Economy of the Han dynasty

The Han dynasty (206 BC 220 AD) of ancient China experienced

contrasting periods of economic prosperity and decline. It is
normally divided into three periods: Western Han (206 BC 9 AD),
the Xin dynasty (923 AD), and Eastern Han (25220 AD). The Xin
regime, established by the former regent Wang Mang, formed a brief
interregnum between lengthy periods of Han rule. Following the fall
of Wang Mang, the Han capital was moved eastward from Chang'an
to Luoyang. In consequence, historians have named the succeeding
eras Western Han and Eastern Han respectively.[1]

The Han economy was defined by significant population growth,

increasing urbanization, unprecedented growth of industry and trade,
and government experimentation withnationalization. In this era, the
levels of minting and circulation of coin currency grew significantly, A Western Han (202 BC 9 AD) coveredjade cup
forming the foundation of a stable monetary system. The Silk Road with gilt bronze fittings,Sackler Museum
facilitated the establishment of trade and tributary exchanges with
foreign countries across Eurasia, many of which were previously
unknown to the people of ancient China. The imperial capitals of
both Western Han (Chang'an) and Eastern Han (Luoyang) were
among the largest cities in the world at the time, in both population
and area. Here, government workshops manufactured furnishings for
the palaces of the emperor and produced goods for the common
people. The government oversaw the construction of roads and
bridges, which facilitated official government business and
encouraged commercial growth. Under Han rule, industrialists,
wholesalers, and merchantsfrom minor shopkeepers to wealthy An Eastern Han (25220 AD) golden belt hook,
businessmencould engage in a wide range of enterprises and trade hammered and chiseled with designs ofmythical
in the domestic, public, and even military spheres. animals and birds

In the early Han period, rural peasant farmers were largely self-
sufficient, but they began to rely heavily upon commercial exchanges with the wealthy landowners of large agricultural estates. Many
peasants subsequently fell into debt and were forced to become either hired laborers or rent-paying tenants of the land-owning
classes. The Han government continually strove to provide economic aid to poor farmers, who had to compete with powerful and
influential nobles, landowners, and merchants. The government tried to limit the power of these wealthy groups through heavy
taxation and bureaucratic regulation. Emperor Wu's (r. 14187 BC) government even nationalized the iron and salt industries;
however, these government monopolies were repealed during Eastern Han. Increasing government intervention in the private
economy during the late 2nd century BC severely weakened the commercial merchant class. This allowed wealthy landowners to
increase their power and to ensure the continuation of an agrarian-dominated economy. The wealthy landlords eventually dominated
commercial activities as well, maintaining control over the rural peasantsupon whom the government relied for tax revenues,
military manpower, and public works labor. By the 180s AD, economic and political crises had caused the Han government to
become heavily decentralized, while the great landowners became increasingly independent and powerful in their communities.

Contents
 1 Monetary system and urbanization
1.1 Urbanization and population
1.2 Variations in currency
1.3 Circulation and salaries
2 Taxation, property, and social class
2.1 Landowners and peasants
2.2 Subsistence
2.3 Tax reforms
2.4 Conscription
2.5 Merchants
3 Crafts, industries, and government employment
3.1 Private manufacture and government monopolies
3.1.1 Iron and salt
3.1.2 Grain
3.2 Government workshops
3.3 Public construction projects
4 Domestic trade
4.1 Traded goods and commodities
4.2 Estate management and trade
5 Foreign trade and tributary exchange
6 See also
7 Notes
8 References
9 External links

Monetary system and urbanization

Urbanization and population

During the Warring States period (403221 BC), the development of private commerce, new trade routes, handicraft industries, and a
money economy led to the growth of new urban centers. These centers were markedly different from the older cities, which had
merely served as power bases for the nobility.[2] The use of a standardized, nationwide currency during the Qin dynasty (221206
BC) facilitated long-distance trade between cities.[3] Many Han cities grew large: the Western Han capital, Chang'an, had
approximately 250,000 inhabitants, while the Eastern Han capital, Luoyang, had approximately 500,000 inhabitants.[4] The
population of the Han Empire, recorded in the tax census of 2 AD, was 57.6 million people in 12,366,470 households.[5] The
majority of commoners who populated the cities lived in extended urban and suburban areas outside the city walls and gatehouses.[6]
The total urban area of Western-Han Chang'anincluding the extensions outside the wallswas 36 km2 (14 sq mi). The total urban
area of Eastern-Han Luoyangincluding the extensions outside the wallswas 24.5 km2 (9.5 sq mi).[7] Both Chang'an and Luoyang
had two prominent marketplaces; each market had a two-story government office demarcated by a flag and drum at the top.[8] Market
officials were charged with maintaining order, collecting commercial taxes, setting standard commodity prices on a monthly basis,
[8]
and authorizing contracts between merchants and customers.

Variations in currency
During the early Western Han period, founding Emperor Gaozu of Han (r. 202195 BC) closed government mints in favor of coin
currency produced by the private sector.[9] Gaozu's widow Empress L Zhi, as grand empress dowager, abolished private minting in
186 BC. She first issued a government-minted bronze coin weighing 5.7 g (0.20 oz), but issued another, weighing 1.5 g (0.053 oz), in
182 BC.[9] The change to the lighter coin caused widespread inflation, so in 175 BC Emperor Wen of Han (r. 180157 BC) lifted the
ban on private minting; private mints were required to mint coins weighing exactly 2.6 g (0.092 oz).[9] Private minting was again
abolished in 144 BC during the end of Emperor Jing of Han's (r. 157141 BC) reign.
Despite this, the 2.6 g (0.092 oz) bronze coin was issued by both central and local
commandery governments until 120 BC, when for one year it was replaced with a
coin weighing 1.9 g (0.067 oz).[10] Other currencies were introduced around this
time. Token money notes made of embroidered white deerskin, with a face value of
400,000 coins, were used to collect government revenues.[10] Emperor Wu also
introduced three tin-silver alloy coins worth 3,000, 500, and 300 bronze coins,
[10]
respectively; all of these weighed less than 120 g (4.2 oz).

