A Study On The Fuel Problem Of Dongjing In Northern Song Dynasty

Fuel is not only used for human heating and cooking,but also for production activities.It is an important material basis for human survival and development.A society's fuel consumption structure and fuel efficiency have a significant impact on its productivity and production level.During the Northern Song Dynasty,there was no large number of forest resources which could be used as fuel in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River,since the continued development in these areas.In some of these areas,people had to deforest mulberry and jujube and other economic trees as fuels when facing freezing weather.The crisis of traditional fuels has undoubtedly played a negative role in the production activities in North China,and the widespread use of coal in this context appeared.The capital of the Northern Song Dynasty has more than one million people.The supply of urban fuels is divided into two systems:official and civil.The official system obtained fuels by levying physical fuel tax and organizing soldiers or ordinary people to deforest.The official's fuels were mainly supplied to the Palace,the officials and the official handicraft industry.Most of these official fuels came from Hedong Road,Shanxi Road and Jingxi Road.The well-developed waterway transport network around the capital and the efficient transshipment greatly facilitated the supply of fuels in the city.The civil system mainly relies on professional woodcutters and fuel merchants to transport fuels to the fuel market.Most of the citizens got their fuels by the civil system.The official and civil systems usually connected even though they were independent.There were specialized taxpayers in the city to tax the private traffickers which transport fuels to the city.The government usually supplied the official fuels to market when the city has a more severe fuel shortage,while sometimes the official fuels were also insufficient,they also turned to the fuels market.Coal became the main fuel of the city of Dongjing in the late Northern Song Dynasty.In order to obtain the interests of coal trading,the government monopolized the city's coal transactions.The widespread use of coal in the Northern Song Dynasty enhanced the economic vitality of the Northern Song Dynasty,and the high-fueled handicrafts in the northern such as Ferro-metallurgical industry,foundry industry,porcelain manufacturing and silkworm industry were still booming in the context of the traditional fuel crisis.