After Sang Hongyang took charge of the financial power, dozens of people from the Ministry of Agriculture were added to rectify the salt and iron officials of the county and the state, and the areas where the salt and iron officials were set up were increased.

According to statistics, through the efforts of Sang Hongyang, a total of 35 salt officials (one says 36) were set up, distributed in 27 counties across the country, before the salt and iron official camps, the private salt industry in these areas was very developed, and the state adopted a policy of levying salt taxes on them; iron officials were set up at least 48 places, distributed in 40 counties, and all the iron officials were in charge of the iron mayor Cheng under Dasi Nong, and the management system and business network of the salt and iron official camps were basically perfected.

Due to the abundant funds and manpower, after the full implementation of the salt and iron official camps, their production scale has expanded rapidly.

Most of the reformers in ancient China had a tragic end, but in many respects, successful reforms were rare.

During the Han Empire, Sang Hongyang's economic reforms can be said to have allowed the financial system that had collapsed during the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to be maintained.

And the fundamental focus is the salt and iron official camp that Zhang Jiashi plans to implement at the moment.

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On the one hand, it can be said that he was born as a businessman, and Sang Hongyang knows better the pros and cons of a businessman for a country.

In the middle of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, Sang Hongyang was born in a wealthy merchant family in Luoyang, Henan. Luoyang's predecessor was the capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty "Luoyi", the residents were mainly the old nobles of the Shang Dynasty, they had the tradition of operating industry and commerce, to the Western Han Dynasty, Luoyang was known as "the world rushed, the capital of the Han Dynasty", with a population of more than 300,000, "rich crown in the sea", becoming a metropolis known for commerce. The long commercial tradition has had a great impact on the folklore of Luoyang, and the people of Luoyang are mostly known for being good at business, such as Bai Gui during the Warring States period and Shishi of the Western Han Dynasty.

Luoyang is full of humanities, and the legendary deeds of many sages deeply moved Sang Hongyang in his childhood. The legend of Su Qin's thorn stock and the seal of the six countries left a very deep impression on Sang Hongyang, and the idea of meritorious service has always firmly occupied Sang Hongyang's mind, and he also has deep feelings about the view that "the rich are afraid of the relatives, and the poor are easy". [10-13] Jia Yi's political proposition of "non-harmony and proximity, the importance of accumulation, and the non-minting theory (unified currency system)" was also accepted and inherited by Sang Hongyang.

The unique social environment of the hometown has a subtle influence on the thought of Sang Hong Yang, under the influence of the family's Mongolian education and his parents, Sang Hong Yang has a strong interest in mathematics and business since childhood, and Sang Hong Yang is well versed in arithmetic and business in his youth, and can help the family to carry out some financial activities.

In the last years of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, Sang Hongyang, who was only thirteen years old, was famous in Luoyang for being "good at mental arithmetic". The edict of the Han court, the special Sang Hongyang entered the palace (a said donation official into the palace), appointed as a servant, served Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and accompanied the reader.

Sang Hongyang's entry into the palace had a significant impact on his life. This made him no longer follow the path of a businessman like his father, but embarked on a career in office. And studying by Emperor Wu's side for a long time made Sang Hongyang form a close relationship with Emperor Wu, and gradually became Emperor Wu's right-hand man.

Soon after Sang Hongyang entered the palace, Emperor Wu began to gradually implement the policy of "exclusive respect for Confucianism", and showed great enthusiasm for learning scriptures. In such an environment, Sang Hongyang also began to study the Five Classics and had a deep attainment.

With the advantage of studying in the imperial palace, Sang Hongyang was also able to extensively dabble in the hundred schools of thought other than Confucianism, especially proficient in the study of Legalism and business; in terms of historical books, because the Qin and Han dynasties were not long apart, and had the convenience of reading the royal archives, Sang Hongyang's historical knowledge was more abundant.

