Jingzhou was severely damaged in the wars between the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The Yuan Dynasty destroyed the city. However, in the early Ming Dynasty, Jingzhou City was deliberately rebuilt, which shows that in the early Ming Dynasty, the importance of Jingzhou was still valued. The capital of the early Ming Dynasty
Nanjing in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Yichang, Jingzhou, Hankou, etc. in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River are all logistics strongholds along the river, and they are basically on equal footing.
However, as Yongle moved its capital to Beijing, the political situation and economic form changed dramatically, and Hankou's status began to slowly rise.
Beijing is a political city that is not rich in products. It only emphasizes the function of the capital. The country's huge bureaucracy and the government and business forces that have moved there are concentrated in Beijing. Materials need to be transported from the south every year. The water transportation of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has become the mainstay of national logistics.
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This was already the case in the Yuan Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, this function was not only strengthened, but its control power exceeded that of the Yuan Dynasty. According to the water transport management system of the Ming Dynasty, the management scope of the water transport of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was not limited to the canal, but
It goes all the way to Jianghan and Lianghu, important grain producing areas.
In other words, the Jianghan Plain and the Two Lakes area where Hankou is located are transported by the Grand Canal. asxs. Hankou has become an important distribution center for grain materials. It can transport grain and other materials. The grain and rice materials collected from here
, first extend the river waterway to the lower reaches, then turn into the Grand Canal and go north to Beijing.
In this way, Hankou is not only a station on the east-west water transport logistics channel of the Yangtze River, but also turns north and becomes an .asxs. on the "Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal-Yangtze River" water transport system that runs across the north and south.
At the same time, Jingzhou did not fulfill this function. As a result, from the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, Hankou became more important than Jingzhou.
At the beginning of Shun Dynasty, or more precisely when Li Laiheng conquered Chuchuang, although the Chuchuang army only occupied the Jingxiang area in the early stage, it did not occupy the Hankou area.
However, because Jingzhou's urban location was replaced by Xiangyang, and the emerging city that Chuangjun focused on developing in the Jingxiang area was Suizhou instead of Jingzhou, Jingzhou's status in Huguang can no longer catch up with Hankou.
During the Longqing and Wanli periods of the Ming Dynasty, Ada Khan, the leader of Mongolian Tumote in Monan, reconciled with the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty granted him a royal title and at the same time opened border markets, and Mongolian-Han border trade flourished;
At the same time, Li Chengliang conducted military operations in Liaodong and did a good job in pacifying the previously chaotic areas of Jianzhou and Haixi Jurchens. At the same time, he also vigorously conquered Chahar Tumen Khan in western Liaoning, and the horse market in Liaodong was greatly prospered.
So, what are the economic consequences of these two things?
Two relatively stable markets appeared almost at the same time, one in the Loop outside the Great Wall and the other in Liaodong. This is a huge business opportunity!
Next to these two border trade markets are Shanxi, northern Shaanxi, Beizhili and Shandong. Once the Hu-Han mutual market was opened, the transaction volume increased sharply. The materials in these four provinces could not meet the market demand at all. Especially in Mongolia
Pressed tea, which is hugely consumed among herdsmen, is not produced in these four northern provinces and can only be transported from the south.
This stimulated merchants to transport more inland materials, tea, sugar, ironware, cloth and silk fabrics, etc., from the farther south, which is also richer in products, to the northern frontier market; at the same time, the frontier market in Mongolia
A large amount of Jurchen's local specialties, furs, animal husbandry products, licorice and wolfberry produced in the Hetao area, ginseng, mink skin and deer antlers from Liaodong, etc., will also be transported to the south.
There is no need for interoperability between the north and the south. However, in the face of this good opportunity for people to make a lot of money, a contradiction has arisen - the volume of material transportation has increased astonishingly, but the transportation volume of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is limited, and
There is also a limited guarantee for government logistics and transportation. The number of things to be transported has doubled, and the road is only one, and it is still so narrow.
A bottleneck problem has arisen.
How to solve it? It's very simple and easy - just open up another way.
As a result, the most famous merchant gang in Chinese history, and the most frequently used trade route by them, appeared.
This is the Tea Horse Road of Shanxi merchants.
The "Southern Tea and Northern Horse" actually existed before the Longqing Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, but its scale was limited and its momentum was not large. With the realization of "I reached tribute and traveled through Liaodong", this road prospered rapidly.
As a result, during the Longqing and Wanli years of the Ming Dynasty, Hankou became another north-south road, a relay point, a cargo distribution center, and a wholesale and retail center that was only as important as the Grand Canal.
Tea coming from Fujian in the south has always traveled by water. When it reaches Hankou, it has to prepare to leave the boat and take the road instead. Livestock and various animal husbandry products from the north, as well as mountain products and local specialties, arrive in Hankou in the form of bulk wholesale.
Instead of continuing southward, we will change large wholesale to small wholesale or retail here. In this way, Hankou has become the center of a large cross logistics channel in the east-west direction (Yangtze River water transport) and north-south direction (Henan dry road to Poyang Lake water transport). At the same time,
, it is also a distribution center and transshipment center for commodities.
Therefore, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, the geographer Liu Xianting mentioned the prosperous scene in the world in his book "Guangyang Miscellaneous Notes" and summarized it as "four gathering places" - Beijing Division, South Foshan, West Hankou, and East Hankou.
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Huguang is the land of Longxing founded by the founder Li Laiheng, and Hankou is one of the most important economic centers in the early Chu Dynasty, and its status is better than that of Suizhou and Xiangyang.
After the Shizu Dynasty, the city of Hankou received policy favoritism from the imperial court, and its dominant position as an important commercial port thoroughfare was greatly strengthened again and again.
The Anda mutual trade in the Ming Dynasty was limited to a few tribes such as the Tumut, Ordos, and Karaqin tribes in Monan Mongolia.
In Dashun, with the comprehensive conquest of Monan, Mobei, and Mongolia by the Dashun army, the entire Western Region, Mongolia, and even part of the Hezhong region of Central Asia were included in the territory. The demand for tea and other southern goods in the northern grassland market
Continue to increase dramatically.
Moreover, a new neighbor appeared in the north at this time, that is, the Russian Empire, which was directly bordering Dashun to the west of Lake Baikal.
The Russians' tea drinking habit is no worse than that of the Chinese. Like the Mongols, they also drink fermented black tea and press it tightly. Therefore, Dashun signed a trade treaty with Russia, established a series of border trade towns, and opened up the Russian market.
As long as inland trade exists, Hankou, as an intersection of the Dashun Inland Canal, the Yangtze River, and the Han River, will not weaken its status as a commodity distribution center.
The three towns were merged into Wuhan Prefecture in the middle of the Shizu Dynasty, and their economic and political status rose again.
Although Hubei scholars have always sought to promote the establishment of Wuhan as a capital, making it a companion capital besides Kaifeng, Tokyo, Chang'an, and Peking.
But this is a status that Yan'an, Jinling, Shanghai, Suzhou, Guangzhou, Edo and Shonan have not achieved.
It is not surprising that Wuhan failed to establish itself as the capital in the end, but as a major center of the Shun Dynasty's inland transportation network, it has a prosperous economy and its scale is no less than that of Kaifeng.
Therefore, at that time, that is, during the Shizu Dynasty, Dashun's first-tier cities should be said to be "Eastern Jin Dynasty and Northern Han Dynasty", and Xingjing Chang'an was slightly inferior.