Yangzhou in ancient China was comparable to "new york". Why is it declining into a third-tier city now?

Located on the east coast of the United States, new york is the largest city and the largest port in the United States. On October 20 18 165438 10, new york was rated as a first-class city in the world by GaWC. Similar to new york, since the Tang Dynasty? Yangzhou is the richest man in the world? . Zitongzhijian once commented:? Yangzhou is rich in the world, and people say that Yang Yi Yi Er. ? Now Yangzhou has become a third-tier city for embarrassing reasons.

Guan Gong has some similarities with Qin Qiong, new york and Yangzhou. The prosperity of new york is inseparable from the Hudson River. The Hudson River has a total length of 507 kilometers and a drainage area of nearly 35,000 square kilometers. In the American War of Independence, the Hudson River highlighted its important strategic value. /kloc-in the 0/9th century, three canals were dug to connect the Hudson River with the midwest, making it one of the most important waterways in the United States. While enjoying the convenience of shipping, new york has rapidly developed into a major trading city.

Yangzhou's geographical position is also unique. It is located on the north bank of the Yangtze River, at the southern end of the Jianghuai Plain, where the Yangtze River meets the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. It is an important shipping town with the south going up and the north going down, and the west entering and the east leaving. The Grand Canal is the only north-south waterway in the Tang Dynasty. At that time, the postal route was often parallel to the waterway, and Yangzhou's geographical location became the land and water logistics distribution center in the Tang Dynasty.

The place marked above is the location of Yangzhou in Tang Dynasty.

Plan of Yangzhou City in Tang Dynasty

Hong Mai, a writer in the Southern Song Dynasty, said frankly in his article Rongzhai. In the Tang Dynasty, Yangzhou salt and iron transporters tried their best to seize power, with dozens of officials and businessmen. ? Salt and iron have always been the lifeblood of the national economy. Yangzhou, as a transit port of salt and iron, has accumulated rich shipping dividends. It's no exaggeration to call it new york of the Tang Dynasty.

Thanks to the developed shipping, the development trajectories of Yangzhou and new york are very similar. Yangzhou's offshore advantage along the Yangtze River plays an important role in foreign trade. In the Tang Dynasty, Yangzhou conducted foreign exchanges and overseas trade with , Persia and Southeast Asia.

Above _ Yangzhou Archaeological Site Park

In the 9th century, the Arab geographer Ibn? Goldabe equated Yangzhou with Longbian (now east of Hanoi, Vietnam), Guangzhou and Quanzhou in Daocheng County Records. Four major ports in the east? . Shen Kuo in "Meng Qian Bubi Tan", think? Yangzhou was the most prosperous city in the Tang Dynasty, with 1 10 steps from north to south and 13 steps from east to west. ? Yangzhou has become the third largest city after Chang 'an and Luoyang.

After the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, Yangzhou in Song Dynasty, driven by shipping and shipbuilding, not only quickly recovered its vitality, but also promoted the development of handicrafts. Take the business tax as an example. Among the 35 cities in China, Yangzhou ranks third with an average annual income of 80,000. Sima Yongguang, a writer in the Northern Song Dynasty? When a businessman goes to see the sunset, the whole city is full of spring breeze and wine. To describe the prosperity of Yangzhou.

Above _ Sima Guang's Inscription Full-length Image

Although there are many intersections between Yangzhou and new york, the differences between them are obvious. New york is the largest financial center in the world, controlling 40% of the global financial funds. The market value of new york Stock Exchange exceeds 65,438+05 trillion US dollars. Local clothing, printing, cosmetics and other industries rank first in the United States, and machinery manufacturing, arms production, petroleum processing, food processing and other industries also occupy an important position in the United States. It can be said that new york's economic structure is comprehensive.

On the other hand, during the Tang and Song Dynasties, Yangzhou experienced rapid development and entered the economic transition period. In the forty-two years of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 16 14), Zhu Yijun, Ming Shenzong, implemented the Law of Salt Outline in Huaibei. What is a court? Root fossa? In the name of selling salt franchise to salt merchants, it earned a lot of salt tax for the country. Merchants who sell salt to get rich are concentrated in Xiaguan, Yangzhou, becoming a special group in Yangzhou.

The above _ "Yangzhou Painting Boat Record" refers to salt merchants? Salt Kai Zi?

By the middle of Qing Dynasty, the wholesale price of salt in the imperial court was 12 Liang. Salt merchants can earn at least 25% profit by selling salt in Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan and Hubei. At this time, the population exploded, and there was a trend of both supply and demand of salt. The rise of salt industry makes it keep pace with shipping and become the two most important economic pillars in Yangzhou.

