"Everyone in Qi said that "the benefits of light and heavy fish and salt are set up to support the poor and to reward the virtuous and capable." [Historical Records·Qi Taigong's Family]
Sure enough, Wu Shuo straightened up, cupped his hands and said: "When Emperor Xiaowu was in power, in order to stabilize prices and reduce consumption, Sang Hongyang, the imperial censor, proposed the method of equalizing losses. This would equalize market prices and ensure an endless supply of goods.
, which enriches the imperial treasury and prevents wealthy merchants from taking advantage of the opportunity. I secretly saw that Your Majesty re-established the order of equalizing losses and increased the power of equalization, so I speculated that there is a method of "equalizing losses and equalizing losses". Therefore, I am a fool.
In my humble opinion, we might as well restart the old chapter and achieve average prices at the market level."
Wu Shuo's answer did not stir up waves. Instead, everyone fell silent. Today's Chengming Palace has experienced several turmoils. After there are no pedantic, stubborn, and selfish ministers, the remaining ministers are still here.
Although not all of his ministers were dedicated to the emperor, they were generally able to support the emperor's political views and would not blindly disobey him.
As early as when the emperor appointed Jia Xu as the Pingzheng Order to monitor commodity prices, and appointed Mi Zhu, a merchant, as the Junshu Ling, responsible for dispatching grain in Taicang and stabilizing prices in Guanzhong, there were people in the court who knew about the Pingzheng Order that had been abolished after the Salt and Iron Conference.
Junshu, after hundreds of years, will once again appear in front of everyone with a brand new appearance.
After understanding the emperor's intention, things got better next. Everyone knew the emperor's temper well, and the response was no longer blind opposition: "Everything has pros and cons. For example, the salt and iron franchise. At first, the official salt price was high and the quality was high."
Poor, seizing people's property and other things. Although the salt and iron system is now reintroduced, new regulations have been formulated. Just as His Majesty once said, "take the essence and remove the dregs", all the disadvantages of the system have been eliminated, and all the benefits of the system have been eliminated.
Keep it. The salt administration in Hedong has been flourishing, and the people are happy with their work. This is the reason."
"What Mr. Xun said is in agreement with me." The emperor nodded and replied. Wu Shuo proposed to restore the system of equal losses and even losses. Although it stepped on the emperor's wishes, it was not complete. The reason why Sang Hongyang's policy suffered so much
In addition to the strong resistance and damage to the interests of the powerful landlords behind the scholars, it also had many disadvantages. The emperor did not intend to copy the system of his predecessors, as long as he continued to use the theme of "state-controlled market prices" in the previous life.
Thoughts, the general direction will not be wrong.
"Yesterday I read the "Salt and Iron Theory" written by my predecessors." The emperor said softly: "At that time, the great Confucian scholars criticized the average loser. In addition to 'valuing profits over righteousness' and 'not competing for profits with the people,' there was also the principle of equal losers.
Li Shu extorted money, or made things difficult and deceived. Generally speaking, it was the reason for the official's rule. From now on, the fate is fair, and they are sent to the second prison to self-rectify, select officials, and become familiar with the regulations. First, they are in Sili, Yizhou, and Bingzhou.
Arrange officials in other places and dispatch goods from the three places. If the land is expensive, sell it; if the land is cheap, buy it."
Wu Shuo nodded his head. He had been cut off by Xun You before. Seeing that the emperor was very interested, he couldn't wait to add more. But he didn't expect that he would take the lead and the rest of the people would also react.
Sikong Zhao Wen was the first to say: "According to what I see, back then we were all losing. It can be said that we bought everything and sold everything. If today we still make purchases that have nothing to do with people's livelihood, they may even have things that are dispensable. One way,
This will give his subordinates the opportunity to profit from it; secondly, if the goods are complicated and evenly lost, they will inevitably lose energy and be unable to care about what is really important; thirdly, if everything is handled by him, regardless of weight, it will inevitably lead to a loss of energy.
It’s really ‘competing with the people for profit’.”
Zhao Wen talked about the biggest flaw of this system. After Sang Hongyang implemented this policy, it led to "the warehouses in Taicang and Ganquan were full in one year" and "everything in the remaining grains lost five million in silk". These are all
Relying on the wide coverage of goods on average. Doing so will not only distract the energy, seriously disturb the people, but also interfere with the normal market order, which is not advisable. The emperor was very pleased that Zhao Wenqie was right and nodded.
Said: "This is also what I am worried about."
The emperor turned to look at Xun You: "Grain and salt are the life of the people, so we can't be careless. So what I think is that if Pingzhen loses evenly, he will only focus on grain, salt, and other ordinary commercial goods, but make Pingzhen
Just monitor it at all times."
Xun You nodded lightly. In fact, this approach had already been demonstrated when Junshu ordered Mi Zhu to join forces with Taicang and Pingzhun to stabilize prices in Guanzhong. This time it is just to institutionalize and normalize it. If
Simply dispatching key commodities evenly can solve many of the above drawbacks and problems.
"In addition, the average loss also needs to adjust prices and set price limits at any time according to time and place." The concept of government setting commodity 'guide prices' has never been seen before, and everyone was unable to understand it for a while, and they were all at a loss.
, the emperor then explained: "For example, the price of grain, no matter what kind of disaster year it is, the price cannot be higher than five thousand yuan per stone. Similarly, no matter what kind of good year it is, the price cannot be lower than three hundred yuan per stone."
Money. Merchants can adjust the selling price within this range and make profits on their own. As long as everything has a limit, it will not make a big mistake."
Dong Cheng has a bright mind. He also likes to make changes and control the trend with just one sentence. He strongly agrees: "Good! With this method, the world will no longer have one hundred thousand or one stone of food."
valley!"
So everyone quickly finalized the system, and the emperor made some adjustments based on the blueprint of later price bureaus. After that, the supervision department was mainly responsible for maintaining the macro-control and balance of prices for key commodities such as grain and salt, and cooperating with the leveling supervision department.
In order to facilitate the contact and cooperation between departments, the emperor authorized the three supervisors of Pingzhuan, Taicang and Junshu under Da Sinong to hold regular meetings to monitor the social economy, provide early warning at any time, and jointly submit financial reports every quarter.
situation, and provide relevant suggestions to help formulate and adjust fiscal policies.
In order to make Junshujian more effective, the emperor gave Junshujian 8 million yuan at one time to dispatch in Guanzhong, Bingzhou, Yizhou and other places.
As the Pingzhun Supervisor gradually turned to the statistics of market and social information, there were many affairs, and many special affairs were a bit inconvenient. Moreover, Jia Xu himself was not an economic talent, and he had always contributed a lot to the emperor's affairs, and he always made things difficult for him.
He settled for a flat order of six hundred stones, which was not in line with the emperor's habit of employing people.
Just after the new "equal loss" was implemented after the reform, the emperor moved Jia Xu to be the envoy of embroidered clothes, with a rank of thousands of stones, and set up embroidered clothes under his command on the grounds that there were rumors in Guanzhong earlier and he was afraid that someone might secretly conspire to stir up civil unrest.
There are several officers such as Yi Yi and Xiu Yi. They have the power to catch thieves and organize prisons. They are mainly responsible for monitoring hostile forces and operating behind enemy lines. Compared with the Pingzhen Prison, which has gradually changed its functions, Xiu Yi Envoy will be more capable of being a 'secret agent' in later generations.
'Spy' function.
After receiving the order, Jia Xu certainly lived up to his expectations. On the day after the Chariot and Cavalry General Huangfu Song put down Zuo Fengyi's small Qiang rebellion, he captured a group of culprits who spread rumors.