In 119 BC, the government issued

the bronze wushu ( ) coin
weighing 3.2 g (0.11 oz); the coin
remained the standard currency in
China until the Tang dynasty (618
907 AD).[11] During the brief
interruptive Xin dynasty (923 AD)
A wushu () coin issued during of Wang Mang (45 BC 23 AD),
the reign of Emperor Wu (r. 14187 the government introduced several A painted ceramic architectural
BC), 25.5 mm (1 in) in diameter modelfound in a Han tomb
new denominations in 7, 9, 10, and
depicting an urban residential tower
14 AD. These new units (including
with verandas, tiled rooftops,
bronze knife money, gold, silver, dougong support brackets, and a
tortoise, and cowry shell currencies) often had a market price unequal to their weight covered bridge extending from the
and debased the value of coin currency.[12] Once the widespread civil wars third floor to another tower
following Wang's overthrow abated, the wushu coin was reintroduced by Emperor
Guangwu of Han (r. 2557 AD) in 40 AD at the instigation of Ma Yuan (14 BC 49
AD).[12] Since commandery-issued coins were often of inferior quality and lighter weight, the central government closed all
commandery mints in 113 BC and granted the central government's Superintendent of Waterways and Parks the exclusive right to
mint coins.[13] Although the issue of central government coinage was transferred to the office of the Minister of Finance (one of Nine
Ministers of the central government) by the beginning of Eastern Han, the central government's monopoly over the issue of coinage
persisted.[14]

Gary Lee Todd (Ph.D. in History from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Professor of History at Sias International
University in Xinzheng, Henan, China) provides the following images of coins issued during the Western Han and Xin periods on his
website:[15]
 A coin issued during the A coin issued during the
reign of Empress L Zhi reign of Emperor Wen of
(r. 187180 BC), 34 mm Han (r. 180157 BC),
in diameter 24 mm in diameter
A coin issued during the A wushu coin issued
early reign of Emperor during the
Wu of Han (r. 14187 Emperor Xuan of Han (r.
BC), made of lead and 7449 BC), 25.5 mm in
issued before the diameter
government monopoly
was installed; this coin is
22 to 23 mm in diameter.
Western Han dynasty (202 BC - 9
AD) gold discs (also called cake-
shaped gold), Shaanxi History
Museum; excavated from
Dongshilipu village, Tanjia town,
Weiyang District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi;
altogether there are 219 discs, each
weighing 227.6-254.4g, their
numbers being the biggest among
the unearthed gold discs of the Han
dynasty. Most of them bear
characters, marks, stamps or
impressions. They were not meant
for circulation as currency, and were
mainly used as rewards and gifts.
reign of

A coin issued during the A knife-shaped coin A spade-shaped coin A coin issued during the
regency of Wang Mang issued during the reign of issued during the reign of reign of Wang Mang (9
(69 AD), 28 mm in Wang Mang (923 AD) Wang Mang (923 AD) 23 AD), 20 mm in
diameter diameter

Circulation and salaries

Merchants and peasant farmerspaid property and poll taxes in coin cash and land taxes with a portion of their crop yield.[16] Peasants
obtained coinage by working as hired laborers for rich landowners, in businesses like breweries or by selling agricultural goods and
homemade wares at urban markets.[17] The Han government may have found collecting taxes in coin the easiest method because the
.[18]
transportation of taxed goods would have been unnecessary
From 118 BC to 5 AD, the government minted over 28,000,000,000 coins, with an
annual average of 220,000,000 coins minted (or 220,000 strings of 1,000 coins).[19]
In comparison, the Tianbao period ( ) (742755 AD) of the Tang dynasty
produced 327,000,000 coins every year while 3,000,000,000 coins in 1045 AD and
5,860,000,000 coins in 1080 AD were made in the Song dynasty (9601279
AD).[19] Coin cash became the common measure of wealth during Eastern Han, as
many wages were paid solely in cash.[20] Diwu Lun ( ) (fl. 4085 AD),
Governor of Shu Province (modern Sichuan), described his subordinate officials'
A Han dynasty bronze mold for
wealth not in terms of landholdings, but in the form of aggregate properties worth
making wuzhu () coins; the latter
approximately 10,000,000 coin cash.[21] Commercial transactions involving
featured a square hole in the center
[21]
hundreds of thousands of coins were commonplace. so that strings could pass through
and thus allow one to carry many
Angus Maddison estimates that the country's gross domestic product was equivalent
coins at once.
to $450 per head in 1990 United States dollarsa sum that was above subsistence
level, and which did not significantly change until the beginning of the Song dynasty
in the late 10th century.[22] Sinologist Joseph Needham has disputed this and claimed that China's GDP per capita exceeded Europe
by substantial margins from the 5th century BCE onwards, holding that Han China was much wealthier than the contemporary
Roman Empire.[23] The widespread circulation of coin cash enriched many merchants, who invested their money in land and became
wealthy landowners. The government's efforts to circulate cash had empowered the very social class which it actively tried to
[18]
suppress through heavy taxes, fines, confiscations, and price regulation schemes.

Taxation, property, and social class

Landowners and peasants

After Shang Yang (d. 338 BC) of the State of Qin abolished the communal and
aristocratic well-field system in an effort to curb the power of nobles, land in China
could be bought and sold.[24] Historical scholars of the Han dynasty like Dong
Zhongshu (179104 BC) attributed the rise of the wealthy landowning class to this
reform.[24] The Han Feizi describes these landowners' use of hired labor in
agriculture, a practice dating back to the 3rd century BC, possibly earlier.[24] Some
landowners owned small numbers of slaves, but many relied on peasant tenant
farmers who paid rent with a portion of their agricultural produce.[3][25] More
numerous than tenants, small landowner-cultivators lived and worked independently,
but often fell into debt and sold their land to the wealthy.[3] The court official Chao
Cuo (d. 154 BC) argued that if the average independent landowning family of five
could cultivate no more than 4.57 hectares (11.3 acres) of land and produce no more
than 2,000 litres (530 US gal) of grain annually, then natural disasters and high
A female servant and male advisor
taxation rates would force many into debt, to sell their land, homes, and even
dressed in silk robes, ceramic
.[26]
children, and to become dependent upon work as tenant farmers for the wealthy figurines from the Western Han Era

Officials at the court of Emperor Ai of Han (r. 71 BC) attempted to implement

reforms limiting the amount of land nobles and wealthy landowners could own legally, but were unsuccessful.[27] When Wang Mang
took control of the government in 9 AD, he abolished the purchase and sale of land in a system called King's Fields (). This was
a variation of the well-field system, where the government owned the land and assured every peasant an equal share to cultivate.[28]
Within three years, complaints from wealthy landowners and nobles forced Wang Mang to repeal the reform.[28] After Gengshi (r.
2325 AD) and Guangwu (r. 2557 AD) restored the Han dynasty, they relied on the service of great landholding families to secure
their position in society. Many of their government officials also became wealthy landowners.[29]
 By the late Eastern Han period, the peasantry had become largely landless and
served wealthy landowners. This cost the government significant tax revenue.[30]
Although the central government under Emperor He of Han (r. 88105 AD) reduced
taxes in times of natural disaster and distress without much effect upon the treasury,
successive rulers became less able to cope with major crises. The government soon
relied upon local administrations to conduct relief efforts.[31] After the central
government failed to provide local governments with provisions during both a locust
swarm and the flooding of the Yellow River in 153 AD, many landless peasants
A Han pottery model of a roofed
became retainers of large landowners in exchange for aid.[32] Patricia Ebrey writes
water well with a bucket
that the Eastern Han was the "transitional period" between the Western Hanwhen
small independent farmers were the vast majorityand the Three Kingdoms (220
265 AD) and later Sixteen Kingdoms (304439 AD), when large family estates usedunfree labor.[33]

The Yellow Turban Rebellion of 184 AD, the slaughter of the eunuchs in 189 AD, and the campaign against Dong Zhuo in 190 AD
destabilized the central government, and Luoyang was burnt to the ground.[34] At this point, "... private and local power came to
replace public authority."[33]

