As we all know, since Emperor Wu ascended the throne, the Western Han Dynasty changed its previous policy of "hidden tolerance" to the outside world and began to show its fierce fangs to neighboring countries. First, in 135 BC, he sent troops to force the southwest Yi and other departments to submit to the Han Dynasty, and Later Wu Emperor established two counties in these places under the suggestion of Sima Xiangru (言西夷邛) and 笮可置郡, and began the formal rule of the Han Dynasty over these places. Then in 133 BC began to launch a fierce attack on the Xiongnu who had caused great humiliation to the Western Han Dynasty, and finally after 14 years of efforts, the Xiongnu's power in Hexi, Mobei and Monan was disintegrated, and since then the situation of "Xiongnu are far away, and there is no royal court in Southern Mo".
The Battles of Henan and Monan
After this, Emperor Wu successively launched attacks on the countries of the Western Regions, the State of Korea, the State of Minyue, the State of Yelang, and other states, and eventually these places were occupied by the Western Han Dynasty. Since then, the name of the Great Han has shaken the world, and all the surrounding countries have bowed down to the Great Han, and the manifestation of "those who commit crimes against the strong Han will be punished from afar" has made all countries tremble with fear, and the Great Han has since stood proudly on the top of the East.
But few people know that behind this victory after victory, Emperor Wu used up the huge wealth accumulated by the emperors of the state treasury since Liu Bang. Once the treasury of the Han Dynasty was "all despised and full, and the treasury was surplus." The money of the Kyoshi is huge, and it is decaying and unschoolable. The corn of Taicang is full of dew and accumulates outside, so that it is inedible and inedible. However, after the successive years of foreign wars in the Wu Dynasty, what has been shown is that "its cost is innumerable in hundreds of millions." So the county magistrate was empty. " scene.
The western Han dynasty added new counties in the former Xiongnu land
It is conceivable that at this time, the treasury of the Great Han Dynasty was already empty, and the few wealth left by Emperor Wu had long been unable to cope with any problems that occurred in the Great Han at this time. However, the entire Han Dynasty would not stop functioning because the national treasury had no money, and the military expenses and military food of the border officers still needed to be spent by the imperial court, but at this time, the Han Dynasty had already been "a lack of money at the time, and the soldiers were quite unruly." Those who were homeless due to natural disasters such as floods and droughts also needed the support of the imperial court, "more than 700,000 mouths, food and clothing are all dependent on the county officials." Therefore, if Emperor Wu then allows the treasury of the imperial court to be urgently empty, then Emperor Wu is in danger, and the Great Han is in danger.
Therefore, in such an environment, Emperor Wu began to appoint three financial experts, Dongguo Xianyang, Kong Guo, and Sang Hongyang, to make up for the financial shortage caused by the foreign war for the Han, and Shi Zai "so Guo Xianyang and Kong in the east were only big farmers and led salt and iron affairs; Sang Hongyang used things to calculate and use things, and served in the middle." ”。 In the end, with the help of these three, the problem of financial deficit in the later period of Emperor Wu was greatly improved, and even began to slowly become richer and richer.
Agricultural production in the Western Han Dynasty
Among them, the reason why Emperor Wu was able to become rich again in the later period, Sang Hongyang's contribution was undoubtedly the greatest. Throughout the period of Emperor Wu, under the impetus of Sang Hongyang, the Western Han Dynasty successively implemented economic policies such as suaning, suing, salt and iron official camps, equal losses, and equalization throughout the country. After these economic measures were successively successful to a certain extent, the financial revenue of Emperor Wu's dynasty began to increase greatly, and even these policies made great contributions to the "filial piety and prosperity" in the future.
Today we are going to talk about one of the economic policies promoted by Sang Hongyang in the Dynasty of Emperor Wu, that is, "Drunken Liquor". It is a liquor monopoly system implemented by Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty in the third year of the Tianhan Dynasty (98 BC), and the Book of Han and emperor Wudi records the "First Liquor Andyo". The core of the liquor is "to prohibit private brewing of liquor freely, and the government to control the production and sale of liquor, so as to monopolize the profits of liquor and replenish the national treasury." ”。
Ancient wine culture
As we all know, although the Western Han Dynasty issued the "Prohibition Order" twice in the early Western Han Dynasty. Once, during the Gaozu period, when Xiangguo Xiao He formulated the law, he stipulated that "more than three people drink alcohol for no reason, and a fine of four or two" was imposed. Another time was during the reign of Emperor Jing, who ordered a ban on the sale of liquor. But these two appearances are for special reasons, Gao Zu is because the world has just been calmed, afraid that if everyone gets together to drink and drink, it is easy to have incidents, which is not good for social stability. The Jing Emperor was due to a large-scale drought throughout the country that year, resulting in a grain harvest failure.
Western Han winemaking process
However, since Emperor Wu ascended the throne, under the governance of the "rule of Wenjing", the entire Western Han Dynasty has presented a prosperous scene, the people live and work in peace and contentment, do not have to suffer from poverty, everyone can eat and eat a full meal, so in such an environment, folk entertainment projects are more and more diverse. Although the Western Han Dynasty did not explicitly abolish the "prohibition of mass drinking" law set by Gao zu from beginning to end, at this time, whether it was the magnates or the people, they had already turned a deaf ear to this law, and the imperial court was also in a state of "light and prohibition and darkness".
