I've found some great new stuff on the Salt and Iron monopolies as well as Court Conference debates in this source here:
Wagner, Donald B. (2001).
The State and the Iron Industry in Han China. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Publishing. ISBN 8787062836.
From my own website here at Wikipedia, where I have compiled notes that I intend to use for improving the main wiki article on the Han Dynasty, I will share with you now the information I have gleaned about these subjects in page-by-page format. This is some interesting stuff and I assure all that it is very interesting to read.
Here goes...
Before HanPage 1: In 120 BC, the salt industrialist Dongguo Xianyang and the iron industrialist Kong Jin were appointed as Assistants to the Minister of Agriculture; along with Sang Hongyang, a man of a wealthy merchant family, they oversaw revenues of government run industries in salt and iron. "In 117 BC they submitted a proposal for a state monopoly of the salt and iron industries."
Page 1-2: Wagner writes "The proposal was accepted, the monopoly was established, and thus began an immense upheaval in the Chinese iron industry which was long the subject of bitter contention. It has remained a matter of controversy through the centuries, as can be seen in discussions of it by Wang Anshi in connection with the New Policies of AD 1069 and by Thomas T. Read in an attack on Roosevelt's New Deal in 1935."
Page 4-5: It is known from inscriptions that Warring States Period kingdoms had officers in charge of bronze production, while archaeologists have discovered four State of Qi iron foundries at Linzi in Shandong where two of these were in the vicinity of the Qi palace, which has led Xu Xueshu to argue that they were under royal administration. Seals from the Western Han era found at the site also proclaim titles of men working for a Qi Kingdom iron office, which would signify iron smelting there before the iron monopoly of 117 BC. Therefore, state intervention in iron production was a continual process from the Warring States into the Han Dynasty period.
Page 5-7: From inscriptions on iron agricultural implements from the State of Yan found in an ancient foundry in Xinglong, Hebei, there is questionable evidence about Yan's involvement in the iron industry, but more substantial evidence comes from the State of Qin. In addition to evidence that Qin used private iron industrialists to enrich and bring areas up to production levels that benefited the government, there is 3rd century BC legal texts from a Qin tomb in Hubei found in 1975 which mention the penalty against iron extracting officers whose work or products were found to be substandard and not up to snuff.
Lead up to MonopolyPage 7-8: The salt and iron industries managed by the state were under the direction of the Privy Treasurer (shaofu), the person in the palace who managed the Emperor's finances as well as the royal household's finances. "The non-agricultural natural resources of the Empire were considered the Emperor's personal property and responsibility, and the income from their exploitation was for his personal use." Yet this was not strictly followed, especially by the time of Emperor Wen of Han, when the people were allowed to "cast coins, smelt iron, and boil salt." Besides personal favorites of the Emperor such as Deng Tong, the King of Wu engaged in copper gathering and salt industries, as the revenues gained in these allowed him to lower taxes and gain the loyalty of his local subjects. He was the leader of the Rebellion of the Seven States in 154 BC.
Page 8: The only direct and contemporaneous information we have about the lead up to the state's salt and iron monopolies comes from Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, as the Book of Han largely copies what Sima Qian had to say.
Page 9: Sima Qian claims that the breakdown of the state came when finances had to be raised to face the barbarian border peoples in battle, so that anyone who made financial contributions could be given official posts without merit; he says it got so bad that anyone who presented a sheep was given the position as a Court Gentleman (lang).
Page 9-10: At the beginning of the dynasty, merchants and tradesmen were barred from serving as officials; by Sima's time under Emperor Wu, some of the highest positions (i.e. Ministry of Agriculture) were held by those associated with the merchant class. Around 120 BC, Dongguo Xianyang, a salt-boiler of Qi (modern Shandong), and Kong Jin, a smelter from Nanyang (modern Nanyang, Henan), made fortunes from their businesses and were recommended to office by Zheng Dangshi, a Minister of Agriculture who had a canal built that linked the capital Chang'an with the Yellow River for expedient tax-grain transport. Sang Hongyang, a scion of a wealthy merchant family from Luoyang, was adept in arithmetic, and thus was made a Palace Attendant at the age of 13.
