盐铁会议的岐异与缺憾:兼论中国古代商人资本的性质和历史作用

The Controversial and the Unspoken in the Debates on Salt and Iron:With an Additional Evaluation of the Role of Ancient Chinese Commercial Capital

出现在大一统中央集权帝国奠基时期、西汉中叶的盐铁会议，对以后的中国历史产生了深远影响。与会两派在经济政策、经济理论领域里诸多歧义的焦点为如何对待自由商品经济。以重商见长的御史大夫派的干涉主义与以重农抑商著称的贤良文学派的放任主义之争，为何出现各自思想、思维起点与政策、方针结局的悖逆以及对立的双方发生交叉和错位的现象？笔者认为，作为抑商思想、干涉政策的否定者——理论上的私人工商业者代表，被排拒门外，是这场论战的缺憾。究其原因：商人资本在以自然经济占支配地位的国民经济结构中，无法成为一个独立的经济成份，因此在政治上无法代表自己。而桑弘羊等人主张的、并为后世专制统治者所效行的国家商业资本政策旨在遏抑、扭曲和规范商人资本，使之变成经济统制的帮手。商人资本丧失正当、合理的经济职能，导致商品经济的不健康状态，从而影响了古代中国社会的良性运行。

The Salt and Iron Conference of the mid-Western Han Dynasty occurred in the founding period of the centralized Chinese empire, and it was significant to the later history of imperial China. The debate of the two factions on economic policies and theories focuses on how to deal with free market and production. It appears perplexed that the mercantilism-oriented Minister （Sang Hongyang） faction＇s interventionist tenet conflicts with the valuing agriculture and restraining commerce-oriented Learned Men （Confucian scholars） faction＇s non-interference ideals. As such, why is the standpoint of each faction＇s thought and thinking contrary to its own consequential policy or practical principle？ Why do some viewpoints of the two seemingly opposing factions actually intersect and even reverse their original positions？ I would argue that this is because of the absence of the assumed private industrialists and merchants, the real enemy of restraining commerce ideology and economic interventionism, from the conference. The fundamental rationale lies in the fact： in the national economic structure dominated by natural （agricultural） economy, merchant capital cannot exist as an independent sector, and thus cannot represent itself politically. The state commercial capital policy proposed by Sang Hongyang and carried out by later despotic rulers aims to suppress, alter and demarcate merchant capital, and turns it into an assistant to governmental economic control. The loss of merchant capital＇s normal and rational economic role leads to the commercial economy＇s unhealthy development, and hence spoils the positive operation of the premodem Chinese society.