Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Traditional customs - What are the positive and negative effects of the traditional economic thought of feudal China on the historical development of China?

What are the positive and negative effects of the traditional economic thought of feudal China on the historical development of China?

I. Guiding Principles of Macroeconomic Management in Feudal Society

Guiding Principles of Macroeconomic Management are the starting point and basic ideas adopted by economic managers in formulating economic policies and measures. Feudal society had low productivity and low level of understanding, but economic managers summarized many useful guiding principles through observation and practice. These guiding principles generally expressed the good wishes for a prosperous life and peace of mind for the country and the people. Guan Zi crystallized the state's "virtue" into six things that the government should do well, "Virtue has six Xing. ...... What is the so-called six Xing? Said: open up the fields, Lee altar house, repair tree art, persuade the people, reluctant to crop, repair the walls, this is called thick its life. Fat Fu Li, lose (soil with) accumulation, repair road, will be off the city, prudent will be hosted, this is said to lose money. To guide the floods, to make the reservoirs and ditches more favorable, to break the Panzhu, to break up the mud and stagnation, to pass the depression, to be careful of the jinliang, this is to leave it to the benefit of the people. Thin levies, light levies, chi penalties, pardon crimes, forgive small faults, this is said to be wide of its government. Raise the elderly, be kind to the young and orphans, sympathize with widows and widowers, ask about illnesses, and hang on to disasters and funerals, which is called to rectify its urgency. To clothe the cold, to feed the hungry, to feed the thirsty, to help the poor and the needy, to revitalize the strike, to provide for the lack of funds, this is to revitalize the poor." Guan Zi here gives us a description of the various economic characteristics of an ideal society, developing production, building roads and water conservancies, low taxes, social security, etc., and we also see clearly the controlling and dominant role of the government in this model of an ideal society.

1. National Perspective

A major feature of the economic management thinking of successive rulers has been their national perspective, that is, the ultimate goal is to enable all people in the country to "get their own way, get what they want", and not to make a certain class or stratum of people too poor and on the verge of danger, and at the same time have At the same time, it has the psychological feeling of "to rule a large country is like cooking a small delicacy". On the one hand, this is in line with the traditional Chinese philosophical concept of harmony and mediocrity, where the standard of an ideal society is that "the upper and lower classes are righteous, the noble and the lowly are distinguished, the young and the old are equal, and the rich and the poor are in moderation". Ruler's task, as the Ming Dynasty Wen Yuan Ge University scholar Qiu Jun said: "for the king of the world, but save labor, thin enrichment, flat prices, so that the rich to rest their rich, poor people do not go to the poor, each peacefully their own points, stop their own, get it." [3] On the other hand, this is also a realistic attitude that the rulers must take when dealing with social and economic issues, because any part of society that is too poor or too rich will become a factor of social instability, directly threatening the stability of the ruler's regime. Guanzi expressed this view in the chapter of national savings: "If the people are rich, they can not be禄使也, if they are poor, they can not be punished Wei also, the decree of the failure of the ten thousand people is not ruled, the rich and the poor are not aligned also." [4]

In the realization of the relative relationship between the wealth of the state and the wealth of the people, the economic managers of feudal society before and after a great turnaround. Early economic thought is the two in opposition to each other, tube from the perspective of maintaining the ruling order, put forward the ruler of the people's wealth should be "rich but can take, poor but can give" [5]. Shang Yang from the implementation of agricultural war policy, to enhance the military strength of the country from the point of view, put forward the strong military must make the people weak, the people stupid, "the act of governing the country, you make the poor rich, the rich are poor, the country is strong," [6], indicating that the managers at that time only see the strong side of the rulers of this issue, one-sided emphasis on the state's control of the economy and claim. By the late feudal society, economic managers had realized that the two were complementary, and that the wealth of the people was the foundation and prerequisite for the wealth of the country, as Qiu Jun pointed out, "Those who are good at enriching the country must first manage the wealth of the people, and those who manage the wealth for the country are second" [7]. Through the promotion of production, increase the total amount of wealth of the whole society, and then increase the government revenue, "there is to produce the source of the wealth of the birth is not poor, there is to manage the flow of the wealth of the Chan Chan, such as is in the people are not enough, and for the king is also constant surplus carry on." This is a great improvement over the simple assertion of Confucius that "the people are enough, and the ruler is not enough".