Therefore, at that time, the drinking style of the entire Western Han Dynasty can be said to be very popular, just as the so-called "meeting of hundreds of gifts, non-wine is not OK", it can be said that wine has become a part of the daily life of the people of the Western Han Dynasty. At that time, the brewing industry in the Western Han Dynasty also became very prosperous, and the profits they obtained were also more and more abundant, as recorded in the "History of History, Volume 129, Andi Biography of Cargo Breeding" as follows: "One year old and a thousand brews.... Greedy Jia three, Lian Jia five, this is also better than the house of a thousand multiplications, its great rate also. So many of the wealthy merchants of private liquor at that time became very rich.
Ancient literati drinking pictures
Finally, in the third year of the Tianhan Dynasty (98 BC), in order to make the Western Han Dynasty increase its fiscal revenue faster, Sang Hongyang began to attack another industry after successively implementing the economic policies of monopolizing the salt, iron and transportation industries such as salt and iron official camps and equalization of equal losses. In this year, Sang Hongyang asked Emperor Wu to "build a wine bowl to support the border, give it to the warriors, and save the people from difficulties." Later, with the consent of Emperor Wu, the entire Western Han Dynasty began to implement the "liquor monopoly system", from then on the people were no longer allowed to brew alcohol privately, and all the production and sale of liquor was monopolized by the imperial court, and no one was allowed to engage in this industry privately.
After the implementation of the "liquor and sophragm" system, the financial revenue of the Western Han Dynasty can be described as a steady increase, because at that time, the Western Han Dynasty implemented "except for the rice qu Benjia, counting its profits and dividing it, with its seven officials, the third and the cost of the workpiece of the ashes and charcoal", that is, in the entire process of liquor sales, the imperial court had to account for a full seven points of profit. In addition, at that time, due to the implementation of the policy of "Nasu Baijue" in the Western Han Dynasty, that is, the useless title was exchanged for a large amount of grain in the hands of rich merchants, so that the grain in the Western Han Dynasty's treasury became more and more abundant. Therefore, at this time, in the process of brewing wine with grain, the imperial court hardly needed to spend any money, and all that was needed was labor costs. It was precisely because of this that for every thousand wines produced in the imperial court at that time, Emperor Wu could get at least 252,000 yuan in profits.
Western Han Liquor Trading Chart
Think about how great wealth this is, the population of the Western Han Dynasty since the time of Emperor Wu has reached more than 60 million, and even if only more than 10 million people come to drink, the wealth obtained by the "liquor monopoly" of the imperial court is immeasurable, not to mention the daily consumption of those powerful and rich merchants at that time, so it is conceivable how amazing the profits obtained from this policy are.
For example, the "Biography of Jia Donation in the Book of Han" states that "in the sixth year of the Yuan Hunt, the people endowed hundreds of people to make salt, iron, and wine to make profits to accompany the degree." It can be said that at that time, the imperial court only needed the profits obtained from salt, iron, and liquor to match other tax revenues in the country, so we can find that at that time, "liquor and liquor" did create great wealth for Emperor Wu's dynasty. Emperor Wu was also able to use this wealth to make the Great Han more powerful again, and the territory of the Great Han became increasingly large.
Ancient drinking diagram
Of course, after Emperor Wu, because the policy of "drunken liquor" was really too much to compete with the people, it was finally abolished at the salt and iron conference of Emperor Zhao in the sixth year, and Shi Zai "played with Xiang Qianqiu to strike the liquor". Since Emperor Zhao, the Western Han Dynasty no longer implemented the "liquor and liquor" system, but instead practiced a "liquor tax", that is, it was freely bought and sold by the people, and the imperial court only drew taxes from it. But in any case, the fact that "Yujiu"created a lot of wealth for the Western Han Dynasty in the Wu Emperor's dynasty is undeniable, and this system also avoided the collapse of the society at the end of The Wu Emperor to a certain extent, after all, the imperial court had money, and many things became easier.
In fact, I personally think that "sake drinking" is really very clever. It was safer than directly levying heavy taxes on the people to increase the revenue of the national treasury, after all, although wine was a very popular thing at the time, it was not a necessity of life. Therefore, even if the "liquor monopoly" is implemented, it will not have a greater impact on most ordinary people, so there will be no greater resistance. In this way, it will be possible to avoid more serious turmoil in the society of the Western Han Dynasty, and under such circumstances, the Western Han Dynasty can avoid the recurrence of social turmoil and obtain a large amount of considerable wealth.
Western Han Dynasty folk buy wine map
At the same time, another function of the "liquor and liquor" was to indirectly strengthen the centralization of power, and its implementation allowed the property of the powerful and wealthy merchants in part of the Western Han Dynasty at that time to be transferred directly to the hands of the state. After all, the wineries and restaurants that could be opened at that time were those large landlords and magnates, and if the wealth was too concentrated in their hands, it was definitely not a good thing for the royal family of the Western Han Dynasty. With the implementation of the "liquor and liquor" system, more and more of the wealth that originally belonged to these people will be acquired by the imperial court, so that the imperial court can use these wealth to strengthen its national strength, and conversely, the power of those powerful and rich merchants will be weakened, so that the imperial court can strengthen local control.
bibliography:
1. The Book of Han and the Chronicle of Emperor Wu
2. "History of Filial Piety"
3. Book of Han, Volume 95, The Sixth Tale of the Southwest Yi and the Two Cantonese And Korean Dynasties
4. Book of Han, Volume 94, Biography of the Xiongnu, 64
5. Book of Han, Volume 70, Fu Chang Zheng Gan, Chen Duan Biography No. 40
6. "History and Ping zhuan book"
7. "Hanshu Food And Goods"
8. "History of Emperor Wen Benji"
9. "Salt and Iron Treatise, Volume II, Worrying Edges"
10. "History, Volume 129, Chronicles of Cargo Colonization"
11. The Biography of Hanshu Jia Donation