"The country is the foundation, and eating enough is the first." The issue of grain reserves is related to the national economy and people's livelihood, and has always been placed in an important position in governing the country and safeguarding the country. At present, China is actively promoting the reform of grain circulation system, and analyzing the ancient grain storage system can play a role of "taking history as a mirror".
First, all previous dynasties attached great importance to grain storage.
In ancient times, warehousing was regarded as "the great fortune of the world", and all previous dynasties attached great importance to it.
1. Actively build storage facilities.
China's grain reserves have a very long history. In Xia Dynasty, the storage system officially became an important financial system of the country. Since the Zhou Dynasty, successive dynasties not only attached importance to the construction of central storage, but also attached importance to local grain storage. The storage system has gradually matured and the storage scale has been expanding. For example, in the Han Dynasty, the new capital Chang 'an was built in the seventh year of Emperor Gaozu (200 BC), and Taicang was included in the first batch of key construction projects. In addition to Taicang, the granaries directly managed by the central government include Ganquan Granary, Huacang in hua county, Liu Xi Granary and Jiacang near the left corner. In addition, there are permanent warehouses at the county and county levels, and granaries have also been established by various vassal States, armies, and especially border guards. The constant warehouse system advocated by Geng Shouchang when Emperor Gaozu proclaimed the Emperor became the main warehouse system used by later feudal dynasties.
2. Do everything possible to improve food
"Biography of Shu Wei Li Biao" said: "A country is not a country without a three-year reserve". However, in the case of backward agricultural productivity, it is not easy for the national treasury to maintain a three-year reserve. Therefore, all feudal dynasties tried their best to raise grain sources. In addition to paying close attention to the storage of imperial grain and national tax, they also actively expanded other channels to raise grain. For example, in the Song Dynasty, different types of granaries had different grain sources. Zhengcang is also called Guan Cang, and its grain source is mainly imperial grain state tax; State and county warehouses mainly come from the official spring and autumn tax, and each stone is stored in another bucket; Regular grain storage is mainly purchased at a slightly higher market price in summer and autumn every year, and its capital is allocated by the state finance as a whole; The source of warehouse rice in Guanghui Warehouse is the rented grain collected by the government from uncultivated farmland. Social warehouses mainly rely on the government to provide grain funds and collect "interest rice". At the same time, it also tried to enrich the people and raise food funds by persuading donations and loans.
Second, the function and role of grain storage in history
In the feudal society of China, where agriculture was the "decisive production sector", grain storage not only supplied the food consumption of the royal family and nobles, but also maintained the operation of the state machinery, and also had the following important functions and roles.
1. Stabilize food prices and standardize the market.
This is a basic and important function of the ancient storage system. Since the Zhou Dynasty, all dynasties have attached great importance to the role of warehousing. Especially since the establishment of the continuous liquidation system in Han dynasty, regulation has become the main function of warehousing. Whenever the price of grain in the market rises due to lack of food, famine or war, the government sells it to the market at the price of grain stored during regular liquidation, so as not to "hurt the people with grain"; When the grain price in the grain harvest market falls, the government uses the national treasury to buy at a low price, so as to avoid "low price hurting farmers", thus stabilizing and regulating the market.
2. Disaster relief and preparedness, and people's safety.
China is a troubled country. Therefore, the rulers of all previous dynasties attached great importance to "famine relief", and the most important strategy they adopted was to build warehouses to accumulate grain, help the victims in time and stabilize the society. Since the Sui Dynasty, in addition to the existing official granaries, a private granary has been created for local famine relief. This is the warehouse that Chang advocated to build. Yicang was jointly established by the state military and civilians; The way to sow millet is to "persuade classes" and voluntarily; There is no fixed requirement for the varieties of millet and wheat obtained with it; The cellar was built in the local village community and entrusted to the company for management; Canggu is used for famine relief; The average millet yield per household is less than one stone, which is paid according to the method of "the difference between the rich and the poor". Warehouse system is one of the important means of disaster relief and famine relief in feudal storage.
3. Support the army and prepare for battle
"Before the soldiers and horses moved, grain and grass came first", and grain reserve was the most important material guarantee in ancient wars. For example, during the Western Han Dynasty, there were constant wars. As an important aspect of logistics support, granary and armory jointly provided a solid material foundation for the army of the Western Han Dynasty, which gave the Western Han Dynasty a strong backing to wage war and maintain its rule.
Third, the basic practice of strengthening warehouse management in history
Warehousing is a key means to ensure food security in feudal countries, and it is also a place prone to corruption. There are many problems in the storage system of feudal dynasty, which are mainly manifested as follows: the warehouse officials are corrupt and the deficit is serious; Insufficient reserves and poor supervision. In order to solve these problems, the feudal dynasty attached great importance to strengthening warehouse management, and its main methods were as follows: the grain reserve was exclusively controlled by the central government. Generally speaking, the chief executive of the central finance is the highest supervisor of warehousing in the country, and a special "warehouse keeper" is set up under him to take charge of warehousing matters. For example, in the Ming Dynasty, the Ministry of Housing was in charge of the national money and grain, and the provinces were enfeoffed by the Chief Secretary. Regardless of whether the money and food are used in the Beijing Treasury or left in the local area, they must be audited by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development in accordance with the detailed rules and regulations of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.
