Man is an indefinite free body, and regardless of whether it is possible to measure people by the so-called qualitative talent, even the indicators of this "talent" are also varied. The Chinese feudal civil official system represented by the Song Dynasty opened a gap in the special performance name and the shadow in addition to the name of the official performance, and the various kinds of people it recruited with false assessment and fictitious titles, the increase in the types of examinations, the increase in the number of scholars, and the free choice of entering the ranks, but the officials and kings of the examination subjects chose "talents" rather than "people".

China's imperial examination was perfected in the Song Dynasty, but the imperial examination in the Song Dynasty was really a freak, and it also involved this fundamental problem. On the one hand, the selection of talented and strategic people is incomparable to other dynasties in Chinese history, and at the same time, it has also created a weak political and military, and the expansion of the imperial examination, coupled with the "grace of the shade" and the "grinding" of relocation based on seniority, made the ranks of officials in the Song Dynasty swell sharply, so that the prime minister Song Itch lamented: "The state and county are not as wide as before, and the officials are five times as large as the old, why should the officials not be reluctant, and why should the officials not be indiscriminately eliminated?" ”

Many people say that China's civil service system has set a precedent in the world, but in fact it is very different from the modern Western civil service system. Liberal politics is a Greek tradition, and it is also the ideal of the scholars to govern the country and the country, and I am afraid that the scholars themselves are not consciously conscious. But China's imperial power is certainly intolerable, and the emperor and ministers are always doubting the reliability of this kind of humming and chirping poetry to give poetry to the "talent" of "people", whether it is complementary to political affairs, this form has also been repeatedly criticized, so whether or not to select talents depends on the emperor's mood

In addition to the controversy, Zhao Ta's new team also knew that if they want to implement the new policy, they also need a group of reliable people. At that time, Wang Anshi was in a hurry to achieve results and used everything he didn't do, which led to the policy being out of shape at the grassroots level, in order to complete the target. Regardless of whether they are rich or poor, they adopt a one-size-fits-all approach, which makes people angry and resentful, and is caught by others, and the result is failure.

Now the prince is quietly cultivating a group of people in the road study, these people are familiar with the policy, and they have specialized in the arts, and they have followed the army to the west. Practical experience in local governance has been obtained. Moreover, most of these people are from the grassroots, understand the people's suffering, understand the people's feelings, and are suitable for grassroots work. What is lacking is just fame. It should be reassuring to put these people in the form of recommendations to serve at the grassroots level to implement the new policy, and with their guidance from above, at least there will be no messing around.

Now that there is a consensus on the issue of personnel, it is an economic issue that is in front of them. Nothing can be done without money, and now that the government treasury is empty, things cannot be delayed, so it is necessary to adjust the policy. And the fundamental problem of getting money without harming the people is indeed a difficult problem. This requires the consideration of the competence of these economic theorists

The Song Dynasty originally advocated the "benevolent" government of the people, but the problem of three redundancies has been difficult to solve. Finance always exceeds the ends of the budget, so later broke the old rule that Taizu did not add farmland endowments, and became like Shenzong said, 'The ancients were eleven and taxed, and now they take a hundred ends of wealth.' 'The ministers of Xingli not only sold the wealth of official lords and coinage, but also did everything in the monopoly of prohibition.

According to the royal theory, the collection of mountains, seas, heaven and earth, and the gathering of goods in the market should not be left to the merchants to take advantage of their own interests, but should be collected and monopolized by the state to help the state's funds. As a result, a large number of state-owned enterprises were set up. All the most profitable commodities were included in the list of prohibitions, and these state-owned enterprises were monopolized, and this sale was terrible, and various departments of affairs and barter were established, and all profiteering industries were monopolized.

In economics, salt is regarded as a commodity with no price elasticity at all, as a necessity of life, no day can leave, no matter the noble and lowly people have to buy, so the monopoly system has been implemented until modern times to control the monopoly, the reputation of protecting the health of the people Song Dynasty The unified purchase price of salt is only five or six wen per catty, but the labor cost contained in it is only one penny, and the selling price is as high as 30 to 60 wen, and the profit is several times to dozens of times, and the sales are distributed according to the population, and even livestock have quotas, ordered to consume, and forced to buy.

Not only that, the circulation of official salt is also extremely difficult, Huainan salt is white and pure, and the quality is very high, but on the way from Tongzhou to Zhenzhou, and then from Zhenzhou to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jing, Lake and other places, the transport officials and shippers invaded and stole and sold, and then added sand and soil to fill the number, which the imperial court could not stop even if it was severely punished. The low efficiency of transportation has led to a backlog of tens of thousands of stones of salt in the producing areas, and the salt producers have not been able to get very little payment for the goods despite the wind and rain. The salt in the hands of consumers is of poor quality and short of two pounds, so despite the strict anti-smuggling measures, the illegal salt eventually occupies a large part of the market.

