In order to get the vacant official position, grabbing money makes historians borrow money cheerfully and compete with each other. Emperor Taizong's usury business is also thriving and colorful.
Contemporary people are familiar with Chu Suiliang, not because he worked as a remonstrator and secretary in Li Shimin of Emperor Taizong, but because Wang Xizhi's Preface to Lanting, which he copied, is the most famous calligraphy textbook in contemporary times. In addition to these, what is even less known is that Chu Suiliang also opposed Tang Taizong's granting of usury and organized officials to do business in the sea, which had a considerable impact on the monetary lending activities in the early Tang Dynasty.
Little known is that Chu Suiliang also opposed Emperor Taizong's granting usury and organizing officials to go to sea for business, which had a considerable impact on the monetary lending activities in the early Tang Dynasty.
In 626 AD, Li Shimin, king of Qin, launched the Xuanwu Gate Revolution, killing his younger brother, Prince Li Chengjian, and his younger brother, Li Yuanji, king of Qi. His father, Tang Gaozu Li Yuan, was scared to take a back seat, giving up the throne and hiding in Da 'an Palace as the emperor's father. Therefore, Li Shimin ascended the throne for Emperor Taizong, changed his title to Zhenguan, and began the famous Zhenguan rule.
In the twenty-third year of Zhenguan, there were frequent wars in the world, and Tang Jun invaded the east and killed the west, which was invincible: in the three years of Zhenguan, Tang Jun defeated the East Turkistan; In the ninth year of Zhenguan, Tang Jun killed Tuguhun; In the fourteenth year of Zhenguan, Tang Jun destroyed the Gaochang regime and reorganized Gaochang's ruling area into Xizhou. In the eighteenth year of Zhenguan, Tang Jun destroyed Yanqi; In the nineteenth year of Zhenguan, Emperor Taizong personally went to North Korea and returned in vain. In the twenty years of Zhenguan, Tang Jun destroyed Xue Yantuo in Mobei and handed over the Tiele Department of Xue Yantuo. In the twenty-first and twenty-second years of Zhenguan, Tang Jun attacked North Korea twice; In the twenty-second year of Zhenguan, Tang Jun attacked Qiuci.
Successive military victories made the troops of the Tang Dynasty awesome to the world. At one time, four foreigners came to South Korea, and officials invited Emperor Taizong to worship Mount Tai and tell the world. Emperor Taizong was very happy, but a pot of cold water poured down, and Wei Zhi came out to tell him that Mount Tai had gone to hell:
Today, from Iraq, east of Luoyang, and near the sea, it is vast, thousands of miles away, and people are cut off, chickens and dogs are not heard, roads are depressed, and they are in a dilemma.
Because of the war, even the vast and fertile areas of the Yellow River basin have become wilderness, with difficult roads and lack of supplies, making it impossible to walk. Emperor Taizong had no choice but to give up the idea of worshipping Mount Tai.
The war losses are quite huge, young and middle-aged people are on the battlefield, and normal production has long been stagnant. Even though we can plunder living materials from distant borders or foreign countries, it is impossible to transport these materials to China for use due to the long-distance transportation cost. At that time, most social materials had been put into military use, the whole country was in poverty, the people kept their homes open at night, thieves stopped working, and the crime rate almost dropped to zero.
In addition to the poverty of the whole country, a large number of people died in the war of aggression against other nationalities, Tang Taizong's dynasty seems to be a perfect dynasty: politically tolerant, benevolent and remonstrant; Enlightened and enterprising in culture, making music and repairing history; In terms of art, he has made great achievements in poetry, calligraphy, dance and painting. As for the propaganda work, it has reached an unprecedented peak. Minister Tang Taizong's reputation spread all over the world, leaving countless well-known stories.
In the history of China, the Zhenguan period was the poorest, and this view seems to be the knowledge of later generations. Until the Northern Song Dynasty, people had to give examples to illustrate the poverty situation of an era, taking Zhenguan as a model. During the Northern Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi wanted to circulate two yuan in the capital, but Song Shenzong was worried about letting foreigners know that the Song Dynasty was poor and looked down upon it. Wang Anshi explained that poverty is not shameful:
Since ancient times, emperors such as Emperor Taizong and Zhou Taizong have been extremely poor, but why should they be ashamed?
