At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

A kind of conservative thinking that puts emphasis on agriculture and suppresses commerce to the extreme, and despises commerce so much that it does not allow any new things to appear.

The strength of this conservative force is not only reflected in the economic level, but also in the political and cultural levels. It exists not only in reality, but also in people's hearts. It is more difficult to deal with than interest groups.

Therefore, if Mao Jie is not clean enough, he will be overthrown in minutes, criticized, killed as an example, and warned the latecomers severely-don't think about innovation.

Only when Mao Jie is clean enough can he resist the first round of the old school's offensive, otherwise he will not even be able to survive the first round.

After understanding what Guo Peng meant, Ma Bo said he was taught.

"So Mr. Mao survived the crisis unharmed and continued to insist on the new policy and asked counties and counties to follow suit. Wang Can, Minister of the Ministry of Finance, made a statement. He said that Liangzhou's new policy is quite far-sighted. If you can try it, you may have unexpected gains.

The news spread to the governors in Liangzhou before they breathed a sigh of relief. They felt that they would not be criticized for doing so, so they really went ahead. Except for Dunhuang County and Wuwei County, the rest of the counties also began to implement Mao Shijun's plan.

After that, all the counties have established a policy of commerce as the mainstay and agriculture as the supplement. They set up restaurants and hotels in the city, and ordered a large number of agricultural products from the farms outside the city to provide them to merchants, so as to increase income. Over the years, it has indeed paid off. Quite abundant. "

Guo Peng laughed.

"Gu knows, that's why Wang Can was asked to come forward and Wang Can came forward to support. Without the approval and support of the people in the court, those brains in Liangzhou would not dare to really do it.

This matter involved too much, and Mao Jie couldn't handle it alone. If something went wrong and he was investigated and liquidated, everyone would be unlucky, and they were reluctant to bear their official positions. "

"The Supreme Emperor is wise."

Ma Bo cupped his hands and said, "Liangzhou's commerce is booming now, and some of the money has been invested in the farms outside the city to help them reclaim more wasteland and expand the scale of production. Now the agricultural production of Liangzhou's counties is higher than that of Yande. Eight years ago there was a big improvement."

"This is the benefit, the benefit of commercial innovation visible to the naked eye."

Guo Peng picked up the tea bowl and took a sip, and said slowly: "If more people can benefit, a virtuous circle will be realized. Business development will feed back agriculture, agriculture will also develop, and farmers will also earn money, but..."

"but?"

Ma Bo looked at Guo Peng.

"Everything has two sides. There is no absolute thing. A thing has a good side, but also a bad side. It must be viewed dialectically."

Guo Peng put down his tea bowl and looked at Ma Bo: "The development of Liangzhou, including the Western Regions, is almost entirely due to commerce. The large number of merchants and the large number of goods ordered have supported the development of the Western Regions and Liangzhou. Can drive the development of Yongzhou.

But you have to be clear, the reason why these merchants appear in large numbers is because the Kushan Kingdom and the Anxi Kingdom in the west need our goods, and their dignitaries and wealthy merchants order our goods, so there will be so many merchants. to here.

It seems that everything is fine, but once something happens to Guishuang Kingdom and Anxi Kingdom, something goes wrong inside them, and those wealthy and wealthy merchants who are willing to buy our goods disappear. Tell me, what will happen to us here? "

"…………"

Marble was stunned for a while.

He really didn't think that far.

"Your Majesty, will this... have a big impact?"

"It can even be devastating."

Guo Peng's face was serious: "If those rich and wealthy merchants themselves are gone, and what happened in Guishuang Kingdom and Anxi Kingdom, such as what happened in our place at the end of the former Han Dynasty, do you think there will be so many merchants coming from the west and going to the west? ?

They don't come, and there is no money to send over. Whose business is our store doing?Who does the wine shop sell wine to?Who will live in the hotel?Who will eat the food?Who will buy silk, lacquer and porcelain tea? "

Ma Bo thought for a moment and was startled.

To be honest, his level does not allow him to think about these issues at the national strategic level, and he himself did not take the initiative to consider the connection between the two.

He just looked at the present and continued to guide the developed merchants in the city to sign agreements with the farms outside the city to sell the surplus agricultural products outside the city to the city, so that the farmers could make more money, and the merchants would sell more and pay more taxes.

With his identity and status as a county magistrate, and with his own reputation as his responsibility, he called on everyone to sit down under his auspices, talk face to face, be kind and happy, and signed the agreement.

Then those who should pay should pay, those who should deliver goods should deliver goods, and those who should do business should do business.

With money, farmers can take the initiative to reclaim wasteland and expand production scale. With money, merchants can also expand the size of their stores. The government can provide more public services with more taxes. Three aspects achieve healthy development.

Then officials can let the court pay attention to their political achievements, so as to give themselves a chance to improve.

I don't think about it, and I don't have time to think about it.

He travels to and from various counties and farms every day, discussing with them, matching them, and witnessing their cooperation.