In addition, the national perspective has another meaning in the monarch's ownership of the world's natural things, the so-called "under the sky, no one is not the king's land," the economic embodiment. Sang Hongyang said, "The benefits of the mountains and the sea, the livestock of the wide swamps, and the treasures of the world are all appropriate to belong to the Shaofu." [8] And to the late feudal society Qiu Joon proposed: "heavenly creatures to feed people, not specifically for the king, and the king specializes in its profits, has been against the will of heaven." [9] can be seen, with the social and economic development, people's level of understanding in the improvement of their own economic rights awareness is increasing, the concept of monarchial ownership in the continuous dilution and weakening.

2. The state occupies a dominant position in economic management

In the process of state regulation of the economy, the rulers realize that they must be in a dominant position in the market is conducive to the regulation of the measures, Guanzi's lightness and weight theory is a typical representative. He states, "The great advantage of lightness and heaviness is to shoot lightness with heaviness, and to drain flatness with cheapness." [10] "To regulate with the world, he sees shooting when he is heavy, and leaks when he is light. Those who are leaking lose their power, and those who see shooting lose their strategy." [11] Guanzi make full use of the economic principle of "scarcity of goods is expensive", follow the trend, very flexible economic regulation. When there are more grains in circulation, the state control currency, the relative price of money is high, when the state acquisition of grains, more money in circulation, the relative price of grains is high, so that in the relative value of money and grains in the process of movement, because the state occupies a monopoly position and always be able to maintain the dominant position of economic regulation. In this process of economic regulation, the state in fact plays the role of a big monopoly merchant. In foreign trade exchanges, this principle accordingly evolved into maintaining a dominant position in foreign trade. "The world is light, I am heavy" [12], "good for the world, the person who is careful to keep the heavy flow, and the next do not I leak carry on ...... this to light and heavy Royal world way also." [13] That is to say, Guanzi believes that a country in foreign trade to export relatively high prices of commodities, imports of relatively low prices of commodities, through which to achieve the purpose of dominant position in foreign trade.

3. The Importance of Economic Information

Feudal society economic managers realized the importance of mastering economic information very early and clearly, and the macroeconomic regulation of the economy must be based on the full possession of economic information, which is exactly the regulation of the free competitive market under the individual market participants can not do. The rapid flow of economic information is a prerequisite for the functioning of the market mechanism, and the State and the Government can promote the collection, organization and dissemination of economic information by virtue of their own natural advantages. Guanzi said: "the field has a track, people have a track, with a track, the township has a track, personnel have a track, the coin has a track, the county has a track, the state has a track, do not pass in the number of tracks and want to be a country, can not." At the same time, "the state track cloth in the unformed, according to the has become, multiply the order and in and out, without seeking to the people, called the state track." [14] "National track" is the national economic development plan formulated by the tube, once the plan is formed, macroeconomic regulation will be carried out in accordance with this, never at will. In addition, "Guanzi" in the question chapter, eight views and into the country and other chapters set out a detailed investigation of the national economic situation, the design is very detailed and meticulous [1] 362-364, reflecting the Guanzi as a country's economic management of the various aspects of the socio-economic know-how.

By the Tang Dynasty, Liu Yan, a famous financial manager, established a national commercial price intelligence system for the first time. The old Tang book - Liu Yan biography ": since the road patrol yard from the capital, the heavy price to raise the sick foot, put the pass each other. Quartet prices above and below, although very far away from four or five days to know. Therefore, the weight of food and goods, all the power in the grasp. The court was a beautiful benefit, and the world is not very expensive and very cheap worry, get its art carry on [15]. It can be seen that the government to obtain instant information at great expense, in practice, price information in the government regulation of the economy played an important role in the success.

Ming Dynasty, Qiu Jun suggested: "within, so that the towns and cities to report the price of rice month by month to the court; outside, the coccyx to the day on the euphony, euphony to the month on the Household, the House of the quarter on the feudal service, the feudal service on the Household Department. So that the people on the top know the number of money and grain, and use it to check the adequacy of the people's food, and think of it as a method of accommodating and transferring, and make sure that the money is not always in excess, that the grain is not always in short supply, and that its price is always equal." [16] Thus, within the government to establish a business information reporting system, enabling the government to grasp the market dynamics of information in a timely manner, the camera to make decisions, regulating supply and demand, suppressing prices.

