Chapter 6 The Instigator of the "Salt and Iron Franchise"

Under the strategic thinking of macro-control, Guan Zhong's most important institutional innovation was the monopoly of salt and iron.Its influence has lasted for more than 2,000 years, and it still exists today. It has almost become the economic guarantee of the Chinese-style centralized system. Duke Huan of Qi and Guan Zhong discussed the strategy of enriching the country many times. Duke Huan of Qi suggested taxing the population, houses, buildings, trees, and livestock, but Guan Zhong denied them one by one. dissatisfaction of the people.The best and most ideal way is to "take it from the invisible so that people will not be angry".Based on this, Guan Zhong proposed the method of "containing tax in price" - hiding the tax in the commodity and implementing indirect collection, so that the taxpayer can't see or touch it, and pay the tax without knowing it. psychological resistance.

In terms of specific methods, Guan Zhong gave a simple seven words: "Only officials, mountains and seas are worthy of attention." - as long as the resources of mountains and seas are monopolized, it is enough. Salt and iron monopoly system. During the farming period, salt and iron were the two most important pillar industries, and none of the people could leave for a moment.Guan Zhong gave examples of monopoly income from salt and iron.He said that the population of the country of ten thousand chariots is about ten million. If the poll tax is levied on adults, about one million people should pay it.If the salt monopoly is carried out, the price of each liter of salt can be increased according to the discretion, and the monthly income may be 60 million yuan, which is expected to double the income of the poll tax.On the surface, the government has indeed never collected taxes, so that it will not arouse the people's "clamorous" opposition.Not only in the country, but also by exporting salt for huge profits. This is equivalent to boiling the inexhaustible sea water to force the people of the world to pay taxes to Qi, that is, "boiling water to benefit the world".

The same goes for iron monopoly.Guan Zhong said that every farmer, whether engaged in farming or working as a female worker, needs iron tools such as needles, knives, lei, plows, chopsticks, saws, awls, chisels, etc. You can collect 30 yuan for a needle, which is equal to the poll tax payable by one person. By analogy, the total national income is no less than the total amount of poll tax collected.On the surface, the country does not levy taxes, but in fact it is "all those who refuse to submit to citizenship". Guan Zhong advocated the monopoly of salt and iron, but he did not advocate that the government personally step down and establish state-owned salt farms or state-owned iron factories.

For example, in the salt industry, Guan Zhong implemented a monopoly policy, opening up the salt ponds to allow private production freely, and then unified purchase by the state.Because of the control of the sales and production of the salt industry, and thus the price, the price of Qi's salt sold to other countries can be raised to 40 times the cost price, and the country and merchants have benefited a lot. In the iron smelting industry, Guan Zhong is state-owned and privately operated.First of all, he severely emphasized the state's monopoly on all mine resources. The so-called "Ze Li San Yu, Shan Li San Heng", he issued a decree announcing that as soon as a mine seedling is found, it will be protected and sealed up by the state immediately. Unauthorized mining, if the left foot goes in, the left foot will be cut off, and if the right foot goes in, the right foot will be cut off.Afterwards, the government controlled the pricing power of ironware, and carried out unified purchase and sales of the ironware produced.Under these conditions, Guan Zhong opened up the iron smelting workshop industry and allowed private businessmen to operate independently. For the value-added part, the private businessmen got 70%, and the government got 30%, which is equivalent to collecting 30% of the income tax.

The government controls the ownership of resources, and then delegates the management rights to private businessmen, and distributes profits at a certain rate. This is the prototype of "state-owned assets and contracted management" that is very popular in later generations. The policy of monopolizing salt and iron has had a major and fundamental impact on later regimes. In a sense, it has made China a "unique country" ever since.We say "Chinese characteristics" without exaggeration. In Western economic theory, the main source of national fiscal revenue, or even the only source, is taxation. On this point, there is no difference between socialist economists or capitalist liberal economics.Karl Marx once said, "Taxation is the economic basis of the government machine, not anything else," and "The economic manifestation of the existence of the state is taxation."This perception has not changed even in contemporary institutional economics theory, with Douglas North arguing that government is "an organization that provides protection and justice in return for tax dollars, that is, we pay government to establish and enforce ownership" .

In the consciousness of the rule of law in the West, the role of citizens as taxpayers has always been emphasized. Since the 14th century, the concept of "no taxation without the consent of the taxpayer" seems to have been firmly established in France and the United Kingdom.People often mention this sentence, violating it is tantamount to tyranny, and observing it is tantamount to obeying the law.Especially in the United States, the store directly lists the price of the product and the consumption tax, making you realize that you are paying tax when you buy a cup of coffee.But in China, the rulers are more willing to "contain tax in price".Chen Yinke once said that there is an element of "deceit" in China's governing techniques. Guan Zhong's sentence "take it from the invisible, so that people will not be angry" is the best proof.

After the "Guan Zhong Reform", China's government revenue consists of tax revenue and monopoly revenue. The realization of the latter is achieved by controlling strategic materials that are necessary for people's livelihood and monopolizing them.In this system, the government has actually become an "economic organization" with a profit-making mission, and a deep-rooted governance idea has also been derived, that is, the state must control "pillar industries related to the national economy and people's livelihood", and state-owned enterprises should be in "in a dominant position" in these industries.

In this economic environment, state-owned enterprises are the kind of "governments that look like enterprises", while the government is "enterprises that look like governments". group.Once this kind of system is formed, private enterprise clusters will be caught in the middle, be at a loss, and become the object of the game.This Chinese-style economic system has lasted for thousands of years and has not changed so far, and Guan Zhong is the "initiator".