Chinese Economic Developments

Commercialization in Song Dynasty China

The Song dynasty continued the commercial and technological success (960–1279) from previous Chinese dynasties. As the economy continued to commercialize, China became the most urbanized place in the world. China’s economic success resulted from various technological innovations that allowed China to produce and trade foods and goods more quickly and efficiently. Chinese technological innovation during this period reshaped the world as technological advances diffused west along international trade routes.

What is Commercialization?

Commercialization is the development of businesses and markets where merchants sell goods for profit on a large scale. In non-commercialized economies, families produce products for personal consumption, or goods are produced and sold at a small scale.

Key Term: Commercialization

Commercialization is the development of business and markets where merchants sell goods for profit on a large scale. In non-commercialized economies, families produce products for personal consumption, or goods are produced and sold at a small scale.

Economics

What Did Commercialization Look Like in the Song Dynasty China?

Song Dynasty China was one of the most developed and prosperous commercial centers globally. As urban centers grew during the Song dynasty, urban areas depended on trade and commerce to import staple products such as rice and export luxury goods like silk and porcelain for profit. It became increasingly common for merchants to sell both agriculture and non-agricultural goods in markets. Trade within rural areas also expanded. However, despite growing commercialization, most of China’s population remained poor and worked in agricultural production or as craftspeople in rural areas.

China was also one of the most urbanized places in the world.
The Song capital city of Hangzhou numbered over 1 million people, and dozens of other cities numbered had populations in the hundreds of thousands.
A Chinese writer vividly described Hangzhou in 1235. His description included specialized markets that sold various food products and manufactured goods such as books, silk, and porcelains.
Hangzhou had a thriving restaurant and bar scene.
There were inns of varied sorts. Those with red lanterns meant that prostitutes were available inside.
The city had multiple schools for the study of Confucianism and the arts, such as music.
Clubs were available for citizens with varied interests like Buddhism, fitness, fishing, and poetry.
Italian explorer Marco Polo, who visited Hangzhou in the 13th century, described the city as “beyond dispute the finest and noblest city in the world.”

Source: Writing of Italian merchant and traveler Marco Polo who visited China between 1271-1295. Upon returning home his writings were published into the book The Travels of Marco Polo.

When you have left the city of Soochow and have traveled for four days through a splendid country, passing a number of towns and villages, you arrive at the most noble city of Kinsay, which is in our language “City of Heaven.” I will enter into particulars about its magnificence since the city is beyond dispute the finest and noblest in the world.

First and foremost, then, Kinsay is so great that it is 200 square miles. In it there are 12,000 bridges of stone, with most so lofty that a great fleet could pass beneath them. And let no man marvel that there are so many bridges, for you see the whole city stands as it were in the water and surrounded by water, so that a great many bridges are required to give free passage around it.

In this city there are 12 guilds of different crafts, and each guild has 12,000 houses in the occupation of its workmen. Each of these houses contain at least 12 men, while some contain 20 and some 40, including the apprentices who work under the masters. All these craftsmen had full employment since many other cities of the kingdom are supplied by this city….

Both men and women are fair and comely, and for the most part clothe themselves in silk, so vast is the supply of that material, both from the whole district of Kinsay and from the imports by traders from other provinces….
In this part are the ten main markets, though besides these there are a vast number of others in the different parts of town. They are all squares of half a mile to the side, and along their front passes the main street, which is 40 paces in width, and runs straight from end to end of the city, crossing many bridges. At every four miles of its length comes one of those great squares of two miles in compass. In each of the squares is held a market three days a week, frequented by 40,000 or 50,000 persons, who bring there for sale every possible necessity of life, so that there is always an ample supply of every kind of meat and game, as of roebuck, red-deer, fallow-deer, hares, rabbits, partridges, pheasants, quails, fowls, ducks and geese….
Neither grapes nor wine are produced there, but very good raisins are brought from abroad, and wine likewise. The natives, however, do not much care about this wine, being used to that kind of their own made from rice and spices. From the Ocean Sea also come daily supplies of fish in great quantity, brought 25 miles up river, and there is also great store of fish from the lake, which is the constant resort of fishermen, who have no other business….

The natives of this city are men of peaceful character, both from education and from the example of their kings, whose disposition was the same. They know nothing of handling arms, and keep none in their houses. You hear of no feuds or noisy quarrels or dissentions among them. Both in their commercial dealings and in their manufactures, they are thoroughly honest and truthful, and there is such a degree of good will and neighborly attachment among both men and women that you would take the people who live in the same street to be all one family.

What Were the Causes of Chinese Commercialization?

The economy of the Song dynasty flourished as a result of increased production. Chinese commercialization resulted from innovations in Chinese production methods, new technologies, and innovations in finance (money) systems during the Tang (618-907) and Song dynasties.

Between the Tang dynasty (618-907) and the Song dynasty (960-1279), China’s population doubled from 60 to 120 million.

