Why was the status of merchants low in ancient times?

I think there are several reasons for this.

1.Taxation: Ancient China was an agrarian society, from the Qin Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, all emphasized agriculture-oriented, which did have traditions and considerations about the people's food and clothing and even the stability of the dynasty.

But even more important is the ease of rule and taxation! The feudal peasants bore the triple responsibility of taxation, taxation and servitude to the state, and the emperor collected the land rent of the whole country through officials of all sizes as taxes, and collected the poll tax for the people to send out work for infrastructure construction (repairing rivers, building tombs and even garrisoning borders) for servitude. And there are prerequisites for any of this, namely the relative fixity of the personnel and the goodness of the population.

The personnel are fixed, the taxes are easy to collect, and the labor is convenient for the tribe, so there is a household registration system, a protection system, etc., to restrict the flow of personnel. Especially in the heyday, when the population grew rapidly, the poll tax became a very important part of the country's income, and more emphasis was placed on the relative stability of personnel. The characteristic of a merchant is to go with the flow, and of course it will not be popular with the rulers.

The characteristics of the labor of the people, especially those engaged in agricultural production, determine their relative stability and strong disaster tolerance (good conduct), on the contrary, the profit-seeking nature and adventurous spirit of the merchants are difficult to exploit for a long time! Therefore, it has been suppressed by the ruling group for a long time and has a low status.

2.Long-term backwardness of economic thinking: The ancients only saw that merchants sold high and bought low in the field of circulation, earning the difference in the middle price, and thought that they were treacherous and cunning, and they did not produce but shared their profits in vain!

It is believed that business itself does not create value (even Marxist economics has this saying), but harms agriculture, so there is a theory of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business.

This also contributed to the low social status of merchants.

3.The influence of social psychology: because of the above two points, under the deliberate description and inducement of the intellectuals of the ruling class and the landlord class, the professional status of businessmen in the psychology of the public is gradually sinking, and the evil deeds of a few industrial scum are infinitely exaggerated or even magnified into the group portrait of the entire occupational group.

This is the result of the state's policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business, which restricts the development of businessmen through measures such as raising taxes on businessmen, thus reducing their social status.

Because businessmen hurt people. Therefore, it is ranked the lowest in Shinong industry and commerce.

In ancient China, agriculture was the mainstay, so it was divided into grades of "Shinong Industry and Commerce". At that time, it was believed that merchants were unearned, so merchants were the lowest rank.

The low status of merchants in ancient times was mainly due to the following three reasonsClause.

3. Merchants were regarded in ancient times as "stealers of the fruits of their labor."

First, the state does not attach importance to commerce and belittles businessmen First of all, when we study history, we have all heard a word, that is, the ancient "emphasis on agriculture and suppression of business". "Heavy agriculture and suppression of commerce" is a necessary political measure for almost every generation of feudal dynasties, this measure means that the rulers attach importance to agricultural activities and agricultural production, but they have a suppressive attitude towards commerce, so many merchants of the dynasty are actually having a difficult time. For ordinary people, since the state is belittling businessmen, they also follow the footsteps of the country to look down on businessmen, so the low status of businessmen in ancient times is mainly because of the national policy of "valuing agriculture and suppressing business".

Second, the treatment of merchants and ordinary people is differentSecond, if you want to know why merchants had a low status in ancient times, you have to look at what the life of merchants was like in ancient times. In fact, many merchants in ancient times were relatively wealthy, but many dynasties in ancient China collected taxes according to the land, and people who did business made money from business, so many farmers not only earned less, but also collected more taxes, and merchants earned more and did not need to pay much tax, and some merchants could easily evade taxes, so businessmen would cause dissatisfaction among farmers.

Third, the merchant was regarded as "the person who steals the fruits of labor" in ancient times, and the merchant is actually a person who sells goods, and in ancient times, he advocated "doing it himself", so those who really have craftsmanship, physical strength, and ability can get everyone's respect, and the merchant himself has no ability to survive, and must make money by selling the fruits of other people's labor, so the merchant is a kind of "person who steals the fruits of labor" in ancient times, which is also one of the reasons why the people generally look down on the businessman.

Because in ancient times, the main focus was on power, and after having power, there would be money, and in ancient times, a businessman had no power, only money, so his status was a little lower.

The low status of people in business in ancient times is because, in ancient times, agriculture was heavy and business was suppressed, so the status of business would be relatively low, because it could not be supported by most people.

This was determined by the ancient policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce, because the ancient feudal society was based on a small-scale peasant economy. ** Implement the policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business, so more attention will be paid to the development of agriculture.

Because in ancient times, merchants did not contribute much to society, and the society at that time believed that people who did not have land would generally go to business, and it was impossible for large landlords to go into business if they had land to rent and collect rent.

1. The reason for the low status of merchants in ancient times was the suppression of feudal social dynasties, during the Shang Dynasty Reform Period, the Qin State severely cracked down on commerce, so as to improve the status of agriculture, and later the feudal dynasties followed the policy of emphasizing agriculture over commerce, and then the status of merchants was suppressed again.

2. A businessman refers to a person who obtains profits by using certain tangible or intangible resources of his or her own or social resources as a tool and bears certain social responsibilities, or refers to a person who implements business activities in his own name and takes it as a career.