Chapter 4 Lecture 1 Guan Zhong Reform: "Keynesianism" more than 2,000 years ago

In the long pre-industrial period, there were no more than two schools of economic governance, one was Physiocratism and the other was Mercantilism.According to Hayek, the early civilizations of the East and the West both valued agriculture and neglected commerce, and the aversion to commerce was a common early tradition.The ancient Greek thinker Plato divided the citizens into three classes: the first class is philosophers, the second class is warriors, and the third class is merchants, handicraftsmen and farmers.In China, the Confucian Mencius contemptuously referred to merchants as "low husbands."However, Guan Zhong, who was born as a merchant, was one of the very few mercantilists.Guan Zhongxing used the method of a businessman. When Sima Qian commented on his way of governing the country, he said: "It is also a government, good fortune is made of misfortune, and fortune is turned from adversity. It is important to weigh the weight." That is to say. It is said that Guan Zhong is best at allocating resources, improving efficiency, and rebuilding various orders in a compromise and prudent manner, which is very "entrepreneurial".

In Guan Zhong's reform, there is a policy that is quite familiar to later generations and has caused the greatest misunderstanding: "Four peoples separate industries, scholars, farmers, industry and commerce". The main point of this policy is to divide the people into four classes: soldiers, farmers, craftsmen, and merchants, and live in fixed areas according to their respective professions. "Guoyu·Qiyu" records that Guan Zhong planned fifteen townships for scholars and six townships for industry and commerce, each with 2,000 households. Based on this calculation, there are 30,000 professional soldiers and 12,000 professional businessmen in the country. (Based on one person per household).In addition, there are 450,000 peasant households in the wild.

Guan Zhong believes that the separation of the four peoples has four advantages: One is "to talk with each other with deeds, and to show each other with ingenuity", people in the same industry live together, so it is easy to exchange experience and improve skills; The second is "communicating with each other for benefit, showing each other at the right time" and "telling each other to know the price", which have a great effect on promoting the production and circulation of commodities; The third is to create a professional atmosphere, so that the public can be content with their own profession, so that they will not "see foreign objects and move away", thus causing occupational instability;

The fourth is to create a good social education environment invisibly, so that children can be influenced by their ears and eyes from an early age, and they can naturally master professional skills under the influence of their father and brother. The system of professional division of labor and succession of father's business makes Qi State's manufacturing technology ahead of other countries. "Kao Gong Ji" has many records of Qi State's handicraft workshops. Taking silk as an example, the earliest silk weaving center in my country was in Qi State The capital was Linzi. At that time, high-end silk fabrics such as Bingwan, Qixiu, and Chunli produced in Linzi were not only in sufficient supply in Qi, but also sold in large quantities in surrounding vassal states.

Guan Zhong was the first person in history to divide and manage all social classes according to occupations. This specialized commodity economy model has been respected as the basic form and guiding principle since the Han Dynasty.The meticulous professional division of labor and institutional arrangements passed down from generation to generation are one of the important reasons why China's early civilization is ahead of the world.Taiwanese scholar Zhao Gang believes: “The division of social functions in China was at least one thousand years earlier than that in Europe, and the main traditional production technology (non-machine production technology before the industrial revolution) appeared in China eight hundred to one year earlier than in Europe. Thousands of years." He even thought: "The commodity rate of products before the Ming and Qing Dynasties may not be lower than that during the Ming and Qing Dynasties." Since the Qin Dynasty, the strict "separation of industries among the four peoples" has been abandoned, but it has become the household registration system The rudiment of the craftsman registration system was used until the Qing Dynasty.

It is "Scholar, Farmer, Industry and Commerce" that caused a major misunderstanding. Later generations talked about this, first replaced the sergeants with intellectuals or learned officials, and then thought that this was the order of rank, with the soldiers as the first, the farmers as the second, and the business as the last, which formed the so-called " Late Merchantism".In fact, Guan Zhong's "scholar, farmer, businessman" is a parallel meaning, and there is no distinction between seniority and inferiority. There have been several dramatic changes in the attitude of the ancients towards business.

The ancient Chinese did not seem to care about business.As early as the Yin and Shang Dynasties, people were very happy and good at doing business and engaged in handicraft manufacturing.After the fall of the Shang Dynasty and Zhou Xing, the founders of the Zhou Dynasty, when reflecting on the lessons of the demise of the Shang Dynasty, believed that the demise of the Yin and Shang Dynasties was due to the people's enthusiasm for business and the abandonment of agriculture, resulting in impetuous people and an unstable national foundation.Therefore, it turned to implement a policy of emphasizing agriculture that despises industry and commerce.In the Zhou system, the status of industrial and commercial workers was very low, and "Hundred Workers" in bronze inscriptions were often listed side by side with ministers and concubines who were slaves. "Yi Dun Gua" said: "A gentleman is far from a villain, and he is not evil but strict." "Yi Zhou Shu Cheng Dian" said: "Scholar-bureaucrats are not mixed with business." The township does not share the teeth of the scholars."That is to say, scholar-officials must stay away from merchants and must not live together with industrial and commercial people, and industrial and commercial people are not allowed to talk to scholar-bureaucrats when they leave their place of residence. "Zhou Li·Di Guan·Si Shi" also stipulates that nobles cannot enter the market for transactions, otherwise they will be punished.

Guan Zhong's position is completely different. He put "businessmen" and "scholars and peasants" side by side, and believed that these people were "the people of the country". He said: "The people of Qi are the foundation of the public." The concept of juxtaposition with "scholars and peasants" was not a consensus among the scholar-bureaucrats at that time. In the dialogue between Yao Jia and the King of Qin recorded in "Warring States Policy", there is a sentence: "Guan Zhong, he despises the Jia people." The merchant experience is quite contemptuous.The contemporary historian Li Jiannong concluded based on the records in "Historical Records", "Guoyu" and "Zuo Zhuan": "The enlightenment of Chinese commerce should be the earliest in Qi."

If Guan Zhong put forward "scholars, peasants, and businessmen" back then, with "scholars, peasants" as the best and "business" as the last, it would be difficult to understand the subsequent reform policies.