After Emperor Wu ascended the throne, with the savings of more than 70 years in the early Western Han Dynasty, the state finances were originally very wealthy[28], but due to Emperor Wu's "promising", especially the huge foreign wars, as well as the great achievements and disaster relief, as well as the extravagance of the imperial court, only 20 years later, the state finances began to run in deficit frequently. In the face of financial difficulties, Emperor Wu took some emergency measures, such as in the Yuan Shuo period, in order to increase income, he specially set up a "martial arts jue", worth a total of more than 300,000 yuan, and also set up a model of wealth donation - Bu Shi, calling on the people to donate money to the country. These methods have achieved certain results, but on the whole they are still a drop in the pan, and they have also caused disadvantages such as the corruption of officials.

In the third year of Yuanzhen, in order to deal with the financial deficit caused by foreign wars, Emperor Wu adopted Zheng Shi's suggestion and ordered the implementation of the salt and iron official policy, and assigned the salt and iron that was originally under the jurisdiction of Shaofu to the Great Agricultural Order, and the state monopolized the production of salt and iron, and appointed the large salt merchant Dongguo Xianyang and the Daye iron merchant Kong to be in charge of this matter. Because Sang Hongyang is good at calculating economic issues, he participates in the planning of the salt and iron official camp, and is responsible for "calculation" and "speech".

In the second year of Yuan Ding, in view of Sang Hongyang's outstanding ability in financial management, Emperor Wu promoted Sang Hongyang to Da Nong Cheng and served as the deputy of Da Nong Ling to manage accounting affairs. In the five years since he served as a farmer, Sang Hongyang has participated in and successfully completed several important tasks, and initially demonstrated excellent financial management skills.

It is a kind of property tax levied by the feudal state on merchants, and it is a punitive measure for merchants to conceal assets and evade taxes, and it has the special significance of protecting and depriving merchants. This method was first proposed by the Imperial Historian Zhang Tang, who issued a decree to implement it in the fourth year of Yuanzhen. However, because the big farmer at that time, Ling Yan Yi did not approve of this matter, he failed to implement it seriously.

After Han Gaozu established the Western Han Dynasty, he adopted a policy of suppression of merchants and levied them on them, but the specific method of collection has not been examined. During the reign of Emperor Hui of Han and Empress Lü, this policy was abandoned.

After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne, the central government's expenditure increased, and then under the promotion of Zhang Tang, Sang Hongyang and others, the calculation system was restored. In the fourth year of Yuanzhen, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered the "preliminary calculation of money", stipulating that merchants must pay 120 yuan as property tax for every 2,000 yuan of property, and 120 yuan for every 4,000 yuan if they were dealing in their own handicrafts; at the same time, the property tax was also levied on private vehicles other than those of the non-Sanlao and knights in the northern border areas, with ordinary people paying 120 yuan for a car, merchants paying 240 yuan, and each ship over five zhang also paying 120 yuan. Since most of the merchants did not cooperate with this regulation, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty soon issued an order to encourage the common people to expose each other's tax evasion, and the reward was half of the tax evasion.

Subsequently, the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Dynasties imposed a 4% transaction tax on commodity transactions, which was also considered by the Tang Dynasty politician Du You to be a type of calculation.

Generally speaking, the fees charged by the private sector are as follows:

1 civilian car is taxed 1 count, merchants are doubled, and ships of more than 5 zhang are also taxed 1 count. Merchants and usurers are taxed on the amount of transactions or loans, at a rate of 6% for every 2,000 yuan (2,000 yuan), and on those who trade trades at the value of the products they sell, at a rate of 3% for every 4,000 yuan (4 yuan). Those who conceal or fail to report or make false reports shall be fined for one year in addition to confiscation of the money. If there is a whistleblower, half of the confiscated assets will be awarded. In 110 B.C., the Reckoning policy ceased to be enforced.

In the third year of the Yuan Dynasty, a year after Sang Hongyang became a big farmer, with the strong support of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the calculation of the accusation was quickly launched throughout the country, especially the accusation presided over by Yang Ke was even more vigorous. In the sixth year of Yuan Ding, it was announced that the closure would be stopped, and in only three years, the closure had achieved great results. The government received hundreds of millions of dollars of property, thousands of slaves and maidservants, thousands of hectares of confiscated land in large counties, more than 100 hectares in small counties, and many houses. Industrialists and merchants above the middle level went bankrupt, but the government's treasury was full, and the proceeds from salt and iron strongly supported Emperor Wu of Han's foreign wars.

