In the new curriculum, high school history textbooks introduce China's ancient economy more, but describe the western ancient economy less. I hope that by comparing the economic differences between ancient China and the West, I can fully understand the regularity of their economic problems and understand the characteristics of their economic structure, political system and civilization.
China is a typical agricultural country on the mainland. Until modern times, it still maintained a self-sufficient natural economy in the early Western Han Dynasty. Although commodity production and commodity economy have developed, the self-sufficient economy is still in a leading and dominant position. Its outstanding performance is the lack of regional division of labor in agriculture. Food was mainly supplied by the local Han regime, which put the businessmen in a position of being hit and excluded. In this case, it was impossible for the Han Dynasty to vigorously develop commodity production.
This is different from Rome's non-self-sufficient and non-grain-based agricultural economic structure. After the second century BC, slaves were widely used in all production sectors, whether in cities or villages, countries or individuals. Due to the development of commodity economy, Rome became a typical slave society with the purpose of producing surplus value. One of the outstanding manifestations is that the regional division of labor in agriculture is obvious, and commodity production occupies a dominant position in slave owners' farms. The Roman slave society, which aimed at producing surplus value, was the basis of the above-mentioned commodity production.
The similarity between Han Dynasty and Rome in their attitudes towards agriculture lies in that they both attached great importance to and advocated agriculture, encouraged people to farm, and regarded agriculture as the foundation of the country and the source of wealth. However, the agriculture advocated by the Han Dynasty was small-scale agriculture with low commodity rate, while the agriculture advocated by Rome in the later period of the country was mainly small and medium-sized farms and even large farms, which were mainly caused by the following reasons:
First, the geographical environment is different.
According to the important factor of geographical environment-coast, human beings can be divided into marine nationalities and mainland nationalities.
The Italian peninsula is the birthplace and central area of Rome. The peninsula is inserted into the middle of the Mediterranean, dividing the Mediterranean into two halves, and the southern end is adjacent to Africa by the sea through Sicily. There are mainly mountains and foothills, with dense water system and convenient internal contact. The geographical environment is enough to keep the Italian States small and widowed for a long time in the Iron Age. This geographical environment provided Rome with convenient sea transportation and a stage for foreign trade expansion. In addition, due to various complicated factors, Rome had the most developed commodities in the ancient world.
China is located on the eastern edge of Europe, Asia and Africa. A series of huge mountains and deserts form a natural barrier to the west, separating it from western civilization, with the vast Pacific Ocean in the southeast. Although this is not a completely closed environment, it is a quasi-closed situation with a wide net. There are many rivers here. Chinese civilization originated in the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins. The Chinese nation basically lives on agriculture, and land is the foundation of wealth. Therefore, the center of China's socio-economic thoughts and policies always revolves around the use and distribution of land.
Second, the political form is different.
Rome developed step by step on the basis of the city-state system. All citizens of the polis, regardless of class, are equal in politics and before the law. However, under the autocratic imperial power, farmers in the Han Dynasty did not have the right and opportunity to participate in politics. All state affairs are in the hands of bureaucrats headed by the emperor, who are far less concerned about state affairs than Roman citizens. Political, economic and military activities throughout Rome depend on citizens.
China's politics is "isomorphism of family and country", and the construction of political country and family society is basically the same. They all maintain the monarchy. The imperial or state-owned economic system pays attention to protecting the rights and interests of the emperor, a few nobles and the state, basically ignores the interests in the general private sense, and even suppresses people's personality development and rights requirements. Under the autocratic monarchy, the rulers implemented the policy of attaching importance to agriculture and restraining business, and fixed farmers on the land, which not only protected the economic foundation of the authoritarian state power, but also
Third, cultural differences.
Roman culture and ancient Greek culture come down in one continuous line and are a branch of Greek culture. In addition to inheriting Greek culture, he also accepted everything given by West Asia, Egypt and Rome, both in material life and spiritual life. Everything is practical, and everything is for reality. Before the establishment of the empire, Rome didn't have much of its own culture. The Romans advocated martial arts and adventure, and conquest, looting and war everywhere constituted the main content of Roman history. In the case of complex national beliefs, the unity of language and culture has not been realized.
Han civilization developed in the Yangtze River and Yellow River basins, and was little influenced by foreign cultures. The Han dynasty rarely launched a large-scale war to expand its territory like ancient Rome. During this period, the authentic position of Confucianism, which represents the culture of the Han nationality, was established. China's moral concept and traditional ideology began to form China's creed since ancient times. Confucianism tried to achieve moral order and social stability through enlightenment, and self-restraint became the traditional virtue of the Han nationality.
;