Page 11-12: Dongguo and Kong's proposal to the throne of establishing a monopoly was accepted in 117 BC on the grounds that the Emperor transferred his right to the resources of the land from his Privy Treasury to the Ministry of Agriculture (to supplement the poll tax), and that merchants dealing in these industries exploited the common people and obstructed affairs of state. Iron and salt were made monopolies together because iron vessels and cauldrons were needed to boil the salt. Anyone caught privately casting iron or boiling salt would be forced to wear a fetter on their left foot and have their equipment confiscated. However, the new offices of this monopoly invited the old merchants to take staff positions for the new monopoly, much to the detest of Confucians who did not want merchants in government positions.
Criticism of the MonopolyPage 13: In 110 BC the state created an "equable transportation" (junshu) system where price variation over time and from place to place was eliminated, an act which wealthy farmers complained about, accusing Sang Hongyang of putting government officials in market stalls and describing the government's iron as inferior in quality. In 100 BC, Dong Zhongshu also felt the need to complain in favor of agriculture, demanding that salt and iron be returned to the people.
Page 13-14: As complaints surfaced more and more, a Grand Inquest (Court Conference) was held in 81 BC at the behest of the regent general Huo Guang (d. 68 BC), since Emperor Zhao of Han was still a child at this point. It asked for all 'Worthies' (xianliang, people recommended by local authorities for possible appointments) and 'Scholars' (wenxue, people approved by the government for their literary competence) to assemble for a meeting to discuss how the people's suffering could be alleviated. The 'Worthies' represented the interests of the provincial elite while the 'Scholars' represented the interests of the central government.
Page 14: The result of this Court Conference was the abolition of the fermented liquor monopoly established in 98 BC while there was only a minor adjustment to the salt and iron monopolies: closing of the Iron Offices 'within the passes' (capital region). This debate became the subject for the book Discourses on Salt and Iron.
Page 15: Sang Hongyang was appointed as Imperial Counsellor (yushi dafu) in 87 BC by regent Huo Guang, as Sang's policies were largely intact after the 81 BC Court Conference. However, Sang was executed for treason against Huo in 80 BC, meaning his biography (hence a lot of info about the monopoly) was not included in the Book of Han.
Page 15: the Salt and Iron monopolies were abolished in 44 BC but reinstated in 41 BC, due to either of two reasons: the state still needed more revenues, or immediate privatization caused problems for the whole economy in a short period of time, prompting officials to revert back to the monopolistic system. No real changes were seen until the time of Wang Mang.
Wang Mang and Eastern HanPage 15-16: A lot of information about Wang Mang's salt and iron monopolies is unavailable due to the Book of Han's hostility towards its hated villain Wang Mang. It is known that it was one of his 'six controls' established in 10 AD. In 12 AD, severe penalties up to capital punishment were announced for violators of the law, which Wagner states is a clear sign that successful law and order was breaking down. In 22 BC, one of these 'six controls', the 'mountains and marshes', was lifted and not intended to be reinstated until 49 AD, although Wang Mang was killed long before that in 23 BC.
Page 16: Wagner writes: "The first century BC seems to have seen a gradual deterioration of the powers of the central government in favour of powerful families throughout the Empire, and Wang Mang's reforms should probably be seen as a last-ditch attempt to reassert central authority. After Wang Mang's fall and the Restoration of the Han in AD 25, a reorganization took place which in effect endorsed the central government's loss of power."
Page 16-17: With the establishment of Eastern Han, the Salt and Iron Offices of the Ministry of Agriculture were taken from it and transferred to the administrations overseeing the local prefectures and commanderies. The 'Chief Commandant of Waters and Parks' who had a large hand in the monopolies was reduced in power to a minor office overseeing a few seasonal tasks. Wagner says that a sparse amount of sources on this subject indicate that the salt and iron monopolies were no more, while local governments still engaged in large scale iron production.
Page 17: The official Zhang Lin suggested in 85 AD that the central government resume its role as the monopolistic power over salt and iron, a proposal that was at first rejected, then accepted despite the protest by the faction under Zhu Hui. However, this central monopoly was again abolished by Emperor Zhang of Han in 88 AD, who had his ten year old successor (later Emperor He of Han) announce his decision.
