At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 481, Economic Model

After listening to Kuai Che's words, Zhao Yu thought for a while and shook his head, saying: "I don't agree with what Brother Kuai said. Agriculture and sericulture are fundamental because people will starve to death if they don't eat, and they will freeze to death if they don't wear clothes, so these two things are indispensable.

The reason why we take industry as the foundation is that craftsmen can make steel tools and various living facilities for people all over the world. The farm tools, furniture, houses and even bricks used to build houses of our Han Dynasty all require specialized workshops. Taking industry as the foundation can enable people all over the world to live a better life, but the important thing is the craftsmen who produce the goods, not you merchants. "

"Brother Kuai, you have a fortune of hundreds of millions. These are not earned by your own efforts, but by exploiting craftsmen. Your hundreds of millions of fortunes must have exploited tens of thousands of craftsmen. In the words of the emperor, you are a rentier. Without powerful people like you, the lives of the people in the world will not get worse, but better. It's not that the world cannot do without merchants like you, but that you merchants cannot do without craftsmen. Without craftsmen to help you make money, you will be worthless."

"Great!" The legal students around cheered after Zhao Yu finished speaking.

Mei Xuan was somewhat curious and asked, "Who is this person? He must be quite capable to be Li Si's disciple."

Zhang Liang said: "This is Fusu's eldest son and the first emperor's eldest grandson."

Ying Bu was surprised and asked, "When did Li Si become so generous?"

Because the Wang family had joined Ying Bu, he also knew some of the internal situations of the Qin Dynasty. Fusu and Li Si had always been at odds with each other. Fusu looked down on Li Si's cruelty and regarded him as an unjust minister, while Lisi also looked down on Fusu's soft-heartedness. For his own glory and wealth, he had always supported Hu Hai. The relationship between the two sides could not be said to be as deep as the sea of ​​hatred, but they would never have any contact with each other until they died.

Zhang Liang said calmly: "The Great Qin has been destroyed, so there is no basis for the two sides to be hostile to each other. We are all remnants of the Former Qin, so it is not surprising that we help each other."

Kuai Che thought for a moment and said, "Mr. Zhao is still too young. It takes more than just hard work to create value in this world."

After that, Kuai Che took out a book, which was "On Enriching the People" written by himself, and said: "To date, 10 copies of my book have been printed. I dare not say that I have caught up with hundreds of sages, but it also has an influence in the Han Dynasty and has brought me millions of dollars in income. Brother Zhao, can you say that this does not create value? Moreover, the sages have already said that those who work with their hands rule others, and those who work with their minds are ruled by others. This means that the sages value those who work with their minds more. The value of those who work with their minds is also considered higher by the sages. Merchants organize production, and currency is the world's laborers. These are the laborers with their minds. Those who work with their minds get more generous rewards. This is the law of nature."

"Bravo!" The students of Xiangshan Academy and the workshop owners who came here also cheered. Zhao Yu'er was talking nonsense. They spent money and effort to hire craftsmen to produce goods and support hundreds of thousands of officials in the Han court. Yet they said that they, the merchants, were not important. This was like eating and smashing the pot.

Zhao Yu immediately retorted, "Even if you organize production and distribute goods throughout the world, the wealth you occupy far exceeds your contribution. Unfair distribution methods will bring crisis to the world. During the Warring States Period, the world's wealth was mainly land. Why was the Qin Dynasty strong and the six kingdoms weak? Even if they united, they could not be a match for the Qin Dynasty. It was because the Qin Dynasty had millions of self-cultivating farmers, while most of the land in the six kingdoms was in the hands of hereditary nobles. The six kingdoms were weak and had no fighting power, so they were defeated by the Qin Dynasty."

"The same is true for workshops as the foundation of the industry. If most of the value of the workshops' production is taken by merchants like you, the country will be weak and the people will be dissatisfied. A country with fierce internal conflicts will naturally not be strong. This is what the emperor has done in recent years, suppressing the powerful and safeguarding the rights of craftsmen. The development of our Han Dynasty also proves the feasibility of this approach. The Han Dynasty is unprecedentedly powerful."

