Song Dynasty: Yuan Dynasty, you didn't expect this, did you? I'm still alive.

The tenth year of Yongsui (1434).

While the Song people were indulging in their golden age, Ma Si, who was in the Ministry of Revenue, keenly discovered the hidden dangers behind it.

The development of the Central Plains and the Americas brought the Eastern Song Dynasty a huge market and a large labor force.

A large number of Han Chinese people flocked to the working class.

Although the living standards of Han Chinese in the Central Plains have been continuously improving, they are still an exploited group.

Just as even the lowest-ranking foreign workers in Xinxiang can eat meat every now and then, while the barbarians in India are still struggling to make ends meet.

Although you have become richer, you are relatively poorer.

As a Song dynasty person, Ma Shang still felt pity for foreign workers, so how could he remain indifferent to the workers from the Central Plains?

And so a book was born.

Capital.

The core argument is that the capitalist mode of production is a temporary and historical system that breeds profound contradictions. Its inherent laws inevitably lead to periodic crises and create the material preconditions for a higher social form.

There are four sub-points:

The first question is: why are things valuable? — Because they are all made by people.

Why is a steamed bun worth one yuan?

It's because people spend a lot of effort and time from planting wheat, grinding flour, kneading dough to steaming it.

If it's just water or air from a river, and people don't expend any effort or time, then it's worthless, and no one will charge for it.

Bottled mineral water costs money, but you don't need to pay anything if you drink it directly from its place of origin, because bottled mineral water is transported by people, which takes time and effort.

Human labor is what gives things their value.

Machines, land, and raw materials are all inanimate objects; it is people who transform them into useful things.

For example: You spent a morning weaving a bamboo basket, and he spent a morning sharpening a kitchen knife. If you exchanged them, you both felt it was fair.

Why? Because everyone spent the same amount of effort and time.

Time isn't measured by how slow you are, but by how long it takes the average person in society to weave this basket. This is the "socially necessary labor time."

In short: the value of everything is "created" by human labor.

This is the most fundamental principle.

Secondly, why is your boss richer than you? — He took the money you didn't get.

You work as a laborer, spending your days carrying bricks, tightening screws, and delivering goods for your boss.

You worked 8 hours, and the boss paid you 200 yuan.

But the work you did that day actually earned the boss 500 yuan.

What happened to the extra 300 yuan? The boss pocketed it.

This 300 yuan is the "surplus value"—the part you worked for free.

You might disagree: The boss bought the machines and rented the factory; didn't he also spend money?

Yes, but machines and factories will only get old and worn out day by day; they won't generate any more money.

Only people create more value when they are working.

You're like a hen that lays eggs. The boss pays 200 dollars for your "egg-laying ability" for a day. If you lay 500 dollars' worth of eggs in a day, he gets 300 dollars for free.

The boss's secret to getting rich isn't how smart he is, but that he bought you as a "special commodity"—your strength and time can create more value than your salary.

You might say that the boss also took risks and should be rewarded.

But taking risks is not a reason to take the lion's share, much less a reason to exploit.

Who bears the greater risk?

You said the boss mortgaged his house and borrowed money to open a factory, and if it goes bankrupt, he will lose everything—that risk is really big, Ma Si doesn't deny.

But have you ever thought about what about the people who work for others?

The workers worked all day, but the boss said, "I don't have money to pay wages," so the workers worked for nothing; the boss said, "The factory is closing," and the workers immediately lost their jobs, with no money left for rent or children's school fees next month.

The boss loses money and assets, while the workers lose their meals, their lives, and their families' livelihoods.

Whose risk is more direct and more fatal? Sometimes the worker's risk is no less than the boss's.

Furthermore, just because the risk is high, does that mean they can take away all the extra value you create?

If you didn't work, could the boss conjure up 500 yuan by himself? No. He could probably only earn 50 yuan a day working on it.

Of the extra 450 (500 minus the value of his own work), he gives you 200 and keeps 250 for himself. This 250 is what you earned from the extra work.

No matter how high the risk, you can't conjure up that 450 yuan—it's something you actually earned by putting in the effort and time.

The problem is not who bears the risk, but the proportion of risk allocated.

