Chapter 1261 Slave Bankruptcy
Old Li shouted, "I can't live a better life? How can I buy mutton every day? Gold is expensive. The grain in our land is only one hundred yuan a stone in the capital, and the yield of an acre of land is only one or two stones. This is a lot of money." A catty of mutton will be gone. If you eat it again, you will be a prodigal!"
Today, the ten catties of mutton cost 1,500 renminbi, plus 300 renminbi for the haggis, which is 1800 renminbi.
If it weren't for the better life now, who would be willing to eat like this?
Eating once is enough, how can you eat it all the time.
"Slaves at home have fish head soup to eat, don't remember them."
The Li family had more than a dozen slaves, all of whom were rewarded by Li Gongzuo during the war. According to the requirements of his superiors, he took some islands and exchanged them for slaves from Silla, Baiguli, Turks, Wa, Kunlun, and Nanman. There are old and young, for the Li family, it is a very important property.
At ordinary times, I have to assist the Li family in cultivating fields, raising livestock and poultry, and doing household chores. There are many things. Anyway, there is endless work, both in the field and at home.
It is with the help of these people that the Li family can barely grow so many fields. Old man Li naturally looks down on these barbarian slaves. A group of slaves who can't even speak human words are often lazy and slippery. It's under control.
Old Li used to be poor and fearful, so although his family has a big business now, he treats these slaves better than he treats his family's mules. He treats his family's mules like Lao Li, and not only does he build a spacious and comfortable shed , but also to feed night grass every day. There are many mosquitoes in the hot weather in Luzon, and every day when it gets dark, Lao Li has to burn spicy Polygonum grass outside the cowshed to repel mosquitoes.
But for the slaves at home, Lao Li is more harsh. Usually, two meals a day are thin, and there are no dishes. If they can eat fish soup or something every now and then, it is considered a favor. The living is also simple. The whole bunk of the thatched shed next to the cowshed is the residence of the slaves.
Only during the busy farming season, Lao Li would give dry food to the slaves. Occasionally, he could eat the leftover fish bones, meat bones, etc. and leave them with stewed bone soup, which is not bad.
He always felt that these barbarian slaves were unreliable, but the family could not do without them, otherwise so many fields would not be able to grow. But I always dislike them for eating too much.
"Ada, this time I was training in Fucheng, and I heard the new order from above, which is specifically about slaves. Wei Gong went out to teach and made new regulations for slaves."
The Luzon Metropolitan Government promulgated the Slave Act, which is similar to the Tenancy Act issued by the previous court. The Tenancy Act protects the tenants and naturalizes the tenants who were not originally naturalized, freeing them from the plight of being completely vassalized by the landlords. Became a citizen of Datang.
Now, the slave bill introduced by Luzon is to formally include slaves in household registration and grant them human rights. immigrated to the Han people.
So now Luzon can only find ways to get immigrants to settle down, while introducing people from the mainland to hire jobs, and on the other hand, increasing the proportion of slaves.
From farming to mining, from cities to docks, from workshops to transportation, the use of slaves has to be increased in all aspects. However, the increasing number of slaves has brought about problems such as slave status and management.
In order to ease class conflicts and maintain stability in Luzon, Qin Lang personally presided over the revision of the Luzon Slave Act.
All slaves are registered in household registration, and anyone, including slave owners, has to go through a trial to kill, injure, abuse slaves, and must not abandon slaves when they are sick, etc.
Killing or injuring a slave is the same crime as killing or injuring a beloved man, and there is no reduction in crime.
In contrast, the original Tang law stipulated that if a servant was guilty, if the master killed him without a lawsuit, he would be punished with one hundred rods, and if he was innocent, he would be punished for one year.
This punishment is very light, killing for no reason, and only one year of labor reform.
Qin Lang emphasized the protection of slaves. The sale and transfer of slaves must go through strict government registration procedures. Every transaction must be a triplicate contract between the buyer and the government. Ten percent tax.
