<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="1" > mention Fan Zhongyun, people will first think of his sentence "the world is worried and worried, and the world is happy and happy", indeed, Fan Zhongyun is well known for his image as a literary scholar. But in fact, Fan Zhongyan not only has literary talent, but also has a lot of economic acumen, he used modern economic means to resolve two economic crises in Hangzhou Taishou, showing extraordinary economic talent.
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Fan Zhongyun
When Fan Zhongyan was in charge of Hangzhou, it coincided with a famine in Zhejiang, the price of grain soared, and the people cried bitterly.
According to common sense, the official government should use administrative means to stabilize prices at this time, but Fan Zhongyan's actions are very puzzling, not only does he not stabilize prices, but instead asks the vendors to raise the price of grain to one hundred and eighty yuan per bucket. Everyone didn't understand what Fan Zhongyan was doing, but they didn't dare to disagree. The next development of the matter surprised everyone: the news of the increase in the price of grain in Hangzhou soon spread to all directions, and when grain merchants from many places saw that it was profitable, they transported the grain to Hangzhou day and night; after the market was saturated, the price naturally fell, and the people of Hangzhou spent the famine year safely, and it turned out that this was fan Zhongyun's cleverness, because he knew: If there is less, the price will be higher: once the amount is more, the price will go down. This law discovered by Fan Zhongyan is called "perfect competition" in economics, also known as "pure competition," and is a market structure that is not hindered or interfered with in any way, and the prices of commodities are completely regulated by the market.
During the song dynasty, there was another great famine in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the people were displaced and fled everywhere.
It is reasonable to say that Fan Zhongyan, as a Taishou, should raise money and grain in many ways and increase relief efforts, but Fan Zhongyan has done some things that make people wonder: At present, he has organized various forms of rowing competitions and held grand ceremonies, and he himself has taken boats back and forth between the rivers and the sea every day to watch the events, and under his organization and proposal, the smoke boat competition has been in full swing, from spring to summer, the banks of the rivers are lively and lively, and the events are continuous: many rich merchants believe in Buddhism, and Fan Zhongyan gathers the abbots of various temples. Mobilizing them to build temples, he said: "In the year of famine, the price of work is cheap, which is conducive to engineering and construction. As a result, temples in various places began to carry out large-scale engineering construction and renovation of temples, and some large households, seeing that the wages were so cheap, also began to repair granaries and houses, which were opposed by many people, believing that in the year of the catastrophe, he ignored the sufferings of the people, but vigorously engaged in events and built a large number of civil engineering... Some people went to the court and impeached Fan Zhongyan.
After the imperial court received the recital, it asked Fan Zhongyan to explain. Fan Zhongyan said: "In the year of the catastrophe, displaced people are everywhere, for the sake of long-term planning, we must find a way for the disaster victims, find a way to let them have work, and be able to earn a living money by themselves, this is the best policy, I advocate and encourage rowing competitions, because boats are used in the competition, the merchants who sponsor the competition have to take out money to build ships, shipbuilding needs to be employed, and refugees have work to do." During the competition, it is also necessary to have labor, so that the victims can find a job. I have built a lot of civil engineering, which is also the truth, through the construction of the project, I can solve the employment problem of many people... In this way, those who have no food to eat will have work to do, and will not solve the problem of eating? "
After receiving this report, the imperial court understood Fan Zhongyan's good intentions, so instead of punishing him, they praised him. Fan Zhongyan's approach can be summarized by modern economics, that is, "stimulating domestic demand". In that era, it was possible to solve disasters by stimulating domestic demand, a modern economic concept, which is very avant-garde even today, thousands of years later.