Nomadic and Settled Worlds: The Mutual Diffusion of Economic Institutions on the Example of the Xi Xia, Liao and Song Empires

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There is a commonplace in the historical scholarship that nomadic peoples, adopting a settled way of life, borrow from the agrarian sedentary population their methods of economy managing and state administration. Chinese historical tradition tells that the nomadic periphery fell under Chinese influence and adopted from the Han people both their political and economic institutions. However, sources let us know that the situation is not so simple. There are periods of reverse influence of the nomadic world on agrarian China. In the pre-Mongolian period, the Chinese empire was at the same time at the peak of its development, stood on the threshold of the industrial revolution, but was also heavily dependent on its neighbors, being forced to pay tribute to them. Practices of regular close interaction led to diffusion, that is, the mutual borrowing of various management methods. Using the example of the Chinese Song Empire and its neighbors of the Western Xia and Liao empires, the article shows that borrowings did not always go exclusively from the Han to nomads, but, on the contrary, there was a mutual penetration of both economic and political institutions in the sphere of finance and taxation.