Within fifty years, salt merchants sold seven million imported salt in the market designated by the imperial court. Salt merchants control the root nest and exploit the labor force, and the salt profit exceeds 50%. Some officials lamented:? There are tens of millions of Huai merchants with abundant capital, and millions are the second. ? The strength of salt merchants can be seen. From the perspective of economic structure, Yangzhou is different from new york, and the combination of air transportation and salt is the main development model of Yangzhou.

Introduction of Salt in Xuan Tong Period in Qing Dynasty

After more than a thousand years of sustained prosperity, the crisis in Yangzhou began to appear. The most intuitive performance comes from the Yangtze River. In the Tang Dynasty, the Yangtze River entered the sea in Jingjiang and Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province, and moved nearly 300 kilometers to the west from the current estuary. The river surface was much wider than it is now. Poets in the mid-Tang Dynasty have written to prove that the tide has passed Yangzhou Guo? . It is enough to prove that the seagoing ships at that time could sail to Yangzhou. With the continuous extension of the estuary, Yangzhou lost its original location advantage along the Yangtze River.

Then the knife was repaired by the Grand Canal. As an artery connecting north and south, the Grand Canal runs through five major water systems: Haihe River, Yellow River, Huaihe River, Yangtze River and Qiantang River. In the fifth year of Xianfeng (A.D. 1855), the Yellow River burst and the canal bank was washed away, and the north-south river transport was blocked, so the court had to change to sea transport, forming a custom. The paralysis of river transportation has caused Yangzhou's status as a transportation center to plummet.

The collapse of shipping is just around the corner, and the decline of salt industry has already appeared. In the thirty-three years of Qianlong (AD 1768), it was a sensation. Huaihe River Salt Diversion Case? It solved the problem that the former salt official Gao Feng, Pu Fu and Lu Jianzeng were imprisoned, and even Ji Xiaolan, an academician, was involved. After this blow, Huaibei's salt industry was devastated. In the sixty years of Qianlong (A.D. 1795), Huaibei saltworks were reduced from twenty to twelve.

Above _ Landscape Map of Yangzhou in Qing Dynasty

During the Daoguang period, the contradiction between government and salt became more prominent. Salt merchants defaulted on salt tax, shoddy, rampant smuggling, resulting in empty treasury and serious corruption. Daoguang appointed Tao Shu as the salt administration of Lianghuai, trying to reform the disadvantages of salt administration. Tao Shu realized? Official regulation and commercial transportation? And then what? Increase the weight and lower the price? How to get rid of the bad habit of tax evasion carried by salt merchants and implement it in Huaibei? Ticket salt system? The salt industry has changed from monopoly of salt merchants to self-selling. After eight years of salt policy reform in Huaihe River, Tao Shu not only recovered a lot of tax arrears and public funds in those years, but also reduced the price of salt and delayed the increase of tax revenue.

Ticket salt system directly hit the real interests of salt merchants, Tao Shu said: There are hundreds of tea merchants, and only a few dozen are left because of the shortage, and most of them are operated by borrowing money, not all of them have their own capital. ? As the center of official salt trade, Yangzhou has also been implicated. With shipping and salt industry falling into the streets one after another, the decline of Yangzhou has become an inevitable trend.

Shanghai Station of Shanghai-Nanjing Railway in the Late Qing Dynasty

In addition, the long-term impassability of the railway has restricted the development of Yangzhou. 1905 Shanghai-Nanjing Railway was opened, and Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou along the line followed suit. 19 12, the opening of jinpu railway promoted the development of Xuzhou, Jinan, Bengbu and other places, especially Bengbu, where the jinpu railway met the Huaihe River and became an important town in northern Anhui. The bottleneck of traffic made Yangzhou miss the opportunity of development in the great changes of modern economy.

There is a classic line in the TV series "Beijingers in new york": If you love him, send him to new york, because it is heaven. If you hate him, send him to new york, because it's hell. ? Explain that a city has both opportunities and crises. Yangzhou is no exception, because of shipping, but also because of shipping and weak. The reform of salt policy in the late Qing Dynasty accelerated the decline of its status.

In 20 18, the GDP of Yangzhou reached 54661700 million yuan, an increase of 6.7% over the previous year, ranking eighth in the province. At present, Yangzhou strives for steady progress through transformation and upgrading, and strives to stand out from the third-tier cities and rank among the second-tier cities.

Text: When white is black.

References:

Daocheng County Records, Meng Xi's Notes, Rong Zhai's Essays and Zi Tong Zhi Jian.

The text was created by the team of History University Hall, and the pictures originated from the Internet and belonged to the original author.