The Government's Intervention Study Of Commodity Economy In Tang Dynasty

Economy is the foundation of political rule. Any country and any government would more or less intervene in or regulate the development of social economy, only in different historical conditions to choose different ways and means. The paper, choosing the government’s intervention on the commodity economy as the research object and applying the principle and method of history, philology, sociology and economics, tries to explore the ideological roots and the origin of state intervention policy of the commodity economy, and to narrate the policies and interventions of the Tang government on production, circulation and consumption both from official and private dimensions, and further to analyze the changes and relevant reasons between and the early Tang and late. Finally, using the theory of new institutional economics, we would make an overall interpretation on the intervention policy of the Tang Dynasty and reveal such issues as way and essence of the commodity economy’s institutional change. The following chapters briefly:The chapter one discusses the ideological and policy origin of ancient governments’intervention in commodity economy. The theory of QingZhong from GuanZi· QingZhong is an important ideological source of the ancient state interventionism. The theory of QingZhong argues that countries should enter the field of circulation and production of some commodities to intervene in and regulate the development of the national economy through using the circulation law of commodity and money. The theory of QingZhong which can be traced back to the spring and Autumn’s period, achieved further development in the period of the western Han Emperor Wudi in which such polices as national mint, monopoly of salt and iron, JunShu and PingZhun made the foundation for the theory of QingZhong’s forming."valuing agriculture and restraining commerce" is the ancient China’s traditional economic policy and the policy origin of ancient governments’intervention in commodity economy. In the agricultural society with the natural economy as the main composition, the government intervenes in business or the development of commodity economy under the orientation of the policy of valuing agriculture and restraining commerce. The ideas and policies of retraining commerce produced during the Warring States period, which, however, was put to the peak by the various measures of strengthening industrial and commercial control during the period of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, and finally formed the traditional mode of future policy of restraining ’commerce.The chapter two is about the government’s operation and management of official industry and commerce. The official handicraft industry in the Tang Dynasty was established to meet the needs of internal supply from the ruling class, and the government’s commodity production is only a small portion, which resulted in the less contact between the handcraft industry and commercial market. However, along with the social economic system’s changing and the commodity economy’s strengthening after the middle period of Tang Dynasty, the official handcraft industry had more linkages with market, mainly reflecting in the more willing hiring in labor supply and more willing buying in material supply. In the official business, the government participated directly in activities of commodity economy, and in fact, the official business was did with a strong financial profitability and mandatory after An-shih rebellion in the middle period of the Tang Dynasty. The main official business engaged by the rulers in the Tang Dynasty had such four forms as the state monopoly of direct trade, hoarding trade of Changping, money trade of official lending and the mandatory Hemai and Gongshi.The chapter three is about the government’s operation and management of folk commodity economy’s activities. In Tang Dynasty, the commodity economy developed in a higher level and the folk commodity economy boomed. The government’s intervention in the private economy covered widely from production to circulation of commodities, and from currency to businessmen, in which the government’s intervention policies participated. The intervention in commodity production distributed in agricultural field and private handicraft field, but the government’s intervention measures mainly reflected in the management and control on the folk handicraft. The intervention in commodity circulation mainly concluded the control of commodity circulation process and the management of commodity trading market. Currency is a medium of exchange, and merchants are the operators of realizing the value conversion of the commodities, so the government’s policies about currency and merchants constitute an important part of government’s intervention in folk commodity economy.The chapter four states the government’s policies of guiding and intervening in consuming goods. The trend of market consumption enhanced which was an important characteristic in the area of consumption economy in the Tang Dynasty, and the government’s intervention in consumption would affect the growing commodity consumption. In living consumption, the government made the consumption norms corresponding to the hierarchy, referring to the basic necessities of life such daily consumption as weddings and funerals, and so on. In producing consumption, in order to safeguard the agricultural production, the government had strict restrictions and management on the free trade of land, the free circulation of slaves and livestock and the killing of livestock. In the aspects of consumption concept and patterns, the intervention had adjusted along with the changing trend of social consumption, and the policy was advocated to transform from valuing frugality to restraining luxury.The chapter five mainly applys theories of the new institutional economics which has the famous Douglas north as one of the representative, such as "path dependence" theory, property rights theory, ideology theory and institutional change theory to explain the intervention policies and some changes implemented by the government on the commodity economy.Through the historical presentation and theoretical analysis, during early period of the Tang Dynasty, the government’s suppressing policies on business and businessmen were made under the traditional policy of valuing agriculture and restraining commerce, which could be regarded as the reflection of "path dependence" in the process of system evolution. After middle Tang Dynasty, the policies of intervention in commodity economy had changed, and meanwhile, some systems on commodity economy had also transformed. Through demonstrating the historical material and relative theory, the study thinks that the main pattern of institutional change was mandatory and was led by the government. The essence of such change was to import private property rights and clear the structure of property rights. In the process of institutional changes, the informal system mainly concluding ideology also changed, which had the same direction with the formal institutional change and promoted the institutional change.