Fake public land, in which the state distributes a part of the public land (official land) to peasants who have lost their land in the name of lease, and then levies a "fake tax" equivalent to the land rent on them, is a measure to appease the displaced people in the interior. Under the leadership of Sang Hongyang, the number of public land leased to the people was greatly expanded.

In addition to the public land under the control of the big farmers, the original wasteland, and the irrigated fields increased by the construction of water conservancy, the confiscation of the land of nobles, officials, and merchants during the calculation of the law was increased, and some of the land in the gardens and gardens was opened to be leased to the poor.

The implementation of the land under false public land has enabled a considerable number of peasants who have lost their land to regain the means of production on which they depend, the means of production on which they depend, and enabled a large number of displaced people to support themselves, thus easing the class contradictions that had intensified as a result of land annexation; on the other hand, it has also enabled a lot of wasteland in the interior to be reclaimed, thus expanding the area of cultivated land throughout the country. It has also made many displaced people no longer the target of state assistance, not only saving costs, but also restoring and increasing tax sources for the country.

After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty won the victory in the war against the Xiongnu, in order to consolidate the border defense and fundamentally solve the problem of food supply for the border guards, he followed the Mintun policy in the early Western Han Dynasty and continued to implement the immigration strategy proposed by Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty on a large scale. In order to further consolidate the military fortresses in the interior, Emperor Wu developed a military tun.

In the sixth year of the Yuan Dynasty, 50,000 or 60,000 soldiers were sent to the area of Yongdeng in present-day Gansu Province, and then continued to expand to Shangjun, Xihe, and the newly built four counties of Wuwei, Zhangye, Dunhuang and Jiuquan, and the number increased to 600,000.

Under the planning and organization of Sang Hongyang, this large-scale military cantonment activity was a complete success. As many as 600,000 people were engaged in agricultural production and shouldered the task of defending the border fortresses, making great contributions to ensuring victory in the war. It has played an important role in resettling displaced people, developing the northwest frontier, reducing military expenditures, and consolidating border defense.

In the Han Dynasty and Qin system, the legal tender was also gold and copper coins, and the copper coins in the early Han Dynasty continued to be called "half taels". Due to the economic slump, the state adopted a laissez-faire policy towards coinage. Although it has played a certain role in the recovery and development of the economy, it has also led to the problem of different levels of currency and confusion in the value of the currency.

In the fifth year of Emperor Wen, the government revoked the ban on private coinage, so that the practice of stealing money prevailed, affecting the normal circulation of the economy, and some local separatist forces also took advantage of this to expand their economic power as a capital to compete with the central dynasty. In order to rectify the finances, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty made three kinds of currency in the fourth year of Yuanjia: leather coins, platinum coins (alloy coins made of silver and tin), and three-baht coins, but the effect was not good, and the situation had developed to the point where it was almost completely out of control.

In the fourth year of the Yuan Dynasty, in order to completely rectify the currency, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty accepted the suggestion of Sang Hongyang and others, forbade the county and the people to mint money, and the government appointed Shanglin Sanguan to be responsible for drum casting, engraving and raw materials respectively;

This currency reform basically solved the problem of privately minting copper coins and the chaotic currency system, which not only increased the state's fiscal revenue, but also stabilized the market and circulation, and played a role in consolidating the rule of the Western Han Dynasty.

At the same time, this currency reform is also the first time in Chinese history to completely return the coinage right to the central government, it finally stabilized the currency system of the Han Dynasty, so that the Han Dynasty's five-baht coin became a stable quality coin, has been circulated until the Sui Dynasty for more than 700 years and is not abandoned, which is inseparable from Sang Hongyang's economic thought.

