How to evaluate the economic policy of Sang Hongyang in the Western Han Dynasty?

Generally speaking, the economic policy advocated by Sang Hongyang has both advantages and disadvantages. From the perspective of safeguarding national economic interests and consolidating centralization, the economic policy advocated by Sang Hongyang hindered the merger of wealthy businessmen and restrained the expansion of powerful countries to a certain extent. It has maintained the smooth operation of the whole national economic system, and the "salt and iron official camp" has provided an economic source for the wars after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, which is of progressive significance.

On the other hand, the state's mastery of the economic lifeline inhibited the development of the private economy and hindered the emergence and development of capitalism in the Han Dynasty to some extent.

In the later period, the products produced by the "Salt and Iron Official Camp" were of high quality and low price, which increased the burden on the people to a certain extent and laid the foundation for the depression of industry and commerce and the decline of the country in the late Western Han Dynasty.

First, the historical background of Sang Hongyang's policy. Politically, the idea of "governing by doing nothing" was advocated in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty. Under the historical conditions and social background of long-term division and fair reunification, the rulers must adopt this policy of compromise and concession.

In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, the relationship between the Han Dynasty and Xiongnu was tense, and the Han Dynasty always adopted the policy of compromise and closeness. So the Huns were extremely arrogant at that time. When Lv Hou was in power, Xiongnu Khan had teased and insulted in every way, which was extremely rude. In the "Wenjing Dynasty", the Xiongnu issue was still the most important foreign issue in the Han Dynasty. With the further expansion of centralization, the power of local governors in China has been greatly weakened.

Economically speaking, due to the long-term laissez-faire economic policy, the folk industry and commerce flourished during the period of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, but it also hindered the international political process of the unification of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. The rulers of the Zhou Dynasty implemented the system of "industrial and commercial food officials", but by the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the system was gradually broken and the folk economy flourished.

The ruling policy of "ruling by doing nothing" in the early Han Dynasty changed the economic model dominated by agriculture in the past, and farmers invested in business activities that were easier to collect money.

So many wealthy businessmen appeared. Although they have no political privileges, they have established friendly relations with management in economic exchanges, so they also have great rights. At that time, famous businessmen included Luoyang Shishi, Nanyang Kongshi and Xuanqu Stone.

Among the wealthy businessmen in Dajia, the businessmen who master the salt and iron industry are different from ordinary businessmen. Many of them are local strongmen landlords, even princes and bullies. This has led to the intensification of polarization between the rich and the poor, the rapid development of land annexation, sharp class contradictions, the expansion of local separatist forces and the turmoil of the whole society.

In agriculture, the long-term war led to the decline of agriculture, and China has always been a big agricultural country, and agriculture is the source of national military service, corvee and tax revenue. In order to resume agricultural production, Liu Bang, Emperor Gaozu of Han Dynasty, once recalled refugees to their land, encouraged farmers to reclaim wasteland, and implemented the system of "arranging households for all".

However, under such political conditions, these farmers can only maintain basic living conditions. Due to exorbitant taxes, tyrannical mergers and unstable food prices, they often go bankrupt and continue to live in exile when they encounter drought, flood or disease.

At that time, the royal family, governors and bureaucrats set off a frenzy of land annexation in society. The royal family became the biggest beneficiary. At that time, the royal property was managed by "Shaofu" and was independent of the state finance.

Militarily, successive years of war led to financial austerity in the Western Han Dynasty. In the second year of Yuanguang in the Western Han Dynasty, the "Battle of Mayi" opened the prelude to years of war with Xiongnu. The Western Han government invested a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources in this regard.

First of all, after the war in Henan, the Xi government reclaimed the land from Henan and rested the Great Wall during the Qin Dynasty. Later, the Xiongnu moved westward, and the border defense in the northwest was strengthened. Finally, the Great Wall was built, with a length of 1000 km from east to west.

Secondly, it is recorded that there were six large-scale immigration activities in the Han Dynasty. Every migration depends on the means of production and living provided by the government, which also leads to the national financial deficit.