Kuai Che laughed and said, "Doesn't the emperor protect the interests of us merchants? Our wealth didn't fall from the sky, did it? Young Master Zhao still doesn't learn enough from the emperor. The emperor's virtue is like the way of heaven. He has never specifically protected the interests of a class. The emperor has always been promoting the development of productivity in the Han Dynasty. Whoever is more advanced, the emperor will support them. I can say something impolite. The merchants of the Han Dynasty have rapidly promoted the productivity of the world because of free competition. The assembly line in the pre-Qin period has only been used in military workshops. This not only did not bring any benefits to the people of the world, but also plunged the people of the world into endless wars. But we have popularized it in workshops all over the world, increasing productivity dozens of times, so that we can have the current prosperous Han Dynasty. I, the workshop owner, can promote production better and am one of the advanced people mentioned by the emperor."

"Mr. Zhao, you can't bring the problems of agricultural countries into industrial countries. You are just trying to find the right sword by carving a mark on the boat. The court began to take industry as the foundation and launched the industrial revolution. After the steam revolution, our Han Dynasty has become an industrial country. Because of the division of labor system, our labor productivity is higher, so our craftsmen can produce more goods, so our wealth is dozens of times that of the pre-Qin period. And all this is because our merchants organize production. Who can say that management has no important value? Otherwise, why would the workshop owners in the world spend a lot of money to hire shopkeepers and even give them shares? It is impossible that the owners of these workshops are fools and give their wealth to some unimportant people!"

"Great!" People around cheered for Kuai Che's speech.

Ying Bu said, "Is Zhao Yu at a disadvantage?"

Zhang Liang shook his head and said, "Zhao Yu is too young. He is no match for Kuai Che."

Zhou Bo frowned and said, "Although I know that what Kuai Che said is problematic, I don't know where the problem lies. What Zhao Yu said is the strategy implemented by the court. The court has always been cracking down on powerful gentry, and this is beyond doubt.

But what Kuai Che said was not wrong. The power of merchants has expanded very rapidly in recent years. This shows that the court's policies are beneficial to merchants, which is why their power has expanded so rapidly. But doesn't this mean that the court's policies are going in the opposite direction?"

Zhang Liang said: "Kuai Che is just taking advantage of the power of others. The court's policy in recent years has not been to support merchants, but to support industries headed by workshops. These merchants are just catching up with this wave. Zhao Yu did not hit Kuai Che's weak spot. He wanted to talk about distribution, but Kuai Che kept leading the topic to production."

"But what Kuai Che said makes sense. These merchants want to make money, so they can promote the development of production at any cost. As long as they can make money, they are willing to do anything. Judging from the development of the Han Dynasty's industry in recent years, in such a fully competitive industry, there are not many technical barriers, and it is difficult to form industry restrictions. It is difficult for government-run workshops to compete with merchants. This is human nature. Government-run workshops pursue stability rather than making money. Even if the court issues repeated orders, it cannot change this situation."

Zhou Bo suddenly realized, "No wonder the emperor has been pushing for the Shaofu to leave the textile industry in the past two years. It turns out that the emperor has long seen this scenario and wants to sell the workshop while it is still valuable."

In the past two years, the Shaofu of the Han Dynasty has made a big move, which is to continuously clean up the subordinate textile factories. Whenever a textile factory suffers from losses, the Shaofu does not try to save the factory. Instead, after some investigation, he confirms that the manager has not been corrupt and then decides to sell the workshop. If there are corrupt managers, he will ask them to return the money, and then demote them to Southeast Asia to work and pay off their debts.

Xu Fan had learned from the lessons of later generations. The managers of those textile workshops would be transferred so that they could not have economic dealings with the company and prevent them from enriching themselves at the expense of the public interest. The first choice of those workshops would be to sell to the craftsmen working in the workshops and turn the products into the collective property of the craftsmen. If the craftsmen also felt that this industry had no hope and were unwilling to buy, the Shaofu would contact other merchants.

Zhang Liang sighed, "Back then, the textile industry was the core industry of our Han Dynasty. Things are unpredictable, and now we have to sell off these industries."

But Zhang Liang also understood that even if they didn't sell off, the court couldn't compete with these merchants. The court supported the craftsmen at the same level as supporting scholars. Although they were only corporals, this resulted in extremely high labor costs in the textile industry of the Han Dynasty. On the other hand, those private textile factories were really supporting the craftsmen. They would not pay more if they could, and would try to evade responsibility if they could. If there were no restrictions from the court, they would not care about the lives of the craftsmen.

