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.
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.
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The Northern Song Dynasty also produced the earliest paper money in China and even the world-"Jiaozi". After the establishment of the Northern Song Dynasty, Sichuan used iron money for a long time. At the end of A.D. 10, the so-called "Jiaozi Shop" appeared in Chengdu market, issuing paper money "Jiaozi" instead of iron money.
A large number of banknotes were issued in the Northern Song Dynasty, including jiaozi, thousands of coins and small banknotes, but today, none of the real banknotes in the Northern Song Dynasty have been handed down, probably because the paper is perishable.
During the Tang Dynasty, the main channel of foreign exchange was the northwest land. In the Song Dynasty, due to the war, the land traffic in the northwest was intermittent, and the foreign economic and cultural exchanges mainly depended on the southeast sea traffic.
The Song Dynasty pioneered the "Road of Marine Ceramics" for the first time, and the "Five Famous Porcelains" in the Song Dynasty became famous all over the world. Its merchant tonnage and quantity are the highest in the world. At that time, the number of seagoing ships reached 300 tons, while the number of Columbus ships hundreds of years later was only 120 tons. A 300-ton seagoing ship navigated by a compass crosses the Indian Ocean as far as the east coast of Arabia and Africa.
There were more than 300 kinds of importers and exporters, becoming the most developed shipping country at that time, which not only promoted world trade, but also introduced the three great inventions of printing, gunpowder and compass in Song Dynasty to Europe.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Song Dynasty Economy