60 sailors. The largest ship can carry more than 300 tons of goods, plus 500 or 600 people. Compared with previous dynasties, the design of Song boats is bolder and larger, the hull is more magnificent and the decoration is more gorgeous. In the Song Dynasty, the bow was small, the bottom was as narrow as a blade, the ship was flat and wide, high and deep, and it was still rock-solid in the face of strong winds and waves. Song Ship also designed a sealed watertight cabin, equipped with a small boat lifeboat.
Zhu Yu wrote in Zhou Ping Ketan, "A boatman knows geography, but he watches the stars at night, the sun during the day and the compass secretly." According to textual research, the compass began to be used in navigation in the Song Dynasty, especially in Guangzhou, and it was used no later than 1 1 century. At that time, Qian Fan's giant ships racing in the waters near Guangzhou Port were all equipped with compass navigation. Song people combined the astrology of Tang people and Arabs for ocean navigation. Song people also made use of advanced knowledge of astronomy and geography to draw a preliminary nautical chart. When he was in Song Qinzong, Xu Jing drew a map of the islands he passed when he was in North Korea.
"Hundreds of people in a boat make wine with tapirs, and they were born in the sea ..." Facing the vast sea and unlimited voyage, loading wine, raising pigs, fresh meat and wine on the boat in the Song Dynasty became a great pleasure of life at sea.
The scene of the diplomatic envoys abroad in the Song Dynasty was spectacular. There is a giant seagoing ship "Shenzhou" specially made by the government, and there is also a large seagoing ship "passenger ship" hired by the people, which stretches for several nautical miles. Song Shenzong once sent officials to hire Koryo and ordered people to build two seagoing ships in Mingzhou. After arriving in North Korea, the two Shenzhou's were "like mountains, floating on the waves, with the bow of brocade sails", and the North Koreans had never seen such a huge ship, "the whole city shrugged and cheered" ... so the Song boat was quite internationally famous at that time.
Song Ship Model Life: A Little Luxury
"Beautiful blue-eyed handmaid wears a cloth on her head and a ring on her black beard's ear. Several towers pillow water, and the surrounding city walls are half surrounded by mountains. "
-Song Qiu Zhuo, "Giving Five Sheep to the Satrap"
The gold-plated belt and exquisite cosmetic box, the daily necessities of Nanhai No.1, unveiled the mystery of ancient life more than 800 years ago.
One thousand years ago in China, the primary industry, the secondary industry and the tertiary industry ranked first in the world. As residents of the most powerful country in the world, Song people actually lived a luxurious life a thousand years ago.
Nowadays, most people who buy Honda are senior white-collar workers. At that time, Lin Chong, even today, may not like sitting in a high-end office building. He bought a knife and spent almost 200 thousand.
In Water Margin, Lin Chong bought the following knife:
Lin Chong took it in his hand and read it deeply. He was taken aback and said, "Good Dao! How much do you want to sell? "
Nahan said, "The asking price is 3,000, but the actual price is 2,000."
Bargain, and finally clinch a deal with one thousand penetration. It has always been/kloc-0.000 copper coins, and one copper coin is about equivalent to/kloc-0.5 to 20 cents now. The consistent money is1RMB from 50 yuan to 200 yuan, and 1000 yuan is10.5 million yuan-200,000 yuan.
The commerce in Song Dynasty was highly developed, so the salary of civil servants was relatively high. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the proportion of industry and commerce in the national fiscal revenue exceeded that of agriculture! During the Northern Song Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty (104 1- 1048), the annual business tax revenue was19.75 million yuan, and the business tax in the Song Dynasty was very light, with 3% residence tax and 2% travel tax. If the average is 2.5%, the annual turnover of taxable goods will reach 800 million yuan, which is more than 8 yuan per person. That is to say, from 104 1 to 1048, the annual income of China's commodity trade exceeds 1000 yuan.
Sima Guang lamented in the article Xun Shi Jian Kang: "A pawn wears a suit, and a farmer tiptoes away". He is also wearing a famous brand of small business and Italian leather shoes, which shows that the life of the Song people is really petty.
The entertainment industry in Song Dynasty was more clearly divided into four categories: official prostitutes, geisha, geisha and commercial prostitutes. The "prostitute" in the Song Dynasty is probably equivalent to the current literary and art workers. They are basically both talented and beautiful, and they have deep attainments in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting. Several "official prostitutes" are the most admirable. Their appearance, knowledge, intelligence and artistic taste are outstanding, and they are basically "artists with both virtue and art".
Although Guangzhou is not as good as Bianjing, the capital at that time, it is still a large and medium-sized city, and it is also a large and medium-sized city with strong exotic customs. This is a grand scene of the blending of Chinese and foreign cultures, and the people's material life and spiritual life are relatively rich.
A large number of foreigners lived in Guangzhou during the Tang and Song Dynasties. It is said that there were 65,438+10,000 people in the Tang Dynasty. Yue Lin, the son of Yue Fei, is a local official in Guangzhou. When Yue Lin's son York visited Guangzhou, he made friends everywhere and often went to take a bath in a foreign residential area. He came to an experience that among foreign businessmen, the businessman named Pu is the most expensive and leads a luxurious life. In the first year of Shaoxing (1 13 1), Puyali, a big food merchant, once bought goods, all of which were luxury goods such as ivory and rhinoceros horn. As a result, Guangzhou Shipping Company couldn't afford it at once, so it had to pay in installments and then auction half of the goods to pay off Puyali's capital.
What is even more unexpected is that under the influence of businessmen, Guangzhou officials and rich people keep a "ghost slave" (black) to do housework, just like Hong Kong people now hire a Filipino maid. During the Southern Song Dynasty, people from Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province went to Lingnan as unofficial officials last week. After leaving their posts, they wrote a book "An Answer to the Generation Outside the Ridge", which said that "there are many savages on the island, dressed in black paint, punching their fists (curly hair), being lured to eat prisoners and being sold as slaves." Zhu's "Zhou Ping can talk" also said that "the rich people in Guangzhou (state) have many livestock and ghost slaves, and they are extremely powerful, but they can be negative ... There is an offshore savage who enters the water without blinking, called Kunlun slave". It can be seen that the sale of slaves has been very popular since the Tang and Song Dynasties. As for later generations, some people say that Cantonese people have black blood, which is probably based on this. It is a joke.
Fragments of Arab-style porcelain surfaced.
the gold belt