The Han Chancellor and King of Wei Cao Cao (155220 AD) made the final
significant attempt to limit the power of wealthy landowners. Cao Cao established
government-managedagricultural colonies for landless commoners; in exchange for
land and cheap equipment, the farmers paid a portion of their crop yield.[35] In the
120s BC, Emperor Wu had attempted to establish agricultural colonies in the
northwestern frontier of the newly conquered Hexi Corridor (in modern Gansu).
600,000 new settlers farmed on these state lands using seeds, draft animals and
equipment loaned by the government.[36] An imperial edict in 85 AD ordered the
local governments of commanderies and subordinate kingdoms to resettle landless
peasants onto state-owned lands, where they would be paid wages, provided with
crop seeds, loaned farming tools and exempted from rent payments for five years
and poll taxes for three years.[37] The edict also allowed peasants to return to their Low-fired green-glazedpottery figure
native counties at any time.[37] Subsequent governments of the Three Kingdoms of a duck from the time of the
established agricultural colonies on these models.[38] Eastern Han Era

Subsistence
Many scholars claim that Han farmers were generally living at subsistence levels,
relying primarily on two documents from the Hanshu (Book of Han). The first is
attributed to the Warring States minister Li Kui (455-395 BCE);[39] the second
is a memorial written by the Han-era official Chao Cuo (200-154 BCE).[40]
Both appear in Hanshu Chapter 24, the Treatise on Food and Money . Li Kui
and Chao Cuo both emphasize the extreme precariousness of Han agricultural life, a
view summed up by Cho-yun Hsu, who writes that Han and pre-Han farmers had Eastern-Han ceramic figurines of an
only "a relatively small margin left to meet other expenses": "An account of the ox-drawn cart, a horse, and human
figures, found in a tomb atLuoyang
income and expenditures of a small farm in the pre-Chin (Chan-kuo) period cited in
the Han-shu gives a deficit of 10 percent of the annual income, presumably in a year
[41]
of mediocre crops In the time of [Chao Cuo] the situation remained very much the same."

According to Hans Bielenstein, the physical requirements of subsistence in grain can also be calculated from the Hanshu: "a family
consisting of an old woman, a grown man, a grown woman, an older child, and a younger child, annually consumed 127 hu of
unhusked grain. This comes to about 10.5 hu per month."[42] (According to Swann, one hu equals 0.565 of a US bushel, which is
about 5 gallons or 20 liters).[39] Hsu puts the yearly subsistence figure at 140 hu.[43] Bielenstein also examines salary tables given in
both the Hanshu and the Houhan shu (Book of the Later Han) that list official salaries half in cash and half in unhusked grain. Based
on these tables, he derives a conversion between cash and hu: a "generally accepted average is 70 to 80 cash for Former Han and 100
cash for Later Han."[44] Based on this conversion, the cash value of the grain needed for subsistence was about 8,890 to 14,000 coins
per year during the Han dynasty.

We can also estimate the amount of land needed to produce this amount of grain, thanks to Wolfram Eberhard who "estimates the
average yield as being 1.0 to 1.5 shih per mu," though Hsu notes that, "Very high yields could reach as much as 6.4 hu per mu."[45]
Swann gives 1 shi (which she translates as "picul" with a weight of "64 lbs. 8.8 oz.") as between 1 and hu,
2 depending on the type
of grain. Based only on Eberhards yields and Swanns range of conversion between shi and hu, a farmer would need between about
85 and 254 mu (between about 9.7 and 29 acres) in order to produce the 127 hu of grain Eberhard deems necessary to the subsistence
of a family of five. Other scholars give other numbers, however. Hsu claims that 50 mu (about 5.7 acres) was in fact "the acreage
needed for subsistence living,"[46] while Wang Zhongshu calculates that "there was on the average 24.6 mou per family, or less than
6 mou per person (with each mou equivalent to 456 square m)."[47] Both Li Kui and Chao Cuo claimed that 100 mu was the amount
of land required to support a family, though it should be noted that the amount of land denoted by the word mu had changed between
Li Kui's time and Chao Cuo's.[48]

Tax reforms
Because small landowning families represented the mainstay of the Han tax base, the Han government attempted to aid and protect
small landowners and to limit the power of wealthy landlords and merchants.[49] The government reduced taxes in times of poor
harvest and provided relief after disasters.[50] Tax remissions and crop seed loans encouraged displaced peasants to return to their
land.[50] An edict in 94 AD excused displaced peasants from paying land and labor service taxes for a year upon returning to their
own farms.[51] The land tax on agricultural production was reduced in 168 BC from a rate of one-fifteenth of crop yield to one-
thirtieth, and abolished in 167 BC. However, the tax was reinstated in 156 BC at a rate of one-thirtieth.[52] At the beginning of the
Eastern Han, the land tax rate was one-tenth of the crop yield, but following the stabilization following Wang Mang's death, the rate
[53]
was reduced to the original one-thirtieth in 30 AD.

Towards the end of the Han dynasty, the land tax rate was reduced to one-hundredth, with lost revenue recouped by increasing the
poll and property tax rates.[54] The poll tax for most adults was 120 coins annually, 240 coins for merchants, and 20 coins for minors
aged between three and fourteen years. The lower taxable threshold age for minors increased to seven years during the reign of
Emperor Yuan of Han (r. 4833 BC) and onwards.[55] Historian Charles Hucker writes that underreporting of the population by local
authorities was deliberate and widespread, since this reduced their tax and labor service obligations rendered to the central
government.[56]

A Western-Han ceramic figurine of a
mounted cavalryman, 2nd century
BC
revenues in times of severe natural disasters and the widespread rebellion of the Qiang people in western China.[58] The sale of
Though requiring additional revenue to fund the HanXiongnu War, the government
during Emperor Wu of Han's reign (14187 BC) sought to avoid heavy taxation of
small landowners. To increase revenue, the government imposed heavier taxes on
merchants, confiscated land from nobles, sold offices and titles, and established
government monopolies over the minting of coins, iron manufacture and salt
mining.[49] New taxes were imposed on the ownership of boats, carts, carriages,
wheelbarrows, shops and other properties. The overall property tax for merchants
was raised in 119 BC from 120 coins for every 10,000 coins-worth of property
owned to 120 coins for every 2,000 coins-worth of property owned.[57] Tax rates for
almost all commodities are unknown, except for that of liquor. After the government
monopoly on liquor was abolished in 81 BC, a property tax of 2 coins for every 0.2
[16]
litres (0.05 US gal) was levied on liquor merchants.
The sale of certain offices and titles was reintroduced in Eastern Han by Empress
Dowager Deng Suiwho reigned as regent from 105121 ADto raise government
offices became extremely corrupt under the eunuch-dominated government of Emperor Ling of Han (r. 168189 AD), when many
top official posts were sold at the highest bidder instead of being filled by vetted candidates who had taken Imperial examinations or
attended the Imperial University.[59]

