Chapter 878 - Heavy Commerce (Page 1/1)

But now Supreme Treasure hopes that people can change this concept from a certain aspect, that is, not every businessman is as rich as they imagined, under the wise leadership of the Republic and under the re-edification and cultivation, he believes that the next group of people who will become rich first will be able to become those great businessmen, those who do not only care about their own interests but think about how to make good products for the benefit of everyone.

The status of merchants in the Celestial Empire has always been very low, and it was only after foreign guns and cannons knocked on the door of the country at the end of the Qing Dynasty that everyone realized that the strength of the Western powers was not only the strength of weapons, but also the development of industry, and merchants played a role in this.

In the era in which Supreme Treasure now lives, it is also divided into four classes of scholars, farmers, industrialists, and merchants in various occupations, which is from the Spring and Autumn Period, when the state minister of Qi was in charge. He advocated dividing the people into four classes: scholars, farmers, industrialists, and merchants, and living in fixed areas according to their respective specialties. This specialized commodity economic model has been respected as the basic form and guiding principle since the founding of the Chu State. On the surface, the "division of industry of the four people" is the inheritance of the ancient system of the Yin and Zhou dynasties, but in fact there is a big difference, and its fundamental difference is that the "industry and commerce" and "Shinong" are juxtaposed, and they are regarded as "the stone people of the country". Therefore, at the beginning of Guan Zhong's division of the Shinong industrial and commercial class, there was no distinction between superior and inferior, noble and inferior.

There have been several dramatic changes in the attitude of the ancients towards industry and commerce. The previous Central Plains people did not seem to be light on business. As early as the Yin Shang period, people were willing and good at doing business and engaged in handicraft manufacturing. However, when reflecting on the lessons of the fall of the Shang Dynasty, the founders of the Zhou Dynasty believed that the fall of the Yin Shang Dynasty was due to the people's enthusiasm for industry and commerce and the barren agriculture, which caused the people's impetuousness and the instability of the national foundation, so they turned to implement a policy of heavy agriculture that despised industry and commerce.

In the Zhou system, the status of industrialists and merchants became very low, and the "hundred workers" were often placed alongside the concubines (male and female slaves) who were in the status of slaves. From the limited written records, it is often seen that similar records are found that the industry and commerce "go out of the countryside and do not go with the scholars". In other words, the scholar must stay away from the merchants, and must not mix with the industrialists and merchants, and the industrialists and merchants are not allowed to talk to the scholars when they leave the place of residence.

It was also stipulated in the Zhou Rite that nobles could not enter the market to trade, otherwise they would be punished. After the Spring and Autumn Period, there was a resurgence of good business, which was also seen by some Taoists as part of the "collapse of etiquette and happiness". In the historical records, a large number of professional freelance traders appeared, who traveled between countries, buying near and far, and making profits.

Contempt for businessmen and businessmen has been the consensus of the Eastern and Western worlds for quite a long time. Some scholars have concluded that from the 2,000-year history of the Celestial Empire, we can find out several major trends in traditional politics in the past. Two of them are "centralization" and "suppression of business", that is, the central government has a tendency to gradually centralize power; From the Han Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the traditional politics of the Celestial Empire followed a policy of controlling capital. This centralized, unified model of empire has been a long, bloody, and exploratory one.

For autocrats, in order to maintain centralized rule, they must complete the construction of institutions in four aspects, including the mode of power distribution between the central and local governments, the mode of control of the minds of the whole people, the mode of control of social elites, and the corresponding model of macroeconomic system. In a centralized system, once the legitimacy and control of central rule declines, a powerful wave of anarchism will quickly spread, and the control of this wave will need to go through a major social upheaval, and finally end with another dictatorship of authority. While the abundance of the people and the abundance of the national treasury are a cause for celebration, they can also be the trigger for other crises.

Take the founding of Southern Chu as an example, there was nothing to do with the weak and incompetent Southern Chu Emperor Xiong Jie at that time, but his father created the prosperous rule, but then all kinds of new contradictions have emerged.

The first is that there are signs that centralization is on the sidelines. The local princes took advantage of their resources and quickly formed a powerful force. Among them, the most prosperous flame is Xiong Hui, the king of Wuyue, he not only has a huge coinage industry, but also Wu is close to the East China Sea, both rich in iron ore, but also rich in sea salt, salt, money, iron three industries, so that Xiong Hui rich Jiayu, he befriended all countries, and gradually became a local power force that is enough to compete with the central court.

In addition to the rise of princes, the merchant also grew in power. Casting iron and boiling salt requires a lot of manpower, often more than 1,000 people, and they live in remote mountains or coastal areas, which is a civil force that is difficult to control. Iron can be forged into weapons, salt can be used for huge profits, people can be turned into soldiers, and in addition, the wealthy people engaged in the distribution industry have many vehicles, which can also be quickly converted into chariots, so the "powerful people" appeared.

There is even a phenomenon of wealthy businessmen running rampant in the world, and the princes everywhere "bowing their heads and looking up to give", which is all seen by the Supreme Treasure with his own eyes, Zheng Ze was such a rich and hegemonic figure when he did not join the republic. Even more frighteningly, the magnates and merchants seem to be forging trading alliances and greatly corrupting the rule of officials.

There is a Kong family and others in Nanyang who "ride in a car and guard each other", and interact frequently with local princes. In many historical books, there are records of officials and businessmen colluding and seeking benefits. In this way, the local princes and the merchants rose up strongly, which made the supreme ruler of Jingzhou shiver. Under the imperial power system, centralization and decentralization have always been a pair of contradictions that are difficult to balance, and it can even be said that they are either/or irreconcilable.

When the central government concentrates power, the political power can maintain stability, but it will lead to a lack of local innovation, the wealthy class will be greatly oppressed by the state-owned capital group, and the whole society will be in a state of inefficient operation. When power is devolved from the central government to the localities, a completely different picture will emerge, the local power and wealth strata will become very active, and the economy will be greatly developed, but the political authority and fiscal revenues of the central government will be greatly weakened, and the economy of the princes who are alienated from morality and "beggar-thy-neighbor" will prevail, and there will also be a serious disparity between the rich and the poor. Therefore, how to balance centralization and decentralization and make appropriate institutional arrangements has become the primary issue in ruling the current Yanhuang People's Republic. This scene has not changed slightly for 2,000 years.

The Supreme Treasure felt that the burden on his shoulders was heavy, but it also made him excited, because he was likely to see the land he grew up in and the country would stand completely strong and respected by all in the world.

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