I, the prince, only want to be deposed.

Chapter 291 Why does a country need to rely on agriculture to enrich itself? Without secondary industries, where will the primary industries come from?
"Then in the end, isn't it just a lack of money?"

Liu Ju asked back with a smile.

But this time we really can't blame Liu Che for his extravagance and warmongering.

During this period, apart from the Taiyi God Suburban Sacrifice during the New Year, Liu Che did not hold any large-scale activities to seek immortals or ghosts, nor did he launch any large-scale military operations against Wei Man Joseon.

The treasury funds that were spent were indeed used in the important areas that Sang Hongyang mentioned.

These money and grain must not be saved. Only when the people live and work in peace and contentment can the country be stable enough. Only when the country is free from internal troubles can it gradually prosper and deal with foreign enemies more easily.

The only problem is that it is difficult to achieve immediate results after spending this money and grain, especially the money and grain used for disaster relief, the main purpose of which is to maintain national stability, which is equivalent to spending money to eliminate disasters. It is the kind of negative asset that one does not want to bear but has to bear, and there is no substantial return in the short term.

For Liu Che, the head of the family who knew how expensive oil and rice were, he felt very painful when he saw the treasury money constantly decreasing without getting any immediate returns.

What's more, Liu Che also had some quick-success-seeking traits in his character.

In fact, most people have this attribute, which is why electronic games became popular all over the world once they came out. When people do anything, they tend to give priority to obtaining immediate satisfaction. This is also a manifestation of human instinct to seek benefits and avoid harm, and electronic games fit this attribute very well.

It’s just that the game played by an emperor like Liu Che is called "The Han Empire Online".

Build the Jianzhang Palace and see your palace getting bigger every day. It feels great. Keep going!
Send troops to conquer all directions, and watch with your own eyes that your territory expands overnight. Envoys from small countries rush to pay tribute. Kings will be captured by the Han army and brought back to Chang'an to submit. The entire court will sing praises of your achievements. It's great, keep going!

After years of seeking immortals and asking ghosts for advice, he never even saw a hair of an immortal... This was very frustrating, so in the last few years of his life, Liu Che no longer believed in those wizards and sorcerers.

The same goes for agricultural reform and disaster relief. Although Liu Che knew that this was something an emperor must do and even the foundation of a country, he could not find immediate satisfaction from it. Naturally, it was difficult for him to have too much enthusiasm, and he would easily become anxious when he saw the treasury's money decreasing as a result.

"..."

Sang Hongyang did not respond to Liu Ju's words, but smiled bitterly again,
"Now that the system of calculating and reporting the amount of silk has been used, and the government-run salt and iron industry has also been implemented, paying sheep to become a palace official and paying grain to become an official are only extraordinary measures in extraordinary times."

"Your Majesty ordered me to propose measures to increase revenue and reduce expenditure. I have pondered for a long time and now I can only think of two ways to increase revenue."

"The first policy to increase revenue is the equalization method of transport, which was tried out in some counties three years ago."

"This law allows counties and states to pay tribute and convert it into local specialties according to the local market price, and then hand it over to the transport officials, who will then transport it to other areas where such specialties are scarce and sell it at a high price."

"This can not only avoid the middleman exploitation of merchants and greatly reduce the cost of acquisition, but also avoid the waste of manpower and material resources in the counties and states to transport tribute to the court. At the same time, it can also circulate materials and adjust the items needed by the country at any time."

"On this basis, I have added a price stabilization law."

“When the price of a certain commodity in a certain place rises too much, we sell it to the market at a fair price to lower its price; on the contrary, if the price of a certain commodity is too low, we buy it in large quantities to drive up its price.”

"This law complements the equalization of transport law and enables the court to control the market and stabilize prices."

"We will crack down on unscrupulous merchants who hoard goods and manipulate the market to avoid price gouging and market destabilization, which will affect national stability and people's lives."

"In this process, the imperial court obtained local specialties from various places without spending a penny, and made a certain profit through the transshipment and sale of these items, which also helped to maintain the stable operation of commercial activities. It can be said that it killed two birds with one stone."

"And the second strategy to increase revenue is to sell liquor."

"As the name suggests, this law means that winemaking will also be government-run, just like the salt and iron industry, so that the profits of the wine industry will be controlled by the court, and the revenue of the national treasury can also be increased."

"I wonder what your Highness thinks of my two strategies for increasing revenue?"

The two open source strategies mentioned by Sang Hongyang did not surprise Liu Ju at all.

These two measures were recorded in detail in history books, especially his "Equalization of Transport and Price Stabilization Law".

This "equalization and stabilization of prices" alone is enough to make him be regarded as one of the greatest economists in the history of the Celestial Empire. This market policy was simply ahead of its time. Even more than two thousand years later, the Celestial Empire's market economy policy still followed the principle of "equalization and stabilization of prices".

The economic policies used in the "Zhang Juzheng Reform" implemented by Zhang Juzheng, the prime minister of the Ming Dynasty, were completely based on the policies proposed by Sang Hongyang.

In fact, Liu Ju always felt that Sang Hongyang was quite wronged.

He did so many important things, but in the end even Sima Qian described him as "competing with the people for profit" in "Records of the Grand Historian" and was unwilling to start a biography for him. He also carried the infamy for a long time.

But if you look closely at the measures proposed by Sang Hongyang in his life, you will find that he was not "competing with the people for profit" at all, but "competing with merchants for profit."

Reporting and calculating silk, state-run salt and iron, liquor monopoly, equalization of transport, equalization of prices...

All of these measures are aimed at businessmen, and they are mainly targeted at those businessmen who are extremely prone to hoarding goods and manipulating the market.

