"The current scale is enough." Hu Wumei nodded and said, "I now have 6,000 acres of land, and I have machines to help plant it. About fifty or sixty male laborers are enough. The remaining plantations and factories are enough. . Children and the elderly can also help when they are busy.”
"What if we don't use slaves?" Xu Yanliang asked, "Is there any difficulty?"
"Difficulty...it's not that difficult...difficulty..." Hu Wumei was not careful when Elder Xu suddenly asked such a question. He reacted quickly. From this sentence, he knew that Elder Xu did not agree with the use of slaves.
Unfortunately, the words came too quickly. Although he understood the other person's thoughts in time, he hesitated in speaking. Xu Yanliang naturally noticed it.
Obviously, the owner of Hu Village has no objection to the use of slaves. In other words, because the benefits gained from using slaves far exceed the costs he paid.
He did not continue to discuss this issue in depth and changed the topic: "Your current farm has 6,000 acres of land. Do you want to open up more land?"
"Of course, the more land, the better." Hu Wumei said with a smile, looking full of enterprising spirit. He knew that the elders liked this attitude. "But too much land is inconvenient. Workers have to walk a long way back and forth to work. It is a waste of time."
"Why not build more farms? Wouldn't it be inconvenient for your workers to be concentrated here now?"
"Okay, I've built a new farm next to the coconut garden." Hu Wumei said, "There is too much land, so we need to set up a foreman. This person is hard to find..."
Xu Yanliang nodded. He did not intend to express too many opinions on the production and management here. His original focus was not on agriculture. The purpose of coming to Hu Wumei is to understand the agricultural production situation in Sanya and learn from it for future agricultural colonies.
"There is another question." Hu Wumei hesitated for a moment, "You always come from Lingao. Do you know what the regulations of the Senate are now?"
"What are the regulations?" Xu Yanliang didn't react for a moment.
"That's it..." Hu Wumei was a little nervous, because he knew to some extent that the land issue had always been the core issue within the Senate - although he had never understood that a simple matter like buying and selling land would take so many years within the Senate. I can't even get a charter.
"I just asked casually..." He hesitated, "Actually, I'm not the only one who has this problem. There are people in Sanya and Lingao who want to know."
"Tell me about it. If I know about it, I will tell you as long as there is nothing wrong with it."
Seeing his statement, Hu Wumei summoned up the courage to ask: "What does the Senate mean by the ground photo? I have been farming here for several years, but there is still no ground photo. I asked several senators, but they couldn't explain it. . I don’t feel at ease even if I plant my crops in such a hazy way.”
Xu Yanliang's heart skipped a beat, thinking that the issue of land ownership still had to be faced. The Senate had been vaguely circling around for so many years, and no clear plan had ever been issued. As a result, various departments had to deal with land ownership, use rights, etc. On a series of issues, only temporary measures can be taken. Put some twists on the words.
For those people from small families, having a house to live in, dozens of acres of land to cultivate, taxes are not heavy, and having enough food is a good thing. Naturally, they do not care about the houses they live in or the land they cultivate. Who are the property owners? Anyway, even they themselves are "people of the Senate."
But for those outside "investors" or the "emerging classes" like Hu Wumei, their views on property rights are completely different. Who owns the land and whether they can dispose of it are their biggest concerns.
Whether land is state-owned or privately owned is an old issue that has been debated in the Senate for many years. The only consensus that all parties can agree on is that "those who have permanent property have perseverance." The question is how to define this "permanent property" and how to ensure that the Senate has control over land and that the poor can obtain land relatively fairly.
Although the future of the Senate is to build a nation based on industry and commerce, the importance of land as a means of production will decline significantly. However, as the most basic means of production and living for mankind, its scarcity and irreplaceability make it inevitable to become the focus of various social contradictions. This also makes the Senate particularly cautious on this issue. For many years, it has "only discussed but not voted" to prevent major internal rifts caused by this issue. This is also one of the reasons why many elders are reluctant to mention this matter.
Like other elders, he can now make jokes and speak some specious official language to fool him. But Xu Yanliang thought about it and felt that it would be better to speak more clearly.
Xu Yanliang thought for a while and asked: "What is the nature of the land you are farming now? Didn't the Senate give you any paperwork or anything?"
"Yes, yes, but I can't understand the words on it." Hu Wumei said with a bitter smile, "To tell you the truth, if I could figure it out, I would be willing to cultivate more land, but I don't dare to do it casually... …”
"Bring all your credentials and tell me about this habit." Xu Yanliang said, "Actually, I don't understand it very well myself, but since you reported it to me, I will definitely tell you this." The matter must be brought before the Senate as soon as possible.”
