A study on the relationship between the military expenses and the finances in the Southern Song dynasty

Abstract

The Song dynasty had spent more than 60% percent of the financial affairs on the military expenses. It was applied for whole period of the Song dynasty as well as the Southern Song dynasty. Most of the military expenses in the Song dynasty went to operations and maintenance costs. Because the Song dynasty instituted a volunteer military system. It means that the nature of the military turned into the occupation soldiers. And the Song dynasty had to support to the soldiers as well as the soldier’s families. Besides, the Song’s military expenses was included the soldier’s pay, the production of arms, the purchasing of logistics materials, etc. The Song dynasty purchased the military goods in the market.BR The military expenses was the largest part of the government expenditure in the Song dynasty. It was said that the Song’s military expenses accounted for 60 percent to 90 percent of the government expenditure. Although not accurate, the purpose of this study is trying to assess how did the Song dynasty spent annually on military disbursement. It may be a mistake of hasty generalization calculating the total cost of military in the Song dynasty from the military expenditure of the some regions. And it is possible to make an error of calculating the total price of the logistics goods purchased. Because the price was vary on the area. But to conclude, I believe that finding in this study will have the roughly understanding of the military expenditure in the Song dynasty, especially in the Southern Song dynasty.