Sang Hongyang: The super butler who swallows up all the wealth in the world

Being born into a wealthy family is not necessarily a bad thing. At that time, the children did not have the bad habits of the second generation of rich people. They all pursued fame as their career. In their eyes, the wealth, wealth and beauty were not as real as leaving a name in history. Sang Hongyang is such a person. In 155 BC, Sang Hongyang had a good reincarnation and was born into a wealthy businessman's family in Luoyang. Where is Luoyang? Equivalent to Shanghai now! Here, business giants gathered together, and all kinds of business methods were dazzling. They cheated on each other, bought low and sold high, turned against each other, and calculated against each other frame by frame to form a magnificent business picture, which deeply attracted Sang. Hongyang. In addition to business, there are also legends in Luoyang about Su Qin's butt piercing and wearing the seals of the Six Kingdoms, which stimulated the young Sang Hongyang. Being a prime minister, becoming a general, and becoming the richest man was the ultimate goal of Sang Hongyang's lifelong dedication.

With a goal in mind, everything he does is focused on this matter, and he has truly reached the state of not focusing on the matter but the person.

In 142 BC, 13-year-old Sang Hongyang inherited the excellent and powerful genes from a wealthy businessman's family. He learned mental arithmetic early and did not need an abacus at all. He was just like a walking precision calculator. With this excellent skill and a relatively familiarity with the market conditions, he naturally entered the court (that is, Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty). This kind of talent reserve was what Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty wanted and left it to his prince Liu Che. The imperial edict of the Han Dynasty came down, specifically promoting people to the palace without having to go through the imperial examination screening. There is also a possibility that his family is rich and spent a sum of money to let him donate his fame and enter the palace. After entering the imperial court, Sang Hongyang became a servant and officially embarked on an official career.

If this is the case, Sang Hongyang can retire naturally at best. If he is lucky, he can retire as a first- and second-grade official. But Sang Hongyang was secretly assigned to be the companion of Liu Che, the most troubled emperor of the Han Dynasty. He was a master who was willing to spend money to do big things at any cost, a man who was calculating and good at plucking hair to provide a steady stream of money. Experts, the two met and hated each other late, and joined forces to create an earth-shattering cause.

Fight the Huns.

In 115 BC, 40-year-old Sang Hongyang was appointed as the Da Nong Cheng, who was mainly responsible for accounting affairs and settling accounts. The workload of a country's economic account books is really too great. Sang Hongyang calculates day and night, making almost no mistakes. He clearly calculates the country's financial expenditures, where money is needed, and where there is wealth. Wherever there is no bird droppings, they are clean.

Is he mainly just settling accounts? It can't be that simple. Who is Sang Hongyang? He is a person in the highest decision-making circle, an elite among the elite. He fought for Emperor Wu against money-devouring monsters like the Xiongnu, and he never let go of the chain. He always managed to obtain money continuously and handed it over to Emperor Wu for him to squander as he pleased.

One person’s brain is not enough to support a government, but most of the economic policies formulated by Sang Hongyang can really support a government. From the time he entered the palace at the age of 13 to the time he was executed during the Yan King Rebellion, he had been in politics for more than 60 years. For more than 50 years, he accompanied Emperor Wu to pluck the goose feathers of the Han Empire, made astonishing sums of money, and sent them to the front line to beat the Huns.

After Emperor Wu came to the throne, he had no worries about spending money. With more than 70 years of savings, the national finances were very sufficient. But Emperor Wu was a "prodigal". He was not satisfied with maintaining success. He had many things to do. Fighting the Xiongnu, providing disaster relief, making great achievements, and Emperor Wu himself also wanted to enjoy it, etc. all required money. Twenty years later, Emperor Wu's money bag was stretched thin. In order to make money, he first set up twenty levels of martial arts knights, each level requiring additional money. He collected more than 300,000 gold from this, and also called on people to donate money to the country. These were just a drop in the bucket and not a big deal. Sang Hongyang appeared.

His first step was to revive the order of suing min (the state collects taxes on businessmen) and suing min (exposing businessmen to conceal their property and evade taxes). This method was not originally invented by Sang Hongyang. The cool official Zhang Tang came up with the idea but did not implement it. Now Sang Hongyang is re-implementing it. He is ruthless and ruthless in his implementation. In just three years, he has received generous returns and received hundreds of millions of property. The unlucky ones are the businessmen and the common people, who have enriched their own treasury.

The second step is to fake public land. Sang Hongyang first lent part of the country's official land to farmers without land. Anyway, no one farmed the official land, so it would be a waste to leave it vacant. He gave the land to them to farm and collected taxes from it. In this way, people who do not have land will naturally have land to cultivate, so they will not cause trouble. Wasteland will also be reclaimed, expanding the cultivated land area across the country. Kill multiple birds with one stone.