This is the first time in the past few years that there has been such a clear answer about land. Hu Wumei suddenly became energetic, stood up and said, "Wait a moment, I'll go get the documents right now!"
While Hu Wumei left, Xu Yanliang asked softly: "Is there any truth in what this person said?"
Yuan Fei smiled: "Don't listen to his nonsense. He has not fifty or sixty slaves, but at least two or three hundred, all of whom are in coconut plantations. Coconuts alone can earn him a lot of money in a year - he has to use them all." The workers’ wages alone will cost them so much more! He saw that you didn’t like using slaves, so he went to the young master specifically to tell you.”
Xu Yanliang nodded, this was pretty much what he thought. The productivity of slaves in the plantation economy was not low. It is no accident that the cotton and hot-crop plantations in the Americas were keen on using slaves. It is one thing that the demand for food in Western Europe starting in the 16th century caused a large-scale rebound in serfdom in Eastern Europe.
"How much does a slave cost these days?"
"The price fluctuates. Generally, a young and middle-aged male slave costs more than ten yuan. A female slave also costs seven or eight yuan. The one with a good physique is more expensive."
"How many slaves are used here?"
"There are so many workers who don't spend money to eat, who wouldn't want to use a few? But small families can't afford it, and they don't dare to buy it. It's only the wealthy people who buy it." Yuan Fei said, "In the past, under the rule of the Ming Dynasty, there were Buying slaves to farm the land.”
"What about what he said?"
"That's true. What this old Hu cares about most is his land. This old boy is greedy!" Yuan Fei said without any scruples.
Hu Wumei went there for a while, took out a tin box, carefully opened the padlock on it, took out a book protector inside, and carefully pulled out a few pieces of paper.
"This is the land allocated to me and my family when I came to Sanya. At that time, my family's household registration was for fifteen people, with a total of 450 standard acres. This was an additional reward from the Senate, with a total of 3,000 standard acres. Acres. They are all wasteland, and these..." He unfolded these certificates one by one and put them on the table, and pressed them with a tea cup. "This is my real estate certificate. This is what I gave you when I opened up wasteland. You have to get a waste ticket..."
Xu Yanliang picked them up one by one and looked at them. He saw that these "licenses" had different inscriptions and patterns. Not only did the nature of the land ownership have different names, but also the issuing departments were different.
"Kou Fen Tian" is stamped with the seal of the People's Committee of Civil Affairs. There is no word about the nature of the land, so it is called "Kou Fen Tian." It only states that according to the registered population, regardless of gender, age or child, each person has 30 standard acres.
As for the "reward from the Senate", the certificate is actually an "Agricultural Production Land Tax Certificate" issued by the State Administration of Taxation. Xu Yanliang couldn't laugh or cry, what kind of land certificate was this! It seems that the people in the Government Affairs Council have tried their best to avoid the land ownership issue.
The "land reclamation ticket" is even more strange. The department stamped on it is actually the "Sanya Special City Government". Probably the people who originally came up with this system also felt that it was inappropriate, so they later stamped it with the seals of the People's Committee on Agriculture and the General Administration of Taxation.
Judging from these credentials alone, they meet many characteristics of a real estate certificate. For example, they are accompanied by drawings, clear land boundaries, and even the longitude and latitude are indicated. The problem is that in a legal sense these have nothing to do with land rights certificates. There are only a few real estate certificates that are satisfactory and at least indicate the "real estate owner". Of course, the land occupied by real estate is only recorded in area and has no specific nature.
No wonder Hu Wumei was muttering. To be honest, with the Senate's approach, they were able to gain the trust of the naturalized people, probably because they were in troubled times and didn't have many choices.
When Hu Wumei saw him, she was sometimes surprised, sometimes sarcastic, and sometimes showed an expression of disbelief, and she couldn't help but feel worried. He has studied these land documents countless times, but he always feels that "something is wrong." Seeing that Elder Xu didn't speak for a long time, he bravely asked: "Chief, look..."
Xu Yanliang shook his head and said: "This is also the first time I see these certificates. It's really eye-opening!"
"Then these credentials..."
"Since they are all stamped with a big seal and issued by the Senate, they are naturally valid. You don't have to worry too much." Xu Yanliang quickly reassured him, "You don't have to think too much."
"Yes, yes, thank you very much, Chief Xu." These words reassured Hu Wumei a little, but these messy documents were still a worry for him. After all, this is not the clear title deed that Ming Dynasty would have!
Xu Yanliang knew from the expression on his face that his guarantee was not convincing. To be honest, even he himself found it unconvincing.