He is definitely a diligent prefect, but he has never thought about this issue.

Once there are not so many business travelers coming, whose business will the restaurants and hotels in the city be doing?

Who are the surplus agricultural products in the Tuntian farms outside the city to sell to?

Who can afford this part of the transaction amount?

Obviously, something is going wrong.

He absolutely could not have imagined how much this kind of world-wide economic connection would bring to the export-oriented economy, because he had never experienced it, and this link did not exist in his consciousness.

This situation will even span thousands of miles of sea and more than ten years, bringing about a butterfly effect.

For example, the Battle of Bozhou, one of the three major Wanli expeditions in the late Ming Dynasty.

One of the important reasons why the Yang family in Bozhou rebelled was that the Spaniards who had been sending silver to the Ming Dynasty at that time were finished.

The Spanish Armada was killed by the British, and the Spaniards stopped coming.

The Spaniards were important contractors of the export-oriented economy of the Ming Dynasty. When the Spaniards stopped coming, some Banzhou commodities that were in short supply at that time could not be sold.

Some Banshu specialty products were in high demand at that time, but the Spaniards were finished, and there was no silver to send them, so they couldn't be sold anymore.

The accumulation of products led to no money, but Yang Yinglong needed a lot of money to live and reward others to maintain his rule. He couldn't do it, so he had to rob everywhere, which intensified the conflict between Bozhou and the central government, and directly triggered the Battle of Bozhou.

During the period of flood irrigation, everyone's conflicts can be covered up by the prosperous economy, and everyone is making money. Hello, me, hello, everyone, everyone is really good.

No matter how big the conflict is, for the sake of Bai Yin's face, he can make up his mind and walk hand in hand.

Once the economy goes down and the money is gone, the hidden contradictions will become uncontrollable.

In the past, if you eat more and I eat less, you won’t starve to death, and you can live on, so let’s be more harmonious with each other.

But now if you eat one more bite, I will starve to death, how can this work?

Let's go to war!

So social conflicts erupted instantly.

Economic crisis can lead to large-scale war.

At that time, who would have thought that the destruction of the Spanish Armada would affect the economy of the Ming Dynasty, and it would be successfully ignited thousands of miles away and nearly ten years away, detonating the Battle of Bozhou in one fell swoop.

Similarly, this will also trigger Guo Peng's thinking.

Will the collapse of Guishuang or Anxi trigger the economic crisis in the two prefectures of Yongliang and the three prefectures of the Western Regions, which in turn will affect the booming economy of the entire Wei State.

Will their turmoil lead to a large-scale economic crisis in the Wei Empire, which will affect the stability of the Wei Empire?

After thinking about it again and again, Guo Peng felt that this was unlikely.

chapter 1528 one thousand four hundred and forty

The Wei Empire is different from the Ming Empire.

In the late Ming Dynasty, especially after the death of Zhang Juzheng, the ruling power of the central government was weak, and the tax payment in some areas was almost paralyzed. The central government could not collect taxes at all, and the imperial finances were on the verge of collapse.

The treasury has no money, and it also lacks effective macro-control capabilities. It basically has no ability to control the export-oriented economy in the southeast, so it is difficult to interfere and let it grow wildly.

Those landowners and gentry who have eaten their fill during this wave of silver inflow naturally will not take out their silver for reproduction or investment, but only know how to store or buy land.

Apart from storing and buying land, they can't do anything else. If there is no land to buy, they will use their brains to store silver.

Hiding silver in various unexpected places, or simply casting it into heavy chunks, even if people see it, they cannot be moved or taken away.

All the silver was hidden, it was not circulated to the society at all, and it could not create economic benefits. This wave of economic prosperity on the southeast coast did not bring any real benefits to the Ming Empire.

So the Spaniards stopped coming, no one sent silver, and people were stupid.

Seeing that the Spaniards stopped coming, things couldn't be sold, and there was no money, they didn't dare to use the money anymore, and they all hid it for themselves.

The local government has no money and no way to regulate it, so it can only sit and stare blankly, which immediately triggers deflation.

But the good thing is that the Ming Dynasty was still dominated by the agricultural economy, not a commodity economy society at all, and there was no key point to catch, and the whole country would not be left without food once an economic crisis occurred.

The southeast region and areas related to maritime trade have been terrified by deflation, and other places are still self-sufficient in their own small-scale peasant economy.

You play yours, I play mine, a mess from top to bottom, each family clears the snow before their own door, who cares about others.

Wei Guo is different.

The model of the Maritime Silk Road and the Land Silk Road was interrupted at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty and opened up again during the Yande period. It has only been in operation for a few years, and it has not yet caused a substantial impact on the economy of the Wei State.

Furthermore, at present, the central government of the Wei Empire has a strong regulatory power and controls the lifeline of the national economy.

Moreover, the main body of Wei's economy is also a self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy based on Tuntian farms. The scale of the commodity economy is not large, and the foreign trade economy has just started, accounting for a very small proportion. The proportion of commerce is far from being able to surpass agriculture. .

