What positive and negative influences did China's traditional economic thoughts of feudal society have on the historical development of China?

First, the guiding principles of macroeconomic management in feudal society

The guiding principle of macroeconomic management is the starting point and basic idea adopted by economic managers when formulating economic policies and measures. The productivity of feudal society was low and people's understanding level was not high, but economic managers summed up many useful guiding principles through observation and practice. Generally speaking, these guiding principles express the good wishes for a prosperous life, a prosperous country and a peaceful people. Guanzi concretizes the country's "virtue" into six things that the government should do well. "Virtue has six honors." ..... Who is the so-called six-star? It is said that cultivating fields, benefiting altars and houses, cultivating trees, persuading people, cultivating crops and repairing walls and houses are called longevity. Make a fortune, compensate (soil belt) product, build a path, then close the city, be careful to stay behind, this is called losing money. The water is flowing, the ditch is profitable, the bamboo is determined, the mud is stagnant, and the beam is cautious. This is the so-called inheritance benefit. Lightly taxing, evading punishment, forgiving sins and small mistakes are called leniency. Raising the elderly, caring for children and orphans, caring for widows, asking about illness and mourning are called emergencies. Cold clothes, hunger and thirst, poverty, vibration and exposure, and lack of resources are called vibration. Guanzi describes various economic characteristics of an ideal society here, such as developing production, building roads and water conservancy projects, reducing taxes and solving social security. At the same time, we also clearly see the control and leading position of the government in this ideal social model.

1. National perspective

One of the characteristics of the economic management thoughts of the rulers of past dynasties is their national perspective, that is, the ultimate goal is to make everyone in the country "get their place" without making a certain class or stratum too poor and on the verge of danger. At the same time, they have the psychological feeling of "governing a big country and cooking small things". On the one hand, it is in the same strain as China's traditional philosophy of harmony and the doctrine of the mean. The standard of an ideal society is "there is justice from top to bottom, there is difference between the noble and the poor, the young and the old are equal, and the rich and the poor are moderate". The task of the ruler is just as Qiu Jun, a great scholar in Wenyuange in Ming Dynasty, said: "To be the king of the world, we only need to make great efforts to govern, collect less taxes, stabilize prices, and make the rich live in peace, while the poor are not poor, so that they can live in peace and get what they want." [3] On the other hand, this is also a realistic attitude that politicians must adopt when dealing with social and economic problems, because any part of society that is too poor or too rich will become an unstable factor in society and directly threaten the stability of the rulers' regime. Guanzi expressed this view in On the National Reserve: "If the husband and the people are rich, they can't be generous, and if they are poor, they can't be punished. If the laws and regulations are not good, all people will die and the rich and the poor will be uneven. " [4]

In the understanding of the relative relationship between national wealth and people's wealth, the feudal social and economic managers had a great turning point before and after. In the early economic thought, the two were opposite. From the perspective of maintaining the ruling order, Guanzi proposed that people should "take the rich to help the poor" [5]. Shang Yang put forward that Qiang Bing must make the people weak and stupid from the perspective of implementing the agricultural war policy and strengthening the national military strength. "Governing the country makes the poor rich and the rich poor and strong" [6], which shows that the managers at that time only saw the strong side of the rulers and unilaterally emphasized the state's control and demand for the economy. By the late feudal society, economic managers had realized that the two were complementary, and the prosperity of the people was the foundation and premise of the country's prosperity. Qiu Jun pointed out: "Those who are good at enriching the country must first manage the people's wealth, followed by those who manage the country's wealth" [7]. By promoting production, the total wealth of the whole society will be increased, and then the government's fiscal revenue will be increased. "There is a source of life and wealth, and wealth will flow through rationality. If Chen Xiangyin is like this, there is no shortage of people, and Yu Jun is always more than enough. " This is a great progress compared with Confucius' simple assertion that "the people are enough, and the monarch is right and wrong".