Slave owners have the responsibility to protect their slaves. The death of a slave must be reported to the government. After the official inspection and records, it is the same as the death of a cattle must be reported to the official for inspection. The cause of death must be determined. If it is not due to illness, the cause must be investigated. Wait, we will file a case for investigation.
If the death is due to illness, after the inspection and identification, the slave owner will collect the burial, and then report to the government.
Datang's determination of the status of slaves is that the law is more than livestock, but Qin Lang has improved the status of slaves a lot.
For example, he stipulates that slaves can own property rights, and stipulates that within the scope of Luzon, all slave owners must provide their slaves with the minimum guarantee of food, clothing, lodging and living, as well as the minimum labor remuneration, which is the minimum standard of labor remuneration. , is indeed very, very low, but Qin Lang insisted on setting it up.
The original intention of the establishment is to give slaves property and allow them to redeem themselves after they have saved enough money.
After the redemption, the slaves are free people.
Slaves are naturalized, and there is a special low-class management. Regardless of official or private slaves, they can be exempted or redeemed. Slaves are special chattels in law and can be traded and transferred, but they are strictly protected.
Business must be registered with the government, and deed tax and transaction tax must be paid. Death must also be inspected by the government and a death report issued.
Luzon has not violated the rule that the good and the poor should not marry. Marriage between lovers and slaves is not allowed, but the Luzon government also stipulates that slave owners have the responsibility to marry slaves.
A good man is not allowed to take slaves as concubines, but children born to slaves are recognized as concubines.
The children born after marriage between slaves and slaves are still regarded as special chattels of slave owners.
On the other hand, Qin Lang also stipulated that the Luzon Metropolitan Government shall not enslave Luzon Han people or their family members who have committed crimes.
Qin Lang’s solution to this debt problem is the personal bankruptcy regulations. When the debtor is unable to repay the debt, all the property will be transferred to the creditor for distribution, and then the debt will no longer be assumed.
This is also to alleviate some social conflicts caused by debts, especially to protect some low-level people. This kind of personal bankruptcy law actually first appeared in ancient Rome in the West, but in Chinese history, there has never been such a concept .
In ancient China, debts, especially usury, caused a large number of debtors to be unable to pay back, and finally had to sell all their properties, and even turned their family members and themselves into slaves to pay off debts, especially in times of famine. It is particularly prominent, and it is very easy to aggravate the crisis of social conflicts.
Therefore, Qin Lang specifically added these articles to the Slave Act, prohibiting turning a beloved into a slave due to debts. Although he only limited the scope of this beloved to the Han Chinese group for the time being, this is also a huge change .
Personal bankruptcy regulations are epoch-making.
Its starting point, like the Slave Protection Act, is actually to draw a minimum red line for the future society of Luzon and avoid the worst things from happening.
Although the status of slaves is said to be low, there have been endless slave uprisings in various countries in history, and there are many things that even shake a powerful empire.
For Qin Lang, slavery and slavery are unavoidable situations in Luzon at this stage, but slaves must also be given some hope, and they must be given an upward channel.
Even if this passage is relatively narrow, it must be open, and the slaves cannot be trapped in a dark cesspit without hope, otherwise this kind of thing cannot last for a long time, and will eventually be backlashed.
Protecting slaves and giving slaves property rights is to allow slaves to retain such a chance to climb up. Even if the hope is slim, I still hope it is not. In those dark days, if there is hope and light, there is still hope.
Just like the saying that those who have a permanent property have perseverance, slaves who have hope are easy to manage.
This is a harsh reality.
Relying on whips and knives alone is not good management and cannot maximize profits.
Just like Qin Lang took the lead in implementing the system of piecework-based payment in the manors, mines, and workshops under his own name. In addition to the guaranteed work tasks, the labor results that exceed the tasks are paid on a piece-by-piece basis, and additional piecework wages are given. This salary is actually calculated precisely. If you work hard, the reward you can get is very low. However, if you work hard, you can still get an extra salary. If you work hard, you will have Possibly redeeming himself, although it is difficult.
