Debt: The First 5000 Years - autonomous learning

THE MIDDLE AGES 265
monasteries came to be surrounded not only by commercial farms but
veritable industrial complexes of oil presses, flour mills, shops, and
hostels, often with thousands of bonded workers.41 At the same time,
the Treasuries themselves became-as Gerner was perhaps the first to
point out-the world's first genuine forms of concentrated finance capital.
They were, after all, enormous concentrations of wealth managed
by what were in effect monastic corporations, which were constantly
seeking new opportunities for profitable investment. They even shared
the quintessential capitalist imperative of continual growth; the Treasuries
had to expand, since according to Mahayana doctrine, genuine
liberation would not be possible until the whole world embraced
the Dharma.42
This was precisely the situation-huge concentrations of capital interested
in nothing more than profit-that Confucian economic policy
was supposed to prevent. Still, it took some time for Chinese governments
to recognize the threat. Government attitudes veered back and
forth. At first, especially in the chaotic years of the early Middle Ages,
monks were welcomed-even given generous land grants and provided
with convict laborers to reclaim forests and marshes, and tax-exempt
status for their business enterprises.41 A few emperors converted, and
while most of the bureaucracy kept the monks at arm's length, Buddhism
became especially popular with court women, as well as with
eunuchs and many scions of wealthy families. As time went on, though,
administrators turned from seeing monks as a boon to rural society to
its potential ruination. Already, by 5II AD, there were decrees condemning
monks for diverting grain that was supposed to be used for charitable
purposes to high-interest loans, and altering debt contracts-a government
commission had to be appointed to review the accounts and
nullify any loans in which interest was found to have exceeded principal.
In 713 AD we have another decree, confiscating two Inexhaustible
Treasuries of the Three Stages sect, whose members they accused of
fraudulent solicitation.44 Before long there were major campaigns of
government repression, at first often limited to certain regions, but over
time, more often empire-wide. During the most severe, carried out in
845 AD, a total of 4,6oo monasteries were razed along with their shops
and mills, 26o,ooo monks and nuns forcibly defrocked and returned to
their families-but at the same time, according to government reports,
15o,ooo temple serfs released from bondage.
Whatever the real reasons behind the waves of repression (and
these were no doubt many), the official reason was always the same:
a need to restore the money supply. The monasteries were becoming