Then, let's take a look at the economic policies adopted by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
First, the currency reform "Taiping Yulan Assets Department" records: "In the spring of the first year of Jianyuan, it cost three baht. In the spring of five years, stop for three baht and do half a article. "
"Zi Zhi Tong Jian Zi Zhi Tong Jian" records: "At that time, there were white deer in the forbidden park, but there were more silver and tin in the house. It's a foot square white deerskin with seaweed on the edge. It's a leather coin, up to 400,000 yuan. Princes and royalty must recommend their treasures with leather coins when they make pilgrimages, and then they can do it. Silver and tin are also made into platinum. "
"Historical Records" records: "So I learned that the county state banned the casting of money, and specially ordered Shanglin Sanguan to cast. Since there is a lot of money, it is impossible to make money without the three officials in the world. Counties and countries cast money, all waste, lost to three officials. However, the people have less money and the cost is not comparable. Only real works are thieves. "
The monetary reform of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty lasted for 22 years, which shows how difficult and complicated the monetary reform of a huge empire is. From three baht-half a penny-white deerskin coins-platinum three products-three baht and half a penny-five baht, what are the benefits of these six currency reforms?
First of all, the monetary reform eliminated the disadvantages brought by the excessive indulgence of coinage in the early Western Han Dynasty. Secondly, it weakened the power of merchant groups and county chiefs; Thirdly, the situation of saving money by the people has also been greatly reduced, the county's financial strength has been severely hit, the central government is getting better and better, and the gap between the economic strength of the two sides has widened, reducing the threat of the county to the central government; Finally, the issue of Platinum Tri-products has dealt a serious blow to speculators, greatly reducing the wealth of merchant groups, but enriching the national treasury. With more wealth, the Han empire also had a greater chance of winning when fighting against the Xiongnu, which became a key link to win the Xiongnu.
Second, the reform of the salt and iron official camp 120 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty promoted Sang Hongyang, a financial expert, as the finance minister, and began to promote the salt and iron official camp to the whole country.
Before Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the salt and iron industry in the Han Dynasty was allowed to operate privately, and the government only obtained a small amount of income from it by collecting taxes. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, "promoting work from within" caused a huge financial deficit, which was the direct cause of Emperor Wu's economic reform.
In the fourth year of Yuanshou (1 19), Emperor Wu appointed Kong Wei, Dong Guo Xianyang and Sang Hongyang to plan the salt and iron official camp, which was implemented in the second year. Salt is a necessity of people's life. It is produced in some specific areas, but the demand is national. However, the demand exceeds the supply, so the interest of merchants selling salt is very high. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty saw the huge profits of buying and selling salt, and the buying and selling of salt was completely controlled by the state. All the salt produced is sold to the state, and then sold to the people by the state. Individuals are not allowed to sell it privately. Iron is also a necessity of people's life. The output of iron is also limited, and the demand is also great, and the contradiction between supply and demand has always existed. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty saw the huge profits from ironmaking and buying and selling iron and ironware. All iron production and trade are owned by the state. In order to strengthen unified management, Sang Hongyang set up a unified operation system for salt and iron throughout the country, with 36 salt officials and 48 iron officials. So, what are the advantages of salt and iron franchise?
First of all, the salt and iron official camp system enriches the national treasury; Secondly, it ensures the domestic demand for border defense salary; Strike against local strongmen, seize the economic lifeline and strengthen centralization; Thirdly, because the government-run iron smelting industry has abundant funds, complete production equipment and advanced technology, it is obviously more advantageous than the original private small-scale iron smelting industry to cooperate in production according to unified design specifications.
Disadvantages: Iron is bitter and the price is unfair. Officials in charge abolished public law, sought personal gain, and forced farmers to smelt iron and boil salt. This also directly hurt farmers, aggravated the contradiction between farmers and feudal countries, and led to the increasing frequency of farmers' resistance.
Third, the policy of counting money, "Wu Han Di Ji" records that "counting money began in the fourth year of Yuanshou".
To put it bluntly, this policy is the property tax levied by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty specifically for merchants, craftsmen, loan sharks and merchants' vehicles and boats. According to the policy, it literally means to levy property tax, and the tax rate is roughly 12% (every ten thousand yuan). However, due to the concealment of many people, a warning policy to encourage reporting was later introduced.
The benefits of this policy: first, it allowed Emperor Wu to acquire a large number of farmland houses, handmaiden and monetary property in a short time; Secondly, the central government has strengthened local control to a certain extent; Third, it eases the annexation of national land by those who have power and influence.
Disadvantages: it has caused a great blow to the private economy.
To sum up, in a short period of time, the economic reform of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty greatly increased the financial revenue of the Western Han government, supported the external expansion at that time, further disintegrated the economic base of the local vassal forces, and at the same time cracked down on the excessive exploitation of yeomen by the wealthy businessman dajia. It can be said that its basic purpose has been achieved.
Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, great changes have taken place not only in previous political policies, but also in economic policies. Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, a very strict salt and iron monopoly policy has been implemented. The so-called monopoly actually means that the state monopolizes the production and sales of salt and iron, and the profits obtained are owned by the central government. Then why adopt these state-owned salt and iron policies? Because once these resources are occupied by individuals or places, huge local interest groups will be formed, and the rich class will be formed in a short time, which is not conducive to social equity. There is also a very important factor, that is, salt and iron are strategic materials, and the state controls salt and iron to prevent it from being sold to Xiongnu.