And ideally, these measures should reduce the burden on the people while increasing the court's revenue.

It should be noted that in the Han Dynasty, where information was relatively closed and transportation was underdeveloped, the business practices of hoarding and market monopoly left over from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were extremely common. Some large salt and iron merchants had even monopolized one or several counties. While making huge profits in this way, they also had a considerable impact on local governments.

After experiencing the policy of non-intervention during the reigns of Emperors Wen and Jing, many places had actually formed the so-called "free market economy" dominant ideology that was later seen in many capitalist countries, and were developing in the direction of "economy dominating politics."

What kind of situation will this lead to? Take a look at the Lighthouse Country in later generations. This country was the only superpower on the blue planet for a long time.

Since the "free market economy" began to be advocated under the operation of capital interest groups, what did it become before Liu Ju traveled through time?

A certain electronic pet went to the hospital to make an appointment, but was only asked a few questions about its condition through "talk therapy" without any instrument examination. The bill was $5670.

A certain state was hit by heavy snow, and the use of air conditioners surged. The energy companies in the "free market economy" were unable to supply electricity and chose to cut off power supply. However, in order to maintain their monopoly, the energy companies had to ask for help from other states. Many free people froze to death, and they had to dismantle tables and benches and make fires to keep warm.

Calling an ambulance costs thousands of dollars...

Any life-saving medicine is priced sky-high...

The revolving door between government and business, political donations, and lobbying are all legal, opening the door to bribery and are even protected by law...

There are countless examples like this. The ubiquitous monopoly has deprived ordinary people of even their most basic right to see a doctor. Although people in later generations of the Celestial Empire were deceived by readers and Yilin for many years, they finally understood the script of the late Qing Dynasty in the Beacon Country.

And the debate and criticism in the Han Dynasty about Sang Hongyang "competing with the people for profit".

In fact, the essence of it is the debate and struggle between the ideas of "free market economy" and "administrative-oriented market economy", and the struggle between the merchant interest groups and the Han Dynasty court.

Whether from the perspective of the court or from the perspective of the people.

Liu Ju insisted that things like salt and iron, which were related to people's livelihood and war preparedness, should never be in the hands of profit-seeking merchants. Otherwise, once they formed a large-scale monopoly, it would definitely give the court and the people a big surprise.

As for wine... that is also "competing with merchants for profits."

After all, these days, most people are living on the edge of subsistence, and many people have never known what wine tastes like in their entire lives. The people who brew and drink wine are basically merchants, landlords, aristocratic families, officials, and princes and nobles, and the interests being fought for are also the interests of these people. How can this be considered "competing with the people for profit"?
"I support you, but you can't do it like the salt and iron government-run business. You must formulate a 'standardized' system and establish a strict supervision procedure when implementing it to prevent someone from taking advantage of loopholes."

Liu Ju nodded and gave a special reminder.

Because according to historical records, during the process of Sang Hongyang's implementation of the "Equalized Transport and Price Stabilization System", many drawbacks similar to those of the state-run salt and iron industries emerged, leading to bad situations in various places such as making things difficult for the people, collusion between officials and businessmen, and hoarding of goods.

If we only consider the results, the infamy that Sang Hongyang bore was not unfair.

"Of course. I am already working on formulating a system to prevent this from happening."

Sang Hongyang was delighted to receive Liu Ju's affirmation, and at the same time, he made a solemn promise.

"Also, I remember that you were not against normal commercial activities. You seemed to have said something like 'Why does a country need to rely on agriculture to enrich itself? Without secondary industries, where would the primary industry come from?'"

Liu Ju asked again.

Such words are absolutely out of place in this era where the dominant ideology is "agriculture first, commerce second".

"?"

Sang Hongyang was stunned again. He had such an idea, but in order to avoid unnecessary disputes, he had never said it publicly. He really didn't know how Liu Ju knew it.

However, seeing that Liu Ju did not seem to have any intention of blaming him, he nodded and said:
"That's right. I think that enriching a country is not just about agriculture. Commercial activities can make merchants rich, which will naturally make the country prosperous and strong. In my opinion, the state-run salt, iron and liquor are only the most basic commercial means."

"So in your opinion, what is a more advanced business practice at the national level?"

Liu Ju asked again.

"Foreign trade."

Sang Hongyang's eyes instantly flashed with a sharp light.
"The state-run salt, iron and liquor business is internal trade. The national wealth has not increased or decreased. In essence, it is just taking the profits that originally belonged to merchants into the hands of the state. It is actually a redistribution of wealth."

"But foreign trade can bring in foreign goods without leaking out the profits. This is a truly powerful business method and it is what truly creates wealth for our Han Dynasty."

"Just like the conflict of interests between the imperial court and merchants, if the imperial court wins, the merchants lose."

"The same is true for the wealth of the world. If the Han Dynasty can establish a strong foreign trade, it will redistribute the wealth of the world. If the Han Dynasty benefits, other countries will lose."

"Over time, the Han Dynasty has become stronger and stronger, while other countries have gradually weakened. Isn't this a war without weapons? Isn't this a high-level method of defeating the enemy without fighting?"

After hearing this, Liu Ju straightened his back and showed great respect to Sang Hongyang:
"As expected of you, Sang Nong Ling. Why didn't you tell my father about such an advanced idea?"

"This……"

Sang Hongyang hesitated for a moment, then sighed helplessly,

"Your Highness, you may not know that this idea still has several key issues that cannot be resolved, so it is almost impossible to achieve. It is better not to mention it."

Liu Ju came up with great interest and asked eagerly:
"Come on, come on, tell me what the problem is. Maybe I have a solution."

(End of this chapter)