Zhou Bo was a little worried and said, "But if this situation cannot be stopped, the textile workshop will be sold off today, the carriage workshop will be sold off tomorrow, and the steel factory will be sold off the day after tomorrow. Sooner or later, the imperial court's Shaofu will be sold out."

Zhou Bo would not have considered this much before, but next year he will start ruling the country, so he has to consider this issue. Zhang Liang said: "Don't worry, this kind of competition will only have a future in industries with low barriers to entry and high substitutability of craftsmen. For industries like carriages and steel that require craftsmen to exert their abilities to create, it will not work to treat craftsmen as cattle and horses."

Only then did Zhou Bo feel relieved.

On the battlefield, Kuai Che took advantage of the victory and said: "Free competition is the eternal law of nature. The common sense of all things in the world applies to any economic law. Under the rules of free competition, workshops that can produce cheaper goods with less cost can survive, and the continuously falling prices of goods are a manifestation of increased productivity, just like the cloth, steel, and various craftsmen of our Han Dynasty. Because of the increase in productivity, the prices have dropped rapidly, allowing more people to afford these goods. The prosperity of our Han Dynasty in recent years is due to free competition."

"The reason why the imperial court's official workshops are dominated by the power of the imperial court is that even though they are large in scale, their profits are obviously lower than those of private workshops. The imperial court should maintain the order of the entire Han Dynasty like the way of heaven, instead of engaging in business itself. Professional matters can only be done by professionals. A Han official may be able to govern a place well, but he may not be able to run a workshop well.

The loss of the workshops is a detriment to the interests of the people of the world, because the taxes paid by the court are all paid by us, but now they are supplemented by a few people. This is the way of the people, using the insufficient to serve the abundant. The court should give up running the workshops and sell them to people who know how to run them better, so as to maximize production efficiency. "

"Crap!" These words touched the hearts of countless merchants. Their biggest rivals were the official workshops of the imperial court. Not only did they use high welfare to abduct the craftsmen they had worked hard to train, but they also disrupted the market and suppressed them. They were both doing business, so why were the shopkeepers of the imperial court's official workshops superior to others?
After hearing what Kuai Che said, Li Si, who was standing by, snorted coldly: "This Kuai Che has actually become Lu Buwei's disciple."

After listening to several of Kuai Che's opinions, Li Si realized that Kuai Che was just a person who repackaged the ideas of the eclectic school in a new way.

Li Si was a retainer of Lü Buwei, so he naturally knew his former master. Lü Buwei was a politician, but not an academic master. However, he was greedy for fame and fortune and wanted to get into the academic circle. He used the power of money to gather his retainers with a businessman's mindset and wrote "Lüshi Chunqiu", which was said to absorb the thoughts of various major schools of Confucianism, Legalism, Taoism and Mohism, but it was miscellaneous and not refined, so it was called "Zajia". Its core concept was that Lü Buwei shouted "The world does not belong to one person, but to everyone in the world". His employer also provided this idea for the entire "Lüshi Chunqiu".

Li Si was dismissive of this at first. He thought it was just nonsense that could make sense, but would be vulnerable in the face of cruel reality.

Li Si understood that when Lü Buwei said this, it was because he was often oppressed by officials from various countries during his business career. The power of those officials came from the various princes. The whole world belongs to the king, and all the ministers are the king's subjects. This is the truth since the Warring States Period. He didn't really want to say this for the people of the world, but for the merchant class. The world belongs to everyone, so naturally merchants should have a share. His former master also looked down on craftsmen and farmers.

Li Si originally thought that Lü Buwei's works would definitely disappear, because his former master protected the interests of merchants, but merchants had several armies, and their power was insignificant to the whole world. Apart from the money they had, they could not change any pattern in the world. Even in the Qin Dynasty, farmers and craftsmen were eligible for wooing, while merchants were indeed the targets of attack, which showed how weak their power was. His former master had set too high a tone, and no monarch could accept his ideas. The decline of the Miscellaneous School was inevitable.