But at least once in a while you can buy something you want for yourself, even if it’s a pair of shoes or a piece of meat?
This is like a prisoner in a prison, earning a little money through labor, and can also buy some cigarettes or alcohol or daily necessities.
Essentially speaking, Luzon still has few adults and precious manpower, so even slaves must pay attention to protection and not easily cause disasters.
Moreover, as a time traveler, Qin Lang always believed that granting basic human rights could actually release slaves’ productivity and ease social class conflicts.
But for Old Li, what his son said made him feel incredible.
"Why? Why does Duke Wei still care so much about these lowly slaves? They are slaves, just like pigs and dogs, and they are not human."
Not people, this is basically the view of most people in this era about slaves, they are property, just like livestock.
Actually, Li Gongzuo didn't quite understand the new regulations issued by Wei Gong, but he had great admiration and trust in Qin Lang, and felt that since it was Wei Gong's order, he had to obey it, and Wei Gong always had his reasons.
So while eating cold noodles, he also formally told his father and brothers that he must treat slaves well in the future. These slaves were not bought, but rewarded and exchanged, so they were exempted from paying deed tax and transaction tax at the beginning. Yes, but if the death of a slave is also investigated, if it is found that they were killed or abused, they will also have to take responsibility and be severely punished.
"There are more than a dozen slaves in our family, young and old. I plan to pair and marry the young ones first."
"There are more men than women." Old Li said. Moreover, he was a little selfish at first, wanting those young and fertile maidservants to serve the three sons, so as to increase the number of people for the old Li family. Anyway, many people in Ningyuan Tunbao did this.
Even some old fellows like Lao Li took one or two maidservants unceremoniously. Old Li didn't think so, there were only a few people in the family, and it was better to leave it to his son.
So usually he is very strict with these maidservants, not letting male slaves get close to them easily.
For a family to grow, it must have a prosperous population. In this place far from home, there is no clan to rely on, so Lao Li thinks that these lowly female slaves should be housekeepers for the three sons and help them have some children.
Now it is said that slaves will be rationed. Isn't this cheaper for those low slaves?
Old Litou publicly told everyone about his plan.
In the end, Li Gongzuo didn't have such thoughts. He was newly married and his wife was pregnant. How could he think about these things, but the boss and the third child seemed to have some thoughts, but it was hard to say.
Li Gongzuo said, "Ada, these slaves can't even speak a single sentence of Chinese."
"My idea is to match them. We can exchange with other families if they are not enough. After they get married, we will divide the land to them..." Li Gongzuo also wanted to learn from Qin Lang, a married couple Male and female slaves, and then take one or two old and young slaves for them to form a family, or a production group, and then divide them into twenty or thirty acres or so many lands, each group is responsible for a piece of land, and they can produce and work separately. Like Qin Lang, set the corresponding land rent according to the usual fat and thin output of the field. After the slaves pay enough land rent, they can keep the rest for themselves or share it again. Everything needs to be pointed out.
Of course, these slaves usually live separately and live in various lands, but the private plot of the Li family belongs to the public land, and they all have to assist in farming and management, and they even contribute to whatever happens at home.
"Are they slaves? They are not tenants, so we still collect rent?"
"Since Wei Gong is doing this, it means that it is beneficial to do so. Let's try it out. Besides, after the slaves get married, they can have children in the future. They are not worth much when they grow up. Just give birth to cows and horses. Like cubs."
"They've all been separated, so who will do the housework?"
"The old and the young can come to the house to do things and serve, or they can take turns, or what, in short, they can be both without delay."
Old Li felt that his son's thoughts were too much for him, and he couldn't understand why Wei Gong would do this. But ever since his hometown in Yanzhou in the northwest came to Luzon and settled down in Ningyuan, even now that his family has a total of more than a thousand acres of land, his hometown still believes in Duke Wei.
(end of this chapter)