My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 512 Chinese nobles!

People in later generations often say: The market will make every demand reflected in the price in a very specific way.

The price of slaves - especially after Liu Rong reduced the slave tax on foreign slaves, the price of Han slaves fell and the price of foreign slaves rose, which undoubtedly fully reflected the Han Dynasty's dependence on slave labor.

If the Han Dynasty did not have many slaves, or if there were not many people who used slaves, the price of slaves would definitely not have fluctuated so sensitively the moment the policy was released!
As for the reason for this price fluctuation, it is actually easy to understand.

——The slave tax for a Han slave was five cents, which was six hundred coins per year.

Six hundred coins a year, six thousand coins in ten years, and assuming he could live for fifty years, the slave tax would be as high as thirty thousand coins.

On the contrary, a foreign slave only had to pay a slave tax of 120 coins per year.

For the same fifty years, the slave owner only had to pay six thousand coins in slave tax for the lifetime of a foreign slave.

The cost between the two is not even simple: five times.

for example.

A certain landlord had 500 acres of land and needed seven to eight slaves to help him farm the land in order for him to get rid of the property.

The purchase of seven or eight slaves usually costs about 300,000 coins.

Normally, it is impossible for an ordinary farmer to buy his own farmland from 100 acres to 500 acres simply by farming, and spend another 300,000 coins at one time to buy seven to eight strong male slaves.

In order to complete the transformation from a self-employed farmer who owns 100 acres of land and cultivates the land himself, to a landlord who owns 500 acres of land, has slaves working the land, and has his entire family off the land, it usually requires such a process.

Initial land area: 100 acres;

Initial slaves: zero.

Then, you get an unexpected income, such as a reward for military merit or inheritance from a distant relative.

With this unexpected income, he bought fifty acres of land.

One hundred acres of land is usually only enough for one self-cultivating farmer to survive by starvation or freezing.

With 150 acres of land, it is possible to save some extra money while ensuring life.

So, the whole family, young and old, worked together to plow the fields and plant crops. Fortunately, the weather was good, and there were bumper harvests for several years in a row - at least there were no poor harvests caused by disasters.

In this way, after three to five years, this self-cultivating farmer can save 20,000 to 30,000 yuan.

If this amount of money is used to buy land, one can only buy three to five acres. If it is near Chang'an, one may not even be able to buy one acre.

But this money is enough to buy an underage female slave.

At this point, the evolution from self-cultivating farmers to landlords completed the first stage of primitive accumulation.

Acreage: 150 acres.

Slave: One person.

In the following years, this underage female slave would share most of the housework so that the female members of the self-employed farmer's family could take time to provide output for the family through raising silkworms and weaving.

It won’t be much, but it’s better than nothing.

After another three to five years, the surplus from the 150 acres of farmland, plus the income from silkworm weaving by the female members, allowed this self-cultivating farmer family to save up 40,000 to 50,000 yuan.

He still couldn't buy back much farmland, so he exchanged it for a strong male slave.

Afterwards, most of the farming work of the 150 acres of farmland, as well as rough work such as collecting firewood and carrying water, were placed on the shoulders of this male slave.

The male members who were able to raise their heads and get away from working in the fields also had the opportunity to earn extra income.

Those who have no future and no special skills can just work as helpers and earn commissions - at least they can earn enough to make ends meet.

Young people with some promise and a future should join the army or study.

This went on for another three to five years.

More than ten years have passed since the beginning of the evolution process from self-cultivating farmers to landlords.

The evolutionary process has also reached its first critical turning point.

That one, or several of the sons who joined the army, either died on the battlefield and left a pension for their families, or made military achievements and brought back military rewards for their families.

In addition, in the past few years, the family has saved tens of thousands of dollars. Putting all the money together, they can buy another 50 acres of farmland.

At this point, the evolution from self-cultivating farmers to landlords completed the second stage of consolidation and evolution.

Acreage of land: 200 acres.

Slaves: Two.

It may seem that the farmland has only increased by 50 acres, but in fact, the difference between 200 acres and 150 acres means that the surplus has doubled.

——Because the output of one hundred acres of farmland is the basic expenditure of this farmer's family.

