“One person who understands economics can't save a group of people who don't want an economy.”
Transmigrated to the late Ming dynasty, Shen Tingyang proposes “abolishing grain transport by canal in favor of shipping by sea.” His calculations are crystal clear: the state would save twenty million taels a year, and grain deliveries would increase by a quarter. Yet the court officials rise up together to denounce him as a pirate, because grain transport is a river of profit that sustains an entire chain of vested interests, from governors to boat trackers. Later, a military grain shortage forces them to give his plan a try, and it succeeds brilliantly. But the Tianjin governor loses over 120,000 taels in earnings as a result. The protagonist doesn't become a hero. Instead, he becomes a public enemy.