1. Take different management forms for different types of warehouses.
For example, the official warehouses such as Changcang are mainly managed by government agencies at all levels, while the private warehouses such as Yicang, Shecang and Reserve Warehouse are mainly managed by the people themselves under the guidance of the government.
2. Formulate strict management rules and regulations.
For example, the Qin dynasty had a special granary law with strict regulations; Special accounting books were set up in the Western Han Dynasty, which recorded the quantity, variety, access, handling and verification in detail. Senior officials often check their own granaries. After the Song Dynasty, there were more, finer and stricter regulations on warehousing.
3. Pay attention to strengthening supervision and inspection.
Yongzheng's strict investigation of money and grain deficit in Qing Dynasty is an example. According to records, from the first year of Yongzheng to the third year of Yongzheng (1723- 1725), Yongzheng issued more than 30 imperial edicts on checking the deficit of money and grain, and sent court officials to assist in checking the deficit of local money and grain. In the process of investigation, he gave an order: even if it involves high-ranking officials and nobles, it will never lend easily. Officials involved in bribery will be deprived of their property and removed from their posts, and in serious cases, they will be sentenced to death.
Fourth, some enlightenment.
China is a big agricultural country, and solving the problem of feeding more than 654.38+0.2 billion people has always been the top priority of governing the country. After China's accession to the WTO, the issue of food security has become more important. In order to speed up the establishment of a food security system in line with China's national conditions and the requirements of the socialist market economy, it is necessary to learn from China's ancient and international storage management experience, improve the supervision system of grain reserves, and strengthen the construction and management of grain reserves.
1, be prepared for danger in times of peace.
Since the reform and opening up, China's economy has made rapid progress and the market supply is sufficient. Many people think that food shortage is far away from us. However, it should be noted that some developed countries began to increase the reserves of grain and oil and other important materials related to the national economy and people's livelihood many years ago, in order to effectively cope with the food crisis and energy crisis that may occur in the future but cannot be fundamentally adjusted by the market. This reminds us that we must be prepared for danger in times of peace, look at the future from a strategic height and a global perspective, improve the grain reserve system, and strengthen the construction and management of grain reserves. This is an important guarantee for China's long-term political and social stability and sustained, rapid and healthy economic development.
2. Expand the scale of central grain reserves to ensure national food security.
"Don't panic when you have food in your hand" is an eternal principle. Only when we have enough food can we cope with all kinds of complicated situations. We should learn from history and expand the scale of central grain reserves. In this way, on the one hand, it can enhance the country's macro-control ability of grain and ensure the national food security; On the other hand, it can form economies of scale and reduce costs.
3. Establish an efficient national grain reserve regulation mechanism.
There are two main problems in China's current national grain reserve model: first, the structure is unreasonable and it is static for a long time. Grain reserves are not classified according to their functions and functions, and all of them are put into storage at the time of storage, resulting in a waste of resources and financial resources. Second, the import and export of grain mostly adopts administrative distribution, and the role of market regulation has not been fully exerted. We should change this situation as soon as possible and establish a flexible national grain reserve control mechanism. First, according to the purpose, grain reserves are divided into two categories. One is strategic reserve, that is, the country is used for disaster relief in special periods and circumstances, but it cannot be used at ordinary times; The other is the supervision of reserves, which is equivalent to the normal liquidation in ancient times. When food prices are too low and farmers' income is affected, the state enters the market to buy; When the price of grain is too high and the interests of consumers are affected, the state enters the market to sell the stored grain. Different management policies and subsidy policies are implemented for strategic reserves and regulatory reserves, but no matter what kind of reserves, their acquisition, rotation and sales should be operated through the market.
4, strengthen the system construction, strengthen the management of grain depot.
Looking at the warehousing history of China for thousands of years, it is very important to strengthen warehousing management. At present, China's grain depot management is generally good, but poor management, fraud, corruption and misappropriation also occur from time to time. Therefore, we must strengthen the system construction and strengthen the management of grain depot. First, further reduce the number of central grain depots and store central grain reserves in large and medium-sized grain depots with good quality and high management level. Second, all central and local grain reserves should be managed by computer ledger, and in areas where conditions permit, the turnover inventory should also be managed by computer ledger. Third, in view of the problems exposed by the national clearance and warehouse inspection, we should do a good job in establishing rules and regulations and standardize the management of reserve grain depots according to law.
5. Encourage private grain reserves.
An important experience of grain storage in the history of China is that no matter whether it is public grain or private grain, "everyone has enough to eat" and "how old is everyone to store grain". However, judging from the current structure of China's grain reserves, the national grain storage is the bulk, and farmers generally do not store grain every other year. Therefore, while attaching importance to the central reserve, we should also actively develop private reserves, especially encourage farmers to reserve grain.