Ⅳ.Period of the Song and Yuan Dynasties

In the Song Dynasty, because Jurchen and Western Xia Regime were great threats to the regime of Song, the war in the north was tense and horses were in urgent need, so the tea-horse trade came into being.In the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD), Pu’er tea became a commodity“exchanged for horses of Tubo”, and the central government exchanged Pu’er tea for a large number of horses from the Western Regions, which indirectly promoted the spread and development of Pu’er tea.With the prosperity of commodity economy in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the characteristics of Pu’er tea as a commodity have been widely known, so minorities began to trade with Pu’er tea.According to Li Jing’s Yunnan Annals · Customs of Minorities in the Yuan Dynasty:“Jinchi and Baiyi people go to the bazaar every 5 days and trade with felt, salt and tea”, so it is clear that in the life of Yunnan minorities in the Yuan Dynasty, tea has become a commodity used for trade.