warring states careerist

Chapter 645 The Road of Qi ([-])

Tian He had read these things a long time ago, and was rather disapproving of Guan Zhong's answer, thinking that it was obviously wrong, how could it be possible to turn taking into giving?Or even make the people willing to do so?
After the Sishang Mohism started to prosper, Tian He was even more puzzled.

The land tax on Sishang used to be [-] taxes, but later became [-] taxes. Where did the Mo family get so much food to support various activities?

He thought of Guan Zhong's words at that time, and then thought hard, and the counselors also guessed separately. It was not until not long ago that he finally understood that the things of the Mohist school have always been.

Indeed, the Mohist land tax is very small.

However, the Mohists sell iron and salt.

The Mohists did not force the people to buy iron, nor did they buy salt more than the people. The people felt that exchanging grain for iron and salt was justified, and they could not say that they could get iron without giving grain.

Mohism's iron is monopolized, or it is open to market competition, but the method of Mohist iron smelting is far superior to the existing block iron smelting technology. No businessman has the ability and financial resources to match the huge tens of thousands of people who own The Mohism in Sishang contends and confronts: either cooperate or go bankrupt.

So Sishang looks like a tax of [-] yuan, but in fact, people pay a lot of food every year to pay for various handicraft products that are developing day by day.

According to Tian He's understanding, this is exactly the "principle of invisibility". The Mohists did not impose heavy taxes, nor did they force the people to buy those handicrafts, but it led to the concentration of a large amount of wealth and food in the hands of the Mohists.

How to achieve this is very profound, but it has been discussed in Qi State a hundred years ago.

After thinking about this part, Tian He was covered in cold sweat, and then carefully looked at the things that were more than a hundred years ago, wondering what to do.

So he finally understood.

"Thus, the five grains and millet are the people's orders; the gold knives and cloth are the people's currency. The former kings were good at controlling their currency to control their orders, so the people can do their best."

If the treasury wants to be rich, there are two reasons to understand.

And the key point is that "the gold knife cloth is the currency of the people", that is to say, currency is just a general equivalent, and those who are really good at governing the country need to use these general equivalents to regulate the market so that the treasury can be obtained by the king. want something.

It is said: the king has the wealth of mountains and seas, but those who are not enough for civilian use are all handed over to the superiors with their careers.

A king wants to fight, and he must have food in his hands, but must he have food in his hands?Is it necessary to levy harsh land taxes in order to accumulate food and prepare for war?

The answer given by Guan Zhong is that it is not necessary. It needs to go around in a circle and make good use of the "people's currency". If you want food, you don't necessarily have to levy harsh physical land taxes, but use the monarch's "mountain and sea wealth" to obtain currency. As the people lack currency, they will naturally sell a large amount of food in exchange for currency.

So how to control the price of the currency?Since it is believed that "the gold knife and cloth is the currency of the people" and that money itself is only an equivalent, the price can be manipulated, then there is always a way to manipulate it.

Guan Zhong believes that "holding the three coins is not beneficial to warming, and eating it is not beneficial to satiety. The former kings used to protect property and control civil affairs, so as to pacify the world."

In other words, the function of gold and money is an equivalent, as long as it is an equivalent, it can be manipulated.In other words, how much a bell of corn is worth is the equivalent in money; in exchange for how much a piece of gold is worth in corn is the equivalent in corn, so money is not inherently sacred.

Although he did not explain why gold is a natural currency, he understood the concept of equivalents in this era and proposed the idea of ​​"manipulating prices".

In this regard, Guan Zhong gave an example.

"Today, the monarch seeks the people's residence. If it is said that it can be obtained in ten days, then the wealth of property will be reduced to one; Take half of it; if it is ordered in the morning and it is in the evening, then the property will be ninety."

This is just an extreme hypothetical example, but it can be interpreted in comparison with the chaos of the currency tax implemented in the Ming Dynasty after 2000 years:

If you want to depreciate metal currency within a certain period of time, you only need to change the physical tax into currency tax. For example, if a large amount of currency tax is levied now, the price of physical objects will drop in the short term, because people need to exchange their physical objects as soon as possible. For currency, this can enable people who own currency to obtain more wealth: Guan Zhong believes that with his own means, Duke Huan of Qi must be the richest person in Qi; The time to rake in money.

In fact, Qi State did not implement currency tax on a large scale, and even tax in kind was still struggling to fight labor rent.

What this theory speculates does not take into account the monetization of taxation after currency tax and currency circulation, short-term usury, and price suppression by wealthy businessmen during the tax payment period, etc., but what the theory needs is to make up for it. The idea is actually quite rare.

Therefore, the historical experience of the Qi State actually has the means and rational system of a rich country, and the rare thing is how to implement it according to the current situation.

Since it is a system, it is natural to have supporting content.

To do this, three prerequisites are required.

First, mountains and seas belong to the king, and the king must be good at using this ownership to obtain wealth.

Second, the private economy outside the government-run economy must be developed so that the people exchange a lot, which will lead to a shortage of money, but the sale of food.

Thirdly, the people must be profitable to operate the land, and have the surplus after deducting the rent tax and what they eat. Only in this way can the development of industry and commerce be promoted, and the king can earn enough money for the ownership of mountains and seas. , and the money can be converted into what the king wants.

Aiming at these three points, Tian He studied carefully, and finally understood the various reform methods and system principles derived from these three points.

