Chapter 13 Chapter Thirteen Who Is the "Economic Shepherd" of the Western Han Dynasty

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty made a lot of great achievements in his life, including many people, many projects, many wars, many diplomacies, and many inside and outside, all of which cannot be separated from one word: spending more money.The great economic reform in the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, which has mixed reputation and reputation, is still a topic of discussion in the historian circles. The generally accepted fact is that the great economic reform in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty integrated the national finance, improved economic efficiency, enriched the treasury, and strengthened the central government. Authoritarianism, but a little eager for quick success, many of the economic policies are more like stimulants. Although they can temporarily relieve financial difficulties, there will be endless troubles. This is the beginning of the country's weakness in his later years.

However, these "negative issues" have been defended by people for thousands of years. For example, Li Zhi, a famous Confucian scholar in the Ming Dynasty, once asked "If this is not the case, what would you do?"It means that even if it is someone else, put it in the environment that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was in at the time, besides adopting such a cruel economic policy, do they have other options?For thousands of years, this has been a consensus among everyone. Sang Hongyang, who led this great reform, has always been regarded as one of the most famous economists in Chinese history.

However, in fact, the Han Empire at that time was entirely likely to take another path, because during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, there was an equally excellent economist who not only saw the hidden dangers faced by the economic reform of the Han Dynasty at that time, Also proposed a solution to the problem.Although this person is not as famous as Sang Hongyang, his vision is equally wise - Bu Shi. Bu Shi, a native of Luoyang, is similar to Sang Hongyang in that he is also a businessman. Compared with Sang Hongyang's "rich second generation" status, Bu Shi is an inspirational figure who started from scratch.His family was originally a well-to-do family that ran animal husbandry, but his father passed away when he was young, and his mother and younger brother were still in the family.If there is a younger brother, there will be property disputes. The family is divided, and the younger brother always wants to share more. The mother loves the younger son, and she also treats the younger brother. Most of the property was left to the younger brother and mother, and he only took more than 100 sheep to separate the family.At that time, neighbors and friends laughed at Bu Shi as stupid, but after a few years of separation, Bu Shi quickly made a fortune and became a big local livestock farmer. He owned thousands of cattle and sheep, and even bought a big house. , and became a well-known wealthy household in Henan.

How did Bushi get rich?There is no record in the official history at that time, only the local records in Henan, there are some sayings, one is that Bu Shi is very knowledgeable in raising cattle and sheep, especially in the proportion of forage and the timing of feeding, he has his own way According to the method, his cattle and sheep grow faster than other merchants, and they are fatter and stronger, so buyers gather.Another point is that Bu Shi's business model is very interesting. At that time, cattle and sheep transactions were usually paid in cash, with one hand for the money and the other for the sheep. But Bu Shi did the opposite. When he was buying and selling, he pioneered The "post-payment" policy, that is, if the merchants who come to buy are not enough, they can pay part of it first, and the remaining part can be made up later, but the additional condition is that according to the date of delayed payment, an additional payment is required. pay the corresponding interest.Especially for those self-cultivating farmers with limited economic conditions, Bu Shi has introduced a "free payment" policy, that is, ordinary farmers who come to buy can take away their cattle and sheep without paying a penny, and then repay the arrears at the end of the year. Pay interest.In this way, although the price of Bushi's cattle and sheep is much higher than that of others, most people can afford it. Naturally, there are more customers than others, and the speed of development is extremely fast.By around 122 BC, the animal husbandry industry of Bushi was already the largest in Henan, and he looked like a rich man.

Bushi can not only earn, but also spend.He himself is a generous person. When he separated the family, he didn't care about payment. When he was doing business, he didn't care about payment. When he had money, he didn't care about spending money.In 122 BC, the Han Dynasty's war against the Xiongnu had entered a fierce stage, and the country spent a lot of money.Especially in this year, the Han Empire developed the newly captured Hetao area on a large scale, immigrated hundreds of thousands of people and built city defenses. The immigrants needed money to resume production, the garrison also needed money to eat, and even more money was needed to fight wars.During this period, the rich merchants of the Western Han Dynasty liked to take advantage of the fire to rob. At that time, there were years of wars, the country spent a lot of money, and all kinds of daily necessities were in short supply. The wealthy merchants often used hoarding methods to make huge profits. In the Western Han Empire this year, the price of rice alone was higher than that of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty. The period has doubled, which can be described as an "inflationary economy".The animal husbandry operated by Bu style also faced huge business opportunities, because at that time the demand for war horses, cattle and sheep was very large from the country to the common people. As long as they continued to hoard like other businessmen, it seemed that it would not be difficult to make a fortune for the country.