Conscription
Two forms of mass conscription existed during the Han period. These were civilian
conscription (gengzu ) and military conscription (zhengzu ). In addition to
paying their monetary and crop taxes, all peasants of the Western Han period aged
between fifteen and fifty-six were required to undertake mandatory conscription
duties for one month of each year. These duties were usually fulfilled by work on
construction projects.[60]

At the age of twenty-three years male peasants were drafted to serve in the military,
where they were assigned to infantry, cavalry, or navy service.[60] After one year of
Painted ceramic cavalrymen and
training, they went on to perform a year of actual military service in frontier
infantrymen, Western Han dynasty
garrisons or as guards in the capital city.[60] They remained liable to perform this
year of service until the age of fifty-six.[60] This was also the age when they were
dismissed from their local militias, which they could join once they had finished their year of conscripted service.[61] These non-
professional conscripted soldiers comprised the Southern Army (Nanjun ), while the Northern Army (Beijun ) was a
standing army composed of paid career soldiers.[62]

During the Eastern Han, peasants could avoid the month of annual conscripted labor by paying a tax in commutation (gengfu ).
This development went hand in hand with the increasing use of hired labor by the government.[63] In a similar manner, because the
Eastern-Han government favored the military recruitment of volunteers, the mandatory military draft for peasants aged twenty-three
could be avoided by paying a tax in substitution.[64]

Merchants
There were two categories of Han merchants: those who sold goods at shops in
urban markets, and the larger-scale itinerant traders who traveled between cities and
to foreign countries.[65] The small-scale urban shopkeepers were enrolled on an
official register and had to pay heavy commercial taxes.[65] Although these
registered merchants were taxed, an edict of 94 AD ordered that landless peasants
[51]
who had to resort to peddling were to be exempted from taxation.

Itinerant merchants were often wealthy and did not have to register.[65] These
itinerant merchants often participated in large-scale trade with powerful families and Gilded bronze animal figurines from
the Han dynasty, including a horse,
officials.[65] Nishijima writes that most of the biographies of "wealthy men" in the
elephant, cow, and unicorn
Records of the Grand Historian and Book of Han were those of itinerant
merchants.[65]

In contrast, registered marketplace merchants had a very low social status and were often subject to additional restrictions.[66]
Emperor Gaozu passed laws levying higher taxes, forbidding merchants from wearing silk, and barring their descendants from
holding public office. These laws were difficult to enforce.[66] Emperor Wu targeted both the registered and unregistered merchants
with higher taxes. While registered merchants were not allowed to own land, if they broke this law their land and slaves would be
confiscated.[66] However, wealthy unregistered merchants owned large tracts of land.[67] Emperor Wu significantly reduced the
economic influence of great merchants by openly competing with them in the marketplace, where he set up government-managed
[49]
shops that sold commodities collected from the merchants as property taxes.
Crafts, industries, and government employment

Private manufacture and government monopolies

Iron and salt

At the beginning of the Han dynasty, China's salt and iron enterprises were privately
owned by a number of wealthy merchants and subordinate regional kings. The
profits of these industries rivaled the funds of the imperial court.[68] A successful
iron or salt industrialist might have employed over a thousand peasants, causing a
severe loss of agricultural tax revenue to the central government.[69] To restrict the
power of the industrialists, Emperor Wu had nationalized the salt and iron industries A miniature ceramic model of a
by 117 BC.[70] gristmill from a Han tomb

The government also instituted a liquor monopoly in 98 BC. However, this was
repealed in 81 BC in an effort to reduce government intervention in the private economy.[71]

The Reformist Party supported privatization, opposing the Modernist Party, which had dominated politics during the reign of
Emperor Wu and the subsequent regency of Huo Guang (d. 68 BC).[72] The Modernists argued that state monopolies provided
abundant raw materials, good working conditions, and high quality iron; the Reformists countered that state-owned ironworks
produced large and impractical implements designed to meet quotas rather than to be of practical use, were of inferior quality, and
were too expensive for commoners to purchase.[73] In 44 BC, the Reformists had both the salt and iron monopolies abolished, but the
monopolies were reinstated in 41 BC after their abrupt closure resulted in significant losses of revenue for the government and
disruption of the private economy.[74]

Wang Mang preserved these central government monopolies. When Eastern Han began, they were once again repealed, the industries
[75] Emperor Zhang of Han (r. 7588 AD) briefly reintroduced the
given to local commandery governments and private entrepreneurs.
central government monopolies on salt and iron from 85 to 88 AD, but abolished them in the last year of his reign. After Emperor
[76]
Zhang, the Han never returned the salt and iron industries to government ownership.

Grain
The grain trade was a profitable private enterprise during the early Western Han, yet
Emperor Wu's government intervened in the grain trade when it established the
equable marketing system (also known as the ever-normal granary system) in 110
BC.[77] The government purchased grain when it was plentiful and inexpensive,
shipping it to granaries for storage or to areas where grain was scarce.[78] The
system was intended to eliminate grain speculation, to create a standard price and to
increase government revenue.[78] The system was designed by civil servant Sang
An Eastern-Han glazed ceramic
Hongyang (d. 80 BC)who was previously a merchant. Sang Hongyang was
model of a furnace
criticized by merchants for placing government officials in market stalls.[79] This
supply system was discontinued in Eastern Han, although it was briefly revived by
Emperor Ming of Han (r. 5775). Emperor Ming also abolished the system in 68 AD, when he believed that the government's storage
.[80]
of grain increased prices and made wealthy landowners richer

Ebrey argues that although most of Emperor Wu's fiscal policies were repealed during Eastern Han, their damage to the merchant
class and the subsequent laissez-faire policies of Eastern Han allowed the wealthiest landowners to dominate society, ensuring that
China's economy would remain firmly agrarian-based for centuries.[49] The Eastern Han central government lost an important source
of revenue by relinquishing its salt and iron industries and purchasing its armies' swords and shields from private manufacturers.
[81]
However, this loss of revenue was often compensated by higher taxes levied on the merchants.
Government workshops
Han government workshops produced common, luxury, and even artistic funerary
items, such as the ceramic figurines and tomb tiles which adorned the walls of
underground tombs.[82] Imperial workshops were operated by the Minister Steward,
[83]
whose ministry controlled the treasury and the emperor's private finances.