In addition, the national perspective also has a heavy meaning in the monarch's ownership of natural things in the world. This is the so-called "land under the world, is it the land of kings?" Sang Hongyang said: "The benefits of mountains and seas, the livestock of Guangze, and the treasures of the world should all belong to Shaofu." [8] In the late feudal society, Qiu Jun put forward: "It is against God's will to nurture people not only for the monarch, but also for the benefit of the monarch." [9] It can be seen that with the development of social economy, people's awareness level is improving, their awareness of economic rights is increasing, and the concept of sovereign ownership is weakening and weakening.

2. The state plays a leading role in economic management.

In the process of national economic adjustment, politicians realize that they must be in a dominant position in the market in order to take adjustment measures, and the theory of managing weight is a typical representative. He pointed out: "The importance is enormous, but the remake is light and the foundation is flat." [10] "Be in tune with the world. If it is heavy, it will be shot, and if it is light, it will vent and be in tune with the world. The leaker lost his strength and the shooter lost his strategy. " [1 1] The pipe makes full use of the economic principle of "scarcity is the most valuable thing", taking advantage of the trend and adjusting the economy very flexibly. When there are more grains circulating in the market, the state controls the currency, so the relative price of the currency is higher. When the country buys grain, there is more currency circulating in the market, so the relative price of grain is higher. In this way, in the process of the relative value movement between money and grain, the state can always maintain the leading position of economic regulation because of its monopoly position. In this process of economic adjustment, the state actually plays the role of a monopoly businessman. In foreign trade exchanges, this principle has correspondingly evolved to maintain the dominant position in foreign trade. "The world is light, but I am heavy" [12] "Those who are beneficial to the world, keep the heavy flow, but don't let it out." ... this is the way to rule the world with light and heavy. "[13] That is to say, Guan believes that a country should export goods with relatively high prices and import goods with relatively low prices in foreign trade in order to achieve the purpose of occupying an advantageous position in foreign trade.

3. The importance of economic information

Feudal society and economic managers have long been very aware of the importance of mastering economic information, and macro-control of the economy must be based on fully mastering economic information, which is exactly what a single market participant can't do under the rules of free competition market. The rapid flow of economic information is the prerequisite for the market mechanism to play its role, and the state and government can promote the collection, collation and dissemination of economic information by virtue of their own natural advantages. Guan Zi said, "There are traces in fields, people, use, villages, people, money, counties and states. No matter how many tracks there are, it is impossible to serve the country. " At the same time, "the national track has not been formed, but it has been completed. It goes forward and backward in order, and it is called the national track. " [14] The "national rail" is a national economic development plan formulated by Guanzi. Once the plan is formed, macroeconomic adjustment will be carried out accordingly, and it will not be arbitrary. In addition, the problems, eight views and entering the country in Guanzi list detailed problems in investigating the national economic situation, and its design is very detailed and thorough [1] 362-364, which reflects that Guanzi, as an economic manager of a country, is well aware of all aspects of social economy.

By the Tang Dynasty, the famous financier Ada established the national commercial price information system for the first time. The Biography of Ada in Old Tang Dynasty shows that because the inspection institutes are far away from Beijing, they have paid a high price for raising their illness and feet and handed them over to each other. The price of the quartet is far from being known in four or five days. Therefore, the weight of food is very light and the rights are controlled. The imperial court won Murray, but didn't worry that it was very expensive and cheap in the world, so it was a skill [15]. It can be seen that the government spends a lot of money to obtain real-time information. In practice, price information has played an important role in the government's economic regulation and achieved success.

In the Ming Dynasty, Qiu Jun suggested: "In addition, Bi Fang reported the price of rice to the court every month; Outside, the city is in the morning, the city is in the house, and the house wears uniforms in the season and uniforms at home. Let people in the world know the amount of monetary grain and use it to test whether people have enough food. They believe that the method of accommodation and transfer must always make money unnecessary, food will not be given, and its price will always be flat. " [16] As a result, the government has established a business information reporting system, which enables the government to grasp the market dynamic information in time, make decisions with a camera, adjust supply and demand, and stabilize prices.

