Chapter 584 Rest will only make people greedy
"Lord Greymane, please think twice." Hurlburt almost blurted out, and when Wilder glanced at him, he hurriedly added.
"I know that Prophet Merlin saved Donya's life. Of course we should give him some rewards, such as two thousand golden lions and the friendship of the Singleton family.
But I don't think it's appropriate to send Miss Donya to the green fields. I mean she is your only granddaughter and you should keep her with you. ”
Wilder's expression softened slightly, but he still shook his head and said, "I can't protect her for the rest of my life. She is not young anymore. It's time to go out and see the world and learn something."
"Then you can come to the Church of the Earth and Grain to study. We will send the most knowledgeable priests in the church to teach Miss Donya." Herbert suggested.
"Oh, what can you teach her? Can you help her improve her martial arts? Or can you teach her how to run the territory, or remove the curse for her people?" Wilder asked.
Herbert was speechless.
The Earth and Grain Church are definitely not as good at improving martial arts as Shuangxiujiao. After all, the latter just helped Ilea win the championship in this martial arts competition.
And they are no match for Shuangxiujiao when it comes to managing the territory. The Arias family has been prospering since they converted to Saturdays, and anyone who is not blind can see it.
Not to mention getting rid of the curse, the syphilis that left the church helpless was defeated by Li Yu.
Hulbert racked his brains and could only think of one aspect where the Church of Earth and Grains had an advantage.
"We will not instill in Miss Donya such poisonous ideas as 'rest is people's birthright'."
The priest said seriously, "That will only make your subjects lazy, and you and your family will suffer heavy losses. And you also know those greedy untouchables. If you give them a little sweetness, they may be grateful to you at that time, but time As time passes, they will only ask for more.
"Once this precedent is set, things will get very bad and no one will work hard for you anymore."
Donya couldn't help but interjected, "But we went to the royal capital with Sir Ilea and the Prophet Merlin, and we haven't seen the guards of the Arias family or the monks from the Shuanghui Religion being lazy in these days. .
"Hmm... you have to say that they always run out all day long, especially the two people who went to the tavern. But they are originally bards, and they are still bards after the Saturday. Their job is to participate Various banquets.”
"That's because what you see are the elites of the Arias family, who are of course more obedient than ordinary people, and they are under the noses of Sir Ilea and the prophet Merlin."
Herbert looked at Wilder, "Lord Greymane, I remember that the old city lord asked you to manage several farms when you were young, so you have dealt with those farmers.
"Then do you think if you let them rest for two days out of seven days, they will work hard in the remaining five days?
"Or are they going to be immersed in the two days of rest, too lazy to lift their spirits, and just keep looking forward to the next rest day?"
"This..." Wilder couldn't help but hesitate. Indeed, those soldiers who have undergone rigorous training and nobles with strong self-discipline may be able to live strictly according to this new schedule.
But the common people, especially the serfs, will definitely become more and more lazy.
Wilder turned his attention to Li Yu again, wanting to see if the latter had any good solutions.
In fact, similar things have already happened in Green Field.
Long before Li Yu and Ilea left for the capital, Jin Tong and Marco from the tribunal had handled a forced work case.
The cause was that the steward of a farm felt that the serfs were lazy in their usual work, so he forced them to work overtime in the fields regardless of the precept of double holidays.
He was later punished by the referee, but the young referee named Marco was also confused after that.
Because in his opinion, the fat butler was certainly at fault, but the serfs were indeed lazy and caused the farm owner to suffer losses.
Jin Tong's answer to this is that we are referees and we only have to deal with things that violate the precepts, and we don't have any control over other things.
Later, Li Yu found out about this and summoned all the referees to praise Jin Tong's approach.
In Li Yu's view, the answer to this question is actually very simple.
As long as all the land is rented to farmers, those lords will only focus on collecting rent from now on, and naturally they will no longer worry about such things.
To put it bluntly, the serf labor system itself is relatively backward. Even if there are no weekends, those serfs do not work hard in their own fields when working for their masters.
This is not even lazy or cunning, it is just a rational choice of an economic man.
Of course, this is easy to say, but it is very difficult to reform it.
Because the nobles on the continent of Bratis are already accustomed to this method of production.
Even if renting crops can bring them greater profits, it will be difficult for them to turn around in a short while. Secondly, due to various reasons, many homesteaders go bankrupt and become serfs every year.
Especially in disaster years when there are good harvests, the number of serfs in major families will increase greatly. Even some bankrupt farmers who want to become serfs cannot become serfs because there are too many refugees.
And after taking in so many serfs, of course the nobles had to have a place to place them. This was also an important reason why those farms existed.
But Li Yu has now developed a pedal-operated textile machine, and has also opened a textile factory. In addition, he also has a paper mill, a brick factory, and an ironmaking factory and a glass factory to be built in the future. etc.
There was no place to absorb those bankrupt farmers, so the only thing that prevented the nobles from giving up serfdom was local tradition.
Li Yu did not intend to force this matter forward, because this would likely arouse strong dissatisfaction among the nobles. In contrast, he preferred to adopt a relatively mild method.
By telling the nobles which method is more profitable, guide them to slowly transform into pure land renters.
However, this kind of thing cannot be said in person now, as it may scare the nobles in the city.
Li Yu just said to Ilea on the side, "Tell Sir Wilder about the output of the Arias family's farm this year."
Miss Rabbit nodded, "This autumn my farm harvested one and a half times more crops than in previous years."
"How is this possible?" Herbert was shocked, "Why are there so many? Was your farm hit by a disaster last year?"
"No, this is all thanks to Saturday." (End of Chapter)