"I believe that there are truly patriotic merchants in the world, such as Xian Gao, who rewarded his master with a few cows to defeat the Qin army in exchange for Zheng Guozhou, but then refused to reward him..."
Before Hei Fu finished speaking, he was interrupted by Zhang Cang.
"12 heads."
"What?"
Zhang Cang cupped his hands and said, "If you dare to sue the regent, to be precise, the price you have to pay is 12 cows and four pieces of cooked leather."
Hei Fu is unhappy. He is fat, reads a lot, and has an amazing brain. When the leader is speaking, are you able to interrupt questions casually? Look at Xiao He beside him, he looks like a secretary, how well-behaved he is!
Zhang Cang ignored Hei Fu's black face and settled the accounts seriously:
"A subordinate asked a question in "Nine Chapters of Arithmetic": Today we have a total of 190 cattle to buy, which is less than 330, and nine families have a total of 270, making a surplus of 30.
What’s the price of cattle?”
He looked at Hei Fu, waited for a while, and then answered to himself: "A cow is worth 3750, 12 cows, plus four pieces of fine leather, which is nearly 50,000 yuan, the property of a wealthy family."
"But what did Xian Gao get from this matter? Yes, he said that as a merchant, it is natural to be loyal to the country. If I receive an award, wouldn't I be regarded as an outsider? But it is not without benefits. He protected Zheng Guo.
It was the merchants of Zheng who protected their own interests."
"The State of Zheng is different from the princes in that it attaches great importance to merchants. As early as the founding of the country, Zheng Huan Gong made a promise to the merchants of Zheng State: You will not betray me, I will not force merchants, or you will seize them. You will benefit from the market treasures and bribes."
, I don’t want to know about it.”
"The State of Zheng does not buy or sell by force, nor deprive merchants of their goods without reason, but at the same time, it requires others not to betray the State of Zheng, and if any princes abroad detect anything detrimental to Zheng, they must report it immediately. From Duke Huan of Zheng to Zichan, the State of Zheng
We have adhered to this agreement from generation to generation, and merchants also embraced Qiong Yao."
Therefore, the small Zheng State was able to become rich and famous all over the world, and it was able to dance well among Jin, Chu, Qin and Qi.
Zhang Cang said: "So when Xian Gao saved Zheng, he also saved himself and the place where Zheng and his merchants lived! How can this be compared with fifty thousand dollars? Only if you know that there is no skin left, how can the hair be attached to the general?"
Can love his country."
"It's a pity that this kind of situation only exists in Zheng State. As for other princes, for hundreds of years, I have heard that merchants sold their national interests to enemy countries in order to survive, but there has never been a second string high!"
"It's the same today. Instead of providing wealth and goods to restore people's livelihood, what they are thinking about is probably using methods approved by the government to obtain more wealth for themselves!"
Hei Fu nodded: "You mean, it's hard to make money for the country?"
Zhang Cang recognized this word very much: "Yes, it is difficult to make a country rich! This has been the best way for wealthy businessmen in Guandong to make money for hundreds of years!"
"Bai Gui follows the method of taking what others abandon and taking what others take, but to put it bluntly, it is hoarding."
"When his family has a good harvest, he buys grain and sells silk and lacquer. When the silkworm cocoons are formed, he buys silk and cotton wadding and sells grain. He uses his experience of observing astronomical phenomena to predict the amount of rain and the abundance of the next year. If
When there was a bumper harvest that year, but there was a severe drought the next year, we purchased a large amount of grain, hoarded goods, and then sold the old grain at a high price in the disaster year! During the previous severe droughts in the Central Plains, when rice prices were hundreds of dollars, the Bai family was always there to help."
"I recently heard that there was a merchant named Ren in Xuanqu County, Zhengdi, who was a warehouse official. Last year, when Qin was defeated, all the thieves and heroes were fighting for gold and jade, while Ren was the only one to collect grain from the warehouse. Sure enough, it turned out that
Aocang was burned, and in this year, the people are not allowed to farm, and there is no harvest of green and yellow. Liang, Zheng, rice and stone have reached a thousand, and the heroes, gold and jade have all returned to the Ren family, and the Ren family has become rich from this."
"This is Bai Ren's money-making technique, and Su's is another way to lend money to the people when they are in trouble. Luoyang people call it loan money, the capital is the mother, and the interest is the child. In the next year, the people
Even when the money was not paid, Mrs. Su was still kind and allowed her to borrow more money and use the land as a gift. In the third year, when the interest increased and the people had no choice but to do anything, Mrs. Su sold the bonds and took over the land from her neighbor.
