When Franklin Roosevelt inaugurated his “New Deal” program in 1933, he fancied himself an original policy maker, bold enough to try things not previously undertaken. As it turns out, his plans for the economy mirrored policies that had been attempted many times in many places.

The 1939 book from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist H. J. Haskell, The New Deal in Old Rome, recounted stunning parallels between FDR’s tax, spend, centralize, and regulate policies and those of the ancient Romans 2,000 years ago.

In this essay, I acquaint the reader with a man named Wang Anshi from ancient China. He lived from 1021 to 1086 A.D. He was appointed chancellor (akin to prime minister) by Emperor Shenzong in 1070.

Anshi so disrupted the status quo with his “reform” agenda that turmoil describes his te

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