The Office of Arts and Crafts, subordinate to the Minister Steward, produced
weapons, bronze mirrors, vessel wares, and other goods.[83] The Office of
Manufactures, also subordinate to the Minister Steward, made the cheaper weapons,
utensils, and armor.[83] Textiles and clothing worn by the emperor and royal family
were made in the Weaving House of the West and Weaving House of the East; the
latter was abolished in 28 BC, and the Weaving House of the West was renamed the
Weaving House.[83] The reverse, decorated side of an
Eastern-Han bronze mirror with feline
Workshops located in the commanderies made silks and embroidered fabrics, silver
heads in a scalloped field; the mirror
and gold luxury items, and weapons. One workshop, in modern Anhui province, had is inscribed with the date of
a shipyard where battle ships were built.[84] Although the government used the labor manufacture (174 AD)
of state-owned slaves, corve laborers, and convicts in its workshops, they also hired
skilled craftsmen who were well-paid.[85]

Han lacquerwares were privately made as well as being manufactured in government workshops.[86] Hundreds of laborers could be
employed to work on a single luxury item, such as a lacquered cup or screen.[87] Some lacquerwares were inscribed simply with the
clan name of the family who owned them. Others were inscribed with the titles of the owner, the specific type of the vessels, their
capacities, the precise day, month, and year of manufacture (according to Chinese era names and their lunisolar calendar), the names
of the floor managers who oversaw the items' production and the names of the workers who made them.[88] Even some iron
implements made during the age of the monopoly bore inscriptions of the date they were made and the name of the workshop.[89]
Bronze calipers from theXin dynasty, used for minute measurements, had an inscription stating that it was "made on a gui-you day at
new moon of the first month of the first year of the Shijian guo period." The calipers date from 9 AD.[90] Han lacquerwares bearing
the imperial mark of the emperor have been found far beyond the Han capital regions by modern archaeologists, in places such as
Qingzhen (in Guizhou), Pyongyang (in North Korea), and Noin Ula (in Mongolia).[91]

Public construction projects

The Court Architect was charged by central government with overseeing all imperial construction and public works projects,
including the building of palaces and tombs.[92]

During the Western Han period, conscripted peasants were organized into work
teams consisting of over a hundred thousand laborers. About 150,000 conscripted
workers, serving in consecutive periods of thirty days each over a total of five years,
worked on the massive defensive walls of Chang'an, which were completed in 190
BC.[93] Conscript laborers were commissioned to build and maintain shrines
dedicated to various deities and the spirits of the emperor's ancestors.[94] Conscripts
also maintained canal systems used for agricultural transport and irrigation.[95]
Some of the larger Han canal renovation projects included repairs to the Dujiangyan
A Han dynasty pottery tomb model of
Irrigation System and Zhengguo Canal, built by the previous State of Qin and Qin
a palatial residence with
dynasty (221206 BC), respectively.[95]
watchtowers, gatehouses, halls,
outer walls, courtyards, verandas,
Nineteen stone inscriptions survive commemorating the building of new roads and
tiled rooftops, and windows
bridges by the Eastern Han government.[96] Archaeological excavations at Chang'an
show that wooden bridges were built over the defensive moat and led to the
gatehouses.[97] Roadways also needed periodic repairs; in 63 AD the route leading from the Qilian Mountains, through Hanzhong
(modern southern Shanxi), and towards the capital Luoyang underwent major repairs.[96] For this project, 623 trestle bridges, five
large bridges, 107 km (66 mi) of new roadways, and 64 buildingsincluding rest houses, post stations, and relay stationswere
built.[96] Those commissioned with military authority also built bridges. For example, during his campaign against the Xiongnu in
the Ordos Desert in 127 BC, the general Wei Qing (d. 106 BC) had a new bridge built over the Wujia River (a former tributary of the
Yellow River) in today's Inner Mongolia. He used this bridge to move troops and supplies for an attack on the Xiongnu, northwest of
modern Wuyuan County ().[98] Ebrey writes:[99]

There were, of course, numerous reasons for maintaining roads. A unified political system could be maintained only as
long as the government had the means of quickly dispatching officials, troops, or messengers as needed. Such a system of
transportation, once established, facilitated commerce. At the local level, road and bridge projects seem to have been
ficials.[99]
initiated as much for the sake of traveling merchants as for of

Domestic trade

Traded goods and commodities

Han-era historians like Sima Qian (14586 BC) and Ban Gu (3292 AD), as well as
the later historian Fan Ye (398445 AD), recorded details of the business
transactions and products traded by Han merchants. Evidence of these products has
also emerged from archaeological investigations.

The main agricultural staple foods during the Han dynasty were foxtail millet, proso
millet, rice (including glutinous rice), wheat, beans, and barley.[100] Other food
items included sorghum, taro, mallow, mustard plant, jujube, pear, plum (including
Prunus salicina and Prunus mume), peach, apricot, and myrica.[101] Chicken, duck,
A set of red-and-blacklacquerware
goose, beef, pork, rabbit, sika deer, turtle dove, owl, Chinese bamboo partridge,
flanged cups and dishes from tomb
magpie, common pheasant, crane, and various types of fish were commonly
no. 1 at Mawangdui Han tombs site,
consumed meats.[102] 2nd century BC, Western Han
dynasty
The production of silk throughsericulture was profitable for both small-time farmers
and large-scale producers. Silk clothing was too expensive for the poor, who wore
clothes most commonly made of hemp.[103] The rural women usually wove all the family's clothes.
[104]

Common bronze items included domestic wares like oil lamps, incense burners, tables, irons, stoves, and dripping jars. Iron goods
were often used for construction and farmwork, such as plowshares, pickaxes, spades, shovels, hoes, sickles, axes, adze, hammers,
chisels, knives, saws, scratch awls, and nails.[105] Iron was also used to make swords, halberds, arrowheads and scale armor for the
military.[106]

Other common goods included: consumables (liquor, pickles and sauces, sheep and pigs, grain, yeast for fermentation, bean relish,
dried fish and abalone, dates, chestnuts, fruits and vegetables), raw materials (cattle hide, boat timber, bamboo poles, dyes, horns,
cinnabar, raw lacquer, jade, amber), clothing and clothing materials (silk fabrics, fine and coarse cloth, sable and foxskin garments,
felt and mats, deerskin slippers), eating utensils (bronze utensils and chopsticks, silver, wood and iron vessels, ceramic wares), art
objects (lacquerware, ceramics), elegant coffins (made of catalpa, locust, juniper, and lacquered wood), vehicles such as light two-
wheeled carts and heavy oxcarts, and horses.[107]

In addition to general commodities, Han historians list the goods of specific regions. Common trade items from the region of modern
Shanxi included bamboo, timber, grain, and gemstones; Shandong had fish, salt, liquor, and silk; Jiangnan had camphor, catalpa,
ginger, cinnamon, gold, tin, lead, cinnabar, rhinoceros horn, tortoise shell, pearls, ivory, and leather.[108] Ebrey lists items found in a
2nd-century AD tomb in Wuwei, Gansu (along the Hexi Corridor fortified by the Great Wall of China), evidence that luxury items
could be obtained even in remote frontiers.[109]
 ... fourteen pieces of pottery; wooden objects such as a horse, pig, ox,
chicken, chicken coop, and a single-horned animal; seventy copper cash;
a crossbow mechanism made of bronze; a writing brush; a lacquer-
encased inkstone; a lacquer tray and bowl; a wooden comb; a jade
ornament; a pair of hemp shoes; a straw bag; the remains of an inscribed
[109]
banner; a bamboo hairpin; two straw satchels; and a stone lamp.