"
"Through repeated annexations, by the time Qin destroyed Zhou, it had occupied a large amount of land in the Eastern and Western Zhou Dynasties."
"And once these merchants become powerful, even worse, they can be as rich as kings in terms of financial resources, such as Su and Bai. If the Emperor of Zhou is the puppet of the Eastern and Western Dukes of Zhou, the Eastern and Western Dukes of Zhou are the puppets of Su Bai in terms of financial resources!
That’s why the King of Zhou was forced to go into debt and lost his face. He had to agree to make Su Bai his minister, and resisted him in a separate court."
"With the power and wealth, these wealthy businessmen gradually became extravagant. They enjoyed hunting in fields and ponds. They bought a large number of slaves and slaves to conquer the salt ponds and iron mountains, and the taxes from the government became less and less. He said
It’s no exaggeration to say that I am ‘Su Feng’…”
Obviously, Zhang Cang didn't like these big merchants.
"Is this the young master's opinion?"
Heifu looked at the other person.
"What do you think about treating Su Neishi?"
As Heifu's right-hand man in the economic field, Xiao He is older, thinner than Zhang Cang, and lower profile than Zhang Cang. He has been immersed in farming and repairing ditches and water conservancy that were damaged by the war. When discussing politics in the DPRK, he always listens first and then listens later.
He said that he never disagreed with anyone's strong opinions. At this moment, he said unhurriedly:
"There are many peasants and scholars working as officials under the lower officials. In addition, I collected their comments and the opinions of the abundant people in Guandong towards merchants."
"Today, in a family of five farmers, there are no less than two people serving in the army. They can cultivate no more than a hundred acres, and the harvest from a hundred acres is no more than a hundred stones. They cut firewood, build government offices, and do corvee labor. They have no protection from wind and dust in spring, and no protection from heat in summer.
, there is no shelter from the rain in autumn, no shelter from the cold in winter, and no time to rest between the four seasons; there are also private visits, hangings to inquire about illness, and raising orphans and young children. All the expenses depend on this hundred stones of corn."
"For every farmer, the land rent is easy to say. When collecting the tax, it can occasionally be replaced by silk, but most of the time, it has to be paid. So I have to take the grain to the market to sell, and the price of the grain will be cheap at that time, so I have to
If you sell it for half the price or even if you can't sell it, you can only borrow money at twice the interest rate to meet the oral tax and avoid punishment."
"Though hard work can't guarantee your life, if you suffer from floods and droughts, urgent government and tyranny of taxes, continual tax collection, wars, and government orders changing day and night, then you can only survive by selling your land and houses and paying for your descendants."
"But what about the merchants? The big ones hoard and earn double the interest, while the small ones sit in rows and sell. They travel around the city with their accumulated winnings. If they are in a hurry, they will sell twice as much. Therefore, the men do not work, and the women do not
Silkworm weaving, clothing must be literary talent, food must be beam meat; without the hardship of farmers, you can gain hundreds of millions."
"Because of his wealth, he was a transportation prince, and his power exceeded the officials. He traveled thousands of miles, looked at each other from the top, rode in fine cars and fat horses, and wore silk and white silk ribbons. This is why merchants and farmers have become farmers in the past hundred years.
This is the normal state of people’s exile…”
"This is the view of farmers and most small farmers. It is a bit extreme, but most of them are true."
In short, the conscience of capitalists cannot be trusted!
That's why the fundamentalist group of farmers strongly advocated killing all merchants and returning the world to the ancient times of self-reliance.
This is of course impossible, but behind the prosperous business of the six Kanto countries, there are many problems. Some people got rich first, the markets became lively, and luxury goods were extremely popular, but many farmers were still struggling on the poverty line. , the country itself has not become rich and strong because of this...
As for the sprout of capitalism that some people think will “appear as long as business is developed”? Not even a shadow can be seen!
As long as wealthy businessmen have savings, in addition to buying luxury goods to show off their wealth, they will focus on acquiring land. The more land, the greater the sense of security. In addition, like Lu Buwei, they engage in political investment and turn money into power, thereby truly realizing class status. leap...
To put it bluntly, although the wealthy businessmen of the Warring States Period were businessmen in name, their thinking was still that of farmers and officials!
What's more, there are people who collude with foreign tribes for profit, and contraband items such as copper and iron are also smuggled out of the fortress! Heifu has obtained evidence that Wu Shinu and the Xiongnu secretly communicated. It's a pity that this old thief is cunning and will not let Heifu's enthusiasm The invitation is to stay in Qiang land and not come back. This fat sheep is not easy to slaughter.
"Five beetles."
Zhang Cang continued: "My senior brother Han Fei also feels that merchants, especially wealthy businessmen, are one of the five beetles on the body of a country."