Two, the necessity of national macroeconomic regulation

Whether it is necessary for the state and the government to intervene in the economy, as well as how to intervene, in the history of the development of economics there has always been a disagreement, until now is still a problem that has not reached a unified understanding. Economic practice shows that the implementation of a separate aspect of policy also has its own advantages and disadvantages. In the historical stage of China's feudal society, the state intervention is the main tone, the feudal society administrators are in the problem of in-depth thinking before the implementation of this state policy.

At the theoretical level, Guan Zi firstly put forward the concept of "economic man" in a simple way, and he believed that the nature of human beings is that "if you see benefit, you can't take it, and if you see harm, you can't avoid it", and that "if you get what you want, you will be happy, and if you meet with what you don't want, you will be worried, and this is the same for the noble and the lowly. He believed that the nature of human beings is "to be happy when they get what they want, and to be sad when they meet with what they don't want." [17] However, the same micro-foundations of economic man as in the West lead to very different conclusions. Adam Smith by the economic assumption of the conclusion is free competition, the principle of market regulation, the tube is the conclusion of state intervention, "good and bad, each line of desire, and the security and danger of the different, and then the shape of the virtuous and unworthy see also", and "things have more or less, and love can not be equal, and the success or failure of the matter, and the intention of the It is necessary to have political power (in Guanzi's view, it is super-class) to guide them, so that they can avoid harm and take advantage of it [1].303 From this, it seems that we can make an assumption that, under the cover of the abstract concept of the economic man, there are great differences between the individuals who are the subjects of economy in the Chinese and Western economic systems, which leads to obvious differences in their economic behaviors and the mode of social development. patterns to differ markedly.

In addition, Guan Zi also from the natural conditions of agricultural production to illustrate the necessity of national macro-regulation, "the age of the appropriate beauty, then the market black no give, and dogs and swine eat human food. Years appropriate evil, then buy up kettle ten coins, and the road has a hungry people", "things suitable for the cheap, then help and no give, civil not pay its own. Things suitable for the expensive, then Shibei and can not be obtained, the people lost its use." [19] suggests that there is a tenfold difference in the price of food between a good year and a bad year. The tube "there are a number of different areas of food price differences in the record, such as" light and heavy B "contained:" the former Di vassal, mu bell of the country, so the corn ten bells and one cent gold. Chengzhouzhou, Shanzhouzhou country also, so corn five kettle and one cent gold "[20], indicating that the high grain producing areas and low-producing areas of the difference in food prices of about twenty times. From the above account, we can see that due to the low level of productivity, people's production and life rely too much on natural conditions, changes in the external natural environment will cause a huge impact on the production of commodities and commodity prices, resulting in sharp fluctuations in the economy. Under such circumstances, commodity circulation services became particularly urgent. By the government to organize the transfer, in the spirit of stabilizing the people's lives of the social public **** sexual objectives (rather than purely for profit), in the grain harvest when the acquisition of storage, to the grain harvest to put on the market, or grain from the high yielding areas to the low yielding areas, in order to adjust the surplus and deficit, for social and economic stability and development to create favorable conditions. It seems that merchants cannot play the role of stabilizing the economy and prices. They will deliberately suppress the market price when there is an abundance of commodities and then acquire them, or hoard commodities when there is a shortage of commodities in the market, making the shortage even worse and thus raising the price of commodities with a view to obtaining more profits when they sell them off, which will undoubtedly make the fluctuation of commodity prices even more drastic, which is not conducive to the production and development of production and the life of the people. Wang Anshi said in his market law proposal: "the capital of the department store in the city, the city has no constant price, the expensive and cheap dumping or times the number of this. The rich and the big names are able to multiply the wait for the urgent, the right to open and close the convergence and dispersal of trespassing. When its merchants and travelers to, and things come to the non-time is clearly suppressed its price, so that the very cheap and then scrambled out of private savings to collect. And the boats and trucks are not followed by the capital city of the lack of goods, the people have to take, it is often closed its savings, to be expensive and then sold, to take several times the interest." [21]