Discourses on Salt and IronPage 18-19: Huan Kuan, the author who wrote the Yan tie lun (Discourse on Salt and Iron), was an erudite scholar who was appointed as a Court Gentleman during the reign of Emperor Xuan of Han (r. 73–49) as well as Vice Governor of Lujiang. Wagner says that "One motivation for Huan Kuan to compile this work may have been a later debate, which led to the brief abolition of the monopoly in the period 44-41 BC. The abolition was a result of the general attack on the role fo government around this time, in which statesmen such as Gong Yu (123–43 BC) went so far as to demand the abolition of all forms of money and a return to natural economy."
Page 19-20: The Yan tie lun describes the debate in 81 BC as a meeting of some sixty-odd provincial Scholars and Worthies engaging in dialogue with Imperial Counsellor Sang Hongyang, who was assisted by ministers supporting the central government's position. The text described Emperor Zhao and Huo Guang as being present during the discussion where debators freely traded insults, labeling the other as "bigoted Confucians" and the other as "decadent toadies."
Page 20: Apparently, the martial regent Huo Guang was compelled to call forth Worthies for a Court Conference because of his associate Du Yannian hinting that recent crop failures and the people's resulting suffering might be signs that Heaven was displeased with the Han Dynasty's central government, and it needed to reform itself to be more frugal and modest.
Page 25: Both sides in the debate agreed that agriculture was the root (ben) of all society while other occupations were branches (mu), but the heart of the debate was how to best serve agriculture. The central government's side argued that the state's production of iron freed up the time and energy of the people so that they could focus on agriculture instead. However, critics of the monopolies argued that the state-produced iron was inferior in quality to privately-produced iron, therefore state-produced iron implements were only made to meet quotas and were no good for farming when needed.
Page 26: Imperial Counsellor Sang Hongyang shoots back at this with a retort of how private iron smelting does not have enough specialization, is poorly equipped, omits certain production techniques, and private smelters have no decent amount of spare time to engage in the industry. The Worthies make the counter-retort that former private smelting by small-scale family enterprises made better implements "because of pride of workmanship and because they were closer to the users" according to Wagner. Wagner says the lesson to be learned here is that large-scale enterprises can produce larger quantity of products while small-scale enterprises can produce better quality products. The government side points out a problem with the Worthies' argument though: before the monopoly, powerful families upheld large-scale enterprises, a successful smelting familiy employing over a thousand people, encouraging them to leave their ancestral grave sites to become dependents on great families. Wagner says the truth was perhaps a mixed one: "there were probably two sectors of the iron industry, one consisting of small units producing for local needs, the other of large units producing for trade over long distances."
Page 28: In the debate, the assistant to the Imperial Counsellor argues that the monopolies as well as selling of offices have enriched the state so that it can employ armed campaigns in the East and West without increasing taxation.
Page 29-30: In Huan Kuan's Discourses on Salt and Iron, there is some discussion on the state's superior ability to use calculation in order to operate and produce precisely what is necessary. Wagner says in relation to this is a chapter in the Han mathematical treatise The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art called "Equable Transportation" (Junshu), the same name of one of the contentious policies established in Emperor Wu's time. The chapter states:
In the equable transportation of grain,
- Prefecture A has 10,000 households and a journey of 8 days;
- Prefecture B has 9,500 households and a journey of 10 days;
- Prefecture C has 12,350 households and a journey of 13 days;
- Prefecture D has 12,200 households and a journey of 20 days;
All [journeys] being to the place of [tax] transportation. The total liability of the four prefectures is the transportation of a tax of 250,000 hu in 10,000 carts. It is desired that this should be apportioned according to the distance travelled and the number of households. How much grain and how many carts does each supply?
Answer:
- Prefecture A, 83,100 hu of grain, 3,324 carts.
- Prefecture B, 63,175 hu of grain, 2527 carts.
- Prefecture C, 63,175 hu of grain, 2527 carts.
- Prefecture D, 40,550 hu of grain, 1,622 carts.
Page 30: In order to arrive at these answers, Wagner states that: "The calculated tax liabilities are proportional to the number of households divided by the number of days of the journey."
Iron OfficesPage 32-33: The Book of Han reveals the locations of 48 Salt and Iron Offices as they existed in the year 2 AD, and as Wagner shows on his map on page 32 (which also includes locations known from other written sources or archaeological sites), most of these offices were located in the Yellow River macroregion in what is today's modern Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Hebei, Shandong, and Jiangsu provinces.