Translated, it means country moth…
"This is also the reason why the Shang monarchs focused on agriculture and suppressed commerce. King Fuming's governance was such that the number of merchants, workers, travellers, and merchants was small and their reputation was low, so that there would be fewer people engaged in their own business and more people devoted themselves to the business of merchants. "
The life of farmers in Qin is harder than that of ordinary citizens in Guandong. There is nothing they can do about it. The government has strong control. If they find out that the officials and titles they have earned by beheading people with hard work can be bought by merchants with money, they will have to work hard for a year. , a merchant can earn it in half a year.
Then who the hell is still willing to fight for the country? One hundred thousand people and ninety thousand merchants have already done it!
Peasants are bound to the land and have a fixed output every year. Their large population and stable residences make them the most convenient targets for state taxation. Food and cloth are both urgent needs.
Merchants, on the other hand, are running around without actual production, always reselling what they buy with their left hand and with their right hand. Their speculative profit-seeking behavior may even cause price fluctuations, which is very detrimental to stability.
Therefore, in Shang Yang's blueprint for Qin Xiaogong, merchants are street rats that everyone shouts to beat, and their political role is similar to that of the German Jews during World War II...
In the Qin State, merchants were taxed heavily and had to share the corvee according to the number of people (including servants at home). Whenever a war broke out, city residents and sons-in-law were the first to be expropriated and dragged to the front line to be used as cannon fodder.
Demarcate city registration and special residential areas for merchants, let them wear white clothes as a sign, are not allowed to go out without permission, are strictly prohibited from wearing silk clothes to ride in cars, descendants are not allowed to be officials, and their status is only slightly higher than that of prisoners and slaves.
The farmers and military landlords who were the foundation of the Qin Dynasty immediately felt comfortable.
Farmers pointed to those humble merchants and said to their children: Don't become merchants. Compared with other people, what else can we not be satisfied with? Their only way out is to fight and farm.
Landlords with military merit enjoy political and economic benefits, and there are no upstarts with huge achievements but millions of dollars hanging around in front of them to make them upset.
Only businessmen, their political status has been trampled into the mud, and their economic status cannot be reflected at all.
So the question is, why are you still a merchant? So unless the people of Qin really can't survive, they would rather be assigned by the government to work as farm laborers than to be merchants!
Shang Yang had an insight into human nature, he succeeded, and he has made a profit since then.
Except for Wushi Nu and Widow Qing, who were favored by the First Emperor of Qin and were exempted from politics, there were no big businessmen in the Qin State, and the traffickers and traffickers were even more humble.
At the national level, the most outstanding thing that Shang Yang did was to strictly implement the government monopoly. Grain, wine, salt, iron, copper, as long as every aspect imaginable was handled by the government. In the Kanto countries, those who were granted the title of monarch, giants
The profits that Jia intercepted from it continued to flow into the government of Qin.
After eating up the agricultural taxes and continuing to eat the franchise dividends, the officials of the Six Kingdoms had empty land but it was still overrun by moths and was hungry. However, Qin's body became stronger and stronger, and finally defeated the Six Kingdoms.
This is the victory of the system, the victory of Legalism, and the victory of Physiocrats!
But having said that, the emphasis on agriculture and suppression of business has always been criticized by later generations, as if this destroyed Chinese civilization and caused China to miss out on "capitalism", but few people have really thought about why this is the case.
It is always right to emphasize agriculture, and it is definitely not wrong to suppress business, but it is a measure that must be implemented in special times.
Now, after sitting in the position of "Zhiyi is the shepherd of the world", Heifu sees more clearly that for the government, there are three problems that must be solved.
1. The operation of the government requires huge financial expenditures. Agricultural taxes alone are simply not enough. If the state-owned monopoly system is not implemented, where will the money come from?
2. What should we do if money is urgently needed due to war, famine, etc., but the treasury is empty?
3. If the central government does not control important financial resources and form an overwhelming force, what will happen if local forces expand and rebel?
This is the "Sang Hongyang Trap" that has stumped China for two thousand years. It is also the consensus reached by the Shaofu to govern the internal history of Su. It is also the national policy that Heifu must inherit to firmly control the country's economic lifeline...
"But can this kind of big-government monopoly really bring about all the benefits and no harm? Can it really be strictly enforced in this era of backward traffic information?"
The Qin Dynasty became rich, powerful and unified, but the people's lives did not get better at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Issues that were previously covered up in Guanzhong also emerged one by one as Qin officials parachuted to various parts of Guandong:
Guandong did not adapt to Qin's economic policies and was not acclimated to the soil. It was difficult for the government to implement it. After the large industrial and commercial owners in various places became unprofitable, the mining efficiency of salt and iron gradually became low, and the things produced by the government workshops were expensive because of supervision.
