Chapter 597 Spring and Autumn Unrighteous War (Thanks to the Alliance Leader'' Book '''My favorite.)

There are two sides to everything, and business is right to be the most effective way to promote the progress of human civilization.

But at the same time, it is also the most undesirable way, because business is not ethical, which is the normal state known to mankind, and this normality is itself pathological.

The word "no treacherous business", the first word is no business and no sharp, this allusion is to buy rice in the spring and autumn period to raise the bucket as a measuring device, so there is a "rise to the small people" said. When measuring rice, the seller will flatten the bulging rice in the bucket with a mahogany ruler to ensure that the amount is accurate. After the transaction of the silver goods, the merchant will add some rice to the rice bucket in the rice basket, and if the surface of the rice has been smoothed, it will be bulging into a pinch of "pointed heads" to make a profit as much as possible.

It has become a custom to measure good rice and add some more, that is, whenever you do business, you always give a little more to your guests. This is a kind of business gimmick of old-fashioned businessmen, and this handful of "additions" is very useful to customers, so there is a saying that "no business is not sharp".

But later, with the development of the commercial market, fierce competition, as well as market rules and low moral standards of merchants, unscrupulous businessmen were driven by huge profits, and many fake and shoddy products appeared, and consumers scolded profiteers.

Therefore, this no-business, non-sharp, has evolved into no business, no treachery.

What started as a positive term for businessmen has slowly turned into a derogatory term for abusiveness.

The meaning of this idiom is in the process of evolution, and it symbolizes the overall direction of the business industry.

With the prosperity of businessmen and commerce, a certain system and power have been formed, which directly define businessmen as an industry with 'profit-making as the highest criterion', ignoring morality and even laws and regulations, and putting interests first, trying to beautify this kind of 'treacherous' and turning it into the wisdom of businessmen.

But the wisdom of this businessman still exploits the weaknesses and desires of human nature, such as the bubble economic tragedy caused by the most famous 'businessman's wisdom' in history, which later became the tulip mania of economic terms.

Taken place in the Netherlands in 1637, it was the world's first bubble economic event. At that time, the tulip bulbs imported from Ottoman Turkey were so attractive that they were snapped up by the public, causing prices to soar wildly, and after the bubble had passed, the price was only one percent of what it was when it was in the bubble, plunging the Dutch metropolises into chaos.

At that time, the seven northern states of the Netherlands gained de facto independence in the early 17th century as a result of their victories against Spain, and the Netherlands became the maritime empire of Europe. The seizure of the spice trade from Portugal, the Thirty Years' War in Central Europe, the concentration of business in Amsterdam, and the considerable profits of the Dutch East India Company in Batavia. In this context, the Netherlands had the highest income level at that time, and even overseas art works were concentrated in the Netherlands.

Because tulips are difficult to reproduce in large quantities in a short period of time, they create a precious 'illusion', because of various commercial hype and official cooperation of the Dutch obsessed with tulips out of stock, causing prices to soar.

In 1636, a tulip worth three thousand guilders was exchanged for eight fat pigs, four fat bulls, two tons of cream, a thousand pounds of cheese, a silver cup, a bag of clothes, a bed with a mattress attached and a boat. , you can see its value.

At the beginning of February 1637, prices plummeted suddenly. It is said that 3,000 people were unable to pay for the goods but were unable to pay for the goods because the bills could not be cashed.

Dutch municipalities are in turmoil, and some of them are creditors and debtors at the same time. Although there are lawsuits, there is no way to resolve the matter when the debtor is clearly unable to repay. The situation eventually shook the parliament and the city government into action, and finally made the decision to "keep the tulip deal until the investigation was over", which invalidated the bill, but quickly resolved the problem, leaving a small number of bankrupts and nouveau riche, and the era of tulip mania ended.

At this time, people found out that the previously hot tulip market is also likely to be the 'wisdom of the merchants', when the tulips are sold to those sellers at a profit tens of millions of times more than its own value, perhaps the value of the tulips is not as hot as it was before.

Although this incident did not make much waves in the Dutch economy, it caused a huge blow to the Dutch people in terms of love culture and spirit.

However, another South Sea Bubble triggered by England in 1720 with the "wisdom of merchants" had a huge impression on England at that time.