Marx was not saying that capitalists should not receive any reward, but rather that the value created by workers is taken away too much, disproportionately so, to the point that workers themselves cannot make a living.

Okay, even if you take risks, your rewards should be proportional to the size of the risks.

In reality, even if the boss doesn't bear any risk (for example, he has ancestral land and doesn't need to borrow money), he still takes away the surplus value. Conversely, the worst off are the workers who go down into the mine to dig coal or fight fires, facing risks so great that they could lose their lives, yet their wages remain the same.

Therefore, the idea that "risk determines income" is fundamentally flawed. What truly determines income is who controls the means of production (machinery, factories, land). The boss, holding the tools, can force you to accept an unfair distribution of wealth.

Thirdly, why are some poor people still poor while others are still rich? And what about the economic crisis?

What would the boss do if he made 300 yuan?

He would use a portion of the money to buy more machines and hire more people to expand his business. This is called "making money from money".

What was the result?

On the rich side: the bosses' factories are getting bigger and bigger, and their wealth is snowballing, with a few people holding tens of millions or hundreds of millions in their hands.

On the poor side: the more machines there are, the fewer workers are needed. What used to be the work of 10 people can now be done by just one person operating a machine. Nine people lose their jobs or can only find odd jobs. Those who don't lose their jobs are afraid to ask for a raise for fear of being laid off. As a result, most people become increasingly poor.

That's strange: with more and more machines and more and more products being produced, why can't most people afford to buy things?

Because all the money went into the boss's hands, the workers had no money.

This led to a strange phenomenon:

The factory warehouse was overflowing with clothes and canned goods that couldn't be sold; ordinary people were still wearing cheap clothes and eating cheap food. The boss had no choice but to close the factory.

This is what we call an "economic crisis".

It's not because there's a lot of stuff, but because the poor can't afford it and the rich don't need it.

What will happen in the end? — This system is digging its own grave.

Ma Si said that this system is like a person eating so much that their stomach is about to burst.

On one hand, production is becoming increasingly efficient (large-scale socialized production), while on the other hand, most people's pockets are becoming increasingly empty (under private ownership, money belongs to the boss).

This conflict cannot be resolved because the boss is unlikely to voluntarily distribute the money to everyone.

So who will solve this problem? It will be the working class—the "proletariat."

If one day all the workers quit, or unite to demand a change in the rules, can the boss run the entire factory by himself?

No.

Capitalism fed these workers, taught them to unite, and drove them to the brink of starvation—ultimately, it was these workers who rose up to overthrow the system.

Then another system was implemented: factories, land, and machines were owned by everyone, and the workers discussed together how to divide the results, so that no one could get rich by taking away the "free work" of others.

This is the ideal society in Ma Si's mind.

The book caused a sensation in Nanjing as soon as it was published.

At this critical moment, the Right Chancellor Xu Zheng immediately ordered all publishing houses under the Ministry of Works not to publish the book, or they would face the iron fist of the imperial court.

Xu Zheng then discussed with the Left Chancellor and the Chief Minister of the Wenhua Pavilion how to handle the book.

After reading it, Left Chancellor Cui Du nodded, "What Ma Si said makes a lot of sense."

He was then met with surprised looks from Xu Zheng and the Grand Secretary of the Wenhua Pavilion.

Cui Du then realized he had spoken out of turn. "Nonsense!"

"If we follow what this book says, the nation will cease to exist. If the skin is gone, where will the hair attach? Such disrespectful and ungrateful words must be banned!"

Although Ma Si did not criticize the scholar-officials in this book, the scholar-officials of the Eastern Song Dynasty at that time were capitalists themselves.

The moment someone passes the imperial examination and becomes a Jinshi, countless companies will rush to offer them shares.

Even so, most businessmen and officials are unwilling to accept it.

This book makes everyone seem like parasites.

"Demote him."

"good."

Thus, Ma Si became the only official to be exiled by the scholar-officials, a first in history.

Confucianism and Taoism have never been so united.

Like his idol Shen Juanzhou, Ma Si was exiled to the Americas.

. . .

In the same year, the first agricultural tractor using a gasoline internal combustion engine was born.

Agriculture in the Eastern Song Dynasty began to fully transition to mechanization.

The prices of agricultural products are about to undergo significant changes.