Crossing the Continent in the Eighteenth Century

Regardless of whether it developed from slavery or later freedmen sold their freedom to become manor accessories of manor owners, serfs can be said to be the product of the feudal manor system in the Middle Ages. The compromise result of feudalism.

Different countries have different definitions of serfdom. For example, in Poland, a serf is a slave who cultivates the farmland. In order to expand agricultural production, Polish manor owners turned a large number of free people into slaves while expanding their farmland.Russia is similar, but serfs work in a wider scope, not only involving farming, but also mining, forestry and road building.This is the same in Prussia, except that Prussian law stipulates that serfs are different from slaves, and the lords of serfs only have incomplete personal possession rights. For example, lords cannot execute serfs.

"First of all, you have to understand one thing. Although the current war is still affected by a general's military ability in terms of the scale of the battle, in terms of strategy, the outcome of a battle is not as decisive as it was in the past few hundred years. Losing If the country is strong enough, it can fight another game, two games, or even three games. As long as a country has spare power, the outcome is still unknown. So, Hans, think about it, Where does the country's strength come from?" I waved my finger, "People! To be precise, it is the population base!"

In the eighteenth century before the industrial revolution, or even in the past 1000 years, the population is the embodiment of a country’s strength. As the heir to the Roman Empire, especially the third in line, I have often been taught by my cheap dad about people. This knowledge, and the caveats that are emphatically stated.

"As long as there are people, there will be soldiers in that country. As long as there are people, then there will be taxes in that country. Hans, you know why Rome was in the fourth century. Roman citizenship, which had been limited to Rome, was extended to The whole empire?"

"I'm not Frederick!" Hans told me in a more tactful way that he didn't read much, although his attitude was a little excited.

"Although you are not Frederick, you have also accompanied her to read a lot about Rome?" I am deciding the scope of Hans' knowledge so that I can be sure that I am not playing the piano against the cow later.

Seeing Hans nodding, I said: "According to the records of the "Great Works" built by Emperor Augustus in AD 14, there were less than 500 million Romans in the Roman Empire at that time." The Romans in my mouth refer to Those Romans who really had Roman blood on the Apennine Peninsula or were finally granted Roman citizenship after strict examination, instead of the "Romans" living in the territory of the Roman Empire, "have less than 500 million people, although the population behind is still will grow, but after Augustus, Rome's enemies became more powerful and the scale of the wars became larger. Those Romans died very quickly. So, even if you understand that extending citizenship to the entire empire will bring Chaos, but the ruler announced this policy at that time. Then... From the third century AD to the end of the third century, Rome ushered in an imperial civil war. However, in addition to internal fighting, there was still room to do something to expand the empire and regain lost territory , to the era of Diocletian. Due to the huge population base, Rome barely ushered in a year of rejuvenation, even if it was very short."

The golden age of Rome, that is, the last glory of the slave age was the hundred years between Augustus and the following five good emperors. After that, the economic collapse caused by slavery led to the first real decline of the Roman Empire. Expect.The crisis of the third century caused by the civil war of the empire later.Although it made Rome crumble, it finally made the empire survive.

what is the reason?

Roman legions good at fighting?

Of course not, it is not because of the expansion of Roman citizenship, if only the group of Romans in the Apennine Peninsula.The Roman Empire did not have to wait for the Huns 200 years later, they perished as early as the third century AD, so how could they use Diocletian to play with the four emperors to rule together.

I asked rhetorically, "Just a decree to expand citizenship rights allowed Rome to continue from 230 AD to today. Don't you deny [people] the importance of this country's resources?"

Hans lowered his head and said nothing, but just looking at him, I knew it was time to throw out the reason why manor serfdom hurt Prussia: "Since you admit the importance of population to a country, then you It should also be understood that the serf system in Prussia has caused many people to disappear from the population register of the kingdom. 20%? Or 30%? Those who disappeared cannot be conscripted or taxed. You say this is a big harm to the Kingdom of Prussia big?"

"But.."

I interrupted Hans: "Yes, you Junkers are indeed brave and good at fighting. Your cavalry has contributed countless times to the Kingdom of Prussia today. But you have to be clear, how many years does it take to train a knight? How much land and population? What do you need to kill a knight? Fully armored armor and horses cost at least a thousand talers, and land and slaves are worth tens of thousands. Then what? The cost of killing a knight But it's a musket and a bullet worth less than a dozen talers. Even if your Junker cavalry is cheaper than knights, you have to be clear that the current era is no longer the era in which one knight can be a hundred. Split Land, the manor system to support a small number of elite knights, this model is no longer applicable."

Why were Poland, Russia, and Prussia described as barbaric and backward in the eighteenth century?

Isn't it because as early as after the feudal transformation was completed in France and Italy, these countries still continued to use the ancient manor system.

Hans sat on the spot in a daze, and I looked at him like this. After a while, he said, "Will those serfs let you release them immediately?"

"Release? No, Prussia can't afford it yet." I shook my head.

"Not released? According to what you just said, if the serfs are released, won't Prussia have more soldiers and more taxes!"

"You throw millions of people on the street at once without thinking about giving them jobs, without thinking about more follow-up questions?"

"They have fields they can cultivate by themselves and farm tools, so what are they afraid of?" Hans said grumpily.

"In addition to those rich peasants, Hans, there are some middle-class households between the poor peasants and the rich peasants in this world. They were all under the protection and management of the manor owners before, and it will take time to adapt to the whole society!"

Speaking of serfs, I am afraid that many people will immediately think of the toiling people with disheveled faces and being bullied all day long, but serfs are not just those laboring people with disheveled faces, there are more balance of income and expenditure in them, and they can barely live farmers.

Yes, although serfs lost their freedom, they still had property rights.In the dictionary definition of the Roman Empire, serfs are obliged to work for the lord without compensation, with their own labor, to work on the land of the manor owner in exchange for protection and justice, and to cultivate additional land on the land to ensure their own livelihood. Finally, let the manor owners financially bondage the peasants who practice slavery.Moreover, to put it in a sentence that conflicts with the red education I have received in the past ten years, even if I am exploited, there are not a few exploiters in the exploiting class who have a conscience and know how to manage. Although those people cannot release them, give them some help. With small favors and small favors, it is still possible to make serfs be grateful.

The release of the serfs for no reason, the serfs leaving their former manors where they lived a decent life, many problems will erupt at once, and these problems will not be dealt with properly or predictably, and will soon only create more acute questions.Why did Germany in the [-]th century give birth to the great god Marx, who brought out the younger brother Lenin?Wasn't it because after the reform of the serf system, the serfs who came out of the farmland immediately went to the factory to work as factory slaves.If it weren't for Bismarck's foresight to introduce the world's first labor protection law and welfare system, I'm afraid that Prussia would be one step ahead of Tsarist Russia and drown under the red ocean.

"And, for now, we need them all the more to grow food for Prussia."

The current level of productivity is very low, and the agricultural production tools are simple. The main agricultural areas still use wooden plows, wooden hoes, and occasionally iron plows and wooden plows.The yield is only about 5 times that of seeds.The survival rates of cattle and sheep in animal husbandry are about 50% and 30% respectively.If the serfs are taken away at once, who will carry out the output.

When it comes to serf reform, the red education I learned in the past often equated serf reform with capitalism.But the teacher of the Celestial Dynasty was very irresponsible, and just told me in general that it was capitalism that promoted the reform of serfs and the release of manpower.They didn't say how to do it specifically, but if I hadn't traveled through time, I wouldn't expect to understand the twists and turns in this life.

As I said before, the current Prussia needs serfs to cultivate food more than freeing serfs, because Prussia is not ready.

This is not yet ready In addition to ideology, it also includes the hardware aspect of Prussia.

To put it simply, Prussia is not yet an industrial country, and there is no large amount of industrial infrastructure built in the country. Since there are no industrial facilities, what do you need people to do?Are you making trouble?

In addition, the release of serfs and capitalization and industrialization are a complementary process, and capitalization and industrialization require primitive capital accumulation.Where did the original capital accumulation come from?Prussia is not a colonial country that can rob the natives, so it can only be destined to be one class plundering from another class.

In the parallel world, the ransom for the status of a serf is a process of redistribution and re-centralization of a country's wealth.Through the amnesty, the government handed over the capital of the serfs' redemption status to the Junker manor owners, so that these manor owners had funds for industrial investment, and then the serfs who became freemen entered the factory as soon as they walked out of the manor. slave.Factory slaves who found themselves cheated were rioting from the mid-nineteenth century until Bismarck introduced the welfare system. (To be continued..)