One cause of this population increase was China’s ability to increase its food supply by reforming land use and ownership patterns. Under the Tang dynasty, the equal field system was introduced, giving individual plots of land to peasant families. Working on their properties and not the land of wealthy landowners gave peasants the incentive to increase production. In the years after the implementation of the equal-field system, food production and rural wealth increased.
The Tang dynasty also increased food production by adopting a drought-resistant and fast ripening rice known as Champa. Initially discovered by the Chinese from Vietnamese farmers in Chinese occupied Vietnam, Champa rice allowed farmers to produce two rice crops a year instead of a single yearly crop.

As the agriculture system could produce more food with fewer workers, more people became available to work in non-food commercial production.

During the Tang and Song dynasties, technological innovations were important in diffusing knowledge and increasing China’s ability to produce more commercial goods and diffuse knowledge.

The printing press

The Chinese printing press, the oldest known globally, was critical in Chinese economic success in this period. While early forms of the printing press had existed in China since the 3rd century, in the 11th century, Bi Sheng invented a movable type printing press. This innovation meant that single slabs of text no longer had to be carved to print documents. Now blocks within a tray could easily be arranged to put characters in any order—this simple bookmaking process allowed for the increased production of books at a lower price. More books increasingly led to a more rapid spread of ideas and technologies.

An industrial revolution–almost

Song China came close to starting the world’s first industrial revolution. The world would not again reach this development stage for another 500 years until a complete industrial revolution began in Europe in the 18th century.

Iron and steel: One area that saw substantial innovation and growth was the iron and steel industries, as new smelting methods developed that increased the purity and strength of iron and steel. Increased metal production allowed for the creation of stronger suits of armor and weaponry, easier minting of metal currencies, construction of bridges, and better agricultural tools like plows.
Coal: Coal production also increased to meet the needs of expanding metal smelting industries (used to make metals).
Water wheels: Water wheels increasingly powered textile machines allowing for increased production.

As a result of these innovations, larger-scale enterprises (businesses) developed that sometimes employed hundreds of people working in factories to produce porcelain and silk products.

Expansions of trade networks were critical to the strength of the Song commercial economy. The development of trading routes allowed the Chinese to move surplus (extra) goods within and outside China.

The Grand Canal

The Grand Canal was an essential trade network within China. Originally started during the Sui dynasty (581-618), the Grand Canal network was vital for moving goods within China’s growing commercial economy. The Tang and Song dynasties further expanded on the Grand Canal system to connect northern and southern China. The canals ran along the eastern coast and joined together with some of China’s biggest coastal seaports. The canal moved surplus rice from the agriculturally productive southern regions to China to the less fertile areas in the north. Non-agricultural goods, such as textiles and other luxury items, were also moved along the canal system.

International trade

China was also a major participant in international trade.

Chinese merchants controlled trade in Southeast Asia in the South China Sea.
Through the Indian Ocean trade routes, Chinese goods passed through India, the Middle-east, and East Africa.
The eastern Silk Road land routes began in China before moving west through Central Asia into the Middle East.

Goods exported on land and maritime routes included silks, porcelains, and teas. Chinese goods were available as far away as the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.

The Chinese also imported luxury goods for elites, such as cotton, gemstones, and agricultural products like dates, grapes, and cotton.

Merchants worldwide made their way to China to engage in lucrative trade with the Chinese. While long-distance travel was uncommon during this time, the Song capital of Hangzhou hosted an Arab diaspora community, nearly 5000 miles from their homeland on the Arabian peninsula.

As trade volumes increased, new financial instruments made business transactions easier.

Paper money: Paper money made small transactions in local markets quicker and more efficient than completing transactions with metal coins. Paper currency was also cheaper to produce.
Banking and credit: An early banking system called flying cash allowed merchants to make money deposits in one location and withdraw the money in a different place. Merchants no longer needed to carry large sums of money with them as they traveled and moved goods across China.

What Were the Effects Did Chinese Commercialization Globally?

Increasing commercialization impacted both China and the world. During both the Tang and Song dynasties, China produced significant scientific and technological innovations that would diffuse widely globally on long-distance trade routes. The transfer of Chinese technological innovations was not a quick process. It often took hundreds or thousands of years before making its way into the western world, usually via India, Central Asia, and the Middle-Eastern societies. As Chinese innovations spread, communities adopted and modified the technologies.

Chinese Technologies Spread Around the World

Papermaking

The Chinese invented papermaking in the second century BCE. The technology slowly spread west. It entered Muslim Spain in the 12th century before being adopted within Christian Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries--a lag time of nearly 1400 years.

Moveable type printing

Movable woodblock printing developed in China in the 11th century. The Gutenberg printing press in Europe began production in 1436--a much shorter 400 year lag time before western adoption. The printing press arrived in Europe just as European society was undergoing rapid changes from the collapse of feudalism, increasing commercialization, and a revival of interest in the arts, mathematics, and the sciences. Cheaper and easy printing allowed for the quicker diffusion of knowledge across the continent.

Gunpowder

Gunpowder would prove to be one of the most disruptive global innovations. Invented accidentally by Chinese alchemists in the 10th century, gunpowder reached the west by the 13th century. Europeans mastered its use and used it to conquer much of the world by the dawn of the 20th century.