Dahan Pirate Air Force

"It's my idea to open the mine. Bosong is just helping me gather people to help. Please calm down and stop arguing." Zhang Bai said loudly, regardless of the dissuasion of those around him.

The controversy in the hall was interrupted, and everyone's eyes were attracted to Zhang Bai.

Zhuge Qiao looked anxious. He was afraid that Zhang Bai would make a mistake, so he said softly: "Enpei, don't talk anymore, I will take care of everything."

Zhang Bai smiled at him and said loudly: "My lords, although Zhibai Daqian has its shortcomings, there are still ways to correct it. The Prime Minister has already intended to do this, and our mine opening is related to this. ."

Liu Ba was greatly surprised and asked: "What is the relationship between mining and currency value? You have just arrived in Chengdu not long ago, how do you know what the prime minister means?"

Du Qiong also looked directly at Zhang Bai, but there was no look of surprise on his face.

He said calmly: "Shang Shuling doesn't need to ask. I think these words are the words of his child. But since Mr. Zhang is willing to come forward and admit it, he seems to be a responsible and broad-minded person. This is good! Let me ask. You, "Historical Records Chronology of the Meritorious Officials of Emperor Gaozu" said: "In ancient times, there were five grades of merit for people and ministers. They established ancestral temples based on virtue, established communities and Ji, and called them honours. They called them labor by words, and called merit by exerting force. They called cutting down and accumulating days. "Yueyue'. If you don't abide by the rules and go beyond the level, what's the point?"

Do you want to test my skills?Zhang Bai smiled slightly, the things in the stomachs of modern liberal arts students were incomparable to those of the ancients.

What Du Qiong mentioned is actually the famous dispute between farmers and merchants that has been going on for thousands of years since ancient times.

The so-called "base" here refers to agriculture, and the "end" refers to industry and commerce.The battle between the bottom and the bottom is the battle over the status of agriculture and industry and commerce in the national economy.

The essence of the debate is not only the importance of "original" and "motive", but also the dispute between "emphasis on the origin and suppression of the motive" and "anti-emphasis on the fundamental and suppression of the motive".

In the pre-Qin period, most of the people focused on the basics and suppressed the weak. At that time, in order to enrich the country and strengthen the army, ensure national fiscal revenue and provide materials and soldiers for the war, agriculture was required to be placed at the top of the economic work.

At the same time, they believe that to strengthen agriculture, we must suppress private industry and commerce in order to ensure the labor force needed for agriculture and improve farmers' production enthusiasm. Otherwise, Xunzi said: "If there are many industries and commerce, the country will be poor." This wrong argument is actually for Serving the aristocratic landowning class.When it came to Han Feizi, he directly accused industrialists and merchants of being one of the five social beetles, advocating that they should be "disgraced".

Historically, Zhuge Liang held similar economic opinions.In the Jin Dynasty, this idea developed to its extreme. At the beginning of the Jin Dynasty, Fu Xuan put forward the slogan of "valuing the roots and despising the ends". The idea of ​​"being humble" was widely spread during the Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and was regarded as one of the major policies of "rich countries". The state even issued insulting laws against businessmen.

The scholar-bureaucrat class also regarded "lower status" as an important criterion for family education.

At this stage of development, baseness is no longer an economic policy, but has developed into a political policy that inhibits economic development.

The ideological policy of attaching importance to the basic and devaluing the weak actually has a great promotion effect on government-run industry and commerce, that is, official business.It has seriously hindered the development of private commodity economy, so with the development of social economy, its negative effect has become more and more serious.

Since the Tang Dynasty, although the idea of ​​emphasizing the roots and suppressing the motes still occupies a dominant position, the idea of ​​opposing the emphasis on the roots and suppressing the motes has greatly developed. By the Song Dynasty, this trend became more obvious.Among the various viewpoints to defend private business, Li Gou firmly opposed the government's monopoly policy and advocated "all trade" and "let it do what it wants."That is to say, it is advocated that rich countries must also rely on the development of government-run industry and commerce, and cannot rely solely on agriculture.

Du Qiong took this test question. It was originally an extremely difficult question, but it hit the target of Zhang Bai, a time traveler.

"Master Du, this question is a bit difficult. Mr. Zhang has just turned fifteen, how can he answer it?" Qin Mi next to him said in defense.

