"Ever since I ascended the throne, I have deeply felt that the Great Qin Empire's strength is weak, so I have decided to reform to become stronger…"
Great Qin's current government decree was to place emphasis on agriculture and suppress commerce. In the eyes of Great Qin's past Emperors, merchants did not engage in production, but they had a lot of wealth and were the source of chaos in the country.
Long Yunfeng's decree was to free the trade. Other than salt, iron, grain, and armaments, all other trades were no longer under his control.
Imperial Censor Zhou Sheng looked at the business reform strategy, his face revealing some urgency.
After Zhou Sheng heard Long Yunfeng's business reform strategy, he cupped his hands and said,"Your Majesty, in my opinion, the root of the country lies in agriculture and not commerce. I think it's better to re-measure the land and collect taxes according to the fields. We should formulate a stricter agricultural tax and not untie commerce…"
" Your Majesty, I think Lord Zhou is right. Commercial plundering has always been the source of national chaos..." The head of the nine ministers, Fengchang Yang Feng, echoed Zhou Sheng.
" According to my suggestion, we should cultivate fertile land and make the people rich…If the people are rich, the world will be stable…" Zhou Sheng spoke again.
" If the ban is lifted, I'm afraid it will attract the dissatisfaction of the aristocratic families..." Yang Feng said.
The two ministers didn't support Long Yunfeng's business reform strategy. They were scholar-bureaucrats and had never looked up to businessmen. Moreover, among the three schools of thought, businessmen's status was extremely low...
Long Yunfeng looked at Yang Feng and Zhou Sheng and smiled."The two beloved ministers are right. Agriculture has always been the foundation of the country, but in my eyes, commerce is also indispensable.”
"Your Majesty! You're going against the aristocrats! Since ancient times, the emphasis on agriculture and suppression of commerce had been to respect the gentry and demote the merchants. If the ban on commerce was lifted, the gentry would probably resist and the court would be unstable.
"Your Majesty, I support Your Majesty's reform and the opening of commerce.”Wang Huan stood up and said.
"I also support Your Majesty." Zhu Yu also stood out to support him.
After all, during the discussion with His Majesty a few days ago, the commercial tax could actually reach several times the agricultural tax. Now that the national treasury was empty, if they did not think of a way, the national finances would collapse.
"Your Majesty, I oppose the opening up of commerce. Since ancient times, the imperial court has implemented a policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce. If commerce is opened up, the land will not be cultivated, and our Great Qin Empire will be unstable!”Wang Zhi objected.
Why was the status of a merchant not high?
It was the traditional policy of the ancient dynasty to place emphasis on agriculture and suppress commerce.
The reason for this was that, according to the understanding in history textbooks, productivity was lagging behind.
In fact, this statement could not be scrutinized. The productivity determined the production relations, and this decision was not transferred by the will of the people.
To quote Old Maradona, this was a mistake of historical idealism.
He believed that the production relationship was decided by the court.
How could there be business when productivity was lagging behind? Having business meant that they were not lagging behind. At least, they were not lagging behind to the extent that they could not afford to eat. (I'll explain later when I see some friends say that businessmen don't create wealth.) Merchants create wealth.
Take the reform of Shang Yang in ancient China for example. Why did Shang Yang implement a policy that emphasized agriculture and suppressed commerce?
The sage knew the key to governing the country, so he made the people devote themselves to farming.
Concentrate on farming, so that the people can be simple and upright, orderly and easy to use, honest and reliable, can be used to defend and fight.
If you are unified, you will be less cunning and more important. If you are unified, you can be rewarded and punished. If you are unified, you can be used externally.
The common people are close to the emperor, so they are engaged in farming day and night.
The common people cannot be used because they can be respected by talking, traveling, serving the monarch, becoming rich by doing business, and making a living by skill.
When the common people see that these three are convenient and beneficial, they will certainly avoid farming.
If they avoid farming, the people will despise their homes, and if they despise their homes, they will certainly not defend and fight for the monarch.
Those who govern the country are worried that the people are scattered and cannot be united. Therefore, the sage makes the people united and united. -- Shang Jun Shu Nong Zhan Chapter
Shang Yang believed that a sage monarch knew the essentials of governing the country, so he ordered the people to put their hearts on agriculture.
If the people focused on farming, they would be simple and easy to manage. If they were honest, they would be easy to enslave. If the people were honest, they could be used to defend the city and fight.
If the people focused on farming, there would be few treacherous things. Moreover, they valued their homeland and were unwilling to move. If the people focused on farming and fighting, they could use rewards and punishments to encourage progress. If the people focused on farming and fighting, they could use them to fight against foreign countries.