Therefore, Wei's economic growth mainly depends on the internal circulation within the empire, relying on the huge agricultural tax revenue brought by the farms in the fields and the developed transportation network.

Even in the three prefectures of the Western Regions with the highest proportion of commercial taxation, agricultural taxation accounts for more than half.

Therefore, the two Silk Roads are just icing on the cake for the economy of the Wei Empire. The Wei Empire is still a typical agricultural empire by that standard, and the economic crisis will not have an actual impact.

Even if all overseas trade collapsed, Rome, Guishuang, and Anxi exploded on the spot in an instant, and the two silk roads on land and sea were all interrupted, the economy of the Wei Empire would not collapse.

Although the self-sufficient agricultural economy is closed and difficult to progress, it also has the benefits of self-sufficiency. As long as the land is not annexed, life can go on, and the society is generally stable. At most, a group of people do not have the good life of the past.

In the past, I could eat some rice to be full. Once something went wrong, I could only eat bran and swallowed vegetables, and it was hard to be full. If I was hungry, I would be full.

But this is enough to make the few people who have not experienced such ups and downs feel lingering fears and develop a huge psychological shadow.

Like mapo.

"I have never thought about the emperor's point like this before, and I just realized the danger of this matter!"

Ma Bo felt a deep fear.

"If you are not prepared for that day, when that day comes, you will naturally be at a loss and suffer heavy losses."

Guo Peng sighed: "Of course, this kind of thing is often not what we can predict. When it happens, we don't know it. When we know it, the thing is over. We can only accept it passively, and it is difficult to make a decision." response."

Ma Bo was silent for a long time, and asked: "Supreme Emperor, if there is such a day, what should we do?"

"It's not easy."

Guo Peng shook his head: "So when I was in Wuwei County, I met your envoy Lu and talked to him about this matter. You probably don't know that there was another war between Loumo Kingdom and Anxi Kingdom. A few months ago, The kingdom of Romo has broken through the capital of the kingdom of Anxi."

Marble's heart tightened.

"Could it be that...Anxi is going to perish?"

"It's hard to say, but obviously, even if it doesn't happen now, for a long time in the future, the merchants from Anxi and the merchants who are about to go to Anxi will be greatly reduced until there is no more. The two states of Yongliang and the Western Regions, Get ready for a hard time.”

"This...how can this be good?"

Ma Bo was restless, and said, "If business travel decreases, the Western Regions, Yongliang and Liangzhou will all be affected, tax revenue will drop, and people's hearts will also fluctuate. Your Majesty, this matter needs to be prevented as soon as possible."

"It's natural to take precautions. I asked Mao Jie and Lu Qian to report to the emperor to discuss this matter with the emperor and make some preparations."

Guo Peng said slowly: "Some mineral deposits were discovered in the Western Regions earlier, and the quantity is quite large, but because of the long distance, I didn't go there. Now that the Western Regions and Liangzhou are in danger, let the mining team give priority to mining the Western Regions. Mine, more people in the past.

Anxi Kingdom is finished, Guishuang is still there, let the emperor send someone to discuss with Guishuang Kingdom, Guishuang Kingdom has always wanted to send people to Wei Guo to learn Wei Guo's culture, I have not agreed before, this time I will agree to them , Let them send people to study, increase the contact between the two sides, and more people can come. "

Saying this, Guo Peng looked at Ma Bo again.

"I also heard from Lu Shijun that since he took office as governor of Liangzhou, he has ordered many times that you county guards no longer allow the establishment of restaurants and hotels without restriction, but reduce the scale and restrict the establishment of them. , How much resistance, is this true?"

Ma Bo was taken aback for a moment, and then his expression became a little embarrassed.

"This……"

"It appears to be true."

Guo Peng shook his head: "I only look at the immediate benefits, but I can't see the risks behind it. If people are allowed to set up shops without restrictions, once the merchants stop coming, whose business do you do? How do you recover the capital you paid?

Once hotels and restaurants close down on a large scale among the people, it will definitely trigger a great crisis. The income of merchants and farmers will drop greatly. There will be countless bankrupts. At that time, what should you do? "

Guo Peng's question made Ma Bo's face turn pale, and beads of sweat oozed from his forehead.

He reached out and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"The Supreme Emperor, I... I am confused. I didn't think about these things. I only cared about my own political achievements and didn't think about the consequences in the future. I'm guilty!"

"Of course you are guilty. You county guards and county magistrates who are obedient and vigilant are all guilty, and you must reflect on yourself!"

Guo Peng frowned and said: "Soon, the imperial court will issue an order to authorize Mr. Lu to take full responsibility for the management of this matter. At that time, if he has any orders, you must obey them all. Don't take chances, otherwise it will lead to a civil uprising. , you will go to Luoyang to apologize."

Ma Bo knelt down on the ground and kowtowed heavily.