To talk about the living standards of the people in the Song Dynasty, we have to quote a slightly exaggerated metaphor: the living standards of European monarchs in the same period could not catch up with a soldier guarding the city walls in the Song Dynasty.
Although this metaphor sounds exaggerated, it also reflects the affluence of the people in the Song Dynasty.
In our traditional cognition, ancient people were all dressed in cloth, patched, a pair of straw sandals, and surrounded by walls at home. This situation also existed in the Song Dynasty, but in terms of the overall living standard, the Southern Song Dynasty dared to call it the second, and no ancient unified dynasty dared to call it the first.
Take silk as an example. In ancient times, most people who could use silk were the families of dignitaries. In the heyday of the Song Dynasty, ordinary people could also wear shoes and clothes made of ordinary silk.
Song dynasty is a rare dynasty in history that did not restrain industry and commerce. While agriculture flourished, the industry and commerce in Song Dynasty flourished unprecedentedly. Economic circulation shows the living condition that ordinary people can consume, are willing to consume and dare to consume, and also reflects that the people in Song Dynasty are "not short of money" from one angle.
In the Song Dynasty, thick quilts were covered in winter, and popsicles could be eaten in summer. The richness of dishes and seasonings was also a major feature of the Song Dynasty. We watched a lot of movies and TV plays about ancient food, and the background was basically set in the Song Dynasty, precisely because in the Song Dynasty when people were full of food, they pursued food.
It is precisely because people's lives are rich and stable. According to statistics, the ancient population really broke through 1 100 million in the Song Dynasty. However, according to incomplete statistics, in the heyday of the Song Dynasty, there were more than 50 towns with more than1100,000 people.
Among them, the capital Tokyo is a collection of thousands of pets with a population of one million.
For China people, this figure doesn't seem prominent now, but do you know that it was not until the industrial period that the first city with a population of one million was born in Europe, hundreds of years later than the Song Dynasty?
Extended data:
The performance of commercial prosperity in Song Dynasty;
1, the emergence of paper money and the expansion of commercial capital. The prosperity of commerce in the Song Dynasty created a large number of wealthy businessmen, and their wealth increased day by day with a good business environment. According to historical records, wealthy businessmen gathered in Bianjing, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, with a wealth of more than 65,438+10,000 yuan. For those who have millions of assets, this is not uncommon. The annual income of some wealthy businessmen engaged in overseas trade can reach10 million yuan.
With the expansion of commercial capital and the increasing frequency of commodity exchange, the amount of money casting has soared, but it can't meet the demand.
Jiaozi, the earliest paper money in the world, was produced in the Northern Song Dynasty. By the Southern Song Dynasty, the varieties of paper money had increased, mainly including southeast Huizi, Chuanyin, Huaijiao and Hu Hui, with different denominations. In addition to the increase in currency, the amount of issuance has also increased greatly. These greatly facilitate business activities.
2. The formation and development of regional market. Numerous land and water transportation trunk lines and feeder lines in Song Dynasty connected regional central cities with other counties and towns, forming a nationwide commercial network, which was also the most remarkable feature of commercial prosperity in Song Dynasty.
The commercial network in the Northern Song Dynasty formed several regional markets, mainly including the northern market centered on the capital Bianjing (Kaifeng), the southeast market centered on Suzhou and Hangzhou, the Sichuan-Chongqing market centered on Chengdu, and the northwest market centered on Shaanxi and Hedong.
The Southern Song Dynasty formed a commercial network with Lin 'an (Hangzhou) as the center and Jiankang (Nanjing) as the hub, connecting the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the southeast coast. The formation of these regional markets is an important symbol of commercial prosperity in Song Dynasty.
3. There are more and more kinds of goods, and the types of businesses are more and more subdivided. In Song Dynasty, many agricultural products also became commodities, coupled with handmade products, which greatly increased the types of commodities. At that time, agricultural products as commodities mainly included grain, tea, vegetables, fruits, silk, hemp and cloth, and there were many handmade products.
Some commodities also have local characteristics, forming specialties, such as Jingdezhen porcelain, Shu brocade, Guangdong inkstone, gold copper, Wu paper, Jianzhou tea and so on. The increase of commodity varieties will inevitably make business operators more subdivided. According to historical records, there were at least 160 industries in Tokyo during the Northern Song Dynasty. By the Southern Song Dynasty, the market in Lin 'an had grown to 440 lines.
The commercial prosperity of this city transcends the limitation of place and time. In Song Dynasty, cities broke through the boundaries of city squares, and there were commercial activities on both sides of streets and residential areas, and there were also businesses at the bridge head and secluded places of square lanes, which showed the high prosperity of commerce in Song Dynasty. Morning market and night market also appeared in Bianliang City, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, which broke through the time limit of previous commercial activities and presented a scene of all-round prosperity.
5. A three-level market network system of "grass market-town-city" has been formed. The commercial prosperity in Song Dynasty was embodied in cities, market towns and rural markets. In Song Dynasty, four famous commercial towns appeared: Hankou Town, Foshan Town, Jingdezhen Town and Zhuxian Town. At the same time, vendors and vendors are busy in the streets, which enlivens the rural market and enriches the lives of farmers.
6. During the Song Dynasty, overseas trade was very developed. During the Southern Song Dynasty, overseas trade even became an important source of government revenue. The overseas trade of Song Dynasty surpassed that of the previous generation and became the most important country engaged in overseas trade in the world at that time. There are many countries and regions that trade with China by sea.
According to Zhu Fanzhi, there are more than 50 countries and regions that have maritime trade with China. Among them, countries in Arabian Peninsula and Malay Archipelago are dominant, and South Korea and Japan are dominant in the East. Even in the Song Dynasty, overseas trade spread to many countries and regions in Europe and Africa.