Abstract:

Commodity prices in the early Tang dynasty remain stable and generally speaking, each volume of handwritten books valued at more than 100 wen. Due to the political turmoil and years of fighting in the late Tang dynasty, the prices were rising. And each volume of handwritten books were worth 1 000 wen, ten times that of the previous. With the appearance of printing technology in the stage of history, each volume of printed books valued at more than 100 wen because of copying facilities and large circulation. This equals to 1/10 of the price of the handwritten books. This parity had not changed from the Tang dynasty till the Ming dynasty.

Key words: The Tang dynasty, Book price, Handwritten books, Printed books