If there are 150 acres of land, the surplus is the output of 50 acres;

If there are 200 acres of land, the surplus is the output of 100 acres.

So, after another three to five years, this farmer had saved up more than 100,000 yuan through his surplus.

At the same time, the underage female slave who was bought about ten years ago had given birth to several little slaves with the adult male slave who was bought later.

The hundreds of thousands of dollars that were saved were exchanged for two strong male slaves and a little female slave.

At this point, the evolution from self-cultivating farmers to landlords has officially entered the third stage.

Two hundred acres of farmland were all given to three strong male slaves to cultivate.

All the chores in the household were assigned to one adult, one minor, and a few little slaves.

As for this self-employed farmer family, the women were all engaged in handicrafts and textile industries, and the men, except for a few who were in the army or studying, rented another 100 acres of farmland.

As a result, most of the output from the 200 acres of farmland owned by this family became surplus, and the family expenses were covered by the output from the 100 acres of rented farmland.

For the next seven or eight years, the family stopped buying land and slaves.

But as time went by, as the little slaves gave birth to more and more and grew older, the family rented more and more farmland, and saved money faster and faster.

It was not until the twentieth year after the evolution of self-cultivating farmers to landlords was officially launched.

Although the land area was still only 200 acres, the number of slaves had reached three middle-aged male slaves, two adult female slaves, and thirty-five underage male and female slaves.

The total number of slaves reached about ten, and the savings reached a staggering amount of hundreds of thousands of dollars!
Finally, this self-employed farmer was able to buy farmland with his own savings rather than unexpected income.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars were used to buy back a hundred acres of land for this self-employed farmer at one time.

The total area of ​​land reached 300 acres.

Everything after that was a natural outcome. The family's own fields were cultivated by slaves, and the family expenses were offset by the rented fields.

There were more acres of land and the pace continued to increase.

Last time, it took me seven or eight years to save up the money, but this time it only took five years.

In the twenty-fifth year since the evolution began, this self-employed farmer bought another hundred acres of land.

Another two or three years passed, less than thirty years after the evolution began, and this self-employed farmer bought another hundred acres of land.

The acreage of land reached 500 acres, and the number of slaves remained stable at around ten. This self-employed farmer had officially completed his evolution into the landlord class.

From then on, this landlord family, with 500 acres of farmland and seven or eight slaves, could separate their entire family from the property.

Men can study and write, they can join the army, and when they are really old, they can bask in the sun and enjoy their old age.

Women decide whether to raise silkworms or weave depending on their mood.

It’s okay if you don’t want to - just stay at home and focus on raising your children.

And in this entire evolutionary process, the ones who provided the main labor force to create more production space for this farming family were undoubtedly the slaves who were bought back or born by the slave girls.

Over a period of thirty years, with two large unexpected incomes and the concerted hard work of the whole family, an ordinary self-employed farmer completed the class transformation and became a landlord.

In the future, as long as you don't commit suicide, or encounter major changes, such as being exterminated by enemies, or the dynasty being overthrown, or being ravaged by war;

The bottom line for this family is that they will at least stay where they are, and it will be difficult for them to return to poverty and become self-employed farmers.

As for the upper limit, it can be used to support children and nephews to study and become officials; it can be used to support children and nephews to learn martial arts and join the army.

Even if there are no great talents at the level of generals or prime ministers, at least there can be a few minor officials, or squad leaders or garrison commanders in the army.

Passed down from generation to generation, over the years, it is possible that they will develop into powerful, aristocratic, or even aristocratic family.

So, in such a class transformation that lasted for thirty years and required the increase of farmland from one hundred acres to five hundred acres and the increase of the number of slaves from zero to around seven or eight, what impact did the slave tax have?
Just count on your fingers.

At the beginning, after owning 150 acres of farmland, the family spent the first three to five years accumulating 20,000 to 30,000 yuan in savings.

After using these two or three thousand coins to buy an underage female slave, he saved up another four or five thousand coins in the next three to five years.

During the second three to five years, the slave tax for the underage female slave was as high as two to three thousand coins.

