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Preface
With the prosperity of the market economy, many black-hearted businesses often use various methods to deceive consumers in order to pursue more profits.
For example, shoddy and counterfeit are all common tricks, and as a result, in the 21st century Chinese society, there is a group of anti-counterfeiters who have a bad reputation.
So then again, there are counterfeit and shoddy goods in modern goods, so are ancient merchants really so honest and trustworthy?
Commercial regulations of the pre-Qin era
Since there has been commerce, counterfeiting has never been broken, and in the "Yunmeng Qin Jian" unearthed in the pre-Qin period, there are related businessmen who made counterfeits.
So, how did the ancients fight fakes?
It is impossible to know when Chinese commerce originated, but at least during the Xia and Shang periods, Chinese commerce was relatively prosperous.
For example, Wang Hai, the ancestor of the Shang Dynasty, is recorded in the history books as a merchant who drove cattle and sheep everywhere to do business.
Unfortunately, because there are so few documents left by the Shang Dynasty, we cannot know what the business environment of the Shang Dynasty was, but fortunately, the Zhou Dynasty has left us some relevant records.
In the Western Zhou Dynasty, due to the relatively low productivity, commerce at that time was monopolized by the state.
Therefore, in the government regulations at that time, there were also clear provisions on the quality requirements of goods.
In the "Book of Rites: The Imperial System", it is clearly recorded: "The utensils, military chariots, and cloth are not in the middle of the number and the amount of cloth,... Not porridge in the city. ”
In a word, utensils, military vehicles and cloth are not allowed to be traded on the market if they do not meet national standards.
In addition to the strict control of these handmade goods, even for fruits, grains and even meat, there were a series of regulations in the Western Zhou Dynasty.
For example, unripe grains, ungrown fruits, young or pregnant livestock are not allowed to be traded in the market.
In addition, there are also clear rules on when to hunt what kind of animals and when to go up the mountain to cut down what kind of trees.
It can be said that at that time, people already had a relatively clear understanding of the concept of harmony between man and nature.
This is also the reason why the later Mencius emphasized many times in his conversation with King Hui of Liang that "the axe should enter the mountains and forests at the right time".
After the fall of the Western Zhou Dynasty, with the progress of productive forces, although the government still controlled part of the commerce, the private market gradually prospered, especially in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were many big businessmen who were rich and rivaled, such as Lü Buwei.
Similarly, with the rise and development of private commerce, the number of legal provisions on commercial norms has also increased.
For example, the law of the Qin State clearly stipulates that the name of the merchant must be engraved on the utensils built by the merchant to facilitate the after-sales guarantee.
This point has also been applied to the military, and those unearthed Qin weapons are engraved with the numbers of craftsmen and responsible officials in detail.
As for the counterfeit and shoddy food, once discovered, the food will be destroyed on the spot, usually by fire, and the merchant will also be punished according to the amount of money.
The lowest is a fine, the higher one is the distribution frontier, and the higher one is corporal punishment.
Han Tang's heavy punches
Most of the legal provisions of the Western Han Dynasty continued the Qin Dynasty, and during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, with the opening of the Silk Road in the Western Regions, in order to further standardize commercialization, and also to solve the labor problem of those newly added territories, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty severely cracked down on merchants in various ways.
He stipulated that as long as a merchant committed shoddy behavior, he could report it, and the reported merchant would go to the border to serve a year of servitude for the state.
When it came to the Tang Dynasty, the government's punishment for unscrupulous businessmen was further refined, if it was a counterfeit and shoddy daily necessities, it was generally a board, starting at 80!
As for counterfeit medicines and shoddy food that may cause death, it is a start of exile, and the heaviest case can be executed!
In addition, in the laws of the Tang Dynasty, there was such a very modern provision that there was no reason to return or exchange for three days.
And if the merchant refuses to accept it, as long as the buyer reports it to the government, then the seller will not only lose money, but also is likely to receive forty lashes.
After talking about the Tang Dynasty, let's talk about the Song Dynasty, which was the most prosperous in commerce.
Friends who have studied history should remember that in the Song Dynasty, Chinese commerce broke the restrictions of the fang market.
What does this mean?
The rise of private self-management
Before the Song Dynasty, the merchants of the city did business in a fixed city, and the opening and closing times of shops were also mandated by the government.
On the one hand, this does hinder the development of commerce, but on the other hand, it also ensures the timely control of counterfeit and shoddy goods by officials.
However, in the Song Dynasty, with the full flowering of commerce, it was actually impossible to effectively maintain the healthy development of commerce by relying only on the limited number of government officials.
So, in the Song Dynasty there were commercial guilds.
That is, some merchants, with the permission of the imperial court, gathered their local counterparts to register and make a register, and clarified the quality standards of goods in the industry.
All merchants must ensure the quality of goods, and supervise each other, once there is a counterfeit and shoddy incident in any store, the industry will first dispose of it, if the disposal is not good, then the chairman of the industry will be invited to drink tea by the government.
However, under normal circumstances, it can be handled, because the person who can become the chairman of the industry has a relationship behind it.
After that, both the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties generally continued the business model of the Song Dynasty, that is, the private chamber of commerce as the main body, and the government supervised from the side.
Anyway, if you look through the notes of the literati of the Ming and Qing dynasties, you will find that the deeds of buying counterfeit and shoddy goods are endless.
For example, Liu Bowen once encountered it.
One summer, Liu Bowen saw a citrus vendor at the market.
In ancient times, citrus was generally a fruit that could only be eaten in winter, and it could be bought in summer, which was really rare, and the surface of these citrus oranges looked bright and beautiful, which made people appetizing, so even if the price was ten times higher, Liu Bowen still bought some.
But when Liu Bowen went home, he opened it and found that the flesh inside had already become ruined and could not be eaten at all.
Liu Bowen angrily asked the vendor for a refund, but the vendor said in a heartfelt voice that I have been in this business for many years, and you are still the first person to come to me to settle accounts.
And this hawker also took the court of the Yuan Dynasty at that time as an example, which made Liu Bowen sigh "The gold and jade are outside, and the defeat is in it", which can be regarded as an interesting anecdote.
But behind this anecdote, there are those unlucky consumers.
epilogue
From ancient times to the present, the behavior of deceiving consumers is extremely shameful, and I hope that with the efforts of all industries, counterfeiting can become less and less!
A gentleman loves money and takes it in a good way!
I don't know if you have ever been deceived by vendors?