First, although the monopoly policy of salt and iron has made the government gain a lot, it has led to serious corruption and people's poverty. In the early Western Han Dynasty, the economic model of natural laissez-faire was adopted, and salt and iron could be privately minted, which produced a large number of wealthy businessmen, including the iron smelting magnate represented by Zhuo Wangsun, the salt merchants represented by Diao Xian and Wu Bi, who allowed privately minting money. Among them, the most profitable industries are obviously casting money, salt and iron, and these three categories are the necessities of the people all over the world. Large investment and high threshold. Ordinary businessmen can't get into this industry, and the profits they get are extremely rich. These wealthy classes control a large number of national resources, even the economic lifeline, and then buy land everywhere, which leads to serious land annexation and a growing gap between the rich and the poor, which is unbearable for Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne, the first step was to return the right to coin to the government. In any dynasty, the right to coin was the core foundation of the central government's finance. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty took back the right to coin, which was his first step towards centralization. Then, crack down on the powerful princes, stabilize the political situation, and begin to control the economic lifeline. The most direct way is to nationalize the profiteering industry of salt and iron. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty appointed Dongguo Xianyang and Tieshang Kong as big salt merchants to operate the salt and iron business, and then organized the people to cook salt and smelt iron, which was purchased by the state and then sold to the whole country. The salt and iron monopoly policy of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty has achieved two effects. On the one hand, the government quickly obtained a large amount of fiscal revenue and was able to continue to crack down on the Huns. But on the other hand, it has also brought some bad consequences. Iron smelting was a high-tech industry at that time. At that time, Sichuan Zhuojia was rich because of its superb iron smelting technology.
The invention of smelting iron has a history of only one or two hundred years. Most of the tools used before were copper. At that time, the technology of iron treatment could not be popularized at all. It relies on the state to organize ordinary people to smelt iron, and the quality of iron tools produced is obviously unqualified. Moreover, the land varies from place to place, and the standards for using farm tools are different, which will also lead to different sizes and difficulties in use. Secondly, edible salt is an extremely profiteering industry, and corruption will occur due to bureaucratic intervention in the production and sales process. Especially in the process of sales, the sales price of cooked salt in different places is definitely different, and the price of Qi, the country of origin, is definitely far from Guanzhong. In this process, there will be serious market confusion and serious corruption. Finally, there is a very serious problem, that is, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty continued to wage war against Xiongnu, so he would draw a large amount of tax from the salt and iron business, which led to a rapid rise in the price of salt and iron, and people had to spend a lot of money to buy these necessities, which eventually led to the destruction of their families.
Second, the policy of "equal loss" and "leveling" can stabilize prices and maintain the stability of the dynasty. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty not only used the form of "salt and iron monopoly" to curb the gap between the rich and the poor, but also adopted the policy of "equal loss" and "leveling". Because the goods produced in different places are different, it is necessary to pay tribute to the court, and then the court will distribute them to different places, but this greatly increases the transaction cost. "Equal damage" means that officials are set up in various places to receive goods, and important materials are sent to Beijing and handed over to the central government, while some unimportant materials are directly sold to other regions, thus balancing the demand for materials in various places. This not only reduces the transaction costs around, but also prevents the wealthy businessmen around from hoarding materials to drive up prices and profiteering. For example, wuyue produces rice, while Zhao Yan in the north does not. The original material allocation needs to be sent to Beijing first, and then transferred to Zhao Yan. The cost in this process is extremely high, and businessmen are easy to make huge profits. Now, some rice can be sent to the capital as a necessity, and the rest can be sold directly to Zhao Yan.
Leveling is also a way to adjust prices. In good years, when grain prices are cheap, it is difficult for farmers to make profits from selling grain. In famine years, there is no good harvest, and farmers need to sell land to buy food. "Leveling" means that officials who set up warehouses buy and hoard grain at a price higher than the market price in good years and sell it at a price lower than the market price in bad years, which can stabilize prices, benefit the people and prevent wealthy businessmen from speculating. Equal loss is to stabilize prices in terms of region and space, and the principle of equal loss is to stabilize prices in terms of time and cycle. These two policies greatly facilitated the people and maintained the stability of the dynasty.
Third, the "calculation and compensation" policy seriously damaged the commercial economy and eventually had to be terminated. However, with the annual expedition of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to the Xiongnu, the national treasury gradually ran into a deficit, and neither salt and iron monopoly nor even damage to the level could directly obtain financial revenue. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty directly adopted the policy of "calculation and compensation". "Counting" means that every wealthy businessman is required to declare his property and pay taxes for every 2,000 yuan, that is, 120 yuan, which is equivalent to 6%. If they don't report it, ordinary people can report it, and the proceeds will be shared equally with the government. This is called "reporting". These two policies led to the bankruptcy of a large number of rich households, which seriously damaged the commercial economy, and people could not buy or spend a lot of money on daily necessities, which had a direct impact.
Conclusion The economic policy of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty increased the income of the central government, concentrated financial resources to attack the Huns, and also hit local wealthy businessmen and princes, but his price was also very heavy, that is, it damaged the commercial economy, disrupted people's lives, and made a large number of people become poor and even refugees. In fact, it is very beneficial to the people to stabilize prices and crack down on speculation, while the monopoly of salt and iron is directly operated by the government, which not only disrupts prices, but also allows officials to abuse power for personal gain. Counting and pleading are fishing at the end of the river, which is not conducive to commercial development and disturbs people's lives.
Although Emperor Wu's policies effectively hit the rich and increased government revenue, they also made most people poor, the rich went bankrupt and the poor became refugees. The refugee rebellion broke out in BC 107, with the number exceeding 2 million, which also predicted the abortion of Emperor Wu's rude economic policy. The economic policy of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty is largely the inheritance and revision of the policy since the Zhou Dynasty, but the way of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty is too rough, which leads to the government's mercenary, which is not conducive to the business and the people, and finally brings many bad consequences.