Although dog meat was eaten during

the Han, dogs were also Estate management and trade
domesticated as pets. Most dogs
In the early Eastern Han, Emperor
were kept as pets, while specific
Ming passed laws which prohibited
types were bred for
consumption.;[102] these two Han those involved in agriculture from
tomb pottery dogs are wearing simultaneously engaging in
decorative dog collars. mercantile trade.[110] These laws
were largely ineffective, since
wealthy landowners and landlords
[110] Cui
made significant profits from the trading of goods produced on their estates.
Shi () (d. 170 AD), a local commandery administrator who later served as an
official in the central government's secretariat, started a winery business in his home This incised Eastern-Han brick, from
the chamber wall of a rich and
to pay for his father's funeral. His fellow gentry criticized him, claiming the practice
powerful family's tomb inChengdu,
was immoral, but not illegal.[110]
depicts the home of a wealthy,
influential Han official; it features a
Cui Shi's book Simin yueling () is the only significant surviving work on
walled courtyard, house, bedrooms,
agriculture from the Eastern Han period,[111] though about 3,000 written characters halls, kitchen, well, and a
of the Fan Shengzhi shu (), dated to the reign of Emperor Cheng of Han watchtower. The host and his guest
(337 BC), still survive.[112] Cui Shi's book provides descriptions of rituals for sit and drink in the inner courtyard,
ancestor worship, festival and religious holiday celebrations, conduct for family and while two roosters fight and two
kinship relations, farmwork, and the schooling season for boys. Cui Shi's book also cranes dance.

provides detailed instructions on which months were the most profitable times to
[113]
buy and sell certain types of farm-produced goods.

The following table is modelled on Ebrey's "Estate and Family Management in the Later Han as Seen in the Monthly Instructions for
the Four Classes of People" (1974).[114] Ebrey writes: "... the same item was often bought and sold at different times of the year. The
rationale for this is very clearly financial: items were bought when the price was low and sold when it was high."[114] The specific
amounts for each commodity traded are not listed, yet the timing of sale and purchase during the year is the most valuable
information for historians.[115] Missing from Cui Shi's list are important items which his family certainly bought and sold at specific
times of the year, such as salt, iron farm tools and kitchen utensils, paper and ink (the papermaking process was invented by Cai Lun
in 105 AD),[116] as well as luxury items of silk and exotic foods.[117]
 Goods bought and sold throughout the year at the estate of Cui Shi
()[114]

Month
of the Bought Sold
year
Unhusked millet, glutinous
2 Firewood and charcoal millet, soya and lesser beans,
hemp and wheat
3 Hempen cloth glutinous millet
Huskless and regular barley,
4
scrap silk wadding
Huskless and regular barley,
Soya and lesser beans,
5 wheat, silk floss, hempen and
sesame
silk cloth, straw
Huskless barley, wheat, thick
6 Soya beans
and thin silk
Bronze cowrie container, Western
Wheat and or barley, thick and Han Dynasty (202 BC - 9 AD),
7 Soya and lesser beans
thin silk Yunnan Provincial Museum,
8 Leather shoes, glutinous millet Seed wheat and or barley Kunming; cowrie shells were used as
an early form of money inthis region
Unhusked millet, soya and of China and were kept in elaborately
10 Thick silk, silk, and silk floss
lesser beans and hemp seeds
decorated bronze containers such as
Non-glutinous rice, husked this one, surmounted by a
11 and unhusked millet, lesser freestanding gilded horseman who is
beans and hemp seed
encircled by four oxen, that are
approached in turn by two tigers
There was mass unemployment climbing up on opposite sides of the
among landless peasants during the container.
Eastern Han period. However,
archaeological and literary evidence
shows that those managing wealthy agricultural estates enjoyed great prosperity and
Ceramic pigs and oxen from a tomb
lived comfortably.[118] In addition to Cui's work, the inventor, mathematician, and
of the Western Han Era
court astronomer Zhang Heng (78139 AD) wrote a rhapsody describing the rich
countryside of Nanyang and its irrigated rice paddies. He mentions grain fields,
ponds filled with fish, and estate gardens and orchards filled with bamboo shoots, autumn leeks, winter rape-turnips, perilla, evodia,
and purple ginger.[119]

Bricks lining the walls of the tombs of wealthy Han were adorned with carved or molded reliefs and painted murals; these often
showed scenes of the tomb occupant's estate, halls, wells, carriage sheds, pens for cattle, sheep, chickens, and pigs, stables for horses,
[120]
and employed workers pickingmulberry leaves, plowing crop fields, and hoeing vegetable patches.

Small and medium-sized estates were managed by single families. The father acted as the head manager, the sons as field workers.
Wives and daughters worked with female servants to weave cloth and produce silk.[121] Very wealthy landowners who had a large
peasant following often used a sharecropping system to similar to the government's system for state-owned lands. Under this system,
[122]
peasants would receive land, tools, oxen, and a house in exchange for a third or a half of their crop yield.

Foreign trade and tributary exchange

Prior to the Han dynasty, markets close to China's northern border engaged in trade with the nomadic tribes of the eastern Eurasian
Steppe.[123] The heqin agreement between the Han and nomadic Xiongnu stipulated the transfer of tributary goods from China. The
exact amount of annual tribute sent to the Xiongnu in the 2nd century BC is unknown. In 89 BC, when Hulugu Chanyu () (r.
9585 BC) requested a renewal of the heqin agreement, he demanded an annual tribute of 400,000 litres (11,000 US bu) or 10,000
dan of wine, 100,000 litres (2,800 US bu) or 5,000 hu of grain, and 10,000 bales of
silk.[124][125] These amounts of wine, grain, and silk were considered to be a
significant increase from earlier amounts of tribute, which must have been much
less.[124] Besides these arrangements, the most common commercial exchanges
between the Xiongnu and Han merchants consisted of the trading of Xiongnu horses
and furs for Han agricultural foodstuffs and luxury items, most notably silk.[123] By
means of the black market, the Xiongnu were also able to smuggle Han iron Woven silk textile from Tomb No. 1 at
weapons across the border.[123] Mawangdui Han tombs site,
Changsha, Hunan province, China,
The Han established a diplomatic presence in theTarim Basin of Central Asia during dated to the Western Han Era, 2nd
Emperor Wu of Han's reign (14187 BC). Han envoys brought gifts of sheep, gold, century BC
and silk to the urban oasis city-states.[123] The Chinese sometimes used gold as
currency; however, silk was favored as a means to pay for food and lodging.[123]
Once the Han had subjugated the Tarim Basin and established a Protectorate there,
Han envoys in these states were given free food and lodging. These envoys were
required to send tributary items of furs, precious stones, and delicacies such as
Central Asian raisins to the Han court.[123] The Arsacid court sent exotic animals
including lions and ostriches to the Han court, and a king ruling in what is now
Burma sent elephants and rhinoceroses.[126] Han diplomatic missions to royal courts
across Asia were usually accompanied by trade caravans which earned substantial
profits.[127]
A bronze rhinoceros from the
The Han court received tributary submission from the Xiongnu leader Huhanye ( Western Han Era
) (r. 5831 BC), an important rival to Zhizhi Chanyu (r. 5636 BC, died at the
Battle of Zhizhi). Huhanye's tribute, exchange of hostages, and presence at Chang'an
in the New Year of 51 BC were rewarded with the following gifts from the emperor: 5kg (160 ozt) of gold, 200,000 coins, 77 suits of
clothes, 8,000 bales of silk fabric, 1,500 kg (3,300 lb) of silk floss, 15 horses, and 680,000 l (19,000 US bu) of grain.[128] However,
this is the only occurrence of rewarded gifts that present materials other than fabric. As shown in the table below, based upon Y
Ying-shih's "Han Foreign Relations" (1986), the gifts consisted only silk after 51 BC, and the Xiongnu leader's political submission
was guaranteed only for as long as the Han could provide him with ever-greater amounts of imperial largesse of silk with each
succeeding visit to the Chinese court.[129]

