The civilization of the Two Song Dynasty has its unique charm in Chinese history. Mr. Chen Yinke, a master of history, once pointed out: "The culture of the Chinese nation has evolved over thousands of years, and it was created in the Zhao and Song dynasties." Taste the splendor of traditional Chinese culture, whether it is the brilliance of the material world or the aesthetic interest of the spiritual world, Song culture always makes people feel meaningful. Let's follow "Listening to Song Yun at Night", look back at the two Song civilizations, and taste the essence of culture.
The business wisdom of the Song Dynasty "buying".
The Song Dynasty was a peak period for the development of the ancient commercial economy in the mainland, and a "Qingming Riverside Map" allows people to witness the prosperous scene of Bianjing City 1,000 years ago. This kind of prosperity is not unrelated to the advanced commercial management system at that time, and the "buying" system is a typical representative.
Buying is buying and selling, and trading is about gambling and competition. Literally, "buying" means buying and selling. Maipo originated in the Tang Dynasty after the Five Dynasties, and the five dynasties, Song, Jin, Yuan and other dynasties all had the economic phenomenon of Maipo, especially the Song Dynasty.
In the Song Dynasty, buying a certain amount of money and goods to the government refers to a specific group of people after paying a certain amount of money and goods to the government, from the government to buy out the privileges of certain economic fields within a certain period of time and a certain geographical range, and then share the resulting obligations of service law and financial revenue and expenditure with the government, and share the benefits and win-win of the unique business mode.
For example, if the government wants to tax the hotels on a street, and it is too troublesome to collect them one by one, the government can sell the taxing rights of the hotels on the street through the method of "buying", and the wealthy businessmen can obtain the taxing rights through the "buying" bidding and collect taxes on behalf of the officials. The contractor and the government have reached an agreement that if the tax on the hotel on this street is 10,000 yuan a year, the contractor must ensure that the tax is enough to collect 20,000 yuan, and the excess contractor and the government will share the profit according to the proportion of the contract, if only 8,000 yuan is collected, the contractor will have to pay for the 2,000 yuan missing.
Sounds a bit like a modern franchise. This practice was of great help to the government in improving the efficiency of implementation in the economic field, so during the Song and Song dynasties, wine, salt, tea, vinegar, commercial taxes, government procurement, and official land sales were almost all carried out through the method of "buying and selling". In order to maintain fairness, a bidding system called "real seal bidding" was created in response to the "buy-and-buy" system, and its extraordinary business wisdom has influenced it to this day.
There is a strict step process design for "real sealing and casting".
First of all, the state government presiding over the auction has to evaluate the "target" (such as the three-year operating right of a certain winery) and set the bottom of the bid. The bid floor is usually the second highest or median price of previous auctions, or the market price of similar items. And in densely populated prominent places, they will be publicized and informed. Officials and merchants who are unable to provide collateral and guarantors are not allowed to participate in the bidding. Later, as more and more projects were introduced, in order to prevent monopoly, ordinary people, businessmen, and families were allowed to "jointly bid".
When the announcement is made to bid for the day, the state government will make a batch of special locking wooden cabinets and send them to the counties and towns, and anyone who intends to bid can fill in their bidding prices and seal them and put them into the cabinets. This is also the origin of the name "real seal and cast".
As soon as the specified deadline is reached, the wooden cabinet is immediately transported back to the state government for bid evaluation. The opening of the wooden cabinet is public, and the state government will send multiple officials to reveal it on the spot and allow the public to view it. Usually the highest price will be taken to win the bid, if the highest price is the same person, based on the bidding time marked on the actual cover. If the winning bidder repents, a fine of 10% of his bid will be imposed. If there is no bidder after opening, the government will lower the bid floor and announce the tender again.
After the winning bidder is determined, it will be publicized and subject to public supervision. Finally, the government will issue a "public certificate" to the winning bidder, the time of the conclusion of the contract, and the rights and obligations to be clearly entitled.
Due to the business risks, the government will set some soft policies. For example, in the event of a natural disaster, the government will generally grant the right to operate [juān] exemption, and even if someone pays a higher price during the period of signing the management right, the government cannot take it back and transfer it. One year before the expiration of the contract, the original contractor will also be asked whether to renew the contract, and the price of the renewal will usually be discounted, if the money is not enough, you can also "pay in installments", "limited to two years". If no one renews the contract, a new tender will be tendered.
In the later period, with the proliferation of the "buy-and-buy" system, the corruption of officials inevitably led to many drawbacks, such as forcibly "apportioning" businessmen to buy and buy when there was no one to buy. When the buyer does not operate well, it is compulsory to collect the profit of the buyer in accordance with the agreement. As a result, the buyer went bankrupt, and even the records of the guarantor were not uncommon. However, it seems that today, through the implementation of the "actual seal and vote" system, the openness, fairness and transparency of the buying process have been ensured to the greatest extent, and the income of the Song Dynasty government has been greatly increased, and it is a complete set of economic operation systems that are ahead of the world. It not only provided important support for the economic development and commercial prosperity of the Song Dynasty, but also provided an economic development model and institutional model for later generations to learn from, benefiting the millennium.