Second, the necessity of national macro-control

Whether it is necessary for the state and the government to intervene in the economy and how to intervene have always been divided in the history of economic development, and it is still a problem that has not reached a unified understanding until now. Economic practice shows that there are advantages and disadvantages in implementing a certain policy alone. In the historical stage of China's feudal society, the state intervention was the main tone, and the feudal society managers carried out this national policy after in-depth thinking on this issue.

On the theoretical level, Guan put forward the concept of "economic man" for the first time. He believes that the nature of human beings is "not to abandon the benefits, not to avoid the harm" and "to worry if you get what you want". It's the same for everyone. "[17] However, it has the same micro-foundation as the western economic man, but the conclusion is quite different. Adam Smith's conclusion from the hypothesis of "economic man" is the principle of free competition and market regulation, but the conclusion from Guanzi is state intervention. "Likes and dislikes are different, but the security is different, and then the appearance of the sage is different." And "although there are many things, the situation can't wait, there are successes and failures, but the meaning is different" [18], so there must be political power (. From this, it seems that we can make a hypothesis: under the cover of the abstract concept of economic man, there are great differences between individuals as economic subjects in Chinese and western economic systems, which leads to obvious differences in their economic behavior and social development models.

In addition, Guanzi also explains the necessity of national macro-adjustment from the natural conditions of agricultural production. "At the age of beauty, the market will be destroyed and dogs will eat people." If the age is suitable for intense, it will cost 10 thousand yuan, but there will be hungry people. ""things should be cheap, then help but not give, and civil affairs will not pay. "If things are expensive, you can't get them, and the people are not happy." [19] shows that the grain price is ten times different in good years and poor years. There are also some records about the difference of grain prices in different regions in Guanzi. For example, Light and Heavy B wrote: "In the past, Emperor Di was also a country with an acre of time, so it took ten minutes for millet to harvest gold. Becoming a vassal, the country of mountain princes, so millet is five pots and gold is obtained [20], which shows that the price difference between high-yield areas and low-yield areas is about 20 times. As can be seen from the above description, due to the low level of productivity, people rely too much on natural conditions in their production and life, and changes in the external natural environment will have a great impact on commodity production and commodity prices, leading to violent economic fluctuations. In this case, commodity circulation service becomes particularly urgent. The government comes forward to organize and adjust, which is in line with the social public goal of stabilizing people's lives (not purely for profit). It buys and stores grain when it is abundant, puts it on the market when it is short, or transports grain from high-yield areas to low-yield areas to adjust surplus and deficiency and create favorable conditions for social and economic stability and development. Businessmen seem unable to play a role in stabilizing the economy and prices. They will deliberately lower the market price when the goods are sufficient and then buy them, or hoard the goods when the goods are short, making the shortage more serious, so as to raise the price of the goods when they are sold to get more profits. This will undoubtedly make the fluctuation of commodity prices more intense, which is not conducive to the development of production and people's lives. Wang Anshi said in the "Proposal for Urban Law Reform": "Beijing department stores are located in cities with uncertain prices, and both expensive and cheap ones are tilted or doubled. "All rich people must take advantage of their priorities. They are good at turning power on and off. When their business trips get together and things come from Africa, their prices are obviously suppressed, making them extremely cheap, and then strive for private savings to collect them. If boats and cars don't go to the capital and people get something, they usually stop their storage and sell it after it is expensive until they get several times the interest. " [2 1]

