After listening to Bao Shuya's words, Duke Huan of Qi immediately called Guan Zhong over and begged him to help him govern the country. With Guan Zhong's help, Duke Huan of Qi indeed achieved great success.

During the Warring States Period, , when Duke Huan of Qi wanted to dominate the princes, Bao Shuya said to him: "The king will govern Qi, that is, Gaoxi and Shu Ya Zuye; if you want to dominate, you have to control Yiwu. No. "

After hearing Bao Shuya's words, Qi Huangong immediately called Guan Zhong and asked him to help him govern the country. With Guan Zhong's help, Qi Huangong indeed achieved great success.

After being favored by Duke Huan of Qi, Guan Zhong offered a clever plan to Duke Huan of Qi. He said that if you want to dominate the princes, you must have enough strong soldiers, and if you want to have enough strong soldiers, you must first make the country rich. , Only in this way can we make the national power of Qi strong and make the princes of the world happy.

Guan Zhong’s words are very scientifically based. His truth today is what Marx said: The economic base determines the superstructure .

Qi Henggong

In order to achieve economic development, Guan Zhong implemented a series of measures to attract businessmen to do business, and summed up the principle of " inflation" "More things are cheap, few are expensive, expensive ones are scattered, and light ones are gathered". Commodity rules.

Immediately afterwards, Guan Zhong based on this law, launched a trade war with neighboring countries, defeating Lu State and Chu State and other countries in a bloodless manner.

History is always surprisingly similar. Many years later, in order to weaken Chilean President Allende's international influence, the United States secretly learned this "without bloodshed" strategy devised by Guan Zhong and launched a trade war against Chile .

So how did Guan Zhong operate this law? After the United States learned from it, what kind of economic sanctions did it impose on other countries?

Trade

Economic foundation determines national strength

Guan Zhong was a very famous politician in Qi during the Spring and Autumn Period, a famous economist, philosopher and military strategist who has been famous throughout the ages.

Guan Zhong came from a very good background. His ancestors were descendants of King Mu of Zhou and were of the same clan as the Zhou royal family. Logically speaking, a royal relative like him should be able to live a comfortable life, but unfortunately, because of his family's His family was in decline, so he lived a very poor life as a teenager.

In order to make a living, he and Bao Shuya started a business partnership. In the process of doing business, Guan Zhong traveled to many places, contacted all kinds of people, and accumulated quite a wealth of social experience.

After Qi Huangong ascended the throne as emperor, he urgently needed to find a talented person to assist him.

Because Bao Shuya had helped him a lot when he ascended the throne, he approached Bao Shuya and asked him to be the prime minister of Qi. However, Bao Shuya said that his talents were not as good as those of his friend Guan Zhong. If Qi wanted to dominate, he would Guan Zhong must be made prime minister.

Bao Shuya

Under Bao Shuya's suggestion, Duke Huan of Qi chose an auspicious day and went to personally receive Guan Zhong into the palace with very solemn etiquette.

After taking Guan Zhong back to the palace, Duke Huan of Qi chatted with him for three days and three nights. The two chatted very enthusiastically. After the chat, Duke Huan of Qi directly made Guan Zhong the prime minister and changed his title to him. For Zhongfu.

One day, Duke Huan of Qi found Guan Zhong and asked him that there were two powerful countries next to Qi, namely Lu and Liang. What should we do to completely eliminate these two countries?

Guan Zhong thought for a while and said: "Based on Qi's current military strength, we definitely cannot send troops to them. Instead of using war to resolve the conflict between the two countries, it is better to win through business."

Qi Henggong

Qi Huangong heard this, and he became interested and asked: "What does this mean?"

Guan Zhong said: "Now the people of Lu and the two countries can weave silk tapestry. The king can issue an order to let all the ministers wear it. Clothes made of silk, if this happens, the common people will follow suit, and soon the price of silk clothing will rise."

The facts are exactly what he said. Under the leadership of Duke Huan of Qi, everyone in Qi State began to wear silk clothes.

Not long after, the supply of silk clothes was in short supply, so the price of this kind of clothes also rose sharply. Although Qi Huangong didn't understand what Guan Zhong planned to do, he still decided to do so out of trust in him. I chose to listen to him.

After the price of Jifu rose to a certain level, Guan Zhong also ordered people to start business with merchants from Lu and Liang.

Ancient Business

Guan Zhong said that as long as the merchants of Lu and Liang were willing to send 绷 to Qi, Qi would give him gold. The merchants of Lu and Liang were very excited after hearing this, and sent their 绷 to Qi one after another. country.

