Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 231 Rose's Special Country Style
"In Rose's village, there are some traditions that you may find strange." Mrs. Irina continued: "Although, like the legion farms here, they all have the habit of collective living and cooperative labor, but in many ways they are completely different. different."

"The most typical thing is that they have a lot of festivals." She said: "Every year, there are dozens of fixed festivals. Some festivals are more than one day. Therefore, the sum of various rest days can reach more than [-] days. .In other words, in a year, more than half of the days are theoretically holidays.”

"Is it because it's too cold over there, so I can't go on vacation?" Tuo Huan imagined.

"No." Mrs. Elena shook her head: "The area south of Moscow can be cultivated for 150 days a year. But around Kiev, where the land is the most fertile and the climate is the best, there are the most festivals. They There are more than [-] festivals every year. In the Novgorod region, however, there are not so many festivals.”

"It's simply not wanting to work." Tuo Huan said with a smile: "In a fertile place, it doesn't take much effort, and the things you grow can support yourself. So you don't work after a while?"

"The result is like this." Mrs. Irina nodded: "The ethos of the village community can be said to be anti-hardworking. In fact, if you want to work more on holidays, others will not like it-the extra work Those who have been killed will be warned by the village community."

"Why is that?" Tuo Huan really couldn't understand.

"Because the tradition of the village commune requires absolute equality. This kind of equality is not only for the equal distribution of the village commune's fields, but also for the effort during labor and the harvest after labor." Mrs. Yi Lianna explained : "They pursue this equality to a point that borders on paranoia."

"How can I describe it well..." She thought for a while, and said figuratively: "Let's put it this way. In Dadu, I also listened to Mr. Serris's lectures. The ancient philosopher Confucius had a saying called 'No If you suffer from a lack of wealth, you will suffer from inequality, if you don’t suffer from poverty, you will suffer from anxiety’, right?”

She clipped a sentence in classical Chinese and looked at the crowd.

Tuo Huan and Guo Kang nodded.

"I asked my husband at the time, does this mean that it is better to be poor and poor than to be average? This sounds similar to the situation in Ross Village." Mrs. Irina continued: "But he Tell me, this is a misunderstood meaning."

"Before this sentence, there is a sentence called 'Those who have a country and a family do not suffer from widowhood but from inequality'. Because this is a requirement for the aristocratic rulers. The "widowedness" here does not mean that ordinary people lack money, but that they are in power. Those who have little land and people; equal, not property equal, but political equal, each gets its share.”

"The meaning of the whole sentence is that those in power should not worry about too small a territory and too few people, but should pay attention to allowing everyone to get the reward they deserve. When implementing policies, try to maintain fairness and equality."

"For example, some rich people pay less taxes, and the country's taxes fall on the poor. This kind of thing seems to happen often in Seris, which is called 'unequal'. They think that what needs to be overcome is something like this phenomenon."

"That's the truth." Guo Kang nodded: "It's also meaningful to you."

"Uh, over there... in many places, we have to figure out the taxation first." Mrs. Irina was a little embarrassed: "In many administrative regions, the rich are basically nobles, and they don't have to pay taxes in the first place; the poor ...the tax system doesn't make sense to them either."

Guo Kang remembered their "tax" status and reacted.

"The situation over there is very different from that in Serris, and even in Rome now. That's why I said that the feelings of each place are completely different." Mrs. Irina continued.

"For example, the following sentence, 'If you don't suffer from poverty, you will suffer from anxiety' means that the rulers should not worry about being poor, but worry about the peace between the top and bottom."

"After these two sentences, there is another summary: 'Gaijun has no poverty, harmony has no widows, and peace has no inclination'. It means that if the governance is fair, there will be no worries about poverty; if the upper and lower classes are in harmony with each other, there will be no need Worried about the decrease in the population of the people; if the society is stable, then there is no need to worry about the overthrow of the rule.”

"So, Serris's political wisdom pursues the ideal of making the country rich and the people strong, instead of asking for poverty."

"Because it is completely opposite to the original understanding, and the situation in my hometown is also in sharp contrast, so I am very impressed with this incident." She finally said: "Hey, these are probably two completely different worlds."

"Is Ross Village really pursuing equal poverty?" Tuo Huan asked.

"In most places, this is indeed the case." Mrs. Irina nodded: "The tradition of the village community is against hard work. People who work more and are more efficient will not get more, but will be excluded and sanctioned. "

"My husband also told me later that Seris people also like to hold groups and are keen on collective labor. There have been various associations in the villages since ancient times. By the Yuan Dynasty, there were 'hoe clubs' in the north and 'polders' in the south. It is an organization where villagers organize and cooperate in farming in order to improve efficiency. Governments such as the Han and Tang dynasties have always encouraged this kind of behavior, and even made special efforts to guarantee farming associations and make them semi-official organizations. can be promoted more easily.”

"But you see." She shook her head: "Although it seems that the models are similar, they all emphasize collective cooperation and the pursuit of equality, but Rose Farm and Serris Farm are actually very different."

"Then why is that?" Tuo Huan asked.

"Because hard work is meaningless." Mrs. Irina said: "Most villagers cannot accumulate wealth. Because if the harvest increases, the nobles will receive more. Hard work and savings cannot improve their situation. It is even more impossible to obtain the space to improve their status."

"Even if the aristocrats are very reasonable, there is no reward for their hard work, and taking it away will hurt the people around them." She gave an example: "For example, this piece of land can produce 20 poods of grain. During the tax collection process 10 poods were confiscated."

"If someone works hard and improves the technology to increase the output to 30 poods, then the nobles who know the situation will try to raise the tax to 20 poods, and still only leave him with a barely subsistence share. "

"Besides, because of the crude management, the nobles simply don't have the ability to make detailed distinctions. Taxes are generally paid by the entire village. That is to say, other villagers have to bear the tax increase together with this hardworking person. This is a big problem for neighbors. It is purely a disaster for us, so of course they will oppose it, and even regard this person as a traitor and be hostile to him."

"There are some other factors." She gave an example: "For example, people with strong labor ability will tend to choose to leave the village in order to get rid of the shackles after gaining more wealth. But the problem is that in the Ross area, the population The reduction of the village is fatal to the village. The strong and smart people have run away, and the next time they encounter tax collection, the village may be doomed. Therefore, they set up various religious and moral constraints to prevent this things happen."

"For these people, leaving the village can certainly gain more opportunities, but the risk is also very high. Losing the protection of the village group will make them very vulnerable when facing nobles. So unless those natural conditions are very Well, where the management is more enlightened, other people will often choose to accept their fate and hang out with the fellow villagers in the village."

"In the final analysis, it was forced by the local environment."

(End of this chapter)