Sang Hongyang is a famous politician in the Western Han Dynasty, he focused on the national economic revenue, such as the monopoly policy of salt and iron wine vigorously developed the official business of salt and iron wine in the Western Han Dynasty, and provided financial guarantee and material basis for the military activities of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, especially the policy of emphasizing state intervention "equalizing the loss and equalization", which also has great reference significance for later generations, which can be described as the "Keynes" of the Han Dynasty.
During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, when Sang Hongyang began to enter politics, due to the great events, the state expenditure was huge, and even the accumulation of the treasury in the early decades of the Han Dynasty was empty, resulting in extremely serious financial problems. In this context, Sang Hongyang, who came from a merchant family, adhered to the "Guanzi" Shangjun learning, and advocated that the state take the initiative to intervene in social and economic operations in order to draw more wealth from industry and commerce. From the first year of Emperor Wu Yuanfeng (110 BC) to more than 20 years after that, Sang Hongyang has been in charge of the financial lifeline of the Han Dynasty and has achieved remarkable results.
In order to increase the state's fiscal revenue, maintain social stability and consolidate the imperial power, Sang Hongyang put forward the policies of national monopoly, equalization of losses and equalization, and calculation and retribution in terms of finance. Prior to this, the salt and iron production sector in the Western Han Dynasty was monopolized by wealthy merchants, and at this time, the financial revenue of the Western Han Dynasty was small, and the state was short of money for armaments and other aspects. The advantage of the state monopoly in the salt and iron industry is that it has abundant funds, and at the same time it is more advanced in technology, compared with the previous private smaller enterprises, the state monopoly can be large-scale production, the production efficiency is higher, and more importantly, it can increase the country's tax revenue to a large extent, crack down on local powerful forces, and strengthen the centralization of power. In terms of wine production, Sanghong Yang implements the liquor monopoly policy, and has a "negotiator" under it, who is responsible for managing the liquor monopoly, and the liquor raw materials, standards, quantities and sales are carried out by the government, and the government will pay a certain fee to the winery.
In order to weaken the financial resources and strength of the counties, Sang Hongyang advocated the implementation of the equalization law and the equalization law. The equalization method is that the tributes that should be paid by the counties are converted into native products according to local prices, and delivered to the average loss officials stationed in the country, and then the tribute is processed by the average loss officials, such as some small and easy to transport items can still be tributed, and other local products need to be sold by the average loss officials, and the money obtained is handed over to the imperial court, which effectively solves the problem of less monetary and fiscal revenue. At the same time, because the imperial court has a huge amount of commodities in its hands, it has the power to maintain price stability through transactions in the market, which ensures the sustained and stable development of the country's economy to a certain extent, which is "leveling".
In order to increase commercial tax revenue and crack down on "tax evasion" or concealment, Sang Hongyang implemented the policy of reckoning, that is, collecting property tax on merchants. The so-called "缗" means a rope used to string things and refer to the levy standard; One calculation is 120 yuan, which refers to the amount of levy, such as 2000 yuan levied and calculated, multiplied by one, etc.; Whistleblowing is to encourage whistleblowing, and if someone discovers and reports tax evasion, they can get half of the reward. The implementation of the policy of calculating and suing the state can significantly increase the state's fiscal revenue, but because the management method at that time could not be too fine, it led to the tendency to take advantage of the wind, and "the businessman and the above are likely to be broken".
In order to solve the financial problem, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty successively issued a variety of currencies, but they were eliminated by the market because of the large deviation from the actual value, coupled with the inaction of the early Han Dynasty, the wind of private coinage prevailed, and there were many types of coins on the market and different sizes, which was very chaotic and greatly affected the seigniorage from it. In order to stabilize prices, promote the development of industry and commerce, and in order to cooperate with the "great unification" to strengthen the national policy of centralization, Sang Hongyang actively helped Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to implement the unified coin policy, so that the five-baht coin became the national legal tender currency, which was used until the Sui Dynasty, and the circulation often reached more than 700 years, which can be described as a miracle.
In short, to a large extent, Sang Hongyang's reform solved the situation in which the wealthy merchants controlled the salt, iron, and wine industries at that time, increased the country's monetary and fiscal revenue, cracked down on the local powerful forces, and to a certain extent realized the wealth of the wealthy industry and commerce rather than the small people, that is, "the people do not benefit the world and the world uses it, and the people do not know the benefits without exhaustion."
In the second year of the Later Yuan Dynasty (87 BC) in February, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was seriously ill, and Liu Fuling, who was only eight years old, was established as the crown prince, and the edict was sent to the minister, and Huo Guang, the commander of Fengche, was appointed as the great Sima and the general, and accepted the edict and auxiliary government. Sang Hongyang was crowned as the imperial historian, Jin Riyan was the general of the chariot cavalry, and Shangguan Ji was the general of the left, and they jointly assisted the young master.
Among the auxiliary ministers, Jin Riyan died early, Tian Qianqiu was not in charge, and the power was mainly in the hands of Huo, Sang, and Shangguan. Huo Guang won the trust of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and his position was particularly prominent after Emperor Zhao succeeded to the throne, while Sang Hongyang was superior to Huo Guang in terms of seniority and merit. In June of the fifth year of the first century (82 BC), Du Yannian suggested the policy of Emperor Wen, advocating thrift and leniency to the people, Huo Guang adopted, and ordered Sanfu and Taichang to each cite two "virtuous" people, and each county and state to promote "literature". In February of the sixth year of the first century (81 B.C.), he summoned the virtuous literature who had arrived in Beijing to discuss the abolition of the monopoly policies of salt, iron, and wine. At the meeting, the virtuous literature from the people and Sang Hongyang had a fierce debate on the domestic and foreign policies of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, including economic policies such as salt and iron, and the conference ended in July. Through this meeting, Huo Guang successfully used virtuous literary criticism and cracked down on his political opponents, won a relatively wide range of support, and economically also made the official policy shrink, deposed the county wine and the Kannai iron official, and the power of Sang Hong's sheep system was greatly hit.
Soon, Liu Dan, the king of Yan, wrote to Emperor Zhao to expose Huo Guang's rebellion, and Sang Hongyang and Shangguan Ji immediately organized the courtiers ** Huo Guang, but they were vetoed by Emperor Zhao. In September of the first year of Yuanfeng (80 B.C.), Huo Guang said that Shangguan Ji and others planned a coup d'état, preemptively, and arrested all the ministers who mastered the coup.