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The core of Sanghongyang's economic reform is mainly in the following points:

Salt & Iron Official Camp:

After Sang Hongyang took charge of the financial power, dozens of people from the Ministry of Agriculture were added to rectify the salt and iron officials of the county and the state, and the areas where the salt and iron officials were set up were increased. According to statistics, through the efforts of Sang Hongyang, a total of 35 salt officials (one says 36) were set up, distributed in 27 counties across the country, before the salt and iron official camps, the private salt industry in these areas was very developed, and the state adopted a policy of levying salt taxes on them; iron officials were set up at least 48 places, distributed in 40 counties, and all the iron officials were in charge of the iron mayor Cheng under Dasi Nong, and the management system and business network of the salt and iron official camps were basically perfected. Due to the abundant funds and manpower, after the full implementation of the salt and iron official camps, their production scale has expanded rapidly.

The large-scale production of the government-run salt and iron industry has incomparable advantages over the private salt and iron industry, which is generally very small, in terms of capital, equipment and personnel, as well as in terms of reducing costs, implementing standardized production, and improving process technology. After a period of practice and summary, Sanghong sheep has a clear understanding of the superiority of large-scale production.

At the Salt and Iron Conference more than 20 years later, in order to defend the government-run policy of salt and iron, Sang Hongyang pointed out that the large-scale production of the state-run salt and iron industry was better than the small-scale operation of the private salt and iron industry.

However, due to the inevitable shortcomings of the bureaucratic system, there are also some serious problems in the salt and iron official camps. In order to accomplish the specified tasks, the government-run iron tools only focused on output, and most of the iron tools produced were large agricultural tools with few applications, which were not suitable for farmers to use at all. Not only that, but there were also problems such as high cost, low quality, no selection, inconvenience in purchasing, forced purchase and forced sale, and forced peasants to serve.

What's more, the price of government-run salt and iron is so high that many poor people simply cannot afford it.

Implement the equalization:

The equalization method was first founded by Sang Hongyang in the second year of Yuan Ding, and was tried for five years in some counties.

The law stipulates that all items that the county should pay tribute to the imperial court are converted into local local products according to the local market price, and handed over to the official who will transport them to other regions for sale at a high price. This practice can not only avoid the intermediary exploitation of merchants, greatly reduce the cost of acquisition, but also eliminate the waste of manpower and material resources for the county to send tribute to the imperial court, and at the same time can also circulate materials and transfer the goods needed by the state at any time. The imperial court obtained local products from all over the country without spending a penny, and obtained huge profits through the transshipment and sale of these items.

In the first year of Yuanfeng, because the government bought and sold on its own, competing with each other, which led to prices, in order to stabilize the rise in prices, Sanghong sheep generally implemented the average loss in the country.

Under this premise, the Han Empire set up dozens of large agricultural ministers to be in charge of agriculture and government-run industry and commerce in each county, and at the county level, they set up equalization officials led by the great agricultural ministers to be responsible for the transshipment and sale of materials, so as to manage the transshipment and trade of materials throughout the country in a unified manner. After the first year of Taichu, after the average loss officials in various places were unified under the leadership of Dasi Nong Uniform Loss Lingcheng, the distribution of average loss officials should be quite common.

Since the full implementation of the equalization method in the first year of Yuanfeng, encouraging results have been achieved in just one year. Historically, the state sent grain to areas in urgent need of grain, and the officials of the great peasants all transported grain to the capital, with the result that the number of cao yun in Shandong soared from hundreds of thousands of stone in the early Han Dynasty to 6 million stone. At the same time, the two famous national grain depots of Taicang and Ganquancang were filled with grain, and the grain depots of the border counties also had surplus grain, and the surplus obtained directly through the equalization was 5 million horses.

There are also some drawbacks in the implementation of the equalization method. It is mainly manifested in two aspects:

First, some officials who have lost money collect tribute, not local products that can be produced locally, but items that are not available locally.

Second, in the acceptance of the goods handed over, some officials deliberately made things difficult for the people, and when buying and selling goods, they often resorted to fraudulent means, buying at low prices and selling them at high prices, thus causing greater burdens and sufferings to the peasants.