Bu Shi not only does not make money in the country's crisis, but destroys the family to relieve the crisis.In 122 BC, Bu Shi wrote to the Han court, expressing his willingness to donate half of his family property to help the court fight against the Huns.This memorial stunned Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty himself.At that time, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was hoarding for wealthy businessmen, and it was a big headache to take advantage of the fire to rob. Not only did Bu Shi not take advantage of the fire to rob, but instead sent money to the country to show his loyalty. This was never seen before. According to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Either his head was flooded, or he had another purpose.At this time, the prime minister, Gongsun Hong, was a narrow-minded person, and this person had another problem-greed.At that time, Gongsun Hong once asked the wealthy businessmen to "respect" him, but Bu Shi didn't buy it. Seeing that Bu Shi was loyal, he naturally took the opportunity to prescribe medicine. It is said that Bu Shi did this with ulterior motives.Because of his prescribing of the medicine, Bu Shi's faithful memorabilia could not be ignored.Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was also deeply puzzled by Bu Shi's behavior. He once sent an envoy to see Bu Shi and asked Bu Shi why he did this. Those who have money should lose it, and the Xiongnu will be destroyed if they do so.” But Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, who was suspicious by nature, did not believe that Bu Shi had such a high level of awareness, so he still ignored him.

Only one year later, Bu Shi, who Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty didn't want to deal with, became something he had to deal with.In the Han Empire this year, Huo Qubing seized the Hexi Corridor and recruited Hunxie King and Xiutu King, the nobles of the Xiongnu. To award a reward, you have to spend money.But at this time, the houses in the Han Empire were leaking and it was raining all night, and the Yellow River was flooding continuously, and hundreds of thousands of victims had no life. It also cost money to prevent the victims from causing trouble and stabilize the internal affairs.The floods in Shandong at that time were very serious. According to historical records, "people can eat each other for two or three thousand miles." At the same time, the financial reserves of the Han Empire were empty. Poor as hell.The most severely affected area at that time was Henan Province. After Bu Shi learned about it, he took the initiative to give 200,000 yuan to the Henan prefect to resettle the victims.After the matter was known by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, he finally began to believe in Bu Shi's loyalty. In order to commend Bu Shi's contribution, he rewarded Bu Shi with 120,000 yuan. The money was donated to the government again.Then Bu Shi used his influence in the business world to visit various merchants tirelessly and earnestly persuaded them to contribute money to support the imperial court. He was an absolute "model of love" at that time.Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty naturally appreciated such a model character, and his doubts about Bu Shi disappeared. He immediately appointed Bu Shi as Zhonglang General, gave him 10 hectares of land, and made his deeds known to the world, so that people all over the country can learn. As a result, Bu Shi suddenly became a well-known "model of love" throughout the country, and his reputation was in full swing.

Facts have proved that Bu Shi’s awareness is not only high, but extremely high. He refused to accept the land bestowed by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and he even refused to accept the official position given by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. After donating the money, he still raised sheep in Henan with peace of mind. Moreover, he shirked to the envoy of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, saying that I have no other skills, I can raise sheep, so I can't be an official.After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty knew about it, he answered simply, I asked you to be an official because I asked you to raise sheep for me.There are many sheep in my Shanglin Garden, enough for you to raise.In this way, Bu Shi no longer had an excuse to shirk. He readily accepted the official position of Zhonglang General of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and went to the Shanglin Garden of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to do his old job - raising sheep.

Bu Shi, who became an official, gave people the biggest impression that he didn't look like an official at all.When he was a general, he wore rags and hemp clothes every day, went to the front line of work, and worked diligently to raise sheep for Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. The fat and strong sheep he raised soon impressed Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.Such a simple, enlightened, good cadre who was willing to let bloodletting was a treasure at the time, and he should be used as soon as possible. Therefore, the Bu-style officials were promoted steadily, first as the county magistrate of Yanshi, and then as the wife of King Qi. Fu, later promoted to the prime minister of Qi State, presided over the administrative power of Qidi, the most affluent area of ​​the Han Empire.During this period, his greatest influence on the Western Han Dynasty was a dialogue between him and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Because of this dialogue, Bu Shi can also be regarded as an economist who was comparable to Sang Hongyang in the Western Han Dynasty.

