Thesis: Whether or not the monopolies on salt, iron, grains and other primary commodities vested in Emperor Chao should end so that the majority of the people will be encouraged to pursue farming and not secondary occupations such as craft trades.All quotes from Minister Sang Hung Yang and the Learned Men are from Huan Kuan's abridgement of the Debates on Salt and Iron.Though the salt and iron debates presented before the Emperor Chao in 81 B.C. took place more than 2000 years ago, the issues involved have contemporary resonance. Should all the wealth of a monarchy or imperial government be controlled by its king or emperor so that only the government benefits? Should food be the sole concern of the general population? Should ambitious and talented people in the lower classes be kept there or encour- aged to pursue other professions, becoming wealthy merchants themselves or even one of the learned elite?Minister Sang Hung Yang, who took the government's side in these debates, helped institute these monopolies for Emperor Wu (141 87 BC), who needed a mountain of money for imperial conquest, especially of the non-Chinese peoples of the northern steppe.
Yang argued in a variety of ways for the continuation of the monopolies so that Emperor Chao would retain his predecessor's imperial control over the food supplies and thus over the distri- bution of those supplies, especially in time of war. "Equitable marketing" was a euphemism for the emperor alone to decide pricing and profits, where supplies would and would not go, who would eat and who would not. The Learned Men (hereafter referred to as LM for brevity), on the other hand, argued that the mono- poly should end so that the people would be so obsessed with keeping their stomachs full that they would not be tempted to pursue profits and other trades. The LM, going by Confucian principles, deemed money making and non-farming trades to be immoral. The LM also talked a lot about virtue...