After broadcasting the ancient times live, I handed the system over to the state.

The Song Dynasty officials sitting below were unaware that the rise of commerce could be traced back to something as simple as coal. They had previously seen later dynasties purchasing coal from the Tang and Ming dynasties.

The Tang and Ming dynasties also granted some mining rights, but most of them were in remote areas. The purpose was obvious: they wanted to keep the resources in the heart of the Central Plains and pass them on to their descendants.

People in remote areas had difficulty accessing them, so this indirectly helped them cultivate the land. Therefore, the mining rights granted by the Tang and Ming dynasties required very little payment from later generations.

Now, people from later generations have gradually begun to spread outwards, going to more and more northerly places. If they had more manpower available, they would have even planned to go to North America at this time, where there are very few people now.

If they weren't the settlers, they would curse the invaders; if they were the settlers, they would say it's been like this since ancient times.

Let's get back to this topic.

Yi Mei said, "In the international academic community, some people also refer to the Song Dynasty as the earliest maritime empire."

"As we discussed in the last lesson, the increase in the number of households in the wards and towns was one of the reasons for the prosperity of the Maritime Silk Road. Now let's talk in detail about the economic logic behind it."

Following that, Yi Mei received some more tables listing the occupations of the residents of the neighborhood and the related industries.

For example, there are "kiln owners," "potter," "furnace owners," "boat owners," "machine owners," "dyeing owners," and so on. The industries involved in these occupations include shipbuilding, textiles, porcelain making, papermaking, printing, construction, mining and metallurgy, and so on.

The prosperity of all walks of life can be seen from this.

"The changes in the economic structure of the Song Dynasty and the prosperity of the Maritime Silk Road should be seen as a kind of cyclical relationship formed through repeated exploration. The mutual pull between the two led to a sharp increase in the number of artisans and merchants, and the main body of these people lived in these neighborhoods and towns."

"The population of these towns has already moved away from agriculture, and seven or eight out of ten people live off the land. The people we see above who are engaged in these occupations are basically from the urban areas, and among them are many workshop owners with strong financial resources, as well as semi-professional handicraft workers."

"In coastal areas, such as Guangzhou and Fujian, there were many foreign and Han merchants. According to historical records, during the Song Dynasty, there were tens of thousands of foreign merchants, such as Arabs, engaged in maritime trade in the Guangzhou area. There were also many other types of merchants not included in this list."

"The increase in the number of neighborhoods and households in the Song Dynasty indicates that the urbanization process accelerated, and the economic and military attributes of cities weakened, while economic and cultural attributes took their place."

"Behind economic development, we can't just say it's about artisans and merchants; we also need to talk about other classes besides them, such as... all of you here." Yi Mei's gaze swept around the room.

The following Song Dynasty civil officials were mostly graduates of the imperial examination system.

There were a few exceptions, such as Zhang Fangping, the Commissioner of the Three Departments. He was a graduate of the Maocai Extraordinary Examination, but some people looked down on him because he was not a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations).

However, Yi Mei was referring to the scholar-official class, not those who passed the imperial examinations.

"Because of the improvement of the imperial examination system, a new class emerged: the scholar-official class."

As Yi Mei thought of this, her gaze seemed to travel from them back to the prosperous Song Dynasty, an era when literature and culture were at their most abundant.

"Here we can digress a bit. The imperial examination system in the Song Dynasty completely abolished the restrictions of social class. Whether one was a scholar, farmer, artisan, or merchant, anyone with a little literacy could take the exam and enter officialdom. This increased the scope of official selection in the Song Dynasty."

On the celestial canopy, people from before the Tang Dynasty were still making sarcastic remarks.

Especially during or after the Han Dynasty, when powerful families formed and acted tyrannically, they firmly believed that ordinary people were not the same as them. In their eyes, the common people were "Qianshou" (黔首), not "Min" (民).

Even if a celestial canopy appears now, the concepts of the Han Dynasty and the Northern and Southern Dynasties will not change so quickly.

Some astute people have begun to acknowledge the strength and wisdom of ordinary people, but others cling to outdated ideas and speak sourly about the Song Dynasty's imperial examination system.

However, the sun and moon will not stop turning because of their displeasure, the passage of time will not stop because of their attempts to hold on, and similarly, society will not stop developing because of their demands.

The people of the Song Dynasty felt honored, as the Song Dynasty was indeed an era of flourishing literary culture.

The number of people mentioned later surprised not only people from other dynasties, but also people from the Song Dynasty themselves.

"During the three hundred years of the Song Dynasty, the number of people who passed the imperial examinations in each year reached several hundred, or even over a thousand. According to historical records, the number of people who passed the imperial examinations in the Northern Song Dynasty was about 60,000, while in the Southern Song Dynasty it was more than 50,000. Behind these more than 100,000 people who participated in the examinations were millions of scholars striving to enter officialdom!"

(There are so many!)

(That's why the Jinshi degree in the Song Dynasty was so highly valued!)

(As Miss Zhu mentioned before, the so-called Millennium Dragon and Tiger List is something that dragons and tigers would have to kneel down to, because everyone there is a literary star.)

(Isn't that right?)

(The scholar-officials of the Song Dynasty were treated very well; you can tell by looking at their salaries. I don't remember which rank they were, but their monthly salary was enough for a middle-class family to live on for several years.)

(That's a bit of an exaggeration, isn't it? But the treatment was indeed very good, and back then, it was quite dangerous if you weren't a scholar-official; even running a small business was quite risky.)

(Isn't it said that they became so wealthy by sucking the blood of ordinary people?)

……

The screen was filled with dense comments, some expressing envy, others saying they wanted to study hard in the future, and still others saying they wanted to go into business...

Zhu Qinggu only glanced at it briefly, and after confirming that there was no large-scale verbal battle, he turned his attention back to it.

As for those who make sarcastic remarks, let them say what they want. It's not like no one has said such things before. Even if they make sarcastic remarks, they can't stop the general trend of the world.

"The emperor and the scholar-officials jointly governed the country, which also expanded the authority of the scholar-official class in governing the country."

“The scholar-official class of the Song Dynasty was a political elite who grew up in an agricultural civilization and a central bureaucratic system. They advocated the unity of ‘inner sage and outer king’, which allowed them to boldly declare and practice their political views, and even debate with the emperor.”

"The scholar-official class was one of the driving forces behind a series of enlightened policies."

The emperor and his ministers sitting below also relaxed slightly. They had only looked at the surface of the problem before, and what they saw was only the surface situation. Just as Yi Mei said, the Song Dynasty valued scholars, which had both advantages and disadvantages, and could not be generalized.