The thing is like this, when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty saw that Bu Shi was raising sheep well, he was very happy, so he asked Bu Shi how to raise sheep. Bu Shi replied as follows: The first is to take care of the sheep on time. , The second is to implement an elimination policy to weed out those inferior sheep and keep the superior ones, that is to say, we must pay attention to quality rather than quantity.Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty listened to the same as listening to the heavenly scriptures, but the following sentence of Bu Shi made him enlightened: "Raising sheep is like this, and governing the people is even more so!" A shepherd who knows nothing about sheep is likely to be a great sage who governs the people.Therefore, there was a gradual promotion of Bu-style officials, and he became a rare "helicopter cadre" in the Western Han Dynasty at that time, from a shepherd to a frontier official.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty still seriously underestimated Bu Shi. Bu Shi was not only a sage who governed the people, but also revealed an important economic theory in his words: the theory of raising sheep. The Bu-style sheep-raising theory may seem strange, but it was very practical for the reality of the Han Empire at that time. Bu Shi believes that raising sheep is like managing ordinary people. The common point of the two is that sheep need to be raised, and ordinary people also need to raise them. For a healthy development environment, if the common people want to be rich and the country wants to develop its economy, it must give the common people enough room for development, and more importantly, it must provide the common people with a healthy development environment.In fact, when he was in the animal husbandry business, the reasoning was the same. The reason why he wanted to engage in credit and post-payment was because the purchasing power of customers also needed to be cultivated. Only when customers have money can they buy more sheep from you. Business Only then can it be good, and if the country's business is to be good, the key factor is that the people must have money.This is his theory of "raising sheep like raising people".This theory has also appeared in the West, such as the "Marquez Cultivation Theory" of the famous modern Western economist Marquez, who believes that if you want to make money in the market, you must cultivate purchasing power.The welfare policies of modern Western countries were also developed for this reason, and the Bu-style policies were nearly two thousand years earlier than theirs. Bu Shi not only said so, but also did so.When Yanshi was the county magistrate, Bu Shi continued his pioneering work. At that time, Yanshi suffered severe production damage due to years of famine. During spring plowing, the common people lacked even grain seeds. Bu Shi made a decision that almost caused him to be beheaded. He opened the official warehouse and distributed the grain stored in the official warehouse to the common people as seeds. In addition to paying taxes, the borrowed grain must be repaid according to the official interest.At that time, Bu Shi's behavior could be described as rebellious and immoral, and was impeached by many officials, but Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty trusted Bu Shi at this time, so he turned a blind eye.At the end of the year, Yanshi County had a bumper harvest. The government not only recovered a large amount of grain, but also paid a large amount of taxes to the country.At the same time, Bu Shi not only takes care of the common people like the theory of raising sheep, but also provides them with a healthy environment for development. He has made a lot of achievements in weeding out corrupt officials among local officials and rectifying local bullies.Because of his outstanding achievements in governing Yanshi, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty transferred him to Chenggao to be in charge of local water transportation.At that time, the water transportation in the Han Dynasty was facing serious difficulties, mainly because of the crusade against the Xiongnu, a large number of troops were transferred to the front line, and the troops responsible for water transportation were very scarce. Bu Shi adopted the method of recruiting money locally, and the government paid for the recruitment. The common people are the people's husbands, which not only solves the food problem of the local people, but also ensures the smooth water transportation.It is worth mentioning that when Bu Shi supervised the water transportation in Chenggao, it was 119 BC. In that year, the Han Empire was engaged in a decisive battle with the Xiongnu in Mobei. The supply of materials in the rear was extremely important. Bu Shi Cheng Gao's political achievements ensured the smooth supply of materials for the Han Empire, and Bu Shi contributed a lot to the glorious record of annihilating hundreds of thousands of Huns in the Battle of Mobei. In 118 BC, Bu Shi, who had outstanding achievements in the two local governments, got a very important appointment in his life: Qi Guoxiang.Qi State was the most affluent area in the Western Han Dynasty at that time, and its production was developed. However, for many years, due to continuous foreign wars, Qi State also experienced a situation of exhaustion of people's strength and barren fields. The local big families are slaves, and they are unwilling to pay taxes for the country.As the "purse" of the Western Han Empire at that time, Qi State had already broken a big hole, and the task of Bu Shi was to fill this hole.Before Bu Shi, most of the local officials in Qi State adopted severe punishments, searched and arrested fugitives, and provoked civil uprisings several times.After Bu Shi took office, he changed this practice. He changed the previous "plundering the people" to "raising the people".The first is to issue a circular to cancel all the taxes owed to the country