The prohibition of salt failed in practice, as did tea and wine, and from this point of view it was no different from modern times, and it had not been a few years since the tobacco, alcohol and sugar companies became pure tobacco companies, and tobacco was not available in that era, otherwise it would be inevitable. The officials used coercive means to lower the purchase price, and the tea farmers used the inferior tea to offset the purchase task, and sold the high-quality tea privately to the vendors. Perhaps everyone still remembers the situation of 'handing over the grain', and the tradition of putting some pressing things in the grain bag has been passed down to this day.

The quality of the official tea collected in this way can be imagined, but we are exclusive, the price naturally has to be raised, whether to buy or not is your business, the price is not negotiable, and in the end you can only watch the tea in the warehouse moldy and deteriorate, but this is a public thing, and it is just a matter of going away, and the deficit is the emperor's.

The wine brewed by the government-run "company" is as thin as water, sour and astringent, and cannot be sold, so it is forced to be used by the common people for weddings and funerals, and distributed according to households, just like what is now drinking some 'love county wine', smoking some 'love city cigarettes', and eating some 'patriotic dishes' has the same meaning, anyway, the salary is deducted, love or not, we took the money, but even so, those companies can open their doors to this day, and at that time, it was difficult to survive because of high cost, large loss, and low output.

The monopoly institutions have a huge system, a failure is not easy to detect, and there is an old treasury to subsidize, even if the capital is lost, it will not immediately go bankrupt, but the treasury reserves are limited after all, and the people's fat and ointment are not inexhaustible, modern companies can study and restructure, bankruptcy, workers are laid off, and trillions of bad debts in banks are paid by poor workers

Of course, businessmen are shrewd, even cunning, and they can use their experience, wisdom, and economic strength to manipulate the economy, or to the detriment of the public and private interests, or to put the government in passivity. As soon as the ban was strict, the merchants could not make huge profits, so they stopped operating, and the commodities in the market were stranded in the production areas, the backlog was abandoned, and the currency did not come, so that the treasury was empty. Originally, the ban was to control the merchants and supplement the state, but in the end, there was a situation in which they were helpless to be controlled by the merchants who left the business, and there was no circulation, where did the income come from, and the finances were still difficult.

Although the government can use super-economic power to influence the economy or crack down on merchants, such as the new salt law implemented by Cai Jing, hundreds of thousands of salt bills were invalidated overnight, and those wealthy merchants went bankrupt in an instant. However, in the contest between the government and the merchants, both sides always lose, and in the end, the losses are passed on to the producers and consumers, and it is still the common people who suffer.

The above is just a part of it, you can see the appearance of the official "company" in the Song Dynasty, and you may also have a sense of déjà vu. Possession of raw materials and products at low prices, almost free requisition of laborers such as craftsmen, soldiers, farmers, and shipwrights, and a huge waste of material and manpower. Sales rely on forcing the common people to subscribe, and the shoddy goods cannot be improved. Even if there is a loss in operation, it can be used to raise prices by forcefully passing on these losses to consumers, and cover up the truth of their business failure.

Supra-economic plundering can sometimes amass some money, creating the illusion of 'high profits', and the greater the profits, the more serious the illegal exploitation and the more destructive the social economy. Cai Jing's great shift led to the collapse of Song's economic opportunities and the boiling of public resentment, Wang Hao also saw this, and immediately changed Cai Jing's practice after coming to power - abolishing the Department of Affairs, and the traitorous ministers suddenly became the 'virtuous ministers' praised by everyone, which shows the depth of its poison.

In the Song Dynasty, there was no shortage of people of insight, and Ouyang Xiu once analyzed this kind of policy and said that in order to maximize the national interests, it is impossible to prohibit too much specialization. It must be operated together with the merchants so that circulation will not be blocked, and the deeper the scheme to deprive the merchants of their interests, the greater the damage to the interests of the state. If you want to attribute all the profits to the public, you will lose more, and you will not be able to lose three. It's better to make profits with businessmen, but you can get five out of ten. Therefore, the good managers of the big countries should 'lure big businessmen at the expense of their profits' to encourage the entry of private capital, and let the market regulate prices

Before leaving the northwest, in order to attract displaced people and increase the population, Zhao Tan used the southeast civil change to hype up the richness of the northwest, and recruited 100,000 displaced people to go to the northwest. He thought at the time that as long as the captured grain and the surplus military rations were enough to help the displaced people survive the food shortage, after the implementation of the reclamation policy, a large area of land was reclaimed, and by the time of the autumn harvest, there would be enough grain reserves to complete self-sufficiency.

However, people are not as good as heaven, Wang Hao and others took advantage of their own departure to send people to the northwest to expand public land, resulting in the policy is difficult to fully implement, a large area of familiar land is abandoned, wasteland can not be reclaimed, resulting in a huge food shortage, but now the government treasury is empty, relying on the government can not provide relief at all, and if this problem is not handled well, it will cause even greater chaos.

Now Zhao Ta can only buy grain from other places, but there is no money in the hands of governments at all levels, and the emperor has issued an order to exempt the northwest farmers from taxes for two years, in order to show the emperor's grace, the only place that can catch money is commercial tax. The biggest source of commercial tax is the salt tax, and how to attract a large number of salt merchants to the northwest in exchange for emergency grain has become the top priority, and it is also the first problem to test their ability to govern......)

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