The court issued usury. From the battle of Li Yuan at the end of Sui Dynasty to the foreign war in Zhenguan period, the war lasted for more than 30 years. The Tang dynasty spent countless war funds, and the fiscal and taxation dried up, so it had to earn a little money to compensate. In the fifteenth year of Zhenguan, Emperor Taizong led the court to issue usury and earned a little interest.
Emperor Taizong's method of issuing usury is not to organize a loan company, but to designate a borrower.
Emperor Taizong's method of issuing usury is not to organize a loan company, but to designate a borrower. It's a wonderful way to expand financial business to identify the borrower first and then lend it. Ordinary people can't afford to borrow money, or they can't afford to borrow money. Emperor Taizong organized government loans at all levels and appointed nine staff members as the main body of natural person loans in various governments. The official title of the book is "The History of Grasping Money". Each arresting officer borrows 50,000 pence from the court and pays 48,000 pence of interest to the court every year, with an annual interest rate of 96%. This interest rate did not break through the moral standard that the ancestors' interest could not exceed the capital, so Tang Taizong's usury business was done with dignity and peace of mind.
In order to encourage historians to repay interest, Emperor Taizong put them on standby in the official department, and after paying interest for one year, he could appoint vacant official positions. In order to get the vacant official position, grabbing money makes historians borrow money cheerfully and compete with each other. Emperor Taizong's usury business is also thriving and colorful.
The purpose of Emperor Taizong's usury was not only to earn a little money, but more importantly, there were no salaries for civil and military officials at that time, and the administrative funds of government offices at all levels were insufficient. The interest earned by the court from usury is used to pay the salaries of officials and the daily administrative expenses of government offices at all levels.
Taking money makes historians go into business. Seizing wealth made historians borrow usurious funds from the imperial court to do business in the sea and pursue profits. This mode of operation was not initiated by Emperor Taizong, but rose in the Sui Dynasty and was called public money.
In addition to the poverty of the whole country, a large number of people died in the war of aggression against other nationalities, and the dynasty of Emperor Taizong seemed to be a perfect dynasty.
Government is the floorboard of ancient government offices, and public funds are the capital borrowed by officials from the court. Officials operate with public funds, and the profits are used to solve people's livelihood problems, supplement the administrative expenses of government agencies, and form a public fund management model. However, once the public money management model comes into being, it becomes a controversial thing.
In the 14th year of Emperor Wendi (AD 594), Su Xiaoci, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, criticized some officials for using public funds to lend money for profit, disturbing the people and ruining customs, so he sued the court to restrict the use of public funds. Out of agricultural humanitarianism, Su Xiaoci advocated limiting the use of public funds to the management of agriculture. In the seventeenth year of Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty, a decree was issued, allowing the capital and local governments to trade and run businesses in various markets with public funds, but they were not allowed to lend or collect interest with public funds.
The salaries of officials in the Tang Dynasty were far less than those in the Sui Dynasty, and government departments and counties all over the country set up public fields to provide public and private expenses. In the future, the expenses of government offices at all levels were still insufficient, so the government offices of various departments in Beijing set up public funds to give them to officials for business, and charged interest as the salaries of government officials.
In the twelfth year of Zhenguan, Emperor Taizong cancelled the public capital. In the fifteenth year of Zhenguan, Emperor Taizong restored the public capital, standardized it, and added a history of grasping money.
With capital and instructions from the imperial court, historians began to do business in the sea under the banner of the imperial court and trade with the people. When dealing with people, officials represent different interests and have different legal status. In modern legal language, the relationship between them is not the relationship between equal civil subjects. People can't deal with officials equally. The people are naturally reluctant, but the government has great power and the people have to reluctantly obey. Moreover, grasping money makes historians bear the usury of the court. They can't do it if they don't make money. They want to trade, make money, have the conditions to do it, and do it without creating conditions. As a result, the trend of strong buying and selling is rising, and the commodity economy is declining.
With the help of the imperial edict, the brutal history of grasping money can get a lot of money from the people; The good pursuit of money makes Shi unwilling to take money from the people, so he pays the interest of usury out of his own pocket, or he can make up for the vacancy of the official position. Therefore, grasping money to create history has become a shortcut for officials, causing strong dissatisfaction among intellectual officials.