The South Sea Bubble was a 'merchant's wisdom' in alliance with the English aristocracy, and the South Sea Company launched a plan to exchange South Sea stocks for treasury bonds to Parliament through illegal means, which prompted the South Sea Company stock to be highly sought after, and the stock price rose sharply from about 120 pounds in early 1720 to more than 1,000 pounds in July of the same year.

Nearly ten times the stock price has led to the return rate of Nanhai Company can not keep up, and the soaring stock of Nanhai Company has directly triggered a lot of 'shell companies' to take advantage of the situation to take a piece of the pie, and a large number of shell company stocks have appeared in the market, resulting in the expansion of the stock market, and the official has to intervene in rectification for this reason, and after the collapse of these shell companies, the sluggishness of the stock market directly makes shareholders have a crisis of confidence in Nanhai Company.

The crisis of confidence caused the shares of Nanhai to fall, and it was not long before various methods were used to no avail, leaving thousands of shareholders without their homes, many of whom were from the upper class, and some of whom fled the country because of their debts.

The economic crisis of the South China Sea stock incident directly bankrupted the credit of the ruling organization in England at the time, and triggered a period of economic depression in England that followed.

One of the victims of this incident is very famous, the great physicist who discovered gravity, Newton.

Newton lamented, "I can calculate the trajectory of celestial bodies, but I can't predict the madness of people." ”

The tulip mania represents the shady and unscrupulous means of the 'wisdom of businessmen', and the South China Sea incident represents the terrible and unscrupulous desire for money of businessmen, and the poor control of morality over this desire, which needs to be regulated by regulations.

But the more important meaning is the ignorance and greed of the majority.

And this kind of ignorance and greed is precisely the 'wisdom' of businessmen to make profits.

In terms of wisdom, businessmen are higher than many people and belong to the strong.

But this kind of strong man uses his strength to exploit and deceive the weak, this kind of wisdom, Wang Yao does not recognize.

And what is even more terrifying is that with the development of business more and more powerful, the impact on human values is also very serious, the excessive objectification of society will make morality unbinding, and the law and regulations can not keep up with the intensity of supervision, it is the emergence of one tragedy after another.

What's even more terrifying is that in this materialized society, in the moral values of the money standard, no one will condemn businessmen, because businessmen are meant to make money, if you are a victim, it can only mean that you are stupid and you deserve it.

This is a distorted social value.

But it is the way that can affect human beings the most, because greed and ignorance are the most common in human nature.

Ignorance will make people think that pie will really fall from the sky, so as to believe in some overnight riches, pyramid schemes, etc.

Greed turns some talented and capable people into high-IQ criminals.

This is the fall of society as a whole.

It is what Confucius said, etiquette collapses and happiness is a symbol of civilization backwardness.

After all, a civilization that allows deception and sin to run rampant, and a civilization that allows the strong to enslave the weak, is itself wrong.

Mencius said that the Spring and Autumn Period was an unrighteous war, referring to the unjust war in the Spring and Autumn Period.

Because, Confucianism believes that "the conquest of rites and music comes from the Son of Heaven", which is righteous, while in the Spring and Autumn Period, "rites and pleasures are broken", and "the expedition of rites and pleasures comes from the princes", so there is no righteous war.

The war before the Zhou, whether it was external or internal, was in a primitive state, without too many strategies, and after the Zhou Dynasty, the cultural development flourished, especially the concept of morality and ethics, and a new definition was also carried out in the way of war.

But these regulations were buried by killing and instinct with one war after another in the Spring and Autumn Period, so there is a saying that there is no righteous war in the Spring and Autumn Period.

In the Zhou Li, war is only a way to solve problems, but in the end it becomes the only way to solve problems, which in itself is a kind of cultural regression.

What's even more terrifying is that during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the art of war and tactics flourished, and the 36 strategies were certainly the great wisdom of the general, but at the same time, they were also villains in the moral sense.

Morality, as a standard of self-discipline, naturally has no restraint after being destroyed by others, and when most people lose this restraint, then human nature is out of control.

War itself is a mistake, but gradually with the overall decline of social morality and aesthetics, the art of war and war will only be slowly accepted and even beautified, which in itself is an abnormality.

Business also seems to be slowly moving in the direction of war.

This is not what Wang Yao wants, although he knows that what he hopes is not necessarily right, but he insists on his position, because in his values, it is enough to distinguish what is right and what is wrong.