The third step is to immigrate and colonize. After Emperor Wu defeated the Huns, it turns out that there must always be people stationed in the places occupied by the Huns. Otherwise, wouldn't the war be in vain? Sang Hongyang immigrated as many as 600,000 people to the areas originally occupied by the Xiongnu to farm. When there was no war, they farmed. When there was war, they immediately turned into warriors and charged into battle. It not only saves military expenses, but also allows farming and resettlement of refugees. These are just fixed taxes, and there is only so much land, and it cannot be inexhaustible even if it changes.

Then Emperor Wu set his sights on coins.

He thought, could he do a trick on coins to make money?

In order to rectify the finances, three kinds of currency were made in the fourth year of Yuanshou (119 BC): leather coins, platinum (alloy coins made of silver and tin), and three baht coins, but the effect was not good. Well, the situation has developed to the point where it is almost completely out of control. Emperor Wu found that giving the right to mint money to the people or kings had cheated the government. Sang Hongyang suggested that he had better take back the money-making rights and take them into his own hands. In this case, he would have a monopoly on the money-making industry and he could take whatever he wanted. Why not?

Emperor Wu prohibited local and private minting of money, and unified the five-baht coin as the only common currency in the country. It not only increases the country's fiscal revenue, but also stabilizes the market and circulation.

Sang Hongyang finally launched a big move to establish a state-owned enterprise. In the farming era, what people needed most were salt and iron. Salt was used for eating, and iron was used to make agricultural tools for farming. It turns out that people can boil their own salt, forge their own iron, and trade with each other, as long as they pay a small amount of tax to the state. Many people have become rich through this. In fact, state-owned enterprises were not invented by Sang Hongyang but by Kong Yuan and Dong Guo Xianyang. But Sang Hongyang's execution was the most vicious.

He told Emperor Wu that in the future, all privately-owned salt and iron would be banned, and the country’s salt and iron would be used. If you don’t buy it, if you dare to make it privately, hey, there is a national law. The demand for salt and iron was great, and the Han Dynasty had a large population, so the money paid was more, accounting for two-thirds of Emperor Wu's income. The country doesn't care about the quality of manufacturing, but you have to buy it because we have a monopoly on salt and iron.

In addition to the ultimate move, there are two other moves.

The equal loss method and the equalization method.

These two methods were originally created by Sang Hongyang himself. The Equal Transmission Law stipulates that as long as the prefecture sends gifts to Emperor Wu, Emperor Wu can resell these gifts to others at market prices. Equilibrium law means that the state controls the country's materials and transactions. We have the final say on price increases and price cuts. If a product rises too much, the same product in the treasury will be thrown out and everyone will buy it, and the product will drop. If the price of the product is too low, buy it in large quantities. If the product is no longer available, the price will naturally rise.

Sang Hongyang also keenly discovered that wine also occupies a relatively large share of the market, because everyone loves drinking, and the profits of private winemaking are also scary, so sorry, wine is like salt and iron. Tragically merged into the state monopoly industry, you can buy it from us, private brewing will have national laws to greet you. This move also made a lot of money. Emperor Wu could get 20% of the profit just by selling wine. Coupled with the high brewing profits - for every 1,000 brews produced, you can get at least 250,000 yuan in profit.

Such an economic genius failed miserably in politics and died an ugly death.

Without Emperor Wu’s protection, Sang Hongyang would not be Huo Guang’s height at all.

According to Emperor Wu's edict, General Huo Guang had the most power, with Jin Rixi and Shangguan Jie as his deputies. Jin Rixi died early and Tian Qianqiu did not wade into the muddy waters, so power was concentrated in the hands of Huo Guang, Shangguan Jie, and Sang Hongyang. Sang Hongyang's economic work over the years has been quite fruitful, but others think he is the backbone of the Han Empire. How can Huo Guang, a poor secretary, compare himself to him?

Shangguan Jie was also dissatisfied with Huo Guang, and the two began to join forces to bring down Huo Guang.

Sang Hongyang is an expert in economics, but not a qualified politician. They conspired to support King Liu Dan of Yan to take the throne, but leaked the news. Shangguan Jie planned a coup and wanted to hold a Hongmen Banquet to kill Huo Guang, but he failed to keep it secret. Too bad, Huo Guang turned against them, arrested them all, and beheaded them.

Sang Hongyang has brought huge wealth in his life. After completing the fields he is good at, he should quit quickly. This will have a better reputation, but he must get involved in fields that he is not good at and have extremely high risks. , what’s the result? Just let it go and ruin yourself and your family.