Chapter 2360 Guizijuan family, family background
The housewarming ceremony was not very grand, and was even very low-key in the eyes of many people. The Feng family did not hold any celebrations. They simply notified relatives and friends to let everyone know that they had moved.
Feng Ziying didn't even interfere much, leaving everything to the daughters in the back house to take care of. It wasn't until the move was almost complete that he, as the head of the family, took care of it.
"Satisfied, why are you not satisfied? You ladies have worked so hard these days to take care of things well. For my husband, I just sit back and enjoy the fruits of my life. I should be grateful to you ladies for my husband's good life."
The three girls Shen Yixiu, Xue Baochai and Lin Daiyu led the way, followed by Baoqin, Miaoyu, Yingchun and You Erjie, and a group of girls gathered behind. Taking advantage of the good weather and bright sunshine, they could cover the entire garden. The pattern here has been settled.
Yuanyang and Jin Chuaner walked in front and led the way.
"My husband, please don't say that. You are busy with big things outside. I and my sisters have no ability to share my worries for my husband, so we can only do the trivial things in the back house so that my husband will not have to worry about it when he comes back." "
Shen Yixiu smiled sweetly and looked forward to his appearance.
"It's all thanks to the two sisters Baochai and Daiyu, as well as Yuanyang, Ping'er, and Jinchuan'er, who have carefully discussed with me during this period, and finally managed to make a rough move here, because considering that there may be more in the future, Some sisters are coming in, so I have reserved some..."
Baochai and Daiyu were both humble, while Yuanyang, Ping'er and Jinchuan'er were too busy saying they didn't dare.
"Sir, please see, this was the study room of Mr. Bao. It has been changed now. It is mainly used for daily assignments. On weekdays, the slaves Heping'er and Jin Chuaner take turns arranging daily doorkeeping, driving, driving, etc. Kitchen, cleaning, masonry, flower seedlings and other matters..."
Since Feng Ziying was invited to come here today to take a look at the entire arrangement of the Feng Mansion, Yuanyang did his best to do the main introduction. This was what Feng Ziying and Shen Xuelin had agreed upon at the beginning.
Yuan Yang takes charge of the daily chores in the house, with Ping'er and Jinchuan'er as assistants, assisting the three grandmothers in management.
If there are large financial expenditures in Suli, then the three daughters of Shen Xuelin must be invited to take charge.
If it is a general matter, Yuanyang, Ping'er, and Jin Chuan'er will handle it and keep it in a file. At the end of each month, it will be reported to Shen Xuelin and the three daughters for review.
Yuanyang, Ping'er, and Jinchuan'er also work in shifts, so they don't have to work too hard.
Although there are fewer women, servants, and servants in the mansion now, with the addition of children and people in the house, and the huge courtyard and garden, the number will definitely continue to increase, so the logistics management of the entire mansion is also quite complicated. .
Now a rough calculation shows that in addition to the grandmothers, aunts and their personal maids, there are more than 80 male servants in the entire Feng Mansion, such as concierges, night watchmen, coachmen and grooms, gardeners, masons, carpenters, purchasers, and warehouse keepers. People, this does not include Li Guibao, a large-scale professional bodyguard.
In addition, there are women as the main servants such as the kitchen, laundry, and cleaners, as well as many maids in each room, which adds up to more than a hundred people.
Feng Ziying couldn't believe how there were so many people before. Later, Yuanyang simply introduced the situation in Daiyu's house with three bedrooms, and Feng Ziying finally understood.
In addition to the two personal maids Zicuckoo and Xueyan, there are four young maids, eight rough maids, and four women who are responsible for keeping vigil at the outer door in Daiyu's house. In addition, Miaoyu originally only had one personal maid. , two little maids, four maids, and four women who keep watch at the outer gate. The same goes for Xiuyan. Now that Miaoyu and Xiuyan have given birth to children, they each add a wet nurse, a little maid, and a maid. Maid, that is to say, there are more than 40 servants in these three rooms alone.
Feng Ziying originally found it unbelievable that the two houses of Rong Ning had thousands of people. Now it is her turn. According to a rough calculation, excluding the male servants common to the whole house, the number of female servants in each house is forty. is growing and will likely continue to grow.
In other words, not counting my mother's aunt, there are more than 200 servants in my three houses. If I include my mother's aunt, the number will probably exceed 300.
So after all this calculation, Feng Ziying feels that the artificial labor force in this era is really worthless. It is no wonder that Rongning Second Mansion has such a grand party with thousands of people.
Feng Ziying also asked about the wages of the servants in her house - that is, the monthly salary, which was basically the same as that of Rong Ning's second house, slightly higher. After all, Rong Guo's house had begun to decline at that time and could not make ends meet, even if it was In that way, it is considered very competitive in Beijing, so the Feng Mansion's monthly payment is relatively abundant, and the servants are quite satisfied, especially at the end of the year, the Feng Mansion basically gives out a bonus - a red envelope, too. A large number, so the entire Feng family's servants are much more loyal than Rong Ning's second family.
Of course, the Jia family is a century-old family, and there are many Jia clan members in it. These are people who don’t do farming but just ask for money to eat. In addition, the population is large, so they can’t afford it.
For example, in the Rongguo Mansion, Wang Xifeng's monthly allowance is about five taels of silver, and Li Wan's monthly allowance is ten taels because he has to take care of Jialan. The girls and aunts who have not left the government have the same monthly allowance, which is two taels per month.
