Fan Zhongyan was famous for his "Records of Yueyang Lou" and "Celebrating the New Deal", and he was also a good hand at economic work.
According to the "Mengxi Pen Talk", in the second year of Emperor Renzong of Song, a great famine occurred in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, and countless starvations were lost. As has been the case, it is necessary to save money to help the victims of the disaster. Fan Zhongyun, who was the Taishou of Hangzhou at the time, went against tradition and came up with a "big move" that was ingenious and effective.
The sky over Jiuli Village, Tianmushan Town, Lin'an District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, is shrouded in clouds. Photo by Hu Jianhuan (Zhongjing Vision)
01 Increase investment and provide employment
At that time, Buddhism was prevalent and the temples were rich, and Lao Fan summoned the abbots and monks of various monasteries and reminded them: "During the famine years, the wages of migrant workers are the lowest, and it is very cost-effective to take advantage of this opportunity to repair the temple." ”
As a result, civil engineering construction in various monasteries flourished, and the government also renovated warehouses and official residences, employing more than 1,000 craftsmen and men every day. In this way, it not only reduces the disaster relief budget and administrative costs, but also increases the income of the disaster victims with work-for-relief, and in the long run, it can also avoid the disturbance of the people's strength caused by the repair of the normal year.
02 Expand consumption and stimulate production
Lao Fan led the organization of large-scale dragon boat competitions, from spring to summer" "vertical people racing". The local people originally liked this, and they had money in their hands, and they followed the Taishou boat on the lake, watching the game and drinking, and the area around the West Lake was not bustling.
With the prosperity of tourism and cultural and sports undertakings, the vast number of individual industrial and commercial households in the scenic spot have made a lot of money and continuously expanded the scale of operation, and Hangzhou's transportation industry, catering industry, and service industry have continued to develop in the disaster year.
03 Adjust prices and balance supply and demand
During the famine season, the government will generally stabilize the price of grain and prevent profiteers from hoarding and living in strange places, and another consequence is that there is no grain to buy in the market.
Lao Fan used administrative means to raise grain prices, so that the grain prices in Hangzhou were much higher than the national average price, and "attracted merchants from all over the world to compete for rice." A large amount of grain poured into Hangzhou, and grain prices naturally fell, and the people's hearts and minds were stabilized.
Old Fan's ideas for economic work are so outstanding that it is expected to attract opposition.
A superintendent participated in his book: "Hangzhou does not sympathize with the absurd government, does not play in moderation, and builds public and private buildings, hurting and draining people's strength." ”
Fortunately, Song Renzong was also a wise emperor, who knew people to make good use of them, understood Lao Fan's painstaking heart, waved his hand and said: "You don't understand, people are here for disaster relief!" ”
Facts have also proved that the disaster areas under Lao Fan's rule "do not migrate the people", the society is stable, and the famine is safe.
Tourists walk in the Tianmu Mountain Scenic Area of Lin'an District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province. Photo by Hu Jianhuan (Zhongjing Vision)
Fan Zhongyan's "three strategies for absurd government" still echoes under a thousand years.
During the Qing Dynasty, when the people's livelihood was in a drought in northern China, the Englishman Richard Timothy wrote to Ding Baozhen, the inspector of Shandong, proposing to use work for relief, build railways, mine minerals, and open a grain ban to attract grain imports to stabilize grain prices. This is the same as Fan Zhongyan's approach. Whether the results are obvious or not, it can be seen from the fact that Richard Timothy was later awarded the honor of "top wear of the head" and "three generations of honors" by the Qing court.
Time traveled, to the United States in 1933. Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had just been elected president, faced a bleakness in the midst of the Great Depression: most banks collapsed, industrial production fell 56 percent from 1929, 13 million people were unemployed, and farmers were extremely poor. A "big move" in Roosevelt's New Deal is also to expand investment and work for relief. Running schools, setting up post offices, building ports, building bridges, building airports, laying sewers and culverts, building water supply systems, barrages, medical facilities... These projects, which private companies could not reach, invested more than 30,000 yuan in them, and the entire Face of the United States changed and laid the foundation for later prosperity. Moreover, with more jobs, the dignity and confidence of ordinary people are gradually returning. Hopkins, who was in charge of the work, was overjoyed to hear the women say, "We don't rely on relief anymore, my husband is working for the government."
Keynesian research found that government increased investment in infrastructure construction, often bringing about several times the total social demand and national income of the investment, thus playing a "multiplier effect".
In his 1936 general theory of employment, interest, and money, he started with the "principle of effective demand" and concluded that "shrinking investment has led to a sharp decline in total income and total employment", and therefore advocated that "the correct cure for the business cycle is not to reduce prosperity, but to make depression disappear".
Yueyang Tower under the brush of the ancients. Fan Zhongyan's "Records of Yueyang Lou" is written in ancient and beautiful texts. (Visual China)
Fan Zhongyun, Timothy and Roosevelt, although they do not have theoretical reserves in this regard, are undoubtedly genius practitioners in this regard. With a precise vision of the operation of the economy, they have formulated the correct expansion strategy and played a key role in coping with the economic downturn.
Of course, there are also negative examples.
The Great Song Dynasty later passed into the hands of Emperor Huizong, and in order to collect and transport the "Flower stone class", build large ships, conscript servitude, destroy people's houses, repair gardens, and the normal transportation related to the people's livelihood of the country was squeezed aside. This kind of large-scale expenditure seriously squeezes and hurts the manpower and material resources of civilian production, and can neither strengthen the country nor enrich the people.
The issue of effective investment, ineffective investment and negative investment is another topic.
Source/Economic Daily On WeChat (Author Qi Dongxiang)