According to the current system, if this underage female slave is replaced with a foreign slave, more than half of the slave tax can be saved, and only four or five hundred coins will be needed.

Further down.

During the second three to five years, he saved up 40,000 to 50,000 yuan and bought a strong male slave.

During the third three to five years, he saved tens of thousands of dollars, plus the pensions and military rewards from his sons and daughters, and bought fifty acres of land.

By this point, the first ten years were over.

The family had already invested thousands of dollars in slave taxes on two slaves, one male and one female.

Go ahead, go down further.

After the acreage of land reached 200 mu, in the fourth "three to five years" he saved up more than 100,000 yuan and bought two strong male slaves.

Moreover, the original female slaves and middle-aged male slaves also gave birth to three or two little slaves.

From this time on, the slave tax for about seven slaves would cost 4,200 coins per year.

Soon after, the number of slaves reached ten, and the annual slave tax expenditure reached as much as six thousand coins.

This situation lasted for nearly twenty years.

All in all, during the thirty years of evolution, this self-employed farmer spent at least 150,000 coins on slave taxes.

If this money could be saved, the family would be able to save money faster, buy land or slaves earlier, and complete the evolution in a shorter time.

For example: if they were replaced with foreign slaves, the 150,000 coins would be reduced to more than 30,000 coins, less than 40,000 coins.

This will inevitably greatly increase the speed of primitive accumulation in the early stage of primitive accumulation in the evolutionary stage and improve the risk resistance of this self-cultivating farmer.

For example, if the first female slave was a foreign slave, the family could save 500 coins in slave tax every year, and the family could save the first 20,000 or 30,000 coins a year earlier.

If the first adult male slave was also a foreign slave who only paid 120 coins of slave tax per year, then every subsequent purchase of slaves and land could be advanced by one year.

The slaves purchased later, as well as the slaves born to the female slaves, were also foreign slaves, and they could shorten the evolution process of thirty years to twenty-five years, or even twenty years.

Even if it is twenty-five years, there is still a huge difference compared to thirty years.

It may sound a little far-fetched: twenty-five years, thirty years, what’s the difference?

——The difference is: thirty years means that the male head of this self-cultivating farming household is likely to die of old age!

Once the male owner dies of old age and the evolutionary process is not completed, the land and slaves that the family has accumulated through concerted efforts will be divided up by his sons who have moved to different households.

Not to mention that years of hard work have been wasted, at least the evolutionary process has failed.

And it can be completed in 25 years, which is probably enough to support the male owner to completely complete his evolution in the last stage of his life and make the most appropriate arrangements for dividing the property among his sons after his death.

For example: all the land and slaves are left to the eldest son to preserve the evolutionary results to the greatest extent.

As for the other sons, they were each given tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, which was considered as supporting them to become "middle-class families".

Then there are the risks.

——This thirty or twenty-five year evolution will not necessarily be successful if you proceed step by step!
During this period, a famine, a war, or even a group of thieves or an insatiable official could cause a devastating blow to the entire evolutionary process!

Being able to complete the entire evolutionary process means that this family of self-employed farmers has avoided countless attacks, even natural disasters and man-made calamities.

In this situation - in which there is a possibility of a major blow every year, leading to the failure of evolution, completing the evolution one year earlier means one less risk.

Being able to do it five years earlier can help avoid risks to the greatest extent.

It is no exaggeration to say that if it really takes thirty years for this evolutionary process to be completed, then even if the process is successfully started, the probability of successful evolution in the end is likely to be less than 10%.

But if the time is shortened to 25 years, the success rate could reach 20%.

In twenty years, it skyrocketed to 40%.

——Delay will lead to changes.

When it comes to risky things, it’s always better to complete them as early and as quickly as possible.

For a self-employed farmer who has just started to evolve and is strapped for cash, who has to spend every penny wisely and wants to split every coin into four halves, shortening the time from thirty years to twenty-five years, or even twenty years, can almost only be achieved by selecting the breed of slaves.

Choosing a slave from a foreign race might be a little more annoying and communication might be more difficult;
But if the Chinese nobles were chosen as slaves and servants, the evolution cycle would be prolonged, leading to a lower success rate.

(End of this chapter)