Another equally important point is that, whether in agriculture or in the field of industry and commerce, mergers have always been an obstacle to economic development, but also a direct cause of social instability, and the economic managers of the various dynasties have generally taken a combating attitude. Sang Hongyang in the Han Dynasty in favor of state-run salt and iron, pointed out that the monopoly policy is to inhibit mergers, to prevent "the rich people trespassing on its use and specializing in its profits" [22], "the total salt and iron, not only for the profit into the will also be to build the end of the suppression of the end, away from cronyism, forbidding obscene and extravagant, and the road to the end of the mergers and acquisitions. " [23] Wang Mang believed that monopoly commodities should be fully regulated to prevent the rich and powerful merchants from profiteering and exploiting ordinary working people. He said: "the salt, the food will be; wine, the long of the medicine, the good of the Jiahui; field and agriculture of this; famous mountains and swamps, the Zang of Rao Yan; five all credit, the people take the flat, Ian to Tantalum; Iron cloth and copper metallurgy, the passage of the availability of the people to prepare for the civilian population. These six, not a household Qimin can be home made, must be Ang in the city, although expensive several times, had to buy. The rich people rich Jia, that is to be poor and weak, the late saint knew it was also, so the good offices." [24] Song dynasty Wang Anshi to inhibit mergers by the natural monopoly industries to all aspects of social and economic life, he pointed out that: "there is wealth and do not care, then the bitch of the pathways and alleys, are able to privately take the situation, trespassing on the benefits of all things, in order to fight with the master of the Qianshou and put their infinite desire, not necessarily expensive, strong, Jie, big and then can be so." [29] That is to say, if the state to give up the control of economic activities, adopt a laissez-faire policy, will inevitably produce mergers and monopolies, and not necessarily have to have the rich and powerful everyone exists to produce mergers, so he to destroy the suppression of mergers as an important function of the feudal state, and its measures to change the law fully embodies this point.

The suppression of mergers is also directly related to the consolidation of feudal rule, which can be analyzed from the following two aspects. First, the core principle of commercial transactions lies in the equality of the status of the two parties to the transaction, once the economic strength of the merchants is too strong, it will certainly challenge the hierarchical order of the feudal society, thus jeopardizing the security of the rule. Secondly, the rich merchant business is generally large-scale, such as salt and iron industry, must be gathered alone, time will inevitably produce a tendency to break away from the rule of the court, become a factor of social instability. Sang Hongyang mentioned: "the powerful everyone to manage the benefits of the mountains and the sea, picking iron and stone drum casting, cooking the sea for salt, a congregation or to more than a thousand people" [25], and pointed out that: "drums of gold cooking salt, the potential must be living in the deep valley, and the people are rare. Rogue slippery traffic, mountains and the sea, fear of great treachery, take advantage of pride and overflow, scattered Park Zi false, then the people of the precious nature of the few." [26]

While discussing the reasons for the merger, economic managers also recognized the economic consequences brought about by the differences in the quality of the economic individuals themselves, Sang Hongyang said, "The wise man has a hundred people, the fools have not more than the original thing," [27] and "the road hangs in the sky, the thing is spread out on the ground, the wise man to diffuse, the fool to do. The wise man to multiply, the fool to trap." [28] Later, many people also discussed this point, therefore, the destruction of annexation also implies the pursuit of the absolute average of social ideals. Third, the measures and objectives of macroeconomic regulation in feudal society

Under the political pattern of feudal China, the uniqueness of economic management lies in the direct participation of the government as the main body of economic operation in the process of economic operation, because this can be the government's goal of regulating the economy of the public ****, the goal of maintaining the stability of the regime and the goal of maximizing its own financial revenue are organically combined, which is the best choice for the rulers. The government is the best choice for those who are in power. The general sense of the state policy of agricultural suppression of business, to limit the private industry and commerce, the government-run industry and commerce is not included. With the change of dynasties, the specific regulatory measures, including the name of many changes, but the core of macroeconomic regulation ideas and policies have not changed. In feudal society, agriculture took up a large part of the national economy, so the regulatory policies mainly centered on the agricultural sector. Generally common policies were the implementation of constant leveling of the price of agricultural products, the monopoly of handicraft products, and the government monopoly in agricultural credit.

Guanzi proposed that the state take control of the means of production and subsistence, lend or rent them to the peasants, and at the same time utilize price policy to prevent the rich and powerful from annexing and oppressing the peasants. "If the state is not enough for the people, then it is not enough for the people. If the people have a surplus, then it is light, so the ruler converges it to be light. If the people have insufficiency, they are heavy; therefore, the ruler disperses them. Convergence of the accumulation of the light, scattered to the heavy. Therefore, the king must be Shibei's profit, and the expansion of wealth can be obtained and leveled." [29] It can be seen, in the economic regulation policy measures in the tube, the state in the market abundance, prices are low when purchased, in the market shortage, prices are high when sold, one is to suppress prices, the second is to increase government revenues, the third is to combat the rich and powerful, three in one move.