by the people of Qi in the early years, and to announce that for those who are willing to return home, the court will not only let the past go, but also provide subsidies for seeds and farm tools.With this one policy alone, the people in Qidi began to "return like flowing water", the fields quickly began to be recultivated, and the state's tax revenue increased linearly.At the same time, Bu Shi started to curb the large-scale land mergers at that time, but he did not focus on high pressure like the cruel officials. On the contrary, he adjusted the tax policy. He stipulated that the government would impose heavy taxes on land exceeding a certain limit. On the contrary, the government not only rewards those who are willing to return their land to landless peasants, but also offers tax cuts.This policy led to a rapid increase in the number of local self-cultivating farmers in Qi State, and the state's taxation was also guaranteed.At the same time, Bushi continued to carry out the "elimination" policy.A very important measure he implemented in Qidi was to streamline the organization, and about two-thirds of the redundant staff were abolished at all levels of government.For the officials who have been dismissed, Bushi does not mean that they are dismissed, but provides policies and solutions. For those dismissed, the government will provide land compensation and resettlement fees. In this way, the state saves a lot of expenses. After years of war and hard labor, Qi's economy developed rapidly. Just as Bushi was working hard in Qi, in 112 BC, an accident happened to change the fate of Bushi again: this year was an eventful year for the Han Empire. At the same time, the Han Empire had just pacified the territory of the Hexi Corridor, and the local Qiang tribes rebelled. The Han Empire had to fight on two fronts.Worrying about the world, Bu Shi took the initiative to invite Ying again. This time he not only donated a large amount of family property as military expenses, but also paid for it himself to recruit a large number of strong soldiers from Qidi.Bu Shi's behavior once again moved Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. He once again announced to the world, promoting Bu Shi's loyalty, and hoped that merchants from all over the country would follow the example of Bu Shi. There are too few people with such high awareness as Bu Shi.This fact also annoyed Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. In order to show his attitude, he named Bu Shi as "Marquis of Guannei" and raised Bu Shi's status. On the other hand, he launched a big purge. In October of this year, Taking advantage of the occasion when the princes from all over the country met, he dismissed the titles of 106 princes and confiscated all their properties on the pretext that the gold donated by the princes from all over the country was not of good quality.Among them, including the ancestor of Liu Bei, the hero of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Sheng, King Jing of Zhongshan.Speaking of which, the fuse of this political storm was still because of Bu Shi's initiative to ask for a job. Because of this behavior, Bu Shi was once again appreciated by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and he has been an official in Qi State for many years with outstanding achievements. Of course, such a good cadre should be promoted to the central government.Not long after this "Great Cleansing" movement, Bu Shi was promoted to the imperial doctor and became one of the senior officials of the Han Empire at this time.Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty deliberately "declared it clearly to the world, so that it will be known". At this time, Bu Shi has become a well-known "patriotic model" of the Han Empire. The official promotion to Yushi doctor marked that Bu Shi's honor and favor had reached its peak, but his relationship with Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty also began to deteriorate from then on. The hostility between Bu Shi and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was mainly due to their different attitudes towards economic reform. As mentioned earlier, the major economic reforms of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty at that time aroused strong opposition across the country, including the official management of salt and iron, the collection of personal income tax from merchants, and the reform of the currency system, all of which aroused strong dissatisfaction.For example, Yan Yi, the great minister of finance in the Western Han Dynasty, was killed on the charge of "defamation" because he opposed the currency reform.Although the cruelty is so fierce, the "undercurrent" of opposition to economic reforms is still there. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty asked businessmen to donate money to the country several times, but very few responded.Therefore, the promotion of Bu Shi to the imperial censor was because Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty believed that Bu Shi was a supporter of the economic reform policy and could suppress the opposition.But things backfired, and Bu Shi happened to be an opponent of the economic reform policy. In fact, Bu Shi’s opposition to economic reforms was limited. He did not object to the various policies of adjusting taxation and increasing commercial taxes implemented by the Han Empire at that time. This was indeed an important means of increasing national tax revenue. What Bu Shi opposed was The profiteering policy in the economic reform—the official operation of salt and iron.The implementation of the salt and iron official camp received very good results at that time. Although the merchants opposed it again and again, the state collected a lot of money from it and supported it for national use. Therefore, the mainstream scholar-officials still praised it positively. It is Bu Shi who sees the hidden problems.The first thing Bu Shi did as a doctor of imperial history was to directly denounce the