Regarding the third point, that is, people must have a surplus in land management. This is the foundation and the most important thing, because agriculture is the foundation of industry and commerce.

Regarding this point, Guan Zhong proposed two means, which complement each other.

One is land-based tax collection, that is, assessing the fertility of the land and formulating different tax standards to form differential land rents.

And to form differential land rent, it is necessary to "split goods with it".

To share the goods with them, that is, to replace the "labor land rent" with "ground rent in kind", within the scope of the direct administration of the Marquis of Qi, cancel the "public land" system, distribute the land to the people, and the ownership still belongs to the monarch, so as to ban the "public land" system of the people. The labor land rent of "Bi Nai dare to govern private interests" was replaced by land rent in kind to stimulate the enthusiasm of the people.

Looking at the world, the reforms in Qin, Wei and other places are basically the same routine, and the reason why this method of "dividing goods with them" could not be implemented in earlier eras is actually the essence of what the Mohists call "Nine Paradise Paradise" The meaning of "good governance" in it is: a system with insufficient productivity was bad governance in ancient times, which is also the "in" in the Mohist debate. We think Yao's policy is good because we stand in the present Looking at Yao's era, he could govern, but if Yao's policies are put in place today, he will not only be unable to govern, but will become a bad government.

The reason why "a thousand couples work together" is because the productivity is low, otherwise there will be no effective exploitation.Guan Zhong believes that the level of productivity in the Qi Huan era can completely abandon the land rent of labor labor that thousands of people worked together, and use differential land rent and land rent in kind to ban labor land rent.

After the death of Duke Huan of Qi, there was a long period of internal turmoil in Qi. The dispute between the five princes and the subsequent Tian clan rebellion prevented Qi from advancing and retreating for a hundred years. It was impossible to implement such a policy, and there were not enough grassroots officials to promote it. In addition, Qi Huangong's generation of heroes could not prevent the nobles from having to separate the powers of the high and the two countries. All these beautiful ideas can only remain in theory.

Since it is said that this is a system, it naturally has supporting content.

After solving the agricultural problem, it is necessary to solve the development of industry and commerce, and the resulting gap between the rich and the poor.

In this regard, the academic school of Qi State believes that the following points should be paid attention to in tax collection.

"If a husband registers as a house, it is said to be ruined; if he registers six animals, it is called stopping life; if he registers an acre of land, he calls it prohibition of farming; if he registers an upright person, he calls it divorce; if he registers a proper household, he calls it raising and winning."

That is, if a house tax is imposed, it will destroy the house.

If a six-animal tax is imposed, the breeding of six animals will be restricted.

If a field tax is imposed, it will destroy farming.

If a poll tax is imposed, it will lead to sterilization.

If taxes are collected on a family-by-household basis, this is tantamount to giving preferential treatment to the rich and powerful.

The examples of these five taxes mean that the monarch can collect taxes, or he can adjust the national economy based on the types of taxes: if you want to encourage horse breeding, then don’t levy horse taxes; if you want to promote population growth, then share them Abolish the head tax on entering the mu...

Relying on the tax policy to adjust the economic bias, and relying on the state to control the "people's currency" and "the people's order" to macro-control prices, so that economic development and the money in the hands of the monarch can get more in kind.

In addition, the School of Economics of Qi State believes that "if the people are rich, they cannot be entrusted with rewards, and if the people are poor, they cannot be punished with authority.

In other words, in terms of taxation, the gap between the rich and the poor must also be taken into account, and taxation must be used to adjust the gap between the rich and the poor, and progressive taxation should be implemented.

For example, when the funeral tax is collected, the person with a large funeral needs to pay more tax because he has money and is not short of the money; the person with a small funeral needs to pay a small amount of tax because he has no money.

For example, taxes are levied according to the luxury of houses, and these taxes are added to indirect taxes. For example, mountains and forests belong to the monarch, so whoever has thick beams and thick coffins must buy big wood, so the price of big wood is higher than that of small ones. Wood is dozens of times more expensive.

In this way, direct progressive taxation and indirect progressive taxation can be implemented, taxation can be used to regulate the rich and the poor, and currency and food can be used to control prices, so that the gap between the rich and the poor will not be too large, and you can also make more wealth in your hands.

For this reason, the economic school of Qi State believed that the "Statistics Bureau" had been established, and the name at this time was "Guogui".

The responsibilities of the "National Guidance" are like "how much is the land in a certain town? How much is the rest? Said: "A woman from a certain township won the event at the end of the year, how much is her achievement? Use her achievements to tell it from time to time, and at the end of her life, after she has worn clothes and quilts, how many clothes do she have left? It is suitable to be different from others."

The "National Track" Bureau of Statistics not only needs to make statistical summary tables from various places as the basis for policy adjustments, but also pays attention to confidentiality.

If the "National Track" does not pay attention to confidentiality and leaks the statistical summary table, it may cause the rich to manipulate prices and use this information to obtain benefits, thus endangering the interests of the monarch.In other words, the monarch, as the country's largest speculator and usury lender, must be wary of businessmen knowing inside information.

PS: (National track, basically can be regarded as: the Central Statistical Bureau plus the National Bank in a theoretical sense. It is not unreasonable, but very reasonable but too advanced. The advanced is a bit too big, not just too big. Just kidding, this is simply too big a step and the crotch is broken...Qi country can't do it at all, there are some, some methods of making money, and the simple understanding is the trick of gold coupons.)
(End of this chapter)