Du Qiong closed his eyes gently and raised the corners of his mouth without saying anything, but there was a buzz among the students around him.

"Ahem!" Zhang Bai cleared his throat and said loudly: "Master Domondu and Grand Secretary Nong are caring, testing the school's knowledge, and setting the right path. Although the students are frightened, they dare not give in."

His words made everyone in the lobby look at him with suspicion, some were scornful, some were nodding, some were anxious, and some were proud.

"Master Du, during the Qin Dynasty, Shang Yang juxtaposed merchants, farmers, and officials, and said that they were important tasks of the country, and one was indispensable. During the reign of Emperor Ling, Wang Fu wrote: "Farming, mulberry," "utility," and "currency" are the The root is "Youye", "Qiaoshi", and "Wanqi" at the end."

"Students believe that there should be no distinction between priority and severity, and that both agriculture, industry and commerce are the source of wealth for the country."

"During the reign of Emperor Wu, Sang Hongyang said: Why should we use local farmers to make a country rich? Tai Shigong also said: The original wealth is the highest, and the last wealth is the second. He also said: The top will make the country rich, and the bottom will make the family rich. Therefore, the country should be governed according to the basic path. , we cannot rely solely on agriculture.”

Zhang Bai's clear talk shocked the whole audience on the spot. His views were actually not new, and the example he gave was commonly used, which was the economic line of promoting both agriculture, industry and commerce, led by Sang Hongyang.But the problem is that these words came from a 15-year-old boy, which is really shocking.

At this time, most of Shu's economic policies came from Liu Ba, who proposed to build Zhibai Daqian in order to get the Liu Bei Group, which had newly entered Yizhou, out of the economic crisis.He also knew that doing so would cause prices to rise and people's wealth to be plundered by the state.

But economics did not exist at that time. What Liu Ba knew, most others did not understand, and it was impossible for anyone to understand theories such as inflation and currency value.

So Liu Ba was the most surprised among them. He didn't expect that some of the nobles' children knew so much at such a young age.

Du Qiong refused to let it go, and asked mockingly: "So, are you encouraging Mr. Zhuge and others to collect money from mining, is it to implement Sang Hongyang's idea of ​​promoting agriculture, industry and commerce at the same time?"

"Exactly!" Zhang Bai replied without hesitation.

Immediately there was a sound of rebuke and discussion around, "Vending money is vending money, and it involves opinions, how shameless!"

"Scholarship, agriculture, industry and commerce, all the people have their own business. Those who study and occupy a position are called scholars, those who cultivate soil and cultivate valleys are called farmers, those who make skillful tools are called workers, and those who make money and sell goods are called merchants. How can you go beyond the etiquette system? This will shake the foundation of the country."

"The so-called "putting the root of the problem at the same time" is just the way Sang Hongyang and his ilk sell their official positions and pursue scheming and suing. Sooner or later, this is the path to rebellion."

"Since ancient times, it has been noble but lowly. How can we ignore the lives of all peoples?"

Amidst the fierce discussion, Zhang Bai was not nervous. He raised his voice and loudly said: "What is the foundation of the country? Is it the so-called foundation of the country when you are aloof and ordering people to kneel and kowtow? Students think that the four peoples work together for their own use, and then To govern the transformation and make it prosperous, but to suppress the weak and strengthen the foundation, is not a correct theory!"

"Then what is the right argument?" He Zong asked forcefully.

"The people are the foundation of the country, and there is nothing wrong with children of noble families doing business."

"But businessmen are greedy for profit and hoard goods everywhere. They not only harm the people, but also destabilize the country. How can we be with such people?" Du Qiong said angrily.

"It is naturally wrong to hoard. This is speculation and should be severely punished. If we take this as an example, it would be wrong to suppress all merchants. Xunzi said: Farmers use their strength to exhaust their fields, merchants use their inspection to exhaust their wealth, and workers use their skills to exhaust their tools. . Han Fei is also like a businessman: he can use everything to achieve nothing."

Zhang Bai was talking eloquently and simply stood up with his hands behind his back.

"It can be seen that merchants also have a good effect, that is, they can make all kinds of businesses come out and speed up circulation, and circulation can lead to reproduction, which can increase wealth. Therefore, the government does not need to increase taxes, the people do not need to increase taxes, and the state has sufficient supplies."