Equally important, whether in agriculture or industry and commerce, merger has always been an obstacle to economic development and a direct cause of social instability, and economic managers in various dynasties have been generally hit. In the Han Dynasty, when Sang Hongyang advocated the state management of salt and iron, he pointed out that the monopoly policy was to curb mergers and prevent "the rich people from making good use of it for their own benefit" [22]. "Italy will always have a salt and iron, not only for the benefit, but also for the benefit. This will be the only way to establish a foundation and curb the end. Leave cronies, prohibit prostitution and luxury, and never merge." [23] Wang Mang believes that monopoly commodities should be fully controlled to prevent wealthy businessmen from profiteering and exploiting ordinary working people. He said: "The husband's salt is the master of food and grain; Wine, the length of a hundred medicines, the goodness of Jiahui; The foundation of farmland farmers; Famous mountain osawa, Rao Yan Zhi Zang; Five are on credit, people get the apartment, so they give it to you; Iron cloth copper smelting, transportation, civil use. Not everyone can make these six things, but there must be them in the market. Although it is several times more expensive, I still have to buy it. If you are rich, the country will be rich, and if you are poor, the country will be weak. The sages know it, so they will swim. " [24] In the Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi promoted the suppression of mergers from natural monopoly industries to all aspects of social and economic life. He pointed out: "If you have money and ignore it, you can use it privately, you can use everything, so that you can compete with others and let go of your endless desires. Expensive, strong, stubborn and big are not necessary. " [29] In other words, if the state gives up control over economic activities and adopts a laissez-faire policy, it will inevitably lead to mergers and monopolies. Before mergers and acquisitions, it is unnecessary for the rich to exist. Therefore, he regarded the destruction of annexation as an important function of the feudal state, and his reform measures fully reflected this point.

Destruction and suppression of mergers are also directly related to the consolidation of feudal rule, which can be analyzed from the following two aspects. First of all, the core principle of business transactions lies in the equality of both parties. Once the economic strength of businessmen is too strong, it will definitely challenge the hierarchical order of feudal society, thus endangering the safety of governance. Second, dajia, a wealthy businessman, is generally engaged in large-scale business, such as salt and iron industry, which will inevitably lead to a tendency to leave the court for a long time and become an unstable factor in society. Sang Hongyang once mentioned: "The rich and powerful have to take care of the benefits of mountains and seas, cast them with iron and stone drums, and cook the sea for salt, and a family will gather or reach more than a thousand people" [25], and pointed out: "It is rare for the people to live in a valley." When the traffic is treacherous and slippery, people are afraid of big rape, take advantage of weakness and be arrogant, and preach ignorance and falsehood, then people are expensive and few. ”[26]

When discussing the reasons of merger, economic managers also recognize the economic consequences caused by the differences in the quality of economic individuals themselves. Sang Hongyang said: "A wise man has the merits of a hundred people, and a fool has the evils of a hundred people." [27] "Tao hangs in the sky, things are distributed on the ground, the wise rely on it, and the fools are trapped." [28] Many people talked about this later. Therefore, restraining merger also means pursuing absolute average social ideal. Third, the measures and objectives of macro-control in feudal society

Under the unified political structure of feudal society in China, the uniqueness of economic management mode lies in that the government, as the main body of economic operation, directly participates in the process of economic operation, because it can organically combine the government's goals of regulating and controlling the public economy, maintaining political stability and maximizing its own fiscal revenue, which is the best choice for politicians. In a general sense, the national policy of attaching importance to agriculture and restraining business is to restrict private industry and commerce, and government-run industry and commerce are not included. With the change of dynasties, the specific adjustment measures, including names, have changed, but the core of macroeconomic adjustment thoughts and policies has not changed. In feudal society, agriculture accounted for most of the national economy, so the adjustment policy was mainly concentrated in the agricultural field. Generally speaking, the common policy is to keep the price of agricultural products unchanged, monopolize the industrial products of competitors, and the government monopolizes agricultural credit.

