With the rise of the national strength of the Qing Dynasty and the continuous expansion of the storage of Hengcang, the Qing Dynasty turned from prosperity to decline, and the storage of grain gradually became empty and even dried up. By the end of the Qing dynasty, for most parts of the country, the constant liquidation of economic stabilizers had existed in name only.
Since 1930s, the United States has carried out the policy of continuous liquidation from Wang Anshi's New Deal in the Song Dynasty to Roosevelt's New Deal, which is still the theoretical basis of American government's agricultural policy.
Mr. Qian Mu was annoyed that China people forgot their ancestors and the system of continuous liquidation was used by outsiders, but he knew nothing about it. He told such a story:
"... the leveling system in the Han dynasty, which is a measure to adjust prices. This system was used flexibly in the history of China. That is, for example, food prices, good years, and the government's purchase of surplus grain at a high price will not hurt farmers. When the famine season comes, the government will sell the accumulated grain in large quantities at low prices, which means helping poor farmers. This system was later implemented by the society in an autonomous way, which is the so-called social warehouse system. It is said that when Roosevelt was in power in the United States, there was an economic panic in China. When I heard about this price adjustment method in the history of China, someone said it was Wang's new law. In fact, it is the traditional legal system in China. During the Anti-Japanese War, American Vice President Wallace visited China, and just got off the plane in Lanzhou, he mentioned Wang Anshi to the welcoming officials sent by the National Government, expressing his deep admiration. And those big shots are all looking at each other and don't know what to do. Because in our modern China mind, we only know Washington and Lincoln. I think everything in China is backward. Under the trend of the modern world, the traditional political system of all historical figures is not worth talking about. So lovers, only right. (Qian Mu, China Historical Research Law, June 30 ~ 3, 20061page)
However, although Qian Mu is a great historian with profound knowledge, when he was writing How to Study Economic History, he didn't even mention the key techniques of China's classical economic thought, even the book Guanzi, only a few Confucian maxims, such as Biography of Huo Zhi and Taiping Guang Ji. Studying China's economic thoughts without mentioning Sixteen Pipes is like studying the United States only in Alaska. China's Confucianism is very deep, and money can't escape from the mold of Confucianism! Alas, pathetic! (Qian Mu, China Historical Research Law, June 2006, 5438+0, pp. 57-74).
The rise in pork prices has affected thousands of households, so government officials immediately stepped forward and used the national reserve meat to stabilize prices. According to the news from China Mechanized Pig Raising Association, there are 344 central meat storage bases in China, with a storage capacity of145,000 tons, of which 60,000 tons are central and 85,000 tons are local, and they are largely live reserves. In 2006, the total output of pork in China reached 510.97 million tons, and the reserve meat only accounted for 0.28% of the total output of pork in China. This reserve of meat is not enough for one day. It's ridiculous to keep prices down!
It turns out that the national reserve of meat was not set up to stabilize the nationwide rise in meat prices, but its function seems to have returned to the state of responding to sudden disasters and epidemics before the Western Zhou Dynasty-those government officials simply did not have enough pork to control market fluctuations, and they could only publish "white lies" in order to stabilize the market!
Insurance, futures. . . Of course, we should learn from the good economic mechanism in the West, but we should not lose the good institutional model in China. Futures can really stabilize prices only under the constant liquidation, because the constant liquidation makes speculators never dare to go beyond the price boundary delineated by the constant liquidation. A futures industry insider simply said: "Without the backing of continuous liquidation, pig futures should not slow down the fluctuation of spot!"
This friend is talking about not only pork reserves, but also agricultural products (especially soybean meal and corn) that account for a considerable proportion of the cost of live pigs, because there are two most important reasons for the increase in meat prices in the first half of the year: one is the increase in pig feed prices, and the other is the national pig epidemic in the second half of 2006.
For decades, the people of China have survived many natural disasters and the risks of the market itself through the continuous liquidation system-what we have lost is not only an economic system, but also the institutional soul of this vicissitudes nation to maintain the Millennium development!