The quality was not very good. In the past ten years, the salt and iron industry in the Kanto region had declined.
A market without competition will eventually be lifeless and it will be difficult to innovate.
The forced purchase of grain warehouses in various places, which was originally used to regulate grain prices, has in turn led to competition with the people for profits.
What's more, the monopoly system has fostered a powerful economy and formed a privileged group that grabs private profits in the name of monopoly.
Another trouble is that to set up a specialized salt and iron mine, does it require officials? Mining, transportation, and sales are all handled by the government's supply and marketing cooperatives, so does it require petty officials? It's okay in Guanzhong, but in the Guandong region, there are many people in the middle.
It is inevitable that human losses and administrative expenses will be huge.
These were the many problems that the Shaofu encountered after Qin Shi Huang unified the country.
Zhang Cang and Xiao He had just criticized the wealthy businessmen of Guandong, and now they were criticizing the shortcomings of franchises, sharply and without mercy!
And with an administrative order, did the merchants in Kanto really restrain themselves? No!
Although there is a government monopoly on salt and iron, there are also many people who are willing to risk breaking the law and being severely punished to smuggle in large quantities against the state's monopoly.
"Despite the difficulties of Guan Liang and the danger of thieves, merchants always shuttled between Lingnan and Saibei, Wuyue, Jingxiang, and Dai Xing. They relied on bribery, forgery, etc. to obtain the talismans and pass them on, traveling hundreds of miles a day without suffering.
Although the wealthy businessmen such as Su, Bai, and Hedong of Luoyang were suppressed for a while, they still retained their heritage and worked hard to regain their lost ground in the government of Guandong!"
Although Zhang Cang didn't like merchants, he had to admire these people's ability to do business.
"You're right."
The same goes for Heifu, who sighed with emotion: "In the Western Regions, Lingnan, and Haidong, the ones who have gone the farthest are not the army, nor the officials, nor the envoys, but the merchants. In order to chase the legendary pearls and jade, they have passed through the north to the north.
, crossed the Dianchi Lake to explore the South China Sea and the Shendu Road..."
"Every bustle in the world is for the sake of coming; the bustling world is for the sake of going away."
"He who travels day and night and travels a thousand miles away has the advantage ahead."
Zhang Cang and Xiao He said at the same time, coincidentally.
Why is it possible to do this? To put it bluntly, it is due to interests.
Therefore, no matter how the government suppresses business, commodity exchange is a necessary means for economic development under current conditions, and getting rich is human nature, so suppression of business cannot be suppressed. Once a crop is cut, another crop will grow.
Not only can the tail of capitalism not be completely cut off, but once the time comes, businessmen can grow back like a gecko's tail and grow rapidly, becoming as rich as the country...
For example, in the lands of Guandong, including Jiaodong, perhaps politically it is those anti-king heroes, Cao Shen and Chen Ping who have the final say.
But economically, the wealthy businessmen from all over the country are in charge...
Heifu secretly thought: "This is why I must make a good start in Luoyang and decide on the national policy of industry and commerce in the future..."
If we can get the financial and human support from the wealthy businessmen of Kanto, it will make Heifu's reunification much smoother.
Now, two routes are in front of us.
On one side is Kanto's extremely laissez-faire merchant trade, with a vibrant economy, but there are wealthy businessmen who are powerful and wealthy enough to rival the country.
On one side is the Qinland of Kansai, where the monopoly economy is monopolized by the big government. Although it is stable and can make the country rich with military force, private business is sluggish and lacks competition.
How to choose?
Fortunately, Heifu is not worried and is looking to the future.
He first looked at it for two thousand years... Unfortunately, the iron frame has been cast. From an economic policy perspective, for the next two thousand years, as long as China is still an agricultural society, there will be little new things under the sun.
Sang Hongyang, Wang Anshi, tossing and turning, are still in charge of the Warring States Period, and Shang plays the remaining tricks, and it is difficult to escape the rut...
Looking back, with the spread of Western learning to the East, it seems that there are many more choices. However, after one trial and error, many falls, the fog becomes thicker and thicker, making people confused.
Fortunately, history finally gave him the perfect answer!
"Both extremes are undesirable."
Heifu smiled and said something that sounded like a heavenly book to Zhang Cang and Xiao He, but was regarded as a guideline and the words of a saint by later generations:
"Productivity determines production relations, and production relations must adapt to the development of productivity!"
"Public ownership is the mainstay, and multiple ownership economies develop together. This is the basic economic system of Da Qin!"