Guan Zi proposed that the state should master the means of production and living, lend or lease them to farmers, and at the same time use the price policy to prevent the rich and powerful from merging and squeezing farmers. "What is entrusted to the people is insufficient, and what is done to the people is beyond. If the husband has more than enough with the people, he is lighter, so the old man is lighter. The shortage of people is heavy, so the old people are heavy. Accumulation is light and dispersion is heavy. Therefore, you must have many times the income, and the expansion of wealth can be achieved even. " [29] It can be seen that in the economic adjustment policies and measures, the state buys when the market is abundant and the price is low, and sells when the market is short and the price is high. One is to stabilize prices, the other is to increase government revenue, and the third is to crack down on wealthy families, killing two birds with one stone.

In the economic policy put forward by Sang Hongyang in Han Dynasty, the leveling policy was similar to Guanzi, with obvious changes, and the monopoly of salt, iron and wine played a great role directly. Because the salt and iron industry has a monopoly nature and can generate huge profits, in the past, the rich also operated the salt and iron industry. After Sang Hongyang's monopoly, the government gained huge financial revenue [30], and at the same time attacked the wealthy businessman dajia, restrained the merger and consolidated the feudal rule. Wang Mang's measures to control industrial and commercial economic activities were the six-tube policy, which covered almost all aspects of social and economic activities at that time, including monopoly of salt, iron and wine, unified currency casting, industrial and commercial taxation and five shares of credit, among which five shares of credit was the most prominent part of Wang Mang's economic control measures. Fifth, the government evaluates the price according to the change of commodity market price, and takes corresponding adjustment measures, such as buying and selling commodities, so as to stabilize the market price. Credit loans are loans issued by the government. Here, "being strong can't be trapped, being rich can't be poor" means destroying mergers, "having more than the masses" means expanding fiscal revenue, and "being kind to the people" means stabilizing market prices, maintaining market order and protecting the interests of ordinary working people. This is also a policy that has achieved three goals at the same time.

Wang Anshi's greatest influence on agriculture is the young crop method. Young crops law means that the government lends money to farmers. Its policy goal is to stabilize food prices and increase government revenue, while undermining mergers. It also requires families above the third class to bear four points of interest, but these wealthy families actually don't need loans, so the Young Crops Law goes further in destroying mergers.

During the Ming Dynasty, Qiu Jun attached great importance to the stability of commodity market prices, and listed "stabilizing prices" as an important task of "king" with labor-saving and tax collection. Qiu Jun's stable price is the same as that of previous dynasties, but the difference is that he downplayed the two goals of restraining mergers and expanding government revenue, which shows that he realizes that government intervention in the economy should stay at the level of maintaining the stability of the economic system and commodity market, and not interfere with economic individuals participating in the market. The government should not seek its own interests in the process of intervening in the economy.

Qiu Jun can be described as a master of feudal social and economic adjustment policies. He observed and discussed a wide range, sorting out various economic policies and measures of past dynasties. What is even more commendable is that he made a directional change, proposing to reduce government intervention in the economy, and only retaining the item of "stabilizing prices". At the same time, he put forward many scientific policy propositions on monetary system, financial budget, overseas trade, water transport and peace, which were quite innovative and fully reflected modernity. On Qiu Jun, we once again saw the endless development and progress of China's ancient economic thought.

References:

[1] Hu Jichuang. History of China's Economic Thought: Volume 1 [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Press,1998: 288; 362-364; 303.

[2] "Guanzi Five Auxiliary Articles"

[3] Yi Yan University Supplement Volume 25 "City Order".

[4] Guan Xuzhang

[5] "Guanzi Yidu Chapter"

[6] "Shang Jun Shu Shuo Min Pian"

[7] University Yi Yan Supplement II O is always on the road to financial management.

[8] The theory of salt and iron is retro

[9] Yi Yan University Supplement Volume 1 13 to avoid the loss of abuse.

[10] Guan Guo Zi Xu Zhang

[1 1] Weight of Guanzi Mountain

[12] Light and heavy-duty Part B pipeline

[13] Several articles came from Guanzishan.