Song China's Population Surpasses One Hundred Million
1060
Census records from the Song dynasty suggest the empire's population crossed the hundred-million mark around this period - making it by far the most populous state on earth. The demographic surge was fed by improved rice strains from Vietnam, expanded irrigation, and the relative peace of the dynasty's southern heartland. This vast population both enabled and demanded the commercial revolution underway: more mouths meant more markets, more labor, and more tax revenue for an ambitious state.
In context
Also in 1060 (4 other events on record)
- Roger de Hauteville begins conquest of Sicily · Europe · War
- Cahokia's Monks Mound rising · North America · Culture
- Baphuon Temple Completed at Angkor · Southeast Asia · Culture
- Death of Henry I of France · Europe · Politics
Before and after in East Asia
Before and after in Science
Era
High Middle Ages (1000–1300), one of 1,306 events from that era on Saeculum.