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Abstract Although the industrial prefecture (jian 监) was established in the Tang Dynasty, and in the Later Jin Dynasty, the industrial prefecture started to administrate prefecture-level agencies, the coexistence of the prefecture (zhou 州), the superior prefecture (fu 府), the military prefecture (jun 军) and the industrial prefecture which played important roles in the political operation as local secondary administrations was still a pioneering undertaking by the government of the Song Dynasty. The industrial prefecture was recognized as a local administration in the Song Dynasty when scholars perused the historical materials of the Song Dynasty. However, in-depth research shows that only a small number of the industrial prefectures operated prefecture-level agencies. In other words, the quantity of the prefecture-level industrial prefectures was extremely limited during the Song Dynasty. As a matter of fact, the organization system of the prefecture-level industrial prefecture was not merely unstable but also immature. In the initial period of the Song Dynasty, twelve industrial prefectures that were at the same level with the general prefectures were successively established. The figure was a little bit higher than that in the period of Song Shenzong, which was only four. In the Southern Song Dynasty, with the reduction in land area and the upgrade of some prefecture-level industrial prefectures, the number continued to decrease. In the first year of Emperor Xiaozong (1163), Xianjing Industrial Prefecture (仙井监）of Chengdu Superior Prefecture Circuit (成都府路) upgraded to Long Prefecture (隆州). The outcome of this historical event was that only Daning Industrial Prefecture (大宁监) and Fushun Industrial Prefecture（富顺监） were preserved as prefecture-level industrial prefectures. The prefecture-level industrial prefecture oversaw several districts (县) and established a series of bureaucratic institutions. Meanwhile, many industrial prefectures were prefectures of monopolized goods (wuwu jian 物务监) attached to the prefectures, the superior prefectures and the military prefectures. According to the retrievable historical materials, forty-eight industrial prefectures such as the Coinage Directorate (qian jian钱监), the Foundry Directorate (ye jian 冶监), the Salt Marsh Directorate (yanchi jian 盐池监), the Directorate of Horse Pasturages (muma jian 牧马监) and the Directorate of Bamboo Crafts (sizhu jian司竹监) were successively established in the Song Dynasty. These governmental agencies administrated various affairs, for example, coinage, iron smelting, silver smelting, salt boiling, horse keeping and bamboo production. The head of the non-prefecture-level industrial prefectures was generally referred to as the director of the directorate (jian mou jian 监某监). The director of the directorate was a state monopoly agent (jian dang guan 监当官) rather than an administrator. During the Song Dynasty, two kinds of industrial prefectures ? the prefecture-level industrial prefecture and the non-prefecture-level industrial prefecture existed simultaneously. The difference between the industrial prefectures in the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty was that the prefecture-level industrial prefectures were affiliated to the circuit while the non-prefecture-level industrial prefecture were affiliated to the prefectures, the superior prefectures or the military prefectures. The commonality between the prefecture-level industrial prefecture and the non-prefecture-level one was that their numbers both decreased with the elapse of time. The number of the prefecture-level industrial prefectures was over ten in the early period of the Song Dynasty. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the figure dropped to just two. Unlike the military prefectures which finally became local centres of administrative power, the historical data recorded the marginalization of the prefecture-level industrial prefectures. This historical fact should not be ignored by the researchers. Moreover, the prefectures of monopolized goods, affiliated to the prefectures, the superior prefectures and the military prefectures, also decreased in quantity, down to 18 in the late period of the Southern Song Dynasty from a peak of forty or fifty. Moreover, 18 non-prefecture-level industrial prefectures that remained were all Directorates of Coinage. To summarize, as the number of the prefectures of monopolized goods was several or even ten times more than that of the prefecture-level industrial prefectures during the same period, the industrial prefecture in the Song Dynasty should not be simply regarded as secondary administrations inferior to the circuit alongside the prefecture， the superior prefecture and the military prefecture. In short, the above situations demonstrate that a dual system existed in the organization structuring of the industrial prefecture. This issue deserves careful attention from those who read or study the history of the Song Dynasty.
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