My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 374 Final decision
Liu Rong just made an opening remark, and this meeting, which was obviously not going to be short, fell into an extremely long silence.

--monopoly.

To be precise, a state-owned unit monopolizes a certain bulk commodity.

Even in the new era of the future, this is still a complex problem that needs to be unravelled and separated layer by layer.

During the two thousand years of the Han Dynasty, the difficulty is self-evident.

Take the fluctuations in grain prices in Guanzhong five years ago, for example, after the rebellion of the Seven States of Wu and Chu was quelled, and the subsequent series of turmoil.

Why do merchants drive up food prices?

Because higher prices allow merchants to make more profits and earn more money.

Then why did the central government take action to stabilize grain prices?
Because stable prices are more conducive to the survival of the grassroots people, and can better protect the grassroots people and social stability.

Both sides have their own intentions, the goals they want to achieve are diametrically opposed, and the logic they follow is diametrically opposed. This is a contradiction.

And it is an extremely sharp conflict of interest.

——One side wants to eat people, and the other side wants to protect people.

The final result is nothing more than: either the former eats people as he wishes, or even eats the latter;
Either the latter will save the person as he wishes, or even eliminate the former.

But the real difficulty for the latter - for the central government that wants to protect the people - is that when merchants drive up prices, there is often no direct "evidence" to prove their sinister intentions.

When merchants drive up prices, they never say directly: I want to make more money this year, so I raise the price;

You peasants, just pay up!

Instead, they will use excuses such as decreased production, increased costs, and increased demand to justify driving up prices.

——It’s not possible without raising the price~
——If we don’t raise the price, we will lose money~
——The landlord doesn’t have any surplus food either~
And so on.

Under such circumstances, neither the central government in Chang'an nor the local government in counties and prefectures could use overly harsh measures to suppress the prices of goods that had "reasons for their actions".

When people raise prices, they have 'legitimate reasons'!

Your government doesn't care about anything and just refuses to let people raise the price. Is that reasonable?
Therefore, the government can only "reason".

That is: within the scope permitted by the rules, macro-control the market by selling affordable grain.

——You have a reason for selling at a high price. Although it is immoral, it is not against the law. I really can’t do anything about it.

But I sell it at a low price because I care about the people of the world. It is not only glorious and upright, but also legal!
You are willing to sell it at a high price.

I am happy to sell at a low price, and you still can't control me!
Using such a "reasonable" approach, in accordance with market rules, and selling at low prices to suppress prices is the most direct and wisest way for most unified regimes to control prices.

But there is one thing to note;
——At that time, Liu Rong did not originally intend to use the official grain to allow the Shaofu Treasury to monopolize the Guanzhong grain market.

At first, Liu Rong's goal was simply to suppress the grain prices that were threatening to soar that year.
Not to mention the 'retaliatory measures' against the merchants who drove up grain prices and the masterminds behind them - even the grain prices for the following year were not something Liu Rong needed to consider.

As for later, Liu Rong "took advantage of others", from initially stabilizing the grain price of the year to stabilizing the grain price for the next few years;
Then, in order to solve the problem once and for all, the government directly produced rice and almost permanently stabilized the grain price in Guanzhong in order to achieve a monopoly on the Guanzhong grain market. This series of changes were actually a covert operation.

If Liu Rong had proposed government-run rice and a government monopoly on the Guanzhong grain market at the beginning, the resistance created by this matter would probably be so great that even the late emperor would not be able to withstand it!
From the court and outside, to the nobles and relatives of meritorious officials, to the Eastern Palace and the royal family - the entire world, except for the grassroots people who have no voice or political discourse power, everyone else will become an obstacle to this matter.

The reason why Liu Rong was able to accomplish this was that from the beginning to the end, Liu Rong never regarded monopoly as his goal - at least he never expressed this intention.

Stabilizing grain prices was Liu Rong's first test after he was appointed as a grain reserve, and it was reasonable and well-founded;
Liquidating merchants is a sign that the Crown Prince is just beginning to show his anger to the world, and it is reasonable.

As for the subsequent plan to monopolize the grain market in Guanzhong by using the official grain from the Shaofu Treasury, it was definitely not Liu Rong's intention.
It's just that before, when Liu Rong was clearing out the merchants, he got a little "over the top" and only realized after he had killed all the people: Oh, there are no grain merchants in Guanzhong anymore!

How can this be done?

Well, I was the one who caused the trouble, so I have to clean up the mess - let the Shaofu work harder and take the place of the merchants, and be a grain dealer for a few years.

