Anshi Rebellion Later, in order to restore Chang'an , Suzong Li Heng seeks help from the Uighurs and promises that "on the day when the city is defeated, the land, scholars and common people will return to the Tang Dynasty, and gold, silk, and children will return to the Uighurs!" After Chang'an was restored, Emperor Suzong appointed the Uighur prince Ye Hu as the King of Sikong and Zhongyi, and promised him again that from now on, the Tang Dynasty will give the Uighurs 20,000 pieces of silk every year.
From this moment until the reign of Emperor Wuzong of Tang, this expenditure was included in the central government's fiscal budget every year, becoming a debt-related fiscal burden.
Not only that, in the first year of Baoying in the Emperor Daizong of Tang Dynasty (762 AD), the Uighurs sent troops again to help the Tang army recover the Luoyang occupied by Shi Chaoyi. The Tang Dynasty agreed with the Uighurs that in the future, tens of thousands to 100,000 horses would be purchased from the Uighurs every year, and each horse would be paid for forty silk, and the sick and weak horses would be paid at the price. This is the "silk and horse trade" between the Tang Dynasty and the Uighurs.
Silk and horse trade actually existed long before the Anshi Rebellion, but at first it was a mutually beneficial economic and trade activity. Since the Anshi Rebellion, this trade activity has never been an equal transaction again. Because the Tang Dynasty bought small and inferior horses from the Uighurs with large quantities and high value silk.
This is not so much a trade, but rather a dignified day Khan paying tribute to the former vassal states.
This so-called silk and horse trade has caused the Tang governments after to bear heavy economic burdens and huge fiscal deficits. The Uighurs almost used dumping methods to transport a large number of inferior horses to the Tang Dynasty every year, and the silk imported by the Uighurs was never as high as the price of those inferior horses, so they had to repeatedly owed it, "China's financial resources were exhausted, and the price of horses was lost every year" (New Book of Tang·Food and Goods 1)).
By the first year of Jianzhong of Emperor Dezong (780 AD), the price of silk in the Tang Dynasty had reached 1.8 million horses. It was not until the second year of Yuanhe of Emperor Xianzong (807 AD) that the Tang Dynasty paid off its accumulated debts in one go, but after that, the Uighurs sent a large number of inferior horses, so the Tang Dynasty had to continue to owed debts. It was not until the second year of Huichang of Emperor Wuzong (842 AD) that the Tang Dynasty sent troops to wipe out the slump when Uighur (renamed Uighurs) was weak, and this historic debt with the mark of humiliation was written off.
Therefore, from ancient times to the present, the strength of national strength determines the status of economic and trade. If the strength of national strength is strong, the initiative will be held in trade and the pricing power will be held. If the strength of national strength is weak, the only thing that can be passively beaten.