[129]
Imperial Han gifts received by the Xiongnu Chanyu during trips of homage to the Han court in Chang'an
Year (BC) Silk floss (measured incatties) Silk fabric (measured in bales)
51 1,500 8,000
49 2,000 9,000
33 4,000 18,000
25 5,000 20,000
1 7,500 30,000

The establishment of the Silk Road occurred during Wu's reign, owing to the efforts of the diplomat Zhang Qian. The increased
demand for silk from the Roman Empire stimulated commercial traffic in both Central Asia and across the Indian Ocean. Roman
merchants sailed to Barbarikon near present-day Karachi, Pakistan, and Barygaza in present-day Gujarat, India to purchase Chinese
silks (see Roman trade with India).[132] When Emperor Wu conquered Nanyuein what is now Southwest China and northern
Vietnamin 111 BC, overseas trade was extended to Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean, as maritime merchants traded Han gold
[133]
and silk for pearls, jade, lapis lazuli, and glasswares.
 The Book of Later Han states that Roman envoys sent by Emperor
Marcus Aurelius (r. 161180 AD), following a southern route,
brought gifts to the court of Emperor Huan of Han (r. 146168 AD)
in 166 AD.[134] This Roman mission followed an unsuccessful
attempt by the Han diplomat Gan Ying to reach Rome in 97. Gan
Ying was delayed at the Persian Gulf, by Arsacid authorities, and
Left image: Minerva on a Roman gilt-silver plate, could only make a report on Rome based on oral
1st century BC; a similar Roman gilt-silver plate accounts.[135][136][137] Historians Charles Hucker and Rafe de
found in Jingyuan County, Gansu province, China,
Crespigny both speculate that the Roman mission of 166 AD
dated 2nd or 3rd century AD had a raised relief
involved enterprising Roman merchants instead of actual
image of the Greco-Roman god Dionysos.[130]
Right image: A Western-Han blue-glass bowl; diplomats;[138] Hucker writes:[139]
although the Chinese had been making glass bead
items since the Spring and Autumn period(722481 Tributary missions from vassal states were commonly
BC), the first Chinese glasswares (such as bowls allowed to include traders, who thus gained
and bottles) appeared during Western Han.[131] opportunities to do business in the capital markets. No
doubt a large proportion of what the Chinese court
chose to call tributary missions were in fact shrewdly
organized commercial ventures by foreign merchants
with no diplomatic status at all. This was
unquestionably the case, most notably, with a group of
traders who appeared on the south coast in 166 AD
claiming to be envoys from the Roman emperor Marcus
Aurelius Antoninus.[139]

The main trade route leading into Han China passed first through Kashgar, yet
Hellenized Bactria further west was the central node of international trade.[141] By the
1st century AD, Bactria and much of Central Asia and North India were controlled by
the Kushan Empire.[142] Silk was the main export item from China to India. Indian
merchants brought various goods to China, including tortoise shell, gold, silver, copper,
iron, lead, tin, fine cloth, woolen textiles, perfume and incense, crystal sugar, pepper,
ginger, salt, coral, pearls, glass items, and Roman wares.[143] Indian merchants brought
Roman styrax and frankincense to China, while the Chinese knewbdellium as a fragrant A green Roman glass cup
item from Persia, although it was native to West India.[144] The tall Ferghana horses unearthed from an Eastern Han
imported from Fergana were highly prized in Han China.[145] The newly introduced Dynasty (25-220 AD) tomb,
Guangxi, China
exotic Central Asian grapes (i.e. vitis vinifera) were used to make grape wine, although
the Chinese had rice wine before this.[146] Glass luxury items from ancient
Mesopotamia have been found in Chinese tombs and dated to the late Spring and Autumn period (771476 BC). Roman glasswares
have been found in Chinese tombs dating to the early 1st century BC, with the earliest specimen found at the southern Chinese
seaport of Guangzhou.[131] Silverwares from Roman- and Arsacid territories have also been found at Han tomb sites.
[147]

