The loss of northern China , the cultural center of Chinese civilization , diminished the international status of the Song dynasty . After the Jurchen conquest of the north , Korea recognized the Jin , not the Song , as the legitimate dynasty of China . The Song 's military failures reduced it to a subordinate of the Jin , turning it into a " China among equals " . The Song economy , however , recovered quickly after the move south . Government revenues earned from taxing foreign trade nearly doubled between the closing of the Northern Song era in 1127 and the final years of Gaozong 's reign in the early 1160s . The recovery was not uniform , and areas like Huainan and Hubei that had been directly affected by the war took decades to return to their pre @-@ war levels . In spite of multiple wars , the Jin remained one of the main trading partners of the Song . Song demand for foreign products like fur and horses went unabated . Historian Shiba Yoshinobu ( 斯波義信 , b . 1930 ) believe that Song commerce with the north was profitable enough that it compensated for the silver delivered annually as an indemnity to the Jin .