Chapter 25 The worst reform results

Wang Mang's economic reform ended with losing his head. The state-owned reform of "five equals and six managements" deprived private industry and commerce of all profits, but did not bring about the filling of the national treasury.Following the example of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Wang Mang appointed a group of businessmen to manage "five equals and six managements".He appointed Wang Sunqing, the most famous tycoon in the capital, as the capital division in charge of the market, and the Hansi Dongshi magistrate, and Zhang Changshu and Xue Zizhong, rich businessmen with "100 million" assets in Luoyang, as Nayanshi, and set up franchised offices in various places. As officials, most of them are local businessmen, and let them act as trading officials, Qianfu officials, etc.Due to the lack of an iron-fisted supervision mechanism, these businessmen in official uniforms took the opportunity to collude with administrative officials, set up false account books, emptied the treasury, and recklessly sought personal interests. Miserable.

The four currency system changes in seven years have caused chaos in the financial order, and the government's financial credit has almost gone bankrupt.According to historical records, "every change will cause a big bankruptcy among the people, and the prison will be overcrowded." The nationalization of land has aroused the collective resistance of interest groups above the middle class.As early as the Western Han Dynasty, land had become the main form of wealth bearing, with the nature of "like currency". Wang Mang's rash promotion of Wang Tian without any public opinion foundation naturally offended almost all social classes.

At the executive level, the slack and lack of cooperation of administrative officials are also important reasons for the stagnation of reform.Wang Mang was a very suspicious and superstitious person. He often dismissed officials under the pretext of earthquakes or solar eclipses. During his more than ten years in power, he even changed eight chief ministers. Therefore, Wang Mang's reform not only offended the aristocratic family and the wealthy, but also failed to get the support of the proletarians, and the central government did not increase its income.In the fourteenth year of the reform, it was impossible to make progress. In 22 AD, Wang Mang had to issue an edict to abolish all reform policies since he came to the throne.However, the affairs of the world could no longer be done. In October of the following year, the rebel army invaded Chang'an City, and Wang Mang fled to Jiantai of Weiyang Palace, where his head was beheaded.

The failure of Wang Mang's reform was not only a failure of classical socialism experiment, but also a failure of idealists.It is a pity that his true colors have always been obscured by the image of a "usurper" and have never been seriously discussed.Hu Shi and Bo Yang reversed the case for him, all from an ideological point of view - they affirmed his kindness or naive motivation for reform, but did not answer the reason for his failure. If we compare Wang Mang’s reform with the previous Han Wu Emperor’s reform, we can draw the following technical differences—— In terms of the relationship between economic reform and political reform, both reforms aimed at strengthening centralization, and the premise of economic centralization was political centralization.When Emperor Wu initiated reforms: the "Seven Kingdoms Rebellion" has subsided, and the reduction of feudal vassals has been successful. Politically, the central government has formed a centralized power that cannot be resisted.However, Wang Mang replaced Han as a foreign relative, and the issue of the legitimacy of the regime has not been resolved. Therefore, radical economic reforms are bound to encounter major resistance.

In terms of the relationship between reform and public opinion, from the perspective of the interests of the four major interest groups, the centralization reform will erode the interests of the local government and the propertied class. It is necessary to "mobilize the people."Generally speaking, there are roughly four reasons that centralizers use to drum up popular support: resisting foreign aggression, preventing local separatism, fighting corruption, and opposing inequality between the rich and the poor.The slogan of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's reform was to protect the homeland and defend the country. The Han Dynasty's war against the Xiongnu was in line with the people's will, and won strong public opinion support for the reform.When Wang Mang's political power was not stable and social consensus was not achieved, he hastily reformed the law, lacking a broad public opinion base, and the many reform measures he implemented-especially the currency system reform, damaged the grassroots people from the very beginning.

In terms of the relationship between centralized reforms and private wealth, any centralized economic reform is not to promote productivity in essence, but to enable the central government to obtain more economic rights and interests through the redistribution of wealth.The reform of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was based on the solid foundation of the 70-year "rule of Wen and Jing".Wang Mang did not have such social conditions. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, the finances were weak and natural disasters continued. Moreover, the huge wealth was held in the hands of a family group integrating government and business, so it was naturally more difficult to search.

In terms of the relationship between reform and bureaucratic execution ability, Liu Che is a hero of a generation, ruthless and powerful. He effectively played the role of capable ministers and cruel officials in the reform, using different officials at different stages, and using them deeply. Be fond of, if you pass it, you will abandon it, especially if you procrastinate.And his cooperative relationship with Sang Hongyang has lasted for more than forty years, like a pair of political partners.Wang Mang was suspicious of employing people, easy to change generals, and did not have a loyal and efficient executive team.

A big social change is like a reconstruction of space. It should be possible to run away from the sparse places, but not to the secret places. Wang Mang’s reform lacks systematic thinking and risk warning. It is reckless and radical, full of loopholes, and failure is the meaning of the title.