hidden worries of the Yantie official camp. He believed that the state was overly controlling the salt and iron industry, and all operating rights were controlled and monopolized by the imperial court. It is the decline in the quality of ironware, and because after the state nationalized the iron industry, it also took back the pricing power of salt and iron. And forcing the common people to buy it will increase the burden on the common people, and if things go on like this, it will even stir up civil uprisings.Aiming at the unstoppable price rise of the Han Empire at that time, Bu Shi believes that the crux of the problem also lies in the ship tax policy implemented by the government at that time with great fanfare. If there is a loss, the merchants can only increase the price of the commodity.Bu Shi also believes that if commodity prices rise beyond the purchasing power of ordinary people, the consequences will be dire. It should be said that Bu Shi's viewpoints are all accurate and outrageous in view of the facts that happened later.The implementation of official salt and iron management has indeed dampened the enthusiasm for production in the steel industry, leading to a decline in the quality of ironware. Not only the quality of folk ironware has declined sharply, but the quality of weapons used by the frontline troops has also dropped alarmingly.Moreover, the apportionment of ironware also increased the burden on the common people. In the later period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the common people abandoned the land and fled one after another. An important reason was that the price of farm tools far exceeded the income from farming.On this point, the Han Empire adopted the method of compulsory apportionment. There are strict regulations on how much ironware each household buys each year. Even if you don’t need it, you have to buy it. That is, the burden on the people of the Han Empire became heavier, and the damage to production was unimaginable. These views of Bu Shi naturally offended the reformers in the court at that time, especially Sang Hongyang, the advocate of this reform. He confidently claimed that "the people don't add taxes and the country uses enough", but Bu Shi reprimanded him for "only chasing small profits and not understanding the general situation".But Sang Hongyang was the favorite of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty at this time, and offending Sang Hongyang was tantamount to offending Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.At the same time, Bu Shi also put forward the idea of ​​"returning wealth to the people" to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, that is, in the context of the decisive victory in the war against the Huns, the country's tax revenue should be properly invested in agricultural production, In particular, it is necessary to compensate the production and livelihood of farmers in various places.These propositions are nothing more than challenging the bottom line of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. However, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty did not punish Bu Shi too much for Bu Shi's several righteous acts of destroying his family and relieving difficulties. Doctor Shi was changed to Prince Taifu. This appointment and removal decision can be said to be an ups and downs. On the surface, the status of Bushi has risen, but in fact he has been deprived of real power. But Bu Shi continued to offend Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, especially when he was the teacher of Prince Liu Shi.Bu Shi repeatedly instilled in Liu Ju the idea of ​​nourishing the people, which was recognized by Liu Ju. In the later period of being the prince, Liu Ju repeatedly suggested that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty reduce wars and develop production, which caused father and son to fight against each other.Another "shocking" thing Bu Shi did while he was the prince and Taifu was in 110 BC.Because of successive years of drought, Bu Shi took the opportunity to play and asked Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to kill Sang Hongyang, who was very popular at this time. There is no penalty method.In this way, Bu Shi got a good death in the position of Prince Taifu. Regarding the year of his death, the historical records are very confusing. Most of them say that it was before the turmoil in Chang'an, so he is still very lucky. During the rebellion, it is very likely that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty will wipe out the clan. Although Bu Shi’s life is simple, he put forward a new development idea, that is, the idea of ​​“nourishing the people”. Among the various memorials in his life, what he called out the most was that the country should “return the wealth” and “store the wealth.” "For the people, that is to use the country's economic reserves to give the people sufficient economic benefits. Only in this way can the country's income increase.These theories of his were not accepted by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty at the time. Throughout his life, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty only regarded him as a model of patriotism.But behind him, especially after the Han Dynasty, his theory was adopted by more and more rulers. For example, the "green crop law" in the reform of Wang Anshi in the Northern Song Dynasty was born out of this, and the "gift for the elderly" in the Ming Dynasty " and other welfare policies are also similar to Bu's policies.We have said that since the defeat of the Xiongnu in the Mobei War in 119 BC, the Han Empire, which has been plagued by wars for many years, is actually facing a rare opportunity to recuperate. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, who opened up the territory, chose the former.If he could choose again, the process of the Han Dynasty's final destruction of the Huns might have been much smoother. History, I am afraid, is written in another way.