When a group of grain merchants emerge in Guanzhong again, the Shaofu will unload the burden and throw the grain business to private merchants...

That's right - back then, when the issue of official grain and rice was decided, Liu Rong's apparent statement was, "The Shaofu will be in charge of the grain and rice affairs in Guanzhong indefinitely."

Indefinite, temporary.

All I can say is that the subject of politics places great emphasis on the art of language.

In this way, Liu Rong used the excuse of "the emperor's order is difficult to disobey" to stabilize the grain price;

They also purged grain merchants on the charge of 'rebellion against the crown prince';

Finally, using the excuse that "Guanzhong lacks grain merchants", the Shaofu Treasury successfully achieved a monopoly on the Guanzhong grain market.

Throughout the entire process, every move Liu Rong made was well-reasoned and logical. He never showed for even a moment the intention of "whose cake I am going to touch". He achieved his ultimate goal without making a sound.

Afterwards, even if someone realized it belatedly, it was already too late. The rice had been cooked and they could only accept the reality.

From this incident - from Liu Rong's roundabout way of talking about other things, making excuses and finally achieving a monopoly on the grain market, it is not difficult to see how difficult it is to achieve a comprehensive monopoly on a certain commodity at the national level.

After all, if it wasn't too difficult, Liu Rong wouldn't have had to put so much effort into it.

This time, Liu Rong had to ask the Shaofu to step in and achieve an official monopoly on the salt and iron markets.

Due to the previous record of monopolizing the grain market, and considering that the vested interests have already developed immunity, there is no point in saving the country in a roundabout way. This time, Liu Rong chose to get straight to the point: I want to monopolize!

So next, the most important thing that the central court needs to solve actually has nothing to do with salt and iron themselves.

——Production, transportation, or sales are all the business of the Shaofu.

Even if one takes into account the production site, transportation routes, or sales channels, these are things that can be easily resolved by one of the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers' subordinate offices, or by the heads of several subordinate offices getting together and having a chat.

Liu Rong was able to gather all the important officials in the court who were related to this matter to discuss the issue together. Judging from the scale of this meeting, it couldn't be a small matter...

"Salt……"

"Iron..." After an extremely long silence, the first person to come back to his senses was Prime Minister Liu She.

I can only say that he is worthy of being a prime minister who came from the Shaofu.

When it comes to matters like commerce, price stabilization, and equal distribution of transport, there is probably no one in the Han Dynasty who is more skilled in the business than Liu She.

Liu She frowned, murmured in a low voice for a while, finally took a deep breath, turned his head with a serious expression and looked at Liu Rong.

"Your Majesty, you should know that although the Han people consider merchants to be menial and inferior occupations, the Emperor Taizu Gao once decreed that merchants were not allowed to wear silk or ride in carriages, and were required to live in separate households;"

"However, the business of merchants and the profits of industry and commerce are also businesses that Emperor Taizong Xiaowen did not control or prohibit."

These two short sentences brought the rest of the people back to their senses from their thoughts;

Just as Liu She was about to speak again, he saw Liu Rong, who was sitting on the imperial couch, smiling and nodding.

"Emperor Taizu Gao had set a rule: merchants could not wear silk clothes, could not use horse-drawn carriages, should be included in the special merchant register, and live in merchant settlements designated by the government."

"But you all know without my having to say it, that the rules set by Emperor Taizu Gao have long been in name only."

"——On the streets of Chang'an today, those wearing the most extravagant and luxurious clothes and riding in the most magnificent and gorgeous carriages will never be accepted by officials, nobles, meritorious officials, and noble relatives;"

"It may not even be me!"

"And it was precisely those wealthy merchants and tycoons who were extremely wealthy but were explicitly forbidden by Emperor Taizu Gao to wear silk and ride in carriages."

...

"Since the third year of Emperor Xiaojing's reign, I have been in charge of the government as the Crown Prince Regent. It has been five years now."

"During these five years, I have heard of at least twenty wealthy merchants with assets exceeding 10 million and famous throughout Guanzhong."

"But in the business registers of the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the names of these wealthy merchants cannot be found at all."

"——Almost every merchant, when they had a small fortune, found a way through some high-ranking official and moved their household registration out of the merchant registration."

"Those with good connections were directly transferred to agricultural status;"

"Most of those who are in a worse situation have also changed their status to work."

After saying this, Liu Rong did not forget to raise his eyebrows and looked around at everyone in the hall with a smile.