But things in the world are so strange. A few decades after Lu Buwei shouted out this sentence, there was actually a monarch who actually put it into practice. However, the Han Emperor expanded this sentence. He not only wanted merchants, but also wanted craftsmen and farmers to become the people of the world.

After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, the Han Emperor took industry as the foundation of the country. Industry embraced the merchant class and allowed their power to grow rapidly. This was something that his former master had not been able to do before, but now it was really possible for Kuai Che to do it.

However, the views of the Legalists and the Miscellaneous School are incompatible. The Legalists advocated the teaching of making full use of the land, eliminating the five pests, and using all resources to enrich the country and strengthen the army. However, the Miscellaneous School wanted to strengthen the so-called civilian class, that is, the gentry and wealthy merchants. These people were all within the scope of the five pests of the Legalists and were to be killed as soon as possible. Therefore, Li Si tried his best to suppress Kuai Che and his "Theory of Enriching the People".

Li Si said a few words to an old man beside him, and then the old man came on stage to replace Zhao Yu, who was already sweating profusely.

Kuai Che looked at the old man and bowed, "May I know who you are, sir?"

The old man said calmly, "Legalist Meng Yi. He doesn't have much knowledge, and is now a teacher at Chang'an No. 26 Middle School. Brother Kuai's free competition may make some sense, but it is too much to say that it is the eternal way of heaven, the unchanging truth, and that it applies to any economic law. There is a big loophole in it."

Kuai Che said confidently: "Please give me some advice, Master."

He was very confident in the path he had figured out after spending three years. This was the truth he had learned through more than ten years of business practice, and there was absolutely no way there could be any flaws.

Meng Yi waved his hand, and a Legalist scholar pushed a blackboard with a stand to Meng Yi's side.

Meng Yi took out a piece of chalk and said, "Let me first take the wealth created by the workshop as an example. Suppose that all the wealth of the Han Dynasty is produced by industry, and the way these wealth are distributed is that the craftsmen who create wealth and the merchants obtain them respectively. This is the total wealth of the society in this simple model.

But once the goods are produced, they are also used by craftsmen and merchants. But there is a problem, because craftsmen get less wealth, while merchants get more wealth. Let me take Master Kuai Che as an example. He earned hundreds of millions of wealth by opening a workshop, but he only had one room to sleep in. Even if he wanted to sleep better, I built him a palace, spending 1000 million yuan, and he also had better food. Ordinary craftsmen only had rice, but he could eat fish and meat, whatever was expensive, and even eat six meals a day. "

This remark caused the whole audience to burst into laughter. No one expected that this old man could be so funny. It was really entertaining and educational.

Meng Yi remained unmoved and continued, "Master Kuai can eat a lot. Even if he eats 100 million coins a year, his expenses are only 1100 million coins, and he has only spent a little more than one-tenth of his 2000 million yuan fortune. Let me calculate a little more. When you have enough food and clothing, you will think about sex. Master Kuai is rich, and he married eight concubines to help him spend money and buy BMW luxury cars. So I can calculate that he spent 3100 million coins at most, and he can only spend 6900 million coins a year, leaving million coins. And this is Master Kuai's annual income. He hasn't spent all this year's money. In the second year, hundreds of millions of dollars will be thrown at Master Kuai Che with the efforts of the craftsmen."

"Hahaha!" The laughter was even louder again.

Ying Bu laughed and said, "I didn't expect Meng Yi to be a master of comedy. If I had known he had this ability, I would have recruited him into the opera troupe instead of letting him be a teacher."

Zhang Liang said seriously: "Meng Yi doesn't have this ability. He must have been taught by Li Si. He was delayed by the Qin Dynasty. With his academic ability, he could have become a master."

Meng Yi said, "This will cause a problem. Master Kuai Che's money will not flow back into this model. This model will lack 6900 million wealth every year. The purchasing power of the craftsmen is insufficient, and Master Kuai Che has no way to spend all his wealth. The more his wealth increases, the wealth in this model will not only not increase, but will gradually decrease. In the end, the craftsmen will not have enough money to buy the goods they produce, so there will be an unprecedented overcapacity. According to the theory of this model, the harder the craftsmen work to produce goods, the less they can afford to buy goods. This explains the crisis ten years ago."

(End of this chapter)