Different types of books are like beautiful scenery in different seasons, like wine with different tastes, like people with different personalities.
One day in the first half of the year, I was lucky enough to open an economic history book, Gains and Losses of Economic Changes in Past Dynasties. The first chapter is about Guan Zhong's political reform. I read on with great interest, as if I had approached a magical realm. Sometimes I sigh, sometimes I am surprised, sometimes I feel incredible, and sometimes I have an impulse to burst into tears. In this way, I appreciate the character Guan Zhong to the bone.
In fact, those of us who have studied history will think of a page in high school textbooks. When talking about ancient history, the name Guan Zhong appeared in a corner. But a page of history is 500 years, and what great people have just been sketched out. If you want to know a person carefully, you need to slowly dig up background information along with historical records.
I write about Guan Zhong because I admire his intelligence and charm. A simple summary is to appreciate his business thinking, and to put it bluntly, to admire his business skills and lead a country and people to prosperity through business prosperity. And his advanced ideas still serve the present after two thousand years.
In the long period of industrialization, there are only two kinds of economic governance, one is physiocratism and the other is mercantilism. Everyone is familiar with physiocracy, and our elders and our generation have experienced that stage. It was not until the reform and opening up that mercantilism resurfaced. 1978-20 18 We are fortunate to witness the rapid development of the economy, and in a commercialized society, we have a material satisfaction and a convenient life.
But as early as more than 2,000 years ago in the Spring and Autumn Period, when people's wisdom was not developed, Guan Zhong put forward mercantilism and people-oriented thought, respected market rules, explored business models, and led Qi to become strong and realize hegemony.
To appreciate a person, we must first look at his character and see if he can stand the praise and criticism of future generations. Secondly, it depends on whether his behavior can stand the test of later generations. Finally, it depends on his grades and whether he can stand the evaluation of time.
I want to illustrate my appreciation of Guan Zhong through several feats:
Individual opportunities are also opportunities for the country.
Businessmen who get up early and are greedy for the black and have been defeated repeatedly seize the opportunity in troubled times and abandon business as officials. Help Qi Huangong create "great economic changes". Advocating mercantilism made Qi from a remote small country to the top of the five tyrants in the Spring and Autumn Period and made the country rich and strong.
2. Resource allocation, agriculture, industry and commerce
Guan Zhong's economic thought is very entrepreneurial. Guan Zhong put forward the essence of "intellectuals, farmers and businessmen", dividing the people into four classes: soldiers, peasants, craftsmen and businessmen, and living in their respective regions according to their specialties. Living with people in the same industry is conducive to the exchange of experience; Conducive to commodity production and circulation; Conducive to people's peace of mind; It is also conducive to children's hearing and hearing, and children inherit their father's business. This resource allocation has greatly improved the efficiency of various industries and made Qi's manufacturing industry ahead of other countries. This change has been used almost until now, and we can certainly see many wholesale markets around us, such as home market, food street and so on.
3. Liberate the micro and control the macro.
Self-taught Guan Zhong governed the country from three aspects: finance, taxation and price. In the farming era, food prices were the most concerned by the people. Guan Zhong attaches great importance to grain policy. On the agricultural tax, he didn't levy taxes indiscriminately, nor did he blindly reduce taxes. Instead, he carried out macro-control according to the bumper harvest of that year to avoid sharp fluctuations in food prices.
In terms of taxation, Guan Zhong put forward the method of "combining tax with price". In his view, taxes are stylish, and direct collection from the people will lead to people's dissatisfaction. The best and most ideal way is to "take it from the people and make people not angry." When sailors are hidden in commodities and collected indirectly, taxpayers are invisible and intangible, and pay taxes unconsciously without causing psychological conflict. Our taxes are still the same now.
In terms of price, it stimulates the economic development of Shangpin internally, reduces tariffs externally, and forms a market agglomeration effect. If the quality of foreign goods is higher than that of our country, we should raise the domestic sales price to control the import of foreign goods. If we want to encourage exports, we must lower the price, because the world dominates the world.
4. Advocates of linking government with enterprises
In the farming era, salt and iron are the two most important pillar industries, which are just needed by people. Guan Zhong practiced a monopoly and monopoly policy on salt and iron, then controlled the ownership, delegated the management right to private businessmen and distributed the profits in proportion. This is also a very popular mode of "state-owned assets, contracted management", which is also the initial cooperation between the government and enterprises and the embryonic form of the formation of state-owned enterprises.
5. Encourage production and stimulate consumption.
Guan Zhong is unique in encouraging economic development and consumption. There are businessmen in his guest house who come to Qi to do business. And created a government-run brothel, so many people know that Guan Zhong is the originator of the porn industry. Guan Zhong's reason for encouraging consumption is that only if everyone keeps spending can it have a negative effect on production, and the poor can have jobs, promote employment, balance the economy and develop business.
6. Comply with human nature and people's hearts
Guan Zhong has a strong people-oriented thought. During the Spring and Autumn Period, he still did not advocate using force to deter the people. Guan Zhong's wisdom lies in conforming to the people's heart, developing the country, and making people live a stable life, eat well and dress warmly. In other words, he is known by later generations as "modest and courteous, well-fed and well-informed about honor and disgrace", which is the embodiment of his thought.
6. Advocate peace and stop the war by business.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, Mohism and Taoism stopped the war with agriculture, Legalism stopped the war with war, and Confucianism stopped the war with benevolence and righteousness. Guan Zhong took the lead in practicing "stopping the war by business". Develop the commodity economy internally, so that the people can live and work in peace and contentment without rebellion. In order to maintain long-term peace and stability, foreign vassal States should reach a tariff agreement, take their own needs according to the relationship between supply and demand, and create an international trade alliance. Think carefully about the present era, isn't it also keeping peace with business?
When we look at the changes of Guan Zhong at that time from the present perspective, we will feel that everything is ordinary, as if it were nothing remarkable. But more than 2000 years ago, when most parts of the earth were still in chaotic times, it was really a miracle that Guan Zhong had such superb economic thinking. His wisdom deserves to be appreciated by later generations, just like many groundbreaking economic reforms he promoted at that time, which can be seen everywhere now.