Chapter 7 heresy that encourages consumption

Among Guan Zhong's economic thoughts, the most peculiar one is to encourage consumption, and he even advocates luxury, which is rare among rulers throughout the ages. There is a wonderful article "Luxury Chapter" in "Guan Zi". Advocating frugality has always been the right way in the governance of China in all dynasties, which is obviously the inevitable product of the long-term shortage economy.However, Guan Zhong put forward the view that "thrift hurts things". In his opinion, if everyone does not consume, it will reduce the circulation of commodities and hinder production and profit-making activities, so it is called "hurt things".How can we promote consumption?His answer is to spend a lot, and even spend extravagantly.

This exposition of Guan Zhong has confused Chinese scholars for thousands of years. Many of his believers either turned a blind eye to it, talked about him, or defended Guan Zhong in every possible way.It was not until modern times that the historian Guo Moruo gave a reasonable explanation.Guo believed: "He affirmed pleasure and opposed thrift; he valued circulation and opposed scorning commerce; he advocated full employment and opposed passive relief; in order to achieve full employment, he advocated mass consumption and even generous burials. The emphasis is on the fact that mass consumption can promote mass production. Therefore, he said little, almost nothing, about how to proceed in production and how to improve technology."

Guan Zhong’s reason for advocating extravagance is, “If the acupoints of cinnabar are not blocked, merchants will not be able to stay. The rich will waste it, and the poor will do it.”That is to say, as long as the source of profit is not artificially blocked, merchants will continue to operate day and night without rest, while the rich can only consume continuously, and the poor will have jobs to do.In order to strengthen his point of view, Guan Zhong even made an extreme metaphor. He suggested that carving and painting should be done before cooking eggs, and carving should be added before burning firewood.

Guan Zhong himself was a wealthy hedonist.Confucius said that his extravagance was comparable to that of a monarch - "his extravagance surpasses it", and "Historical Records" said that he was "rich as a public office".According to "Han Feizi" and other books, Duke Huan of Qi gave three tenths of the city rent of Qi State to Guan Zhong. Of course, as a mature politician, Guan Zhong's admiration of extravagance is not just for his own enjoyment.In "Guanzi Riding the Number of Horses", he talked about a very advanced point of view.He said that whenever the age is bad and the people have no jobs to do, the country should build palaces and pavilions to promote the employment of the people, especially those who have lost their property.At this time, building palaces is not for pleasure, but to promote employment and balance the economy.

This method of stimulating economic recovery and promoting employment through government investment in fixed assets was learned by Westerners more than two thousand years later. Taking the Great Depression of the world economy in 1929 as an example, the United States and Germany at that time were all Only after adopting such a policy did we get out of the trough.But more than two thousand years ago, Guan Zhong had such wisdom, which is really amazing.According to the textual research of Yang Liansheng, a Chinese-American economist, in the long history of Chinese economy, apart from Guan Zhong, only a very small number of people such as Fan Zhongyan in the Song Dynasty had similar thoughts.