The monopoly business in the Han Dynasty included salt, iron and wine.
Salt and iron products are produced from mountains, rivers, wells, and ponds. In the early Han Dynasty, a laissez-faire policy was adopted, allowing the people to mine and cast, and the government only levied a small amount of tax on them as a source of royal income; if it was within the royal family or princely fiefdom,
The salt and iron tax is collected by the prince as a private support for the prince and the princess.
Salt and iron are the necessities of people's lives. Under the laissez-faire policy, the rich and powerful competed for the benefits, causing public and private difficulties. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, it was changed to a monopoly and controlled by the state.
Reasons for implementing monopoly.
The Western Han Dynasty implemented a monopoly on salt and iron for many reasons, including the following two:
First, border defense expenditures were too large, and the country was in financial difficulty, so it was necessary to raise financial funds. During the Han Dynasty, due to the many years of military deployment, manpower and material resources were consumed a lot, and the annual expenses were often hundreds of thousands or millions, and the country had insufficient savings.
It was used up within a few years, causing financial difficulties. Implementing a salt and iron monopoly and collecting monopoly profits is a long-term plan to consolidate national defense. This revenue does not need to be taxed separately from the people. It is "beneficial to the country and has no impact on the country"
"harming people".
Second, the profits of merchants were returned to the state and the merger activities of merchants were restricted. In the early Han Dynasty, the policy of "rest and recuperation" was implemented, and a laissez-faire policy was also adopted for salt and iron. Some nobles and wealthy merchants took the opportunity to monopolize the salt and iron business and only paid a small amount to the government.
Even without paying taxes, he accumulated huge wealth. For example, Wu Wangbi, the nephew of Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, became extremely rich by smelting copper to make money and boiling the sea into salt, and plotted to seize the central power. Regarding this issue, in "Salt"
At the "Iron Conference", Sang Hongyang and others summarized it as a lesson. He said that the result of laissez-faire in salt and iron "has become a traitor and a traitor, and the power of cliques is too small." Therefore, the salt and iron monopoly is implemented.
, it is also to focus on the basics and suppress the weak, to get rid of cliques, prohibit prostitution and extravagance, and never annex, which are important measures to weaken the forces of local separatism.