The people were close to the monarch and sacrificed themselves for the law because they were engaged in agriculture all day long.
If the people could not be used, it was because they saw that those who relied on empty talk and persuasion to pay the monarch could also obtain a noble status, merchants could also become rich, and craftsmen could also support their families.
When the people saw that these three kinds of people had a comfortable occupation and could make money, they would definitely avoid farming and fighting.
If they avoided farming, then the people would despise their place of residence.
If they looked down on their own place of residence, they would definitely not fight for the monarch.
Anyone who governed a country was afraid that the people would be scattered and unable to concentrate. Therefore, wise rulers hoped that the people could focus on farming.
The reason why merchants were suppressed was that they were afraid that people would be unwilling to engage in agriculture after seeing the wealth of merchants. If they did not engage in agriculture, the people would not be able to fight for the monarch.
Here, Shang Yang repeatedly emphasized that the advantage of farmers over merchants was that they would not move. If the people were to live lightly, they would not be able to serve the emperor. What kind of logic was this?
The real reason was related to the central power. Legalism rose during the Warring States Period with the aim of mobilizing the domestic forces to fight wars to the greatest extent.
If one wanted to mobilize the strength of the country, there were only two things. One was soldiers, and the other was food. If you are the King of Qin, how are you going to recruit soldiers? How to collect grain? Do you know every citizen? So you need a household registration system.
Everyone had to register.
If a household registration system was to be implemented, it would require that people could not move around as they wished. Otherwise, once everyone moved around, the household registration would be chaotic, and some people might escape military service and taxes.
Agriculture could provide military rations and prevent people from migrating, which was why it had to be promoted.
In ancient society, ensuring that people did not migrate was the most important thing.
The imperial court would set up posts such as household scraping emissaries to search for those who had escaped and register them into the household register.
Being a merchant was more profitable and easier than agriculture (of course, the risks were also higher, and it was easy to lose money), but it was impossible to settle down. Therefore, the government was very afraid that merchants would become the most popular occupation of the people. Once everyone went into business, soldiers and food (referring to the food that the government could collect) would become a problem.
However, this wasn't the only reason why they attacked merchants. There was another important reason: In order to make the people poor!
Because the people were poor, they would covet the government's rewards, which made it easier to rule.
The governments of the past dynasties used the banner of " balancing the rich and the poor and suppressing annexation ". In fact, it was not for everyone to be rich together, but for everyone to be poor together.
The national treasury was filled with wealth, and the common people did not have tomorrow's food (and they just happened to not starve to death). This was the highest goal of the imperial court in the past dynasties.
Therefore, because merchants were rich, they would not covet the government's rewards and would not cooperate with the government. They would also become the target of the government.
Therefore, cracking down on merchants was not because of low productivity, but a method adopted by the central government to forcefully control the people.
The reason why he didn't mention it now was probably because this dynasty had continued this system in the early days. They used household registration and food stamps to restrict farmers from entering the city, control the countryside, and draw wealth from agriculture to support industry.
From a deeper perspective, folk commerce was naturally anti-autocracy. The accumulation of folk commerce would eventually lead to some people of low status becoming very rich.
After the development of commerce, the exchange relationship would be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, thus shaking the foundation of feudal autocracy-personal attachment.
In fact, many of the textbooks were problematic. For example," feudalism is landlord land ownership." According to this, the Chinese government was the largest feudal force. It directly and indirectly controlled the land of the country. This was obviously wrong.
The foundation of feudalism was the relationship of personal attachment. Wealth was distributed through the relationship of attachment between people and through political power. However, merchants did not rely on this method at all. Commerce relied on a de-centered market and was distributed through exchange.
Once the distribution method of merchants was recognized by the whole society, the distribution method under the feudal system could not be maintained.
Didn't merchants create wealth?
Let's think of two places without commerce, A and B. Land A was suitable for planting rice, while Land B was suitable for planting mulberry. In a situation where there was no commerce, Land A had to plot out a piece of land that was very suitable for planting rice and plant mulberry trees that were very unsuitable. Similarly, Land B had to plot out a piece of land that was originally very suitable for planting mulberry trees and plant rice that was particularly inefficient.
Once there was commerce, they would find that the rice in A was cheap and good, and the mulberry in B was cheap and good. This would prompt the people who planted mulberry in A to switch to rice, and the people who planted rice in B to mulberry, causing the output of A and B to increase at the same time. The part of the increase was the invisible wealth created by the merchants.
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。