I Have a Request Your Majesty Chapter 23

Emperor Zhou looked at it and thought, Damn, this money is so profitable. Guan Zhong said: "This is easy to do. Let me help you use jade and green grass to refer to nobility. What is the difference between using diamonds to refer to love and luxury goods to mark class differences now? Who can let the world have this kind of proof that they are different from others? The need to be different and superior to others is not that the Birkin bag is worth hundreds of thousands, but that someone needs it to be worth hundreds of thousands in order to prove that they have more money. The price is not physical, but psychological. Guan Zhong played this very well. , he simply encouraged luxury consumption to stimulate domestic demand.

As prime minister, he took the lead in extravagance and built his own mansion according to the specifications of a seven-star hotel in Dubai. Sima Qian wrote "The Biography of Guan Yan" and mentioned a very interesting phenomenon. Guan Zhong was richer than Duke Huan of Qi, and his villa was more luxurious than the palace (American politicians would not dare to be so high-profile about this). However, the people of Qi did not think he was extravagant--perhaps, under Guan Zhong's governance, the people of Qi were very happy. Since they are all corrupt officials, it is better to choose someone who does practical things.

At that time, the State of Qi, just like the United States now, acted as the world's police, killing anyone who didn't like it. The next goal was to take down the State of Lu and the State of Liang. People in these two countries like to wear a kind of silk called "绨". Guan Zhong personally served as the producer and shot a blockbuster fashion advertisement in the style of "The Founding of the People's Republic of China". The difference was that the actors were not entertainment stars, but the monarch himself, Duke Huan of Qi, and important officials in the court. They all wore high-end clothes made of trousers. Customized fashions are broadcast every day during prime time on TV. The people of Qi State were very excited. They felt that this thing was so noble and glamorous, and everyone wanted to wear it. The kings of Lu and Liang saw that it was profitable, and asked the whole country to weave silk, and they did not even bother with agricultural production. When the time came, Guan Zhong planned a new season fashion conference, with Duke Huan of Qi leading the main show - this time wearing silk. Guan Zhong was so evil that he directly promulgated a new decree prohibiting the import of grain throughout the country and no longer exporting grain to Lu and Liang. At this time, Lu and Liang both had money but could not buy food. Famine broke out, and the victims fled to Qi one after another. Lu and Liang lost most of their national power. This story also has a unique name, "Subjugate Silk to Luliang". Similar tricks include buying a deer to subjugate Chu, buying a fox to surrender, etc. ------ Guan Zhong played with financial strategies and played online games. Like, why are everyone else so obedient and so cooperative with the script?

Another thing Guan Zhong did made people even more suspicious of his time-travel identity. He made Qi a large-scale special economic zone and offered various preferential policies to attract foreign businessmen. The first is the tilt in tariffs. "What is levied at the customs level shall not be levied at the city; and what is levied at the city shall not be levied at the customs." For foreign businessmen, there will be no duplication of taxes; the tax rate will be as low as "one in fifty", " Guan Fu "take one out of a hundred"; even in some periods, tariffs were directly exempted. Darling, if tariffs were waived now, the price of imported cars would be half cheaper. Secondly, the State of Qi also built a guest house for foreign businessmen to encourage them to bring more goods to Qi for sale. It stipulated that if you bring one cart of goods, you will be treated to a meal for free; if you bring three carts of goods, you will be provided with free horse feed; if you bring five carts of goods, you will be given free food. It is so considerate of you to have a housekeeper and maid. Ban Gu described the state of Qi in the "Book of Han" as "the crown, the clothes, the world", which shows how developed the commercial circulation was at that time, and it was a shopping paradise for ancient costumes.

Duke Huan of Qi is not satisfied. Can he make more money and be more arrogant in front of the princes? He was crazy about money and proposed to simply tax houses, trees, livestock, and people. Guan Zhong said, no need to do so. Excessive taxation can easily arouse public resentment, so more clever and less traceable methods must be used. He proposed the salt and iron monopoly system for the first time in Chinese history - monopolizing salt and iron, two daily necessities. This method was used for more than two thousand years, especially in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and the income from salt classes became The second largest source of finance for the imperial court after land tax.