The eldest maids like Yuanyang who stayed by Jia Mu's side could probably get one tael of silver per month. Jin Chuan'er who stayed with Mrs. Wang could also get the same amount, and the attackers who stayed with Baoyu also got the same amount.
If it is a big maid in an ordinary house, such as the She Yue Qiu Wen, it will cost about one ounce of money. According to the conversion ratio of silver and copper coins in the Dazhou Dynasty, one tael of silver can be exchanged for 1,200 copper coins, that is He said that in the entire Rongguo Mansion, except for Yuanyang, Jin Chuaner, and Xiren who could get one tael of silver per month, the other maids could only get one sling of coins, which was one thousand copper coins.
While ordinary maids get 500 copper coins, rough servants can only get 200 to 400 copper coins.
For a rural family in the suburbs of Beijing, the annual income is only twenty taels of silver. This family basically refers to a family with three strong male laborers and two or three female laborers. The maids in the Rongguo Mansion, even the income of the maids. They are also very enviable.
For example, the monthly income of a maid in the Rongguo Mansion can reach twelve ounces of money, which is ten taels of silver. If you add in the red envelopes of three to five taels of silver awarded by the mansion at the end of the year, you can occasionally get it from the masters once or twice. Rewards such as silver beans, calculated, the income of a maid can reach fifteen or sixty taels of silver, which is almost equivalent to the income of two or three strong working farmers in the suburbs of Beijing. This does not take into account the income that the government has to pay for these every year. The maids bought some clothes and trousers, which was also a big expense.
Calculated based on current commodity prices, the grain price at Zhangjiawan Port in Tongzhou in a normal year is about 9.5 cents per stone for corn, about 1.25 cents per stone for japonica rice, and about 1.24 cents per stone for inferior flour. The annual income can buy about ten shi of flour, which is 1,500 kilograms of flour, or fourteen shi of japonica rice, which is 2,100 kilograms of japonica rice, or ten kilograms of corn, which is indispensable to poor people in the north. Seven stones of corn can be broken down into 2,600 kilograms of corn.
Of course, in the later stages, the Rongguo Mansion could no longer afford such expenses, so not only were the monthly payments of the maidservants deducted a lot, but they were often in arrears, and even calculating characters like Wang Xifeng and Tanchun couldn't solve the problem. This conundrum.
It is really difficult for a clever woman to make a living without rice. With nothing to make ends meet, Rongguo Mansion is in decline and even dilapidated. Even if there is no case of rebellion, it will be difficult to sustain it.
It can be said that the case of Fu Ni was a fig leaf for the Jia family's collapse, lest they could no longer survive and could only shamelessly sell the things in their own house. In fact, this kind of thing It has been done for a long time, but it is just a method of pledging it at a **** shop and then not redeeming it when it expires.
Compared with the income of the servants in the Rongguo Mansion, the Feng Mansion was a bit chaotic in the early days. Later, when Shen Yixiu and Xue Baochai got married, they began to standardize it. However, in general, the income of the servants in the Feng family was probably higher than that in the Rongguo Mansion. About 20% to 30%.
For example, the average maid in Rongguo Mansion will get one tael of silver, but in Feng Mansion, she will get one or two silver coins, which is an extra two hundred copper coins, such as Qingwen, Yunshang, Xiangling, Ying'er, Zijuan, Xueyan, Siqi, etc. Personal maids like Xiu Ju and Ling Guan only get one, two or five coins from the Feng Mansion.
Of course, Qingwen, Yunshang, Xiangling, Zijuan, and Siqi had already been taken over by Feng Ziying. The maids who usually had to sleep with them were different. Two silver coins per month, that is, doubled every month.
Concubines like You Erjie, Yingchun, and Xiuyan received five taels of silver per month. However, because Yingchun and Xiuyan had children, in addition to doubling their monthly wages and receiving ten taels of silver, the government also In addition, the two daughters will be given an additional ten taels of silver per month as child subsidies, which will be used by the mother-in-law.
These ten taels of silver are not used for the children's food, clothing, housing and transportation. Those expenses are uniformly spent by the government. This silver is a special allowance given to mothers alone and is used to encourage women in the government to have more children. Raising a daughter, to help the Feng family continue its incense and flourish, was also a reward specially used by the Duan family from their own private money.
As Miaoyu and Baoqin, as concubines, they received eight taels of silver per month, but because Miaoyu gave birth to a child, the monthly salary doubled to sixteen taels per month. In addition, the child allowance of ten taels of silver was added, reaching two. Sixteen taels, this is already a quite astonishing amount for a woman's family.
The actual monthly payment of the three mistresses is actually more of a formality, but rules still have to be set.
Each of the three of them had a monthly allowance of thirty taels. Because Shen Yixiu gave birth to Tong Niang, the monthly allowance was doubled to sixty taels. In addition, an additional allowance of 12 taels was given to the children, reaching an astonishing seventy taels per month, one year. The total was 840 taels, equivalent to the income of 42 rural households in the suburbs of Beijing, and almost as much as the official salary of a fourth-rank official in the Great Zhou Dynasty.
Feng Ziying herself felt very appalling after such a calculation, but when she thought about it, compared with the 2 million monthly pocket money of the wealthy ladies in modern Hong Kong, it seemed that it was beyond the pale.
All in all, the total amount of expenses in the house every year is quite staggering, but for a family that is prospering, it seems to be a normal phenomenon.
(End of this chapter)