In the long feudal era of China, the Song Dynasty was a period of rapid economic development, and made outstanding and remarkable achievements in agriculture, handicrafts and commerce. Due to the increase of population, the expansion of cultivated land area, the progress of iron tools, the improvement of farming technology, the multiplication of output, the expansion of cash crops and the development of diversified economy, unprecedented all-round development has been realized. The territory of the Northern Song Dynasty is smaller than that of the Han and Tang Dynasties, but the population is larger than that of the Han and Tang Dynasties, and the population growth rate and population distribution density are higher than that of the Han and Tang Dynasties, which is an important condition for the agricultural production in the Song Dynasty to far exceed that of the Han and Tang Dynasties. At the beginning of the Southern Song Dynasty, the southeast region was seriously damaged by soldiers. However, due to the large number of working people in the north moving south and working together with farmers in the south, agricultural production in the Southern Song Dynasty was rapidly restored and developed. The production of farm tools in Song Dynasty was not only large in quantity and good in quality, but also varied in variety. Farmers pay more attention to intensive cultivation. Zhancheng Rice was introduced from Vietnam and spread to Jiangnan, Zhejiang and Huainan in Song Zhenzong. The cash crops in the Song Dynasty, especially those in the south, developed considerably. Tea trees are widely planted in southern China. Sichuan, Sichuan, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Fujian are famous sugarcane planting areas. In Song Dynasty, the production of textile fiber was still dominated by silk and hemp, while the planting area of cotton gradually expanded and the output gradually increased. In Song Dynasty, handicraft industry made remarkable progress in raw material collection, production technology, product variety and quantity. Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Jinghu and Shaanxi have all become shipbuilding centers. The development of shipbuilding industry has promoted the continuous progress of navigation technology. The development of mining and metallurgy in Song Dynasty provided a solid material foundation for the development of agriculture, handicrafts and commerce, and a large number of Carboniferous (coal) were mined. Oil was used in military and medicine in Song Dynasty. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the silk industry in Zhejiang, Sichuan and Sichuan was the most developed. The output of flax is much higher than that of Tang Dynasty. The proportion of cotton fabric in all textiles has increased. With the prosperity of block printing industry, the demand for paper has surged, which has promoted the rapid development of folk paper industry. The papermaking technology in Song Dynasty was greatly improved compared with the previous generation. Porcelain kiln households in the Song Dynasty were almost all over the country. Ding kiln in Dingzhou (now Hebei), Ru kiln in Ruzhou (now Linru, Henan), Jun porcelain in Yangzhai (now Yuzhou, Henan) and Jingdezhen kiln in Raozhou (now Boyang, Jiangxi) have their own characteristics. The development of commerce in Song Dynasty surpassed that of the previous generation. Big cities and small towns flourished, paper money appeared and was widely used, and overseas trade developed unprecedentedly. There were a number of big cities in the Song Dynasty with a population of over 65,438+10,000. Kaifeng was the largest city in the Northern Song Dynasty. Big cities have gradually broken through the boundary between the square and the city, and industry and commerce are mixed with residents. As the resident of the Southern Song Dynasty, Lin 'an Prefecture is also the largest commercial city. Jiankangfu (now Nanjing, Jiangsu), Ezhou (now Wuchang, Hubei), Chengdu Fucheng and Quanzhou are all important commercial cities. The currency in the Northern Song Dynasty was mainly copper coins, supplemented by iron coins. Credit in business, that is, credit relationship, gave birth to the earliest paper money exchange in the world. In the Southern Song Dynasty, in addition to casting iron money, paper money gradually became the main currency. In the Song Dynasty, monopoly markets were set up in some border areas with Liao, Xixia and Jin, and officially licensed trade was carried out. Private smuggling trade on land and along the coast is quite prosperous Song was an important maritime trading country in the world at that time. In the Song Dynasty, there were maritime traffic lines from Guangzhou and Quanzhou to Vietnam, Indonesia and even Arabia and Northeast Africa, as well as from Mingzhou or Hangzhou to Japan and North Korea, and from Dengzhou (now Penglai, Shandong) or Banqiao, Mizhou (now Jiaozhou, Shandong) to North Korea. Song Dynasty traded with Indian zhina Peninsula, Nanyang Islands, Arabian Peninsula and even northeast Africa. In the Northern Song Dynasty, city shipping companies were set up in major ports such as Guangzhou, Mingzhou, Hangzhou, Quanzhou, Mizhou, Xiuzhou (now Jiaxing, Zhejiang), Wenzhou, Jiangyin Army (now Jiangyin, Jiangsu), which were responsible for the entry and exit procedures of shipping companies and collected shipping taxes to buy goods. The transportation industry in Song Dynasty was also quite developed. Inland river transportation takes the great river (Yangtze River), the Bianhe River and the canal as the main arteries. In the Song Dynasty, besides extensive overseas trade, domestic coastal transportation was also large-scale, both of which were mainly folk transportation. The communication system in Song Dynasty is a network of post stations all over the country. Besides official documents, private letters can also be mailed.