taxation, the government issued decrees binding the peasant to his field and
the worker to his shop until all his debts and taxes had been paid, In this
and other ways medieval serfdom began.
China has had several attempts at state socialism. Szuma Ch’ien (b.c.145
B.C.) informs us that to prevent private individuals from “reserving to their
sole use the riches of the mountains and the sea in order to gain a fortune,
and from putting the lower classes into subjection to themselves,”
the
Emperor Wu Ti (r. 140 B.C. – 87 B.C.) nationalized the resources of the
soil, extended governmental direction over transport and trade, laid a tax
upon incomes, and established public works, including canals that bound
the rivers together and irrigated the fields. The state accumulated stockpiles
of goods, sold these when prices were rising, bought more when prices
were falling; thus, says Szuma Ch’ien, “the rich merchants and large shop-
keepers would be prevented from making big profits,… and prices would
be regulated in the Empire.”
For a time, we are told, China prospered as
never before. A combination of “acts of God” with human deviltry put an
end to the experiment after the death of the Emperor. Floods alternated with
droughts, created tragic shortages, and raised prices beyond control.
Businessmen protested that taxes were making them support the lazy and
the incompetent. Harassed by the high cost of living, the poor joined the
rich in clamoring for a return to the old ways, and some proposed that the
inventor of the new system be boiled alive. The reforms were one by one
rescinded, and were almost forgotten when they were revived by a Chinese
philosopher-king.
Wang Mang (r. A.D. 9-23) was an accomplished scholar, a patron of
literature, a millionaire who scattered his riches among his friends and the
poor. Having seized the throne, he surrounded himself with men trained in
letters, science, and philosophy. He nationalized the land, divided it into
equal tracts among the peasants, and put an end to slavery. Like Wu Ti, he
tried to control prices by the accumulation or release of stockpiles. He
made loans at low interest to private enterprise. The groups whose profits