See also
Economy of Asia
Economic history of China
Taxation in premodern China

Notes
1. Hinsch 2002, pp. 2425; Cullen 2006, p. 1.
 2. Nishijima 1986, p. 574.
3. Hinsch 2002, p. 28.
4. Nishijima 1986, pp. 574575; Stearns & Langer 2001, p. 51.
5. Schinz 1996, p. 136; Nishijima 1986, pp. 595596.
6. Schinz 1996, p. 140; Wang 1982, pp. 14, & 30.
7. Wang 1982, pp. 14, 30; Hansen 2000, pp. 135136.
8. Nishijima 1986, pp. 575576.
9. Nishijima 1986, p. 586.
10. Nishijima 1986, pp. 586587.
11. Nishijima 1986, p. 587.
12. Ebrey 1986, p. 609; Bielenstein 1986, pp. 232233; Nishijima 1986, p. 588.
13. Nishijima 1986, pp. 587588.
14. Bielenstein 1980, pp. 47 & 83.
15. GaryLeeTodd.com (March 4, 2009).China: Ancient coinage(http://www.garyleetodd.com/chinese-museums-online/c
hina-ancient-coinage/)Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20110711073249/http://www
.garyleetodd.com/chinese-
museums-online/china-ancient-coinage/)2011-07-11 at the Wayback Machine.. Retrieved on 2009-03-09.
16. Nishijima 1986, p. 600.
17. Nishijima 1986, pp. 600601.
18. Nishijima 1986, p. 601.
19. Nishijima 1986, p. 588.
20. Ebrey 1986, pp. 612613.
21. Ebrey 1986, p. 612.
22. Maddison 2001, p. 259.
23. Maddison 2007, p. 42
24. Nishijima 1986, p. 556.
25. Nishijima 1986, pp. 556557.
26. Nishijima 1986, pp. 556557 & 577578;Ebrey 1999, pp. 7374; Wang 1982, pp. 5859.
27. Nishijima 1986, pp. 557558; see alsoHucker 1975, p. 183.
28. Nishijima 1986, pp. 557558; Hansen 2000, p. 134; Bielenstein 1986, p. 232; Lewis 2007, p. 23; Hucker 1975,
p. 183.
29. Nishijima 1986, pp. 558559; see alsoHucker 1975, p. 183.
30. Nishijima 1986, pp. 558559.
31. Ebrey 1986, p. 621.
32. Ebrey 1986, pp. 621622.
33. Ebrey 1974, pp. 173174.
34. de Crespigny 2007, p. 515; Ebrey 1999, p. 84; Beck 1986, pp. 344345 & 347349.
35. Wang 1982, p. 61; Hucker 1975, p. 183.
36. Deng 1999, p. 76.
37. Ebrey 1986, p. 619.
38. Deng 1999, p. 77.
39. Swann 1974, pp. 140142.
40. Swann 1974, pp. 160162.
41. Hsu 1980, p. 67.
42. Bielenstein 1980, p. 127.
43. Hsu 1980, p. 70.
44. Bielenstein 1980, p. 126.
45. Hsu 1980, p. 75n45.
46. Hsu 1980, p. 65.
47. Wang 1982, p. 59.
48. Swann 1974, p. 361.
49. Ebrey 1999, p. 75.
50. Ebrey 1999, p. 75; Hucker 1975, pp. 182183.
51. Ebrey 1986, pp. 620621.
52. Loewe 1986, pp. 149150; Nishijima 1986, pp. 596598; see alsoHucker 1975, p. 181.
53. Nishijima 1986, pp. 596598; Ebrey 1986, pp. 618619.
54. Nishijima 1986, pp. 596598.
55. Nishijima 1986, p. 598; see also Hucker 1975, p. 181.
56. Hucker 1975, p. 171.
57. Ebrey 1999, p. 75; Nishijima 1986, p. 599.
58. de Crespigny 2007, pp. 126127.
59. de Crespigny 2007, pp. 126127; Kramers 1986, pp. 754756; Ebrey 1999, pp. 7778.
60. Nishijima 1986, p. 599.
61. Bielenstein 1980, p. 114.
62. Bielenstein 1980, pp. 114115.
63. de Crespigny 2007, pp. 564565; Ebrey 1986, p. 613.
64. de Crespigny 2007, pp. 564565.
65. Nishijima 1986, p. 576.
66. Nishijima 1986, p. 577; see also Hucker 1975, p. 187.
67. Ch' (1972), 113114; see alsoHucker 1975, p. 187.
68. Nishijima 1986, pp. 583584.
69. Nishijima 1986, p. 584; Needham 1965, p. 22.
70. Ebrey 1999, p. 75; Hinsch 2002, pp. 2122; Wagner 2001, pp. 12.
71. Wagner 2001, pp. 1314.
72. Loewe 1986, pp. 187206.
73. Wagner 2001, pp. 5657.
74. Wagner 2001, p. 15.
75. Wagner 2001, pp. 1517; Nishijima 1986, p. 584.
76. Wagner 2001, p. 17; see also Hucker 1975, p. 190.
77. Ebrey 1999, p. 75; Wagner 2001, p. 13; Hucker 1975, pp. 188189.
78. Ebrey 1999, p. 75; Hucker 1975, p. 189.
79. Wagner 2001, p. 13; Hucker 1975, p. 189.
80. de Crespigny 2007, p. 605.
81. Ebrey 1986, p. 609.
82. Bower 2005, p. 242; Ruitenbeek 2005, p. 253; Steinhardt 2005, p. 278.
83. Nishijima 1986, p. 581.
84. Nishijima 1986, p. 582.
85. Nishijima 1986, p. 583.
86. Wang 1982, pp. 8485; Nishijima 1986, p. 582.
87. Wang 1982, p. 83.
88. Wang 1982, pp. 8485.
89. Wang 1982, p. 125.
90. Colin A. Ronanm; Joseph Needha (24 June 1994).The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China:(https://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=PehoSnJfstUC&pg=P A312). Cambridge University Press. p. 312.ISBN 978-0-521-32995-8.
Retrieved 15 February 2013. "adjustable outside caliper gauge... self-dated at AD "9
91. Wang 1982, pp. 8687.
 92. Nishijima 1986, pp. 581582.
93. Loewe 1986, pp. 130131.
94. Loewe 1986, pp. 130131, 207209.
95. Wang 1982, pp. 5556.
96. Ebrey 1986, pp. 613614.
97. Wang 1982, p. 2.
98. Di Cosmo 2002, p. 238.
99. Ebrey 1986, p. 614.
100. Wang 1982, p. 52.
101. Wang 1982, p. 53.
102. Wang 1982, pp. 57 & 203.
103. Wang 1982, pp. 53 & 58.
104. Nishijima 1986, p. 585; Hinsch 2002, pp. 5960 & 65.
105. Wang 1982, pp. 103 & 122.
106. Wang 1982, p. 123.
107. Nishijima 1986, pp. 578579; Ebrey 1986, pp. 609611.
108. Nishijima 1986, pp. 578579.
109. Ebrey 1986, pp. 611612.
110. Ebrey 1986, p. 615.
111. Nishijima 1986, pp. 566567.
112. Nishijima 1986, p. 564.
113. Ebrey 1986, p. 615; Nishijima 1986, pp. 567568.
114. Ebrey 1974, p. 198.
115. Ebrey 1974, pp. 197199.
116. Tom 1989, p. 99; Cotterell 2004, p. 11.
117. Ebrey 1974, p. 199.
118. Ebrey 1986, pp. 622626.
119. Ebrey 1986, p. 624; Knechtges 1997, p. 232.
120. Ebrey 1986, pp. 622623.
121. Ebrey 1986, p. 626.
122. Ebrey 1986, pp. 625626.
123. Liu 1988, p. 14.
124. Y 1986, p. 397.
125. Book of Han, vol. 94a (http://www.sidneyluo.net/a/a02/094a.htm).
126. de Crespigny 2007, pp. 497591.
127. Torday 1997, pp. 114117.
128. Y 1986, pp. 395396; Loewe 1986, pp. 196197.
129. Y 1986, pp. 396397.
130. Harper 2002, p. 106 (Fig. 6).
131. An 2002, pp. 79, 8283.
132. Liu 1988, p. 19.
133. Nishijima 1986, pp. 579580.
134. Liu 1988, p. 19; de Crespigny 2007, p. 600; Nishijima 1986, pp. 579580.
135. Nishijima 1986, p. 579.
136. de Crespigny 2007, pp. 239240.
137. Y 1986, pp. 460461.
138. Hucker 1975, p. 191; de Crespigny 2007, p. 600.
139. Hucker 1975, p. 191.
140. Harper 2002, pp. 106107.
141. Liu 1988, p. 26.
142. Liu 1988, pp. 2629.
143. Liu 1988, pp. 5253, 6465.
144. Liu 1988, p. 63.
145. Liu 1988, p. 53.
146. Gernet 1962, pp. 134135.
147. Harper 2002, pp. 96107.

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External links
Media related to Han Dynasty at Wikimedia Commons
Chinese History - Han Dynasty (206 BC-8 AD, 25220) economy, from Chinaknowledge.de

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