Second, the main content of Sang Hongyang's economic policy First of all, Sang Hongyang advocated "currency reform". At that time, all governors had the right to coin coins, and the coins they lived in were of different sizes, so a wave of privately minting coins was set off in China. This trend has affected the normal operation of the economy and inflation.

During the currency reform, the "right to coin" of counties and countries was abolished, and the central government set up special officials to coin and destroy the old money. "Five baht" became the national currency.

Secondly, the "salt and iron official camp" was established by the government to operate two industries of salt and iron, and individuals are not allowed to sell them privately. In order to cooperate with the "salt and iron official camp", the "Pinghuai law" was implemented and special institutions were set up to stabilize market prices by selling at high prices and buying at low prices in the market.

After the victory of the Xiongnu War, in order to consolidate the northwest frontier defense, Sang Hongyang advocated raising the people to consolidate the frontier defense, resulting in six major immigrants, and the refugees organized production in the border areas to consolidate the five major frontier defense.

Sang Hongyang advocated the implementation of the "equal loss method" to change the past. The government director decided to hand over the goods and convert them into local products of counties and townships at the market price, which were uniformly transported and sold by the national military attache.

Third, how to evaluate Sang Hongyang's economic policy First of all, politically speaking, Sang Hongyang's economic policy provided a guarantee for the foreign war during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. The direct cause of the implementation of the mulberry policy is the national financial crisis caused by successive years of foreign wars. When the Huns occupied a large area of land in northern East Asia, their national strength was strong. In this situation, the Han dynasty must have strong financial support if it wants to defeat the Huns successfully.

Secondly, economically, this economic policy initiated the tradition of government-run industry and commerce in feudal society. The traditional individual handicraft industry is centralized for industrial management. With the support of the state, this model has promoted the development and progress of handicraft industry.

In business, the state monopolizes the issuance and circulation of financial currency. To a certain extent, it ensures the smooth operation of the entire national economy. Although the main reason for this policy is to increase the cost of foreign wars, government-run industry and commerce also gave strong support to the national finance after the war. It has even become the main means of national fiscal revenue. Later dynasties borrowed this mode of economic production.

However, it also has a negative impact on business. The government monopolized the main industries of commercial development. Compared with the government-run handicraft industry, the folk handicraft industry in the past was more suitable for the market and the folk capital was more dynamic. From this point of view, the government-run handicraft industry led to the economic contraction of the Western Han Dynasty to a certain extent.

In terms of social structure, under the influence of war and land annexation in the early Western Han Dynasty, many peasants became slaves and even refugees. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty carried out the policy of rejuvenating mulberry. On the one hand, he placed a large number of unemployed people, on the other hand, he cracked down on land annexation, and the society tended to be stable.

Under this economic policy, a ruling group and social stratum composed of businessmen, landlords and bureaucrats have emerged. In order to improve the financial difficulties, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered "rewarding officials", that is, he could buy official positions through money. Under this condition, private businessmen have successfully entered the relevant government economic departments. Although class contradictions have improved, collusion between officials and businessmen has appeared to some extent, which has aggravated the social crisis.

Judging from the influence on later generations, this economic policy has established a tradition of grasping the financial monopoly of people's livelihood economy for later generations, and later generations have followed suit and even expanded the monopoly scope.

During the reign of Wang Mang, the economic policy of "five averages and six operations" was to learn from the policies of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. The government expropriated industrial and commercial tax, grasped the market price, and operated salt, iron, wine and other industries. By the Eastern Han Dynasty, the "salt and iron official camp" was still implemented. However, due to the further growth of powerful landlords, the "government-run" handicraft industry gradually moved towards "private".

Summary: Sang Hongyang's policy was an inevitable choice under the conditions of domestic troubles and foreign invasion during the period of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. This policy solved the need of military activities for economic support, increased the financial revenue of the Western Han Dynasty, and had a wide range of positive effects under the social conditions at that time, but it also hit the development of private industry and commerce at that time, which was of negative significance in the long run.