Sweeping by Liu Rong's intriguing gaze, Liu She, Dou Ying, Han Anguo and Shi Fen just smiled awkwardly and lowered their heads, obviously agreeing with Liu Rong's statement.

At the last seat, Ji An, Zhang Tang and Yan Yi all had different expressions on their faces.

As a talent in the field of law, Zhang Tang lowered his head almost instantly with a serious expression, as if he was thinking about how to make the rules effective again.

As an official of Legalist origin, Zhang Tang's feelings towards the merchant community are self-evident.

——In the political thought of the Legalists, merchants are one of the "five vermin" along with Confucian scholars, knights-errant assassins, lobbyists, and servants. (Han Feizi, Five Vermin)
In the view of Legalists, the five vermin are five destabilizing factors in society.

Confucian and Mohist scholars disrupted the laws and ideas of the country with their heretical teachings;

It goes without saying that the knights and assassins are so aggressive that they disregard all restrictions, laws, and human lives as worthless!
Lobbyists spread alarmist rhetoric to shake the resolve of policymakers and prevent policies from being implemented in the long term.
Servants depend on the powerful and evade the labor and taxes that civilians should bear, causing losses to the country.

A businessman, on the other hand, is more like a combination of the previous four.

——Merchants are profit-driven and do not value morals. The negative impact they have on social customs is even worse than the heresies of Confucian and Mohist scholars!

——Merchants have no fixed place to live, they travel around, keep bodyguards, and don’t mind committing murder and robbery in the wilderness. They are more violent than knights and assassins!

——Businessmen are morally corrupt and overly active in their thinking. Whenever they arrive at a place, they often collude with local officials and can easily corrupt originally honest and upright officials. They are more hateful than alarmist lobbyists!
——Merchants do not engage in production, do not pay taxes or levies, and do not perform corvée or labor service. The obligations they evade and the losses they cause to the country are even greater than those of servants who depend on the powerful!
Therefore, within the Legalist school, merchants are also called: the first of the five vermin.

The vast majority of students who came from the Legalist school believed that the harm caused by merchants as a "pest" was even greater than the other "four pests" combined.

To be honest, Zhang Tang's attitude towards merchants was actually quite peaceful and indifferent, which was rare among legal scholars.

If it were someone else, Liu Rong would have jumped out to issue a military order before he even finished speaking, threatening to "kill all the merchants in the world or bring my head to me."

Zhang Tang lowered his head in thought, while Ji An, who was standing beside him, frowned, with obvious displeasure on his face.

——Ji An was an upright person, even a little pedantic;
So when Ji An heard Liu Rong say, "Although the rules are still there, no one has followed them for a long time," he frowned unconsciously.

Although not of Legalist origin, the Huang-Lao school, which claimed to be the only ruling party of the Han Dynasty, had a sensibility towards the merchant class that was not much different from that of the Legalists.

As a rare outstanding contemporary talent in the declining Huang-Lao school, Ji An obviously despised businessmen, who were a restless factor jumping around and destroying social stability.

But he was from the Huang-Lao family after all - compared to Zhang Tang, who was like a shark smelling blood and instinctively wanted to "kill", Ji An's first reaction was to take another look.

This is what Huang-Lao philosophy is all about. No matter what happens, we just wait and see and try not to interfere.

When it has reached the point where intervention is unavoidable, we must strike hard all at once to directly destroy the factor that is undermining stability, and then return to the lazy state of governing by inaction and letting nature take its course.

However, Yan Yi, who was sitting at the last seat, lowered his head in shame as if he was sitting there as soon as Liu Rong finished speaking.

——The political inclination of Confucianism is relatively close to businessmen.

To be precise, it means getting close to those groups that are rich and powerful and can help you at some level.

If the powerful and the wealthy can happen to Confucianism, Confucianism will naturally be close to them;
Since businessmen can give money to Confucianists, Confucianists will naturally be close to them.

Even the lifestyle advocated by Confucianism: tilling the land and passing it down from generation to generation, is actually a very typical landlord economy.

Slightly different from the "small peasant economy" advocated by the Han Dynasty today, the landlord economy advocated by Confucianism is a social and economic model based on large clans and large landlords.

The reason why Yan Yi felt ashamed was, on the one hand, because most of the credit for the fact that these rules were "useless" should be attributed to Confucianism.

On the other hand, as the son of a scholar and a famous family, the family behind Yan Yi has often dealt with those "lowly" merchants.

(End of this chapter)