Chapter 22 Salt and Iron Conference and "Sang Hongyang's Question"

Just two years after the promulgation of the "Luntai Guilty Edict", in 87 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty died in depression.In February 81 BC, the court of the Han Empire held a public debate on the monopoly policy of salt and iron. In Chinese economic history, this can be said to be the greatest economic policy debate.A man named Huan Kuan recorded the content of the debate in detail and wrote it into a wonderful book that has been handed down to this day - "On Salt and Iron". On one side of the debate were more than 60 Confucian scholars from all over the country who opposed the nationalization policy, and on the other side were Sang Hongyang and his subordinate officials.Sang Hongyang was the Minister of Finance and Economics that Emperor Wu relied on most. He was born in a merchant family in Luoyang. , participated in almost all economic decisions during Emperor Wu's period, and can be described as the greatest financial hero in the prosperous Han Dynasty.Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was extremely suspicious of his ministers, and he took life and death. He had changed six Da Nong orders in ten years, and killed two of them. Only Sang Hongyang acted as the financial agent and never changed again. The language is the same as that of Fan Li.In later generations, Sang Hongyang, like Shang Yang and Wang Anshi, was a person with polarized evaluations. Some people praised him as a "minister of prosperity" and the most outstanding financial master in Chinese history, while others denounced him as a "ruthless official in chaos." .When Emperor Wudi was alive, there were Confucian scholars who hated Sang Hongyang deeply. One year there was a severe drought, and someone wrote a letter offering advice: "When cooking Hongyang, the sky will rain."

In this big debate, Sang Hongyang, who was 74 years old at the time, was obviously on the defensive. Huan Kuan truly recorded his various expressions at that time, such as "the doctor is silent", "the sex should not be", " "Miao Ran does not speak", "Should not speak", "Falling and silent", "Pitched and did not respond", "He was ashamed and ashamed, and did not speak on four evidences", etc., are obviously a pair of defendants. He made more than 130 speeches before and after, all tenaciously defending the monopoly policy, which has also become the most vivid and precious original material for later generations to study Emperor Wu's reform.

Confucianism’s opposition to the nationalization policy mainly focused on the following three points: One is to accuse the salt and iron, equal transportation, and equal standards of "competing with the people for profit", resulting in collusion between government and businessmen, rising prices, and depression of the private economy; The second is that there are major disadvantages in the production and operation of state-owned enterprises. Their products are either unsuitable for civilian use or of low quality, and officials at all levels buy and sell them by force; The third is the inevitable emergence of a powerful economy, forming an economic group that is backed by the political power, in the name of state-run, and grabs huge benefits through privileges.

In Sang Hongyang’s view, these points raised by the Confucians were not surprising, and he responded and refuted them one by one.In his view, these people come from the private sector and have no experience in governing the country. They can only point out the disadvantages of nationalization, but they cannot put forward constructive opinions.He raised the famous "Sang Hongyang's question": If the nationalization policy is not implemented, where will the war expenses come from?Where does the country's fiscal revenue come from?How to resolve the scene of local separatism?And aren't these three the most important issues that rulers must face and solve?In order to express his opposition to the concept of Confucian scholars who are full of "benevolence, righteousness and morality", Sang Hongyang never used the word "benevolence and righteousness" in his more than one hundred responses.

In the Western Han Dynasty, the evaluation of Shang Yang by the intellectuals was quite negative, but Sang Hongyang praised him. There is a special chapter in "Salt and Iron Theory", "Fei Yang", and the debate is not long ago The historical figures had a heated debate.Contrary to the views of Confucian scholars, Sang Hongyang believes that Shang Yang "uses inexhaustibly but the people don't know, and the land runs out to the west, but the people don't suffer." In the book "On Salt and Iron", Sang Hongyang's economic thought has been vividly presented.Perhaps it is the background of a merchant family, or perhaps his talent. Sang Hongyang is the first person in Chinese history to regard industry and commerce as "the foundation of a rich country", which is a step further than Guan Zhong.

He pointed out that "why should a rich country use its own agriculture, why should well fields be used to satisfy its people" -- why should a country rely on agriculture if it is to be strong, and why should it be necessary to use such stupid methods as the well-field system if it is to make the people rich?He also said, "Wealth lies in the number of tricks, not in physical labor, and the benefit lies in the power, not in hard work"-the way to get rich lies in strategy, not physical toil; the acquisition of profit lies in the accumulation of benefits, not in blind and reckless work.He even believed that business and commerce were not smooth, agriculture could not develop, and the state's finances also lost sources.He didn't even deny that the monopoly policy inherently competes with the people for profit. He said that one of the purposes of implementing equal losses and equalization is to prevent merchants from profiting from commodity sales.

The greatest contribution of Sang Hongyang's economic thought is to emphasize the prosperity of the country through industry and commerce.Hu Jichuang wrote in "History of Chinese Economic Thought" that Sang Hongyang almost got rid of the limitations of ethics to examine the issue of wealth. His business philosophy has rarely been recognized since a hundred generations.Compared with the West, a similar trend of mercantilism did not appear in Europe until after the 15th century.The main purpose of all economic policies proposed and implemented by Sang Hongyang was not to suppress industry and commerce—on the contrary, he and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty were the first to see the huge profits generated by industry and commerce. Their goal was to transform private profits in industry and commerce into country's profits.That is to say, advocating the development of a command-based planned economy with state-owned industry and commerce as the main body, Sang Hongyang inherited Guan Zhong's idea of ​​monopolizing salt and iron, and further expanded and institutionalized this approach.

In this sense, it is a false proposition to say that China has been a country of "light business" since ancient times.Because, the rulers of all dynasties of China since Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty never underestimated industry and commerce, they just suppressed private businessmen.They brought the industry and commerce that can generate the most profits into the state for management, and they were well aware of the significance of industry and commerce to a rich country.When the country directly entered the stage of industrial economy, the state capital group and the private capital group formed a competitive trend, and the latter was naturally suppressed.Therefore, despising merchants and valuing business and industry are the result of two sides of the same coin.

The Salt and Iron Conference was a general review of the economic governance model after the emergence of the centralized power system in China. Faced with an empire that had never been seen before, with a vast territory and a large population, people seemed anxious and at a loss. Prosperity", not only made them feel the glory of the empire, but also suffered from the centralization of power.In the great debate, the topics covered by both sides of the debate have been very in-depth. It can even be said that many difficult problems in governing China that have plagued China until now, especially the distribution of power between the central and local governments and the dilemma of the role of the state in the national economy, have been fully realized at that time. exhaustive.Confucian scholars only know how to oppose Sang Hongyang's policy fiercely, but they can't come up with any constructive solutions. The confrontation between the two sides often passes by.Confucianism has never dared to face the difficult "Sang Hongyang's question".In fact, until today, Chinese people still haven't found the answer to the solution.