In order to make money, the people of Lu and Liang stopped growing food and began to weave silk tapestry. As time went by, the agriculture of Lu and Liang was abandoned, and food could only be imported from other countries.

Food is a necessity of life. Without it, people will die, but Tie is just a kind of silk fabric. Without this kind of fabric, Qi people can still wear other clothes.

When the people of Qi were vigorously cultivating grain, and the people of Lu and Liang were vigorously making rice, Guan Zhong had already won.

Guan Zhong

When the time was ripe, Guan Zhong found Duke Huan of Qi and asked him to issue a new order to the people of Qi, telling them not to wear silk clothes anymore, but to wear clothes made of other fabrics.

While Qi Huangong strictly controlled the clothing, Guan Zhong also issued an order to his subordinates, telling them to stop importing silk and exporting grain to Lu and Liang from now on.

Not long after, famine occurred in the Lu and Liang states. As we all know, food has a growing period. Even if the people of the two countries realized that they had fallen into someone else's trick, they were helpless.

In order to survive, they had to flee to other countries. At this time, Qi State, which had abundant food, stood up and lowered the price of food to attract people. In this way, Qi State absorbed about 60% of the people of Lu State and Liang State without any bloodshed.

Ancient Agriculture

A few years later, the national power of Qi State further strengthened, while the national power of Lu State and Liang State declined day by day. Qi State also completely eliminated the two serious troubles of Lu State and Liang State.

After Qi State established its hegemony, Chu State, a powerful country in the south, and Qi State began to oppose each other. Chu State was always unwilling to admit that Qi State was the overlord of the Spring and Autumn Period.

At that time, the military attache of Qi State proposed to Qi Huangong the idea of ​​using force to frighten Chu State, but Guan Zhong felt that it was not cost-effective to fight Qi State with pure war.

Qi State and Chu State are both big countries. If the two countries really fight, it is not necessarily who will lose and who will win. Maybe Qi State will consume its national power in the process of fighting and lose its status as the hegemon of the Central Plains.

In order to convince the kings of these countries, Guan Zhong formulated a plan to buy a deer to control Chu.

stills

The history book " Guanzi " records that Guan Zhong first ordered people to cast a large amount of copper coins, and then sent more than 100 businessmen to the Chu State secretly to purchase a large number of deer.

Since Chu State was rich in deer at that time, buyers only needed two copper coins to buy a deer. So after learning that King Qi was spending a lot of money to buy deer, the people of Chu State could not sit still and grabbed them one after another. He caught the deer and sold it to a Chu merchant.

As there were fewer and fewer deer in Chu State, the price of deer also increased, reaching as high as 40 copper coins per head.

Seeing that the profits from selling deer were so high, the people of Chu lost their minds and began to raise deer. When the king of Chu learned about this, he not only failed to curb the behavior of the people of Qi in time, but also became complacent. I feel that it is my blessing to exchange the rich beasts of Chu State for the gold coins that Qi State depends on for survival.

Warring States Sword Coins

Only one year later, Chu State ran out of ammunition and food, leaving only mountains of copper coins. When Chu State's situation was in depression, Qi State immediately united with other countries to isolate itself. Chu State.

Seeing that the situation in the country had become so tense, the king of Chu no longer spoke harshly, and quickly signed the " Zhaoling Alliance" with Qi, and expressed their willingness to recognize Qi's dominance and listen. The king of the country ordered that he would never attack Qi again.

In this way, a very clever businessman completely destroyed the economic foundation of the Chu State without spending a single soldier, making him his own defeat.

stills

False prosperity is ultimately a dream

Guan Zhong was a businessman, and doing business was what he was best at. He not only applied economic concepts to politics and governance concepts, but also applied them to military concepts, realizing his original The promise of Duke Huan of Qi expanded Qi's influence.

Although from an economic point of view, Guan Zhong's strategy is not particularly complicated, he used this trump card to impose economic sanctions on many countries.

The times are progressing and the world is developing, but the economic principles remain the same. The wisdom of our ancestors thousands of years ago is still extremely useful today. For example, the Americans’ plan against Guan Zhong , I like it very much.

htmlIn the 1980s, Japan's manufacturing industry developed to an unprecedented height. Because the goods produced in Japan were of high quality and the exchange rate of the Japanese yen was very low, the goods produced in Japan were also loved by people all over the world.