Page 33-34: Although the central government in the Eastern Han no longer produced iron, local authorities now took over this responsibility, as the Book of Later Han states, "If a commandery or prefecture produced large quantities of salt, a Salt Office was established to administer the salt tax; if it produced large quantities of iron, an Iron Office was established to administer production." Wagners says that from this description it appears that Salt Offices were merely financial offices which collected taxes, while the Iron Offices of local government still had some role in production, although the extent of their involvement is unknown. The Book of Later Han lists 36 localities that 'have iron' in 140 AD but says nothing else; Wagner assumes they are locations of the localized Iron Offices.
Page 36: Although there is scant evidence in written texts for Iron Offices existing in Wang Mang's time, archaeology has proven they did, such as iron implements with their place name of production being "Juye", a place name that existed only during the reign of Wang Mang.
Page 39-43: Here Wagner talks about the six wooden tablets and 156 wooden and bamboo strips found in Tomb M6 at Yinwan, Donghai County, Jiangsu, dated 10 BC. He not only used these texts to prove that the Book of Han had errors in its geographic section by using incorrect characters for certain place names, but that the population census figure of 50 million for the year 2 AD may be very false. The Yinwan documents report in 10 BC that the Donghai Commandery had 266,290 households with 1,397,343 persons, while the Book of Han states that the Donghai Commandery in 2 AD had 358,414 households and 1,559,357 persons. Wagner writes "This would imply a 10 percent increase in population in 12 years or less, which is not credible." Even Wang Mingsheng (1722–1798) of the Qing Dynasty believed that, since Wang Mang already had de facto rule over the court in 2 AD, he may have inflated the population figures in order to "prove his beneficial influence" as Wagner paraphrases.
Reasons for Monopoly and OppositionPage 53-54: A typical argument of the government side was that Emperor Wu, having established border garrisons that needed to be properly funded if they were to successfully defend against the hostile Xiongnu, established the Salt and Iron Offices to pay for military expenses. Yet critics of the monopolies found the State's dealings in manufacture and commercial selling were demeaning and "not proper activities for the State."
Page 55-56: Wagner writes that "Blast furnace iron production is highly capital-intensive, and wealth is required for its exploitation." The central state argued that "brutal and tyrannical" salt and iron industrialists who gathered in 'deep mountains and remote marshes' were they were free to form household factions and gangs of evil-doers. The state saw independent wealthy industrialists as a potential threat, so a comprimise was made to make them officials in the government to oversee the industry and their followers and gangs were replaced by convict laborers that the state could control.
Page 56: The critics of the government felt that bringing in wealthy merchants as government leaders of the state monopoly was a mistake, and that only men learned in the Five Classics were qualified to work for the Emperor and administer the people.
Page 56: The government made the argument that the state monopolies provided abundant raw materials and good working conditions for producing iron of quality. This may have been true in certain cases, as several cast iron artifacts of the period show several complex stages thatt would require a high degree of trained skill and days of time. Wagner writes: "Several axeheads, for example, were cast, than annealed in an oxidising atmosphere to reduce the carbon content, then cold-hammered, then annealed in a reducing atmosphere to increase the carbon content at the surface...The two annealing processes required at least a day or two each, and maintaining the appropriate temperature and furnace atmosphere required skill on the part of the workers." However, there is evidence of mistakes in discarded iron axeheads in an excavated scrap-heap in Mianchi, Henan, iron axeheads which presumably failed quality inspection.
Page 57: Critics of the monopolies state that the monopoly ironworks made large and impractical implements that were made for mass-scale quotas rather than for practical use. They also criticized state iron as inferior in quality and too expensive to purchase.
Page 59: There were also other problems with the monopolies, such as when they "inappropriately standardised the implements without considering the different needs of peasants in different parts of the Empire. And there is sometimes over-production, in which case the Iron Offices force the peasants to purchase more than they need."
Page 62-63: Some people in the Han complained about deforestation as well as the nuisance of smoke produced by blast furnaces.
End of these NotesWell, I hope everyone learned a bit more about Court Conference debates, as well as the iron and salt monopolies.
My friends, have a great weekend,
Eric (En Rui)