Sang Hongyang launched the economic policy of the Han Dynasty, the leveling policy is similar to the tube, there are obvious changes and directly play a huge role is the monopoly of salt, iron and wine. Because of the monopoly nature of the salt and iron industry, can generate huge profits, the past rich and powerful people also operate more salt and iron industry. After the implementation of the monopoly in Sang Hongyang, the government gained a huge amount of financial revenue [30], and at the same time to combat the rich merchants, inhibit the merger, and consolidate the feudal rule. Wang Mang's implementation of measures to control industrial and commercial economic activities is the six pipe policy, its scope is very broad, almost all aspects of social and economic activities at that time, including salt, iron and wine monopoly, the unified casting of currency, industrial and commercial taxation and five credit, of which five credit is Wang Mang's economic control measures in the most prominent part. Wujun means that the government assessed the price of goods according to the changes in the market price of commodities, and used the "market level" price as a standard to take corresponding regulatory measures, such as buying and selling goods, to stabilize the market price. Loans on credit, on the other hand, are organized by the government to provide funds for lending. Here, "the strong shall not be troubled by the weak, and the rich shall not want the poor" is to realize the suppression of mergers, "public surplus" is to expand the financial revenue, and "benefiting the common people" is to stabilize the market price, maintain the market order, and protect the common laborers.

Wang Anshi's most influential policy in agriculture was the Green Seedling Law. The law was a policy to stabilize grain prices and increase government revenues, while at the same time suppressing mergers. He also demanded that all households above the third class bear four cents of interest, and these wealthy households did not actually need the loan, so the law went even further in its goal of suppressing mergers.

Ming Dynasty Qiu Joon attaches great importance to the stabilization of commodity market prices, the "price leveling" and saving labor, thinning and convergence side by side as the "king" of the important task. Qiu Jun mentioned price stability and the previous dynasties, the difference is that he played down the suppression of mergers and expand the government's revenue two goals, indicating that he realized that government intervention in the economy should remain in the economic system and commodity market stability on this level, and the economic individuals involved in the market does not interfere with, and the government should not be intervening in the process of the economy in their own interests.

Qiu Joon can be described as the feudal society economic regulation policy of the master, observation of a wide range of discussions, the various economic policies and measures of the successive dynasties have been sorted out, more valuable is that he made a directional shift, proposed to reduce government intervention in the economy, only retained the "price leveling" one, and at the same time in the monetary system, At the same time, he put forward many more scientific policy ideas in the areas of monetary system, budget, overseas trade, transportation, and regularization, which were quite innovative and fully embodied the direction of development of modern social and economic management. In Qiu Jun, we can once again see the development and progress of ancient Chinese economic thought.

References:

[1] Hu Shengshou. History of Chinese Economic Thought: Previous Volume [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Press, 1998: 288; 362-364; 303.

[2] Guan Guan - The Five Supplements

[3] Diffractions of the University Supplementary Volume II.5, Order to buy up grain in the market

[4] Guan Guan - The National Savings

[5] Guan Guan - The Precedents

[6] Shang Junshu The Book of Shang Junshu - Speaking of the People

[7] University Derivative Supplement Volume 2O, General Discussion on the Way of Financial Management

[8] The Treatise on Salt and Iron - Retroactivity

[9] University Derivative Supplement Volume 113, Preventing the Failure of Abuse and Indulgence

[10] Guan Guan - The State of Residence

[11] Guan Guan - The Number of Mountain Powers

[12] Guan Guan - Lightness and Weight B

[20] Guan Guan-Lightness and Heaviness B

[21] Continuing the Long Series of the Tongjian, Volume 231

[22] The Treatise on Salt and Iron: Prohibiting Farming

[23] The Treatise on Salt and Iron: The Rehabilitation of the Ancient

[24] The Book of the Han: The Records of the Food and Goods

[25] The Collected Works of Wang Linchuan, Volume 82

[26] The Treatise on Salt and Iron: Rehabilitation of the Ancient

[27] Salt and iron theory - stabbing power

[28] Salt and iron theory - wrong coin

[29] Salt and iron theory - rich and poor

[30] Shi Ji - Ping Zhun book, "county officials have salt and iron coins of the reason for the use of the rich and the rich"