Japanese manufacturing industry

As Japan develops better and better, the United States, which wants to dominate the world, can no longer sit still.

In 1985, the United States and Japan signed the " Plaza Agreement ". In this agreement, the United States tried its best to increase Japan's exchange rate by more than twice. The sudden increase in the exchange rate increased the purchasing power of the Japanese. After the Japanese got the money, they began to buy expensive things such as houses.

Slowly, Japan's outstanding commodity industry gradually withdrew from the world's vision, and was replaced by the crazy "real estate myth" when Japanese people were crazy about buying houses. Japan's housing prices have also been driven up. When Japan's housing prices were the most expensive, they even reached the same level as North American housing prices.

Just when the Japanese were happily buying houses and cars, the development of Japan's manufacturing industry entered a period of stagnation. It was not until the United States burst Japan's bubble of false prosperity that the wave of house buying gradually faded, and Japan's economy began to sink. crashed.

In fact, the strategy used by the United States against Japan was the same as the strategy used by Guan Zhong against Lu and Liang. They both wanted to use price gouging to cause the enemy's economy to plummet and collapse.

When a country's economy collapses, they are not far from failure.

Japanese real estate

Do not give up until you reach your goal

Coincidentally, in the 1970s, the United States used Guan Zhong's method of buying a deer to control Chu to curb Chile's economic lifeline.

htmlIn the 1970s, the president of Chile implemented many anti-American policies in foreign policy, which aroused high dissatisfaction in the United States. Because Chile has always been against the United States on the international stage, the interests of the United States in Chile and surrounding countries have been extremely affected. Big loss.

In order to prevent further losses, the United States used economic methods to attack Chile.

The United States knows that copper mines are the economic lifeline of Chile, so they spend a lot of money to buy Chilean copper mines.

When copper prices rose crazily, Chilean businessmen also increased their investment in copper mines. After raising the price of copper in Chile, the United States shorted the copper market as quickly as possible, using a bloodless method to control the situation. Chile’s economic lifeline.

Chilean Copper Mine

Chilean people thought that rising copper prices would be a good thing to make money, but what they didn't expect was that they fell into the trap of the Americans.

Under the blow of inflation, Chile's economy has been greatly impacted, and the domestic unemployment rate has also risen. Although the United States has achieved its purpose of impacting the Chilean economy, they have not stopped there. Chile's national economy collapsed, cutting off the country's sources of international loans.

Of course, by doing this, the United States does not just want to hit the Chilean economy. Its real goal is to hit Chilean President Allende politically and make him give up his hostile policy towards the United States.

Just when Chile's unemployment rate was rising frequently and the country was in chaos, the United States began to publish unfavorable remarks against Allende in Chile.

At that time, many people in Chile thought that President Allende had teamed up with the United States to betray Chile's interests, so the people took to the streets to protest, expressing their dissatisfaction with Allende and demanding that he step down as soon as possible. Not long after, Allende lost his previous political capital and fell into the trap of the Americans.

Chile Allende

However, this trump card of the United States is not always easy to use. As China's comprehensive national strength improves, the trade volume between China and the United States continues to rise, and the United States also begins to attack China.

In order to curb China's development, the United States began to formulate double standards, relied on its cutting-edge technology market to put pressure on China, and launched a trade war with China.

With the continuous friction in Sino-US trade in recent years, the relationship between the two countries has gradually dropped to a freezing point.

But it is impossible to use the methods of Chinese ancestors to deal with the Chinese. It is impossible for China to fall into the same trap as Japan and Chile. As the world's second largest economy, China's ability to withstand pressure is far better than Americans imagine. The one in is more powerful.

Trade war

The pursuits of China and the United States are completely different. China has always been a peaceful and polite power on the international stage. China pursues peaceful development and common prosperity, but the development policy of the United States is extremely exclusive. of.

Americans want to become the hegemon of the world, and in order to achieve this goal, they do not hesitate to harm the interests of other countries. In the face of American oppression and coercion, what the Chinese have to do is to be more vigilant and improve their competitiveness and innovation.

believes that with the correct leadership of the country and the government and the joint efforts of the people, China's economy will surely reach a higher level in the future and completely crush the United States' dream of hegemony.

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References

"Guoyu·Qiyu")

"Historical Records·Qi Taigong Family"

"Historical Records·Biography of Guan Yan"

"Guan Zi"

Why did Allende fail? (Part 1)

The false prosperity of Japan’s bubble economy