"Then it seems that there is indeed something very special about it." Tuohuan gradually understood what she meant: "These situations may also have an impact on management and recruitment."
"That's right." Mrs. Elena nodded: "The village community can be said to have affected the overall character of the civilians."
"Villagers tend to be extremely conservative. This kind of conservatism is not just about the requirements for customs and morals, but also against all changes. Their biggest wish is that no accidents happen and nothing changes. Just like their fathers and ancestors. The same, boring but stable life."
"Are you afraid of change because change is not a good thing?" Guo Kang asked.
"Yes." Mrs. Elena said: "Generally speaking, there are only two kinds of external changes."
"The more common type is the bad ideas that the lords come up with, which will only make the situation worse and destroy the original production."
"The other, less common, is a good idea thought up by the lord. It can improve production efficiency and management level, so that the lord can collect taxes more efficiently."
"So, the villagers are habitually opposed to these new changes. In fact, I don't blame them for being conservative. It's mainly because they suffered too much in the past. Wherever the nobles are a little more reliable, their attitudes will actually be the same. Much softened.”
"Uh..." Guo Kang was speechless for a moment.
"Perhaps for these reasons, the village community as a whole is also very exclusive. Their manor can be self-sufficient - or, in other words, it can't be self-sufficient." Mrs. Elena continued: "Because in most areas, villages and cities are inherently It’s very loose. The transportation is very backward, and it’s also very unsafe, so we have to live like this.”
"That's indeed a big difference." Tuohuan also nodded.
Guo Kang also agreed.
The Serris-style villages of this period, and even the Serris-style villages starting from the Qin and Han dynasties, were never self-sufficient places.
Private trade has never stopped, and agricultural and handicraft production are not limited to families. In order to improve work efficiency, spontaneous alliances among many families have always been common. A large number of tools, equipment, and materials cannot be produced by families themselves, and they need to be purchased from professional workshops.
In this era, if we look at the next year, the cotton promoted by Huang Daopo should have spread throughout the south of the Yangtze River.
Historically, starting from the late Ming Dynasty, the agriculture and cotton textile industry in Jiangnan would promote and upgrade each other. But now, without the interference of Jingnan, the agriculture and handicrafts of the Ming Dynasty are expected to enter an era that is considered crazy by Europeans more quickly.
Serris farmers do not reject new technologies, but tirelessly invest financial resources and energy to purchase more efficient tools and use more efficient working methods. Rural production has not experienced "involution" or stagnation. On the contrary, the degree of specialization has become higher and higher, the division of labor has become more and more strict, and the technical level and efficiency have been improving.
During this period, the Jiangnan area developed from four to five people supporting a population that was separated from farming to one or two people able to support one. And these extra spare people were engaged in handicraft industry in large numbers, which gave them the terrifying export capabilities of this era.
It is also because of the improvement in efficiency that rural women no longer participate in the cultivation of food rations, but basically get rid of field labor and engage in the textile industry, which is more efficient for them: According to the calculations of later generations of scholars, a woman engaged in cotton weaving, every day The average income per working day can reach 80% of a farmer's daily income; but if one is engaged in agriculture, it can only reach 30% to 60%.
Therefore, contrary to the common impression, "men farming and women farming" was the norm during the backward production period in Seris, while "men farming and women weaving" was a more efficient choice after the development of technology.
The products produced are far more than "self-sufficient", and the proportion entering the market has always been high, and with the development of production, there is a trend of increasing.
In fact, this trend continued until the middle and late Qing Dynasty. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, at least 3 to 5.7 million women were engaged in weaving in various prefectures and counties in the south of the Yangtze River, producing 100 million pieces of cotton cloth every year, of which 40 million pieces were exported locally, entered into long-distance trade, and even exported abroad.
The data may not be easy to remember, but some dramatic conclusions are enough to show a lot.
For example, the British launched a war in the late Qing Dynasty with the goal of getting the Qing government to open its ports and dump goods in order to restore the huge trade deficit. But after the port was opened, the deficit became even larger.
In the Jiangnan and Lingnan regions, the places where cotton can be grown are limited, and the output of raw materials has always been insufficient. After the war, it became more convenient to import British goods, so various places were able to import large quantities of Indian cotton and purchase Western machinery.
This allowed the efficiency of the craft industry to continue to increase. In the ten years starting in 1845, the Qing Dynasty's imports of British cotton dropped by 30%. What's more serious is that a large amount of Qing Dynasty cotton cloth poured into the closer British Indian colonies, causing the cotton textile industry around Bombay to worsen, and eventually almost completely collapsed.
In 1856, the British Parliament compiled economic data and found that the deficit with the Qing Dynasty had doubled since 1850. This war was not only in vain, but made the situation worse.
The wisdom of the congressmen seems to be unable to understand this situation, and they are puzzled by it. In the end, it could only be concluded that "the treaty ports were not opened enough and they must be opened again." For this reason, the second war was launched.
Therefore, the definitions of "men farming and women weaving", "self-sufficiency", and "small-scale peasant economy" set by the post-modern world are not so much descriptions of the Seris countryside, but rather imitations of the conditions in European rural areas - in Seris , these concepts are like "holy", "Rome", and "empire", they are words that cannot coexist with each other.
If you think about it this way, many things will make sense.
"By the way, I heard that there is a tradition of admiring suffering in Ross Village Community. Is this true?" Guo Kang happened to think of a question he had always been curious about.
"There is such a saying." Mrs. Elena nodded: "The Ross area worships the 'Holy Fool', and one of the most important behaviors of the Holy Fool is 'suffering'."
"The way saintly fools act is often very pious and very simple. But in the eyes of the world, they are very stupid, even almost crazy. They give up physical enjoyment and comfortable life, and exile themselves for the sake of faith."
"Many of the deeds of the Holy Fools include beatings and humiliations. However, these 'miserable' things are part of the suffering deeds of the Holy Fools, and are also the source of their sanctity. It can be said that the more suffering they endure, the more they suffer. If there are more, the Holy Fool will become more holy and great."
"Hey, it's really hard to understand." Tuo Huan sighed.
"This is also forced by the environment." Mrs. Elena shook her head and said: "The life of the village community is too hard. If we don't acknowledge the greatness of the suffering and make everyone feel at ease, there is no other way."
"These characteristics are quite obvious." Guo Kang thought for a while.
The pursuit of absolute equality, the willingness to share poverty, the pursuit of collectivism but the isolation of backward villages, and the custom of praising suffering... If you think about it carefully, this actually has nothing to do with the tradition of Siris, but is a typical Ross village community style. Knowing their early history, this seems easy to understand.
"So, do you hope to reform the village community in your hometown by referring to our village management methods?" He asked Mrs. Elena.
Lady Elena looked at him in surprise.
"That's what you said." Theodora smiled and said, "Otherwise, are we still going to let the Serris-style villages learn from the Ross village community?"
"Yes." Mrs. Elena also said with a strange face: "Can we teach the Romans to farm?"
"Oh, it's nothing, I just said it casually." Guo Kang quickly put the topic aside.
(End of chapter)
