Carefree Prince In Tang Dynasty

For a long time, merchants were not welcomed by scholar-bureaucrats. The most critical reason is that these Confucian scholar-bureaucrats believe that the profit-seeking behavior of businessmen is contrary to their ultimate pursuit of "benevolence". From their point of view, how can these villains who are in the eye of money deserve to be compared with them who read sage books?

In addition, since Dong Zhongshu, all dynasties have exclusively respected Confucianism, and these scholars have always held the political discourse power. So it is conceivable that businessmen would have the social status they have today. Merchants not only could not take part in the imperial examination, but even wearing gorgeous clothes made of silk violated the law. These were all designed to humiliate the merchants and help the policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce be implemented.

If Li Xin was a Tang man through and through, perhaps he would also have one way or another prejudice against businessmen. But he is not. His body hides the soul from the afterlife, which contains the liberated thoughts. He knows how important the economy and people's livelihood are to a country, and how important a group of businessmen is to a country's economy and people's livelihood. Today, he must speak for the merchants in front of so many self-righteous scholar-bureaucrats.

Seeing that no one answered his question just now, Li Xin looked around casually and continued, "I know that many adults think that businessmen value profits and don't do production. It's the blood-sucking worms on the people."

"Isn't it?" Han Donghua didn't wait for Li Xin to finish, and then said again, "Businessmen value profit, and treachery abounds. Everyone should criticize it! Why is the King of Chu doing business without shame? Could it be that he read it? Have you read all the sage books for so many years?"

Li Xin was dumbfounded. He really wanted to go up and hold Han Donghua's hand and express his gratitude properly.

How can there be such a cooperative person in the world? As soon as you slapped him on the left cheek, he turned his face away and forgot, immediately felt that the weather had cleared and the rain had stopped, and he was fine again, and then obediently offered his right cheek. For this kind of people, Li Xin could only raise his palm full of gratitude, and give them a headache with tears in his eyes. Perhaps only in this way can they learn to keep silent in areas they are not familiar with.

Han Donghua didn't know what was going on in Li Xin's mind, he thought it was because he said it cleverly, and there was a trace of complacency on his face, as if he had washed away the shame of being speechless just now.

Although he was confident, Li Xin was not in a hurry to respond, but rather sad. Because he heard someone among the officials echoing Han Donghua's remarks in a low voice. This is the court! The people standing here are Datang's first-class smart people. If they don't understand business and economics, what is the future of Datang?

Han Donghua's mentally retarded and idiot-like remarks can be echoed by others, how can people not be sad and desperate?

Li Shimin on the throne has been paying attention to Li Xin's expression. With his eyesight, it is not difficult to see the disappointment on Li Xin's face.

Although he didn't understand why Li Xin was disappointed, at that moment, Li Shimin suddenly felt embarrassed. The way Li Xin looked at the officials made him feel that these so-called important officials under him were all ridiculous like monkeys.

"Xin'er, Xin'er, you are a disciple of a fairy, so you are naturally extremely intelligent. After all, these people in the court are mortal with naked eyes, so don't ask too much of them." Li Shimin sat on the ground with a blank expression on his face. There was no expression on his face, and he didn't speak, just talking to himself with some self-deprecating in his heart, as if to comfort Li Xin.

Of course Li Xin couldn't hear these words. In fact, Li Xin's disappointment only got out of control for a moment.

He calmed down quickly.

In theory, Datang is still a feudal small-scale peasant economy, and agriculture is the pillar industry. In this economic context, it is inherently difficult to breed insightful economists. Coupled with the endless exaggeration of Confucianism, scholars who are capable of studying economic laws disdain to study these things, and it is understandable that no one understands the group of businessmen. Some concepts that seemed ridiculous to Li Xin were taken for granted in the eyes of the courtiers. This is not surprising.

For example, many people cannot understand price changes and the added value of commodities. They don't understand why white rice is so cheap. It can be sold for a little more money if it is made into rice cakes, but if it is made into fried rice, especially the fried rice on the first floor, it will be more expensive. In order to cover up their ignorance, they label this normal profit-making behavior as "sucking the blood of the people"-clearly knowing that the rice is grown by farmers! Why are businessmen making more money instead? The money should have been earned by farmers!

This also gave birth to the important idea of ​​emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce—as long as we suppress commerce, wouldn’t the money that should have been earned by the farmers but was earned by the merchants return to the hands of the farmers?

It's really great.

Apart from applauding, Li Xin really didn't know what to say.