the peasants had to rear horses for the government.  Additional horses were bought at very high prices, and apart from this the general financing of the wars necessitated increased taxation of the peasants, a burden on agriculture no less serious than was the enrolment of many peasants for military service.  Finally, the new external trade did not by any means bring the advantages that had been hoped for.  The tribute missions brought tribute but, to begin with, this meant an obligation to give presents in return; moreover, these missions had to be fed and housed in the capital, often for months, as the official receptions took place only on New Year’s Day.  Their maintenance entailed much expense, and meanwhile the members of the missions traded privately with the inhabitants and the merchants of the capital, buying things they needed and selling things they had brought in addition to the tribute.  The tribute itself consisted mainly of “precious articles”, which meant strange or rare things of no practical value.  The emperor made use of them as elements of personal luxury, or made presents of some of them to deserving officials.  The gifts offered by the Chinese in return consisted mainly of silk.  Silk was received by the government as a part of the tax payments and formed an important element of the revenue of the state.  It now went abroad without bringing in any corresponding return.  The private trade carried on by the members of the missions was equally unserviceable to the Chinese.  It, too, took from them goods of economic value, silk and gold, which went abroad in exchange for luxury articles of little or no economic importance, such as glass, precious stones, or stud horses, which in no way benefited the general population.  Thus in this last century B.C.  China’s economic situation grew steadily and fairly rapidly worse.  The peasants, more heavily taxed than ever, were impoverished, and yet the exchequer became not fuller but emptier, so that gold began even to be no longer available for payments.  Wu Ti was aware of the situation and called different groups together to discuss the problems of economics.  Under the name “Discussions on Salt and Iron” the gist of these talks is preserved and shows that one group under the leadership of Sang Hung-yang (143-80 B.C.) was business-oriented and thinking in economic terms, while their opponents, mainly Confucianists, regarded the situation mainly as a moral crisis.  Sang proposed an “equable transportation” and a “standardization” system and favoured other state monopolies and controls; these ideas were taken up later and continued to be discussed, again and again.