宋代食盐消费需求分析

盐在包括宋代在内的中国古代社会主要被当作调味用盐、腌制用盐和其它食品加工用盐来消费和使用,此外,还广泛应用于农牧业、医药事业和日常卫生保健等。中国人的饮食口味向来偏咸,宋代是我国古代人口增长较快的时期,所以,全社会每年对盐的消费需求量很大,少则数亿斤,多则十多亿斤。由于生产技术相对落后、交通运输滞后,以及食盐专卖制下政府供给体制的缺失,使得食盐市场经常处于供需失衡状态,从而成为引发宋代私盐的一个重要因素。过去相当长时期,学界在探讨引发私盐的种种因素时,往往从食盐生产、运销领域的制度缺失层面去找寻原因,却很少从食盐的消费需求角度进行思考,这是有失偏颇的。

Analysis of Consumer Demand for Salt in Song Dynasty

Salt in ancient Chinese societies was mainly used as a seasoning or food processing salt like pickling salt. It was also widely used in agriculture, animal husbandry, medicine and daily health care. It is known that Chinese people always have a comparatively salty taste. With the rapid growth of population in Song Dynasty, people consumed a large amount of salt every year, from several hundred million Jin （a traditional Chinese weight unit） to even more than one billion Jin. However, due to the relatively backward of production technology and transportation and the lack of government supply system under the salt monopoly policy, salt market was often in unbalanced supply and demand. As a result, private salt emerged. Previous researches on the causes for private salt have mostly studied from the perspective of the system deficiency in salt production, transportation and marketing, and rarely from the perspective of consumer demand. Therefore, this paper explores the origins for private salt in Song Dynasty by analysis of the consumer demand for salt.