In the previous article, I wroteThe Fake Prince IncidentAfter the fake prince incident subsided, Huo Guang worked hard and did not dare to rest for a moment, and finally let the Han Dynasty, which was already exhausted, seem to have eased a little.
Huo Guangyi changed the practice of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to reuse the cool officials of the Legalists, and began to vigorously select Confucian literati.
Take this opportunity,Du YannianWrite to Huo GuangRestore the benevolent government of Emperor Wen of Han, so that the people can recuperate.
For this recital,Huo Guang did not rush to reply, but dozens of them were formed".Investigation team"Rush to the counties.
These "investigative teams" went to the localities and did only two thingsThe first is to understand the real living conditions of the people at the bottom;The second is to look for virtuous and virtuous talents in various places and recommend them to serve the country as officials.
This is actually a means for Huo Guang to compete for power.
According to the regulations of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty before his death,Huo Guang served as the chief auxiliary minister, which is the supreme power of the empire, with the exception of one power, which is the financial power.
After the death of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the financial power has been held by the imperial historian Sang Hongyang.
As a person with a strong desire for power, the more Huo Guang looked at Sang Hongyang, the more unpleasant he became.
So Huo Guang organized a group of intellectuals to come to Chang'an to make peaceSang Hong sheepDebate.
The topic of the debate isSang Hong sheepFoundedSalt and iron official campwithAll losses are evensystem, this debate is known in history as "".Salt & Iron Conference
Before we talk about the salt and iron meeting, we must first clarify one question-What is the salt and iron official camp, the equalization system?
The inventor of this system is Sang Hongyang, who has been an official in the court for 60 years and has been in charge of the Han finances for 30 years.
Before Sang Hongyang was in charge of finance, when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was short of moneyThe means of making money are low-end and rude - selling official beards.
For example, as long as you can donate to the imperial courtMore than 300,000money, you can be knighted;Another example is the big businessman in LuoyangBu style, donated half of his family wealth to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty as military expensesEmperor Wu of the Han Dynasty named him the Marquis of Guannei.
Although this method is effective, after all, the technical content is too low, and there are many timesEven the thick-skinned Emperor Wu of Han was a little embarrassed.
So, Sang Hongyang made his debut.
Sang Hong Yang, who was born in a merchant family, can be described as soA little expert in making money
Compared with the low-end practice of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty selling official beards, Sang Hongyang's method can be described as yesHigh-end atmosphere and grade.
In general, there are a total of the following methods of Sang Hong Yang:
First, count the accusations.
That is, there are two kinds of taxes on merchants, one is calledCountThat is, the tax that the imperial court legally collected from merchants according to certain standards.
The other is called ".Sue it”。If a businessman does not pay taxes honestly and deliberately conceals his assets, once discovered, the businessman will be punished according to the standard of "suing", which is about the same as raiding his homeThere's nothing left for you.
In fact, these two tax systems have always existed, but after Sang Hongyang took charge of finance, they began to be strictly enforced.
Only three years later, Sang Hongyang was brought for Emperor Wu of the Han DynastyHundreds of millions of dollars, more than 10,000 hectares of fertile land.
Of course, the result of this was that the treasury of the Han Dynasty was full, and almost all the merchants of the Han Dynasty went bankrupt.
Second, fake people's public land.
The so-called fake people's public land, that is, the land confiscated in the lawsuit, was distributed to those poor people who had no land to cultivate, and the government collected rent.
This has two advantages: first, it appeases the displaced people and is conducive to social stabilitySecond, fiscal revenues have been increased.
Third, resettlement and reclamation.
This trick fundamentally solves the problem of food and grass for the army.
The specific method is to move the poor people who have lost their land in the interior to the frontier to reclaim wasteland, and keep a part of the grain they grow and the rest of the grainIt was only transported to the frontier garrison as military rations.
You must know that in the Han Dynasty, there were neither highways nor automobiles, and the main way to transport grain and grass to the frontier was to rely on people to carry horses.
And the consumption of grain on the way is actually very staggering.
It is rumored that during the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang's consumption of grain from Shuzhong to Hanzhong was "more than half", that is, to transport ten stones of grain and grass, and more than half of it had to be eaten on the road.
Fourth, the salt and iron official camp.
That is, nationwide, by the end of the market, monopolize the production and sales of salt and iron.
If the common people want to eat salt and use iron farming tools to cultivate, they can only buy it from the government, and they also earn high profits from it.
Fifth, both losses are equal.
Equalization is to set up equalization officials in various places, and all the taxes collected by the local government are converted into money, and the equalization officials take the money and purchase things everywhere and hand them over to the imperial court.
Leveling means setting up leveling officials in various places to use money to stabilize prices.
All the profits obtained are handed over to the state treasury.
Then why do intellectuals oppose such a good means of making money?
The reason is simpleThe salt and iron official camps and the equalization of losses have seriously hurt the interests of the people.
Due to the salt and iron official camp, the common people can only buy iron farming tools from the government if they want to use iron farming toolsThe iron farming tools produced by the government are of poor quality and high quality, resulting in many farmers not being able to afford iron farming tools.
As for the even-loss leveling, there is more room for operation in between.
Many of them are often used in the procurement processFraudulent means, buying at a low price, selling **, and seeking personal gain.
In the face of the accusations of intellectuals, Sang Hongyang was unmoved, and he resolutely disagreed with the policy of abolishing the salt and iron official camp and equalizing the losses.
Of course, Huo Guang also knew that these two policies could bring a steady stream of income to the imperial court, so Huo Guang did not really want to abolish these two policies, but just wanted to use this matter to damage Sang Hongyang's prestige.
Seeing that Sang Hongyang swore to defend these two policies, Huo Guang did not insist on it anymore, but just abolished itThe official liquor system is gone.