He is a minister, a military master, an idol of Zhuge Liang, he understands monopoly, will speculate, is the originator of economic warfare, he is like a crosser, strategic vision far beyond the era in which he lives, and now the means that capital is keen on are all played by him, those American politicians who open their mouths and shut up trade wars and economic wars can only be regarded as his disciples and disciples at best, he is the economic tycoon Guan Zhong in the Spring and Autumn Period, and today we want to talk about his most classic trading cases, let's see how he is, without spending a single soldier, Drag down a country's economy.
Guan Zhong
At that time, Guan Zhong was in the State of Qi, the boss was the famous Duke of Qi Huan, the State of Qi had a neighboring country called the State of Lu, the development was very good, the Duke of Qi Huan saw the eyes, so he consulted Guan Zhong's father to see if he could find a way to annex the State of Lu.
Here to say, Qi Huan respectfully called Guan Zhong "Zhong Father", so there is nothing wrong with calling Guan Zhong's father.
Guan Zhong listened, small things, just do as I said. After that, in accordance with Guan Zhong's request, Qi Huangong began to wear clothes made of Lu Miao, which was a kind of cloth made by Lu Miao, very light and thin, and there was a saying that "the end of the strong crossbow cannot wear Lu Miao", which is what it is said.
Qi Huangong in the film and television drama
Qi Huangong seems to like the clothes made by Lu Miao very much, wearing them for eating, office, shopping, and meetings. You know, in that simple era, the king of a country is the trend benchmark of the whole country, the fashion idol, so the ministers of the State of Qi have followed suit, and then, the low-level people have seen the officials and grandfathers dressed like this, and also followed the example, and because they are at the forefront of fashion and complacent, after all, this Lu Mu how to say also belongs to imported goods, wearing is foreign, just like this, the whole country of Qi has blown a lu wind.
In the face of such a large number of users, Lu Mu is in short supply, and the price is rubbing up. At this time, Guan Zhong issued an order that the Qi people were not allowed to produce Lu Mu themselves, and could only import it from the State of Lu.
At this time, the people of Luguo were very happy, and many people summed up, and this weaving Lu could make more money than farming, so they put down the hoes in their hands and changed from peasants to textile workers.
Next, Guan Zhong gave another dose of fierce medicine, and he shouted to Lu Guo, saying that Qi Guo needed a large number of Lu Mu, and whoever could send 1,000 horses could get an additional reward: 300 jin of gold. This gold, of course, is not real gold, but copper.
When the people of the Country of Lu heard that there was such a good thing, the King of the State of Lu could not sit still, and he immediately ordered that the whole people should be woven, and no one should plant the land, and it is only a few dollars to cultivate the land. A year later, Guan Zhong sent people to the state of Lu to inquire about the situation, and learned that everyone in the country of Lu was weaving, so he issued another order that all the people in the state of Qi should not wear clothes made of Lu, and closed the trade checkpoints between Qi and Lu, and cut off trade with the state of Lu.
LuMmy
At first, the Lu people didn't feel anything, but soon they began to panic, why? Because they have no food.
Because all the Lu people were thrown into the vigorous textile tide, the fields were uncultivated and deserted, and every family had no grain to save, and only money was left. But the problem is that money can't buy grain, the State of Qi has closed the trade channel, and neighboring countries have not sold grain to them, which has led to a surge in grain prices in the country.
The king of the state of Lu began to be anxious, let the people start to plant the land, but the planting of land must also follow the laws of nature, crops have a growth cycle, it is impossible to plant it to harvest, and the land has been barren for a long time, it needs to be reclaimed, the people of the country of Lu can be hungry at this time, which has the strength to toss these.
After another 8 months, the country of Lu was starving everywhere, the national economy was on the verge of collapse, and the price of grain had risen to 1,000 yuan a stone.
Guan Zhong felt that the time was ripe, you can close the net, he lowered the grain price in the territory of the State of Qi, are you not 1,000 yuan a stone, I am 10 money a stone, 100 times the difference, the people of the Country of Lu are stupid, who can stand it, so between Qilu, staged a large-scale costume immigration drama "The Temptation of Grain", 60% of the people of the State of Lu are attached to the State of Qi.
Three years later, the economy collapsed, and the monarch of the State of Lu, who had lost everyone's hearts, could not bear it and was forced to submit to the State of Qi.
Guan Zhong did not spend a soldier and a pawn, only a Lu Mu dragged down a country's economy, this kind of means, God's skill, after that, he repeated the same technique, successively relying on the same technique, the soldiers did not bloodlessly conquer the Hengshan State, chu State and other opponents, and this also warns us that the rice bowl must be in their own hands, food security is national security, the red line of 1.8 billion mu of cultivated land must be adhered to, and we must also pay attention to avoiding the unification of its own economic structure, just like the Lu State, the whole country relies on textiles, once it is stuck in the neck, It's not far from an economic collapse.
In addition to economic warfare, Guan Zhong is also good at using monopoly, speculation and other means to turn stones into gold and accumulate wealth, just as capital speculates on traffic stars now, the difference is that capital speculates on people, and Guan Zhong speculates on a bunch of stones.
After the State of Qi was strong at that time, it played the banner of "Zun Wang Zhiyi", this king refers to the Zhou Tianzi, nominally speaking, all the princely states including the State of Qi, the subsidiary of the Zhou Dynasty under this large group, the State of Qi played the banner of "Zun Wang", that is, it occupied the great righteousness, stood on the moral high ground, and then wanted to deal with anyone, that is, the master was famous, casually pinched, and Cao Cao's "blackmail of the Heavenly Son to order the princes" is almost the same reason.
However, the king of Zun is not shouting slogans, you have to take practical action, so the Duke of Qi Huan is ready to carry out an activity, led by him to worship the Great Zhou Tai Temple, but the problem also comes, engaging in activities is to ask for money, and who takes the lead in who pays money, others can not follow you aa, but at this time the Treasury of the State of Qi is not so rich, so qi Huangong found Guan Zhong's father.
Guan Zhong let Qi Huangong bring people to a place called Yinli, where there is a kind of stone material, which is specially used to make the stone bi used for royal sacrifices, according to Guan Zhong's arrangement, Qi Huangong led people to build a city here, how strong the city wall is, three layers outside the three layers, highlighting a thick skin, solid soup. Then a large number of craftsmen were found, and the stone was carved into a special stone bi for sacrifice, and according to the size of the stone bi, different prices were marked, the larger the more expensive, the small size, well, not cheap.
Stone Bi
After the carving of Shi Bi was completed, Duke Huan of Qi found Zhou Tianzi again and said that these princes fought and killed every day, which was too bad to pay attention to you at all, so I wanted to take them to worship the Taimiao Temple to show respect for the Zhou royal family.
Zhou Tianzi heard that this was a good thing, but he was a little hesitant, who is the funding for this activity? Qi Huangong patted his chest, we were all inclusive, but there was a condition, the princes must carry Tong Bow and Shi Bi when they worshiped, otherwise they could not participate, Zhou Tianzi of course had no opinion, and happily agreed.
After the news of the pilgrimage to the Temple was released, the princes all began to make preparations, and it was well known that there were materials for making stone bi in the yin, but when everyone came to the yin, they looked at the high city wall, and they were all dumbfounded.
The enraged princes sent in troops to fight down the yin, but Guan Zhong had expected all this, the walls of the yin were very strong, and the besieging army returned without success, and in desperation, the major princes could only buy stone bi from the state of Qi.
In fact, this pilgrimage to the Taimiao is not necessarily indispensable, but there is a saying that "worship is not terrible, who is embarrassed", on weekdays, all the princes claim to be royal bloodline, this really wants to worship the ancestors, how can it be absent, and this kind of high-end bureau, but all the princes with heads and faces want to participate, show their status, who really can't participate because of a stone bi, that is a disgrace.
Therefore, although the price of shibi in the State of Qi was ridiculously high, the major princes could only drop their teeth and swallow into their stomachs, and endure the pain of cutting meat.
In this way, a pile of stones was speculated by Guan Zhong to a sky-high price, and in exchange for a large amount of wealth, for the next 8 years, the State of Qi did not collect a penny of tax from the people, but the national treasury was always full.
Using public opinion to speculate and using monopoly to plunder wealth is a common means used by some capital and Western countries today, and as a grandmaster-level figure here, Guan Zhong's operations may give us some warnings.