Guan Zhong's first initiative was to implement: "The four people's industries are divided, and the farmers are industrially and commercially promoted." Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ”

The main point of this policy was to divide the people into four classes: soldiers, peasants, craftsmen, and merchants, and to live in fixed areas according to their respective specialties. According to the Chinese Qi language, Guan Zhong has 15 townships and 6 industrial and commercial townships, with 2,000 households in each township, and based on this calculation, there are 30,000 professional sergeants and 12,000 professional industrial and commercial subjects (all calculated on the basis of one person per household). In addition, there are 450,000 farming households in the wilderness.

Guan Zhong believes that there are four advantages to the division of the four people's industries: first, people from the same industry live together, which is easy to exchange experience and improve skills; second, it has a great effect on promoting the production and circulation of commodities; the third is to create a professional atmosphere, so that the people are content with their own business, so as not to "see foreign objects and move", thus causing the instability of the profession; Fourth, it is necessary to create a good social and educational environment invisibly, so that children can be exposed to it from an early age and naturally master professional skills under the influence of their parents and brothers.

He divided the various social strata into occupations, and Guan Zhong was the first person in the history of the world, and this specialized commodity economic model has been revered as the basic form and guiding principle since the Han Dynasty. The meticulous professional division of labor and the institutional arrangement passed down from generation to generation are one of the important reasons why China's early civilization was ahead of the world. Some scholars believe that "the division of social functions in China was at least 1,000 years earlier than in Europe, and the main traditional production technology (non-machine production technology before the Industrial Revolution) appeared in China 800 to 1,000 years earlier than in Europe." ”

And it should be noted that Guan Zhong's implementation of the 'division of business among the four people' is a simultaneous righteousness, and there is no distinction between respect and inferiority. However, after inheriting Guan Zhong's 'division of the four people's industries', Confucianism believed that there was dignity and inferiority, which was sad and lamentable, and also caused serious consequences.

The second initiative of Guan Zhong is "trade freedom".

Guan Zhong, a politician with many years of experience in business, has long discovered that the profitability of industry and commerce is greater than that of agriculture, and the revitalization of the commodity economy is the best way to enhance national strength. He implemented the overall supporting reforms in many fields such as industry, taxation, and prices.

Internally, Guan Zhong abolished the toll tax and levied it only once at the time of sale; Externally, there is no tax for those who come empty, no tax for those who carry things on foot, and even merchants who come by car can enjoy free meals.

In addition, the Qi State has met with the princes several times, and will reach tariff agreements with various countries to reduce tariffs.

This led to the extreme prosperity of commerce and the activity of merchants in the Qi Kingdom. It is estimated that Linzi had 300,000 inhabitants, making it the largest and most prosperous city in the world at that time, while the population of Athens at the same time was less than 50,000.

The third pioneering of Guan Zhong is "macro control".

Guan Zhong established a national grain reserve system, and the state purchased and hoarded a large amount of grain, the quantity of which was sufficient to control the fluctuation of grain prices in the market, so as to achieve the effect of balancing abundance and hunger. Guan Zhong attached great importance to grain, he did not allow anyone to manipulate grain prices, strictly forbade the use of grain trading to oppress the peasants in a year of famine, and grain price fluctuations must be controlled by the state.

Guan Zhong is also a master of using price levers to regulate the economy and increase national revenues. He once said, for example, that if the state has a large amount of cloth, that is, it is not necessary to levy a cloth tax, but to collect it on the raw material hemp, and the price of hemp will increase tenfold because of the tax, and the price of cloth may rise fifty times as a result; In the same way, if the state has a large amount of woven silk, it can levy a tax on raw silk, which can increase the price of woven silk tenfold.

In foreign trade, he advocated controlling commodity prices according to different situations, that is, "controlling the world according to the world": If the quality of foreign commodities is higher than that of the country, the selling price of the commodity in the country should be raised in order to control the import of foreign commodities, and if exports were to be encouraged, the selling price should be lowered.

Guan Zhong's fourth creation is "tax at price, salt and iron monopoly".

Qi Huan Gong and Guan Zhong discussed the strategy of enriching the country many times, and Qi Huan Gong proposed to tax the population, houses, trees, and six animals, but Guan Zhong denied them one by one. In his opinion, taxes are tangible, and collecting money directly from the people will naturally cause dissatisfaction among the people. The best and most desirable way is to "take what is invisible, so that people will not be angry." Based on this, Guan Zhong proposed the method of "tax at price" - the tax is hidden in the commodity and the tax is collected indirectly, so that the taxpayer cannot see or touch it, and pays the tax unconsciously, and it will not cause psychological resistance.

In terms of specific methods, Guan Zhong gave a simple seven words: "Only the official mountains and seas are ke'er." As long as the resources of the mountains and the sea are monopolized, iron ore is produced in the mountains, and sea salt is produced in the sea, which is a monopoly system for salt and iron.

During the agricultural period, salt and iron were the two most important pillar industries, and no one could leave them for a moment. Guan Zhong gave an example of the monopoly income of salt and iron. He said that the population of the country of ten thousand times is about 10 million, and if the poll tax is levied on adults, it should be paid by about 1 million people, and each person will be levied 30 yuan per month, which is 30 million yuan. If the monopoly of salt is carried out, and the price of each liter of salt is raised at a reasonable price, it may be worth 60 million yuan a month, and it is expected to receive double the income from the poll tax. On the surface, however, the government did not levy taxes and did not arouse opposition from the people. Not only in the country, but also for the export of salt to obtain heavy profits, which is equivalent to boiling the inexhaustible seawater can force the people of the world to pay taxes to the Qi country.

The same is true of the monopoly of iron. Guan Zhong said that every peasant household, whether engaged in farming or as a female worker, needs iron tools such as needles, knives, rakes, rakes, cho, saws, cones, chisels, etc., and as long as one penny is added to a needle, 30 needles can be collected, which is equivalent to the poll tax payable by one person, and so on, the total income of the whole country is not less than the total amount of poll tax collected. On the surface, the state does not levy taxes, but in fact there are "no disobedience".

However, it should be noted that Guan Zhong advocated the monopoly of salt and iron, but did not advocate that the government personally go down and establish a state-owned salt factory or a state-owned iron factory - later generations learned from Guan Zhong and thought that the monopoly was state-run, and they were often misguided.

Guan Zhong's fifth creation is to "encourage consumption".

For the ancients, one of the most peculiar economic ideas of Guan Zhong was to encourage consumption, and he even advocated luxury, which can be said to be only seen among the rulers of the past and present.

Guan Zhong's argument for advocating luxury is that as long as the source of profit is not artificially blocked, the merchants will work day and night without rest, and the rich can only consume constantly, and the poor can only work. In order to reinforce his own view, Guan Zhong even made an extreme analogy, suggesting that the eggs should be carved before boiling, and before the wood is burned, "the eggs should be carved and then the eggs should be carved, and the sturges should be carved and then planed." ”

Guan Zhong even invented a very advanced point of view. He said that whenever the years are bad and the people have no business to do, the state should build palaces and pavilions in order to promote the employment of the people, especially those who have lost their possessions. At this time, the palace was built not for pleasure, but to promote employment and balance the economy.

This practice of stimulating economic recovery and promoting employment through the government's investment in fixed assets was learned by Westerners more than 2,000 years later, taking the Great Depression of 1929 as an example, the United States and Germany at that time all adopted such policies to get out of the trough. But more than 2,000 years ago, Guan Zhong had such wisdom, which is really amazing.

Guan Zhong's sixth creation is to "stop the war with business". This is also Guan Zhong's governing ideology that later generations have most disregarded.

As far as the country's internal affairs are concerned, "ending war with commerce" means developing a commodity economy and making the people prosperous without rebellion.

As far as relations with vassal states are concerned, "ending war with commerce" means expanding foreign trade and maintaining balance with military deterrence.

The above six points are the ideas pioneered by Guan Zhong.

Anyone who has a slight understanding of the national economic policy and economics of later generations can see that the effective policies pursued by Huaxia in later generations are almost all similar to those of Guan Zhong, except for the policy of 'separating industries among the four people' and the industry, which is really impossible to inherit.

In addition, judging from the existing historical data, the above policies of Guan Zhong were the first in the world to be proposed. He himself is a state interventionist who respects the laws of the market, which is very similar to, no, it should be said that Keynes is very similar to him.

However, in order to consolidate their power, the kings of the past dynasties used the idea of governing the country combining Confucianism and law, and whether it was Confucianism, Legalism and Guan Zhong's thoughts, they were all ignored by the rulers, except for the 'division of industry among the four people' and the 'monopoly of salt and iron', how sad!

After Yun Xi saw Yang Zirong's strategy for the palace test, he suddenly remembered Guan Zhong as a person, so he specially found out the fragments about Guan Zhong in the book "Guanzi" and "Chinese Qi Yu", and only then did he discover this buried first Ming Xiang of the ages. Guan Zhong is obviously the first Ming Xiang in the ages, and in terms of historical contributions, he is much higher than Yan Ying, Zhuge Liang, Xiao He, Zhang Liang, Xie An, Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui, Zhang Juzheng, etc., but in history, he is only known as Le Yi!

After reading the records about Guan Zhong, Yun Xi immediately decided: "Promote the great ideas of Guan Zhong among officials, and promote them to the county level, anyway, even Confucius said back then, 'Micro Guan Zhong, I will be sent to the left', and the officials did not dare to openly oppose it." ’

It is impossible for those who are brainless to change their minds, but the nimble officials will naturally understand Yunxi's thoughts and run to him. ’

Therefore, before he arranged Huang Huai's inspection of the brothel, he had already begun to sort out the relevant records of Guan Zhong, and he had just finished sorting it out a few days ago, forming the book "Guanzi Collection of Notes". Most of the annotations in it were annotated by him, although he did not specify the annotator.

Xie Jin was one of the people who participated in the compilation of Guan Zhong's relevant records, so he knew Yun Xi's thoughts very well.