Economy of the Han Dynasty
An Eastern-Han golden belt hook, hammered
and chiseled with designs of mythical animals
and birds
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The Han Dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE) of an-
cient China experienced contrasting periods
of economic prosperity and decline. It is nor-
mally divided into three periods: Western
Han (202 BCE – 9 CE), the Xin Dynasty (9–23
CE), and Eastern Han (25–220 CE). The Xin
Dynasty, established by the former regent
Wang Mang, formed a brief interregnum
between lengthy periods of Han rule. Follow-
ing the fall of Wang Mang, the Han capital
was moved eastward from Chang’an to Luoy-
ang. In consequence, historians have named
the succeeding eras Western Han and
Eastern Han respectively.[1]
Major features of the Han economy were:
significant population growth,
increasing
urbanization, unprecedented growth of in-
dustry and trade and government experi-
mentation with nationalization. In this era,
the levels of minting and circulation of coin
currency grew significantly,
forming the
foundation of a stable monetary system. The
Silk Road facilitated the establishment of
trade and tributary exchanges with foreign
countries across Eurasia, many of which
were previously unknown to the people of an-
cient China. The imperial capitals of both
Western-Han (Chang’an), and of Eastern-Han
(Luoyang), were among the largest cities in
the world at the time, in both population and
area. Here, government workshops manufac-
tured furnishings for the palaces of the em-
peror and produced goods for the common
people. The government oversaw the con-
struction of roads and bridges, which facilit-
ated official government business and en-
couraged commercial growth. Under Han
rule,
industrialists, wholesalers and mer-
chants—from minor shopkeepers to wealthy
businessmen—could engage in a wide range
of enterprises and trade in the domestic, pub-
lic, and even military spheres.
In the e