Chapter 981 Social Change
After having a general understanding of the local agricultural development situation, Van Diemen asked Zhang Xin: "So are these local farmers working for you now, or are they working for the landlords?"
Zhang Xin explained: "Depending on the different cooperation methods, the labor relationship between employees and landlords is also different. Some landlords completely entrust us with the land to cultivate, and they only charge a certain proportion of the land use from the annual harvest. It is equivalent to operating a joint venture with us, but there is basically no need to bear the risks in the operation process. Under this cooperation method, the cost of labor is borne by us, and naturally they are working for us. You saw it at Nanhai Restaurant yesterday. That Huang Zijie, the land under his name was handed over to us for management in this way. Another way of cooperation is that we provide technical support, and the manpower is provided by the landlords themselves. These farmers are equivalent to still working for the landlords. .”
Van Diemen thought for a while and then said: "Then the latter method of cooperation must be more beneficial to the landlord's income."
Zhang Xin nodded and said: "Of course, but on the one hand, the risks from planting to harvesting need to be borne by the landlord himself. On the other hand, the price of local labor is actually rising year by year, and the cost of cultivating the land by the landlord will also increase. . In addition, we will also give more preferential treatment to the landlords in the first mode of cooperation, such as arranging for their children to study abroad in Sanya. This opportunity is not available to everyone.”
Fan Diemen thought about Huang Zijie's excited expression at yesterday's banquet, and he could somewhat understand the attraction of this condition to the landlords. After all, Sanya is the base camp of the Haihan people, and it is very likely to become the capital of the Haihan Kingdom in the future. Being able to enter higher education institutions in the capital is definitely worth it for the rural rich who want to change their family's destiny and enter the upper class of society. This requires some economic sacrifices.
In terms of the social structure of the Far East in this era, if you want to change from a pheasant to a phoenix, you either have to study hard in a cold window and take the imperial examination to become an official, or you can only find ways to marry into the upper class of society. Although the latter approach seems to be relatively less technically difficult, it is a different situation in Haihan.
First of all, there are actually only a few hundred Haihan people at the top of the pyramid in the Haihan social structure, and less than half of them may have the need to start a family, so the number of targets is very limited. Secondly, it is well known that the Haihan people are very picky about marriage. Not only do they require the woman to have a clean background, be beautiful and healthy, but also have a certain cultural foundation. Illiterate people basically have no chance of becoming the companions of the chiefs.
After some screening under various conditions, there are really not many people who are qualified to fight for this opportunity. On the contrary, it is easier to study in an institution run by Haihan people. After all, Haihan's urgent need for educated people is obvious. As long as he is educated and loyal to the executive committee, he has a great hope of being recruited to work in Haihan Yamen.
In the past, working for the Haihan people did not seem to be a good job that would honor one's ancestors. Many people loyal to the Ming court secretly denounced it as an act of treason and disobedience, thinking it was a sign of disloyalty and unfilial piety. However, as Haihan grew stronger, the number of people who still held this view gradually decreased. Especially after the news of Haihan's founding came out, the trend of public opinion also changed significantly. In the past, the positions in the Haihan Yamen were often dismissed as "eagle dogs" and "running dogs". But now that Haihan is about to found the country, even if you are a handyman in the Yamen, you can be related to the founding heroes. This means But it's completely different. In the future, people with good eyesight and good brains will be able to tell who will be the master in the Haihan Kingdom.
Entering Haihan University for further study - becoming an official - changing the social status of the family is undoubtedly a very realistic shortcut for the landlord class who come from a well-off family but suffer from no upward path. However, Haihan University is indeed not a place that everyone can go to. Either they have outstanding results in the past, such as having already passed the Ming Dynasty exam, or they have to get the recommendation from local officials in charge of cultural and educational affairs. . Haihan linked these upward channels to daily cooperative attitudes in exchange for the cooperation of the landlord class in land policies. In the current environment of social change, such obvious trading conditions are really hard to refuse.
Although there are still some landowners who insist on hiring farmers to cultivate their land, with the gradual changes in the main production relations of society, they will also realize that their behavior is contrary to the trend of social development. If they do not make changes to adapt to such social changes, they will Sooner or later, they will become abandoned by society. Those who can seize this historical opportunity and follow the trend are very likely to become the first beneficiaries after the establishment of the emerging regime, and take this opportunity to become Haihan's supporters and guardians.
Van Diemen was not very interested in how much rice could be harvested from farmland cultivation led by Hayhan. The East India Company did not have the ability or interest to organize such large-scale grain production in Batavia. He was personally more interested in getting Understand how Haihan in the process of changing land policy eliminated the strong resistance that would have erupted from the landlord class.
From Zhang Xin's description, Van Diemen believes that he has found part of the reason. The Haihan people are indeed unique in the application of political means, which can make a considerable number of people in the landlord class choose exchange of interests instead of confrontation. Over time, these people will naturally be assimilated into Haihan's community of interests.
However, what Van Diemen didn't know was that it was not that the landlord class in the areas originally ruled by the Ming Dynasty had never launched resistance, but that all those who tried to use violent means to resist Haihan's rule had been caught and killed in the past few years. , the group of people with the most resolute attitude of resistance had already been dealt with by Haihan as a typical example. The most famous among them were the people who were dealt with after the Danzhou Assassination Case in 1631. Since then, no one has Dare to talk about your intention to resist.
After using violent means to eliminate the die-hards, and then using profit conditions to lure the remaining people into submission, this combination of punches has indeed achieved extremely good results in the Qiongbei area. Although there are still many diehards with rigid ideas in the countryside of Danzhou who are unwilling to abide by Haihan's land policy and agricultural development plan, few dare to come out and openly oppose it anymore. They can only be accepted by reality bit by bit. Smooth edges. For the East India Company, this actually does not have much reference significance. The Dutch have always been violent when opening up colonies in Southeast Asia. No matter whether they kill a wave first or not, they have never considered being like Haihan. This way of slow cooking is used to manage the place. Of course, this also has a lot to do with the environment in which the Dutch live. The racial and cultural differences between them and the Southeast Asian indigenous people are difficult to overcome. If we do not use a sharp knife to cut the knot, then the population size will not be the same. It will be difficult for foreign groups with any advantages to gain a foothold here. The Haihan people and the Ming Han people have the same ancestors and the same culture, so the difficulty of integration is relatively small.
The reason why Van Diemen wants to study the ins and outs of this is mainly to understand the Haihan people's behavior habits and the way they think about problems. When his predecessor, Governor Cohen, led the East India Company, there were obviously many serious mistakes in the policy towards Haihan. In the early stage, Haihan did not pay enough attention and missed the opportunity to eliminate it in its infancy. In the mid-term, there was insufficient warning of the enemy. In the conflict, it was defeated by Haihan several times, which caused the East India Company's armed forces to be greatly damaged. In the later period, it failed to respond well and failed to make any substantial progress in the negotiations with Haihan, which seriously affected the East India Company. The company's trading operations in Northeast Asia.
After taking office, Van Diemen faced many problems in post-war reconstruction, but he still took time to go to Hainan Island for inspection in order to master as much information about Haihan as possible so that he could understand Haihan in subsequent interactions. to make more accurate judgments about intentions. Van Diemen does not seek to reverse the situation now and outdo Haihan, but at least he can not appear too weak in bilateral negotiations, especially in the future, the South China Sea Trade Alliance, a commercial organization, can have a certain say in the formulation process of cross-border trade rules. , not being able to fight back without being eaten up by Haihan.
Haihan's sophisticated performance in governance really surprised Van Diemen. The more he learned about Haihan, the more he felt that the strength of this group was unfathomable. In addition to extremely sophisticated trading methods and an almost invincible armed force In addition, I did not expect that the Haihan people also had a clear plan on how to manage a country. Judging from the stations visited so far, Haihan's rule on Hainan Island is indeed quite solid, and the founding of the country can be said to be a natural move.
After spending two days inspecting many towns and villages around Danzhou City, the inspection activity entered the next step, visiting the local academies with unique characteristics. Danzhou has always had a prosperous literary style and is the area with the highest concentration of academies on Hainan Island. It can also be regarded as the cultural center before Sanya opened as a port. Many academies have cultivated a large number of literate intellectuals in Danzhou, and many of them have joined Haihan in recent years. Therefore, the executive committee has always attached great importance to Danzhou's cultural and educational undertakings. This time Ning Qi, the executive committee member in charge of Haihan cultural and educational affairs, visited Danzhou and specially arranged two days to inspect the local academies.
The first academy Ning Qi visited was the famous Bailu Academy in Danzhou. This ancient academy was built in the Northern Song Dynasty. In the two hundred years of the Ming Dynasty alone, it had produced sixty or seventy candidates. This is almost In the provincial examination held every three years, there is a high frequency of success. Such proud achievements have made White Deer Academy the leading educational institution on the entire Qiongzhou Island. Many students even come here from the mainland to study here.
When Haihan first took over Danzhou, the academy was relatively reserved and unwilling to put aside his dignity to cooperate with Haihan in culture and education. However, after Zhongming Academy, where Huang Zixing served as the headmaster, was uprooted by Haihan in the name of suppressing rebellion and banditry, White Deer Academy, like many other local academies, chose to change its attitude and partially accept Haihan's arrangements in culture and education.
Haihan's arrangements for the academy's teaching were mainly based on the needs of political propaganda, which required the study of Haihan's various major policies to be included in addition to cultural classes. This requirement is not just as simple as arranging extracurricular homework for students to study on their own, but also to set up special courses in the academy, with Haihan dispatching specialized teachers from Sanya to teach.
The courses arranged by Haihan have a lot of practical content and are targeted at young people. They are far more interesting than reciting the Four Books and Five Classics while shaking their heads. After the course started, they quickly captured the attention of young students. The work of writing the course was coordinated and directed by Ning Qi. He was a university teacher before traveling through time, and he had a good understanding of young people's thoughts. Although the environment of this era is very different, some things are innate, such as intellectuals' interest in participating in political discussions.
The purpose of these scholars who entered the academies was not just to be able to read and write, but ultimately to obtain a reputation in the imperial examination and then use this as a springboard to enter the officialdom. To achieve this ultimate goal, in addition to literary attainments, another indispensable quality is political awareness. The teaching content formulated by Haihan is to analyze some of the most influential political programs and measures during the Ming Dynasty's two hundred years of rule, such as the promulgation of the "Ming Law", the implementation of maritime bans, the enfeoffment of vassal kings, etc.
No one would dare to discuss these matters at will. If you are not careful, you will be accused of "discussing government affairs." However, in the courses arranged by Haihan, these policies are used as cases to discuss their impact. Conduct an analysis and detail the pros and cons. This is undoubtedly a very attractive course for scholars who are interested in entering politics but seriously lack official experience. From this course, they can understand the process of formulating policies and laws by the Ming Dynasty, as well as the various decisions made from the perspective of Haihan Parse comments.
Haihan had no such scruples about things that others did not dare to discuss, and his angle of observation and depth of analysis were far beyond the knowledge of ordinary people in this era. The students of the academy were exposed to a whole new world. This kind of targeted propaganda will not only make them aware of the limitations and shortcomings of the Ming Dynasty's political system, but also understand how Haihan used administrative measures to avoid repeating the same mistakes, and adopted many more sophisticated methods than those of the Ming Dynasty. Achieve a political situation of internal peace and external conflict. Although this kind of course has a strong political propaganda meaning, it is full of freshness